Aug 28th - £50 NL Hold'Em - Grosvenor (Luton)

Some nights you just can't hit a card to save your life whilst others you hit cards all night long and cruise to an easy victory! The majority of the time lies somewhere in between and tonight at Luton was one such ocassion.

The £50 NL Hold'Em event brought out 76 players and generated a prize pool of £10550. The first 60 mins, for me, was made up of 5 rebuys and not being able to catch a break. I then get A-K and doubled through a non-believer on a flop of 9-7-J-4-A (he held 9-10) and at the break held 10k in chips. A nice place to start from once the 'proper' game began!

I don't know about you but whenever 'I' get KINGS in the hole it attracts an Ace to the flop like a maggot to rotting flesh. Infact I'm so paranoid about K-K these days I refuse to raise with them, until deep into a tournament, cos I know whats coming!

THREE times I had K-K tonight and EVERY time a bloody Ace would appear, by magic, on the flop. First time cost me 1200, 2nd time 6k, 3rd time....

I weedle my way upto 22k in chips. We're down to 2 tables and I peep down at K-K. I'm on the button and with blinds at 1k-2k I raise it up to 6k once its been passed around to me. The SB folds but the BB is having none of it!

'You've been raising all-night on the button', he says, 'so this time I'll RE-RAISE. I'm all-in'!

Now usually when holding K-K and hearing those words 'all-in' your heart would jump for joy as you know its likely to be pay-off time. In my case my relationship with K-K is not so good so I take a deep breath and call. He flips A-10 and I know whats coming!

Flop is ACE-TEN-8-5-3. So what can you do?

So I'm out in 16th place and bitterly disappointed that once again my K-K in the hole leads to my demise!

Bugger!

Entries ->76 - Place -> 16th - Loss -> £305 ($564) Profit/Loss for 2006 -> +$12103

(As from 7th August rate of exchange is calculated at £1 = $1.85)

Aug 22nd - £100+£10 NL Hold'Em - Western Club (Acton)

A half way placing but not too much to get excited about in last nights £100 event at the Western.

After level 1 I'd doubled my chip stack and had just over 10k. After level 4 had finished I had 9k. It was that sort of night!

My double through, early on, had ocurred not by some random act of insanity, as is sometimes the case, but with controlled agression & good cards (& flops). I took 2k of one guy, 2k off another and chugged my way up nicely...then came the period of nuffin!

I must have see a dozen 2-3, 2-4, 2-7 type of hands in the next hour. From the nice start I ground it out hoping the cards would connect again sometime soon. They did & I lost!

Blinds were at 200-400 and I get Ac-Jc in MP. I raised it up to 1200 and get an immediate 'all-in' from the guy on my immediate right. He had around 5k. It's passed around to me! I had 8k left, still plenty of play, but I don't like raising with good cards then getting 'bullied' by an all-iner especially when I see my cards as good.

While one can argue that Ac-Jc only falls into the 'mediocre' hand category the fact that the all-iner only had 5k in chips and was potentially looking to get his chips in anyway with a hand like A-10, 7-7, 8-8 etc made me decide to call anyway. He flipped A-Q!

A Queen appeared on the flop and that was that. Time to re-appraise!

Blinds went up to 300-600 and with only a little over 3k in chips left I knew my next move would be all-in myself!

It didn't take long!! I get Kh-Jh and get called by a player holding A-J. An Ace appeared on the flop and it was goodnight from me!

Entries ->54 - Place -> 28th - Loss -> £110 ($203) Profit/Loss for 2006 -> +$12667

(As from 7th August rate of exchange is calculated at £1 = $1.85)

Aug 18th - £100+£10 NL Hold'Em - Sportsman (London W1)

Not a very exciting night as far as my poker went. Despite getting down to the last 4 tables, from 6, I couldn't find the cards to boot my stack sufficiently in order to get into a position of comfort and ended up losing my chips with 5-5 v Q-Q.

A couple of interesting hands though...

Early in the evening I'd accumulated my 2k starting stack upto around 5k when I get Kc-Qc in LP and raise it up to 500 (blinds were 50-100). I get three callers. Flop comes Ac-8d-8c. We all check. The 7c comes off next. I bet 1000. The next player raises to 2000, another player goes all-in and I re-raise all-in myself. The original raiser calls.

'I can't pass nut-flush', I say as I proudly turn over my hand. 'I can't pass 4 eights', comes the reply and he pops over 2 8's in his hand for quads! Urgh!!

Another interesting hand was one where I held 3h-5h on the SB. Blinds were at 300-600 and there are 5 limpers into the pot before the action gets back to me. I decide to try a nice bluff and bet out to 3k. All pass....bar one who hums and ho's and decides its 'time to go home' and goes all-in for 5k. I'm slightly embarrassed at having to call but shrug my shoulders and wave goodbe to 5k. He flips Ah-10h and I'm toas as an Ace falls on the flop.

It was all downhill after that. Sometimes you can get away with these bluffs...not tonight though!

Entries ->59 - Place -> 34th - Loss -> £310 ($573) Profit/Loss for 2006 -> +$12870

(As from 7th August rate of exchange is calculated at £1 = $1.85)

Aug 15th - £100+£10 NL Hold'Em - Western Club (Acton)

Not much to say about attempting to defend my title here!

Poker is a game where you need to get more 'unlucky' than your opponents. Tonight showed why the game we all love so much can be as frustrating as your first time at having sex...expectations are high...result is crap!

So tonight I lasted 4 hands. I was 2nd out, from a start of 48, and left the building and was home playing the $10 rebuy on Stars before I knew it!

I drew seat 1 which meant I'd be on the button straight away (Seat 1 always gets the button at the Western) and the first 3 hands I passed without incident. Hand 4 is where it all happened...

I was dealt Jd-8d and flat called the opening blinds of 50, from a start stack of 5000. Four of us saw the pot...no raises...of Jc-8c-4h. Hmmm...yummmy I thought.

The BB bet out to 200.

With flops like this its usually a safe assumption that a) your betting opponent has a flush draw, b) your betting opponent holds a hand like 9-J, 10-J or Q-J or c) they have middle pair and betting to see where they are.

Holding top two pair I was not about to let my opponent get 'cheapies' so once the action got back around to me I raised it up to 1200 fully expecting my opponent to either fold or call if he was flushing!

He RAISED ME BACK to 2500!!

Ok...further evaluation required. It was now possible that he held an overpair or K-J or A-J or maybe even 4-4. With all possibilities catered for, or so I thought, I still felt as though I could win the hand. I re-raised all-in. He called!

Of course in any evaluation you do theres always the possibility you either forgot something or you look at the board and IGNORE the 'nutty' hand that could already be out there. In this case I chose to ignore my opponent holding J-J which he proudly turned over and I was toast!

There aren't too many times you're gonna be dead on the flop but tonight was one such occasion for me. Lets hope its a long while before I see another one :)

Entries ->48 - Place -> 47th - Loss -> £110 ($203) Profit/Loss for 2006 -> +$13443

(As from 7th August rate of exchange is calculated at £1 = $1.85)

Aug 11th - £100+£10 NL Hold'Em - Sportsman (London W1)

As I've said in my blog a million times before (if you'd been counting that is) there is a very fine line to success & failure in poker. A missed draw here...some scabby outdraw there. (Scabby means 10 cards or less to hit). Well that just about sums up my weekend really!!

Friday night was the £100 NL Hold'Em event at the Sportsman in London W1. Tonight was a full house (60 runners) and the 1st prize came out at £7800 so you can assume there was plenty of action, and money, flying around!

I stayed out of bother for the rebuy period but duly took the add-on which brought me upto circa 10k in chips for the proper part of the event.

This particular Friday night was like a ghost town of old poker players from distant past! Faces I'd known for 15 years were playing. People like Rory Liffey, Koresh, Harold, blahdy blahdy blah. I only mention this because even after 15 years they still generally play the same way!

A case in point was Koresh. I'd been plopped next to him with ante's at the 200-400 stage (he was to my right) and I knew full well he'd attempt to pop the pot any chance he got! I get 3-3 in the SB...its passed around and I raise Koresh upto 2k. He immediately re-raises to 5k and I go all-in! Why? Koresh will play any two cards which gives me an edge over his play any day of the week! He, of course, calls and flips K-10. Not exactly a monster but pretty much par for the course for him! I avoid the outdraw and my chip stack now sits at 24k.

This gets upto 32k before I make my ONE mistake of the evening. In LP I get Ks-7s and flat call the 800 blinds. Koresh comes to the party and four of us see a flop of K-5-3. Its checked to me and I bet 4k. Koresh immediately goes all-in! All pass back to me and, without much thought, I call figuring him to be on a draw or playing shite like 5-2!!

He flips K-10..doh..and I can't catch up. Hmmm...down to 11k. Next hand though I go all-in with A-7 and get called by player with J-10. A flop of A-7-9-10-J gets me home and I'm back at the races!

Final table! With around 30k and antes still at 800-1600 there wasn't THAT much time to get lucky. One famous face at the table was Sir Clive Sinclair! Inventor of the Z80 Spectrum computer from days of old and multi-millionaire to boot! I took 20k off him when my A-9 ran over his A-2 on an Ace high flop and was nicely upto 60k.

With 6 of us left I look down to see Ks-Qs and duly raise it to 10k only to see another player re-raise himself, and me, another 70k. I felt very confident as I called and he flipped A-J. Not the worst case scenario for me but a flop of 9-6-4-7-6 squished me into 6th place and a £975 payout. It could have been so much more!

Entries ->60 - Place -> 6th - Win -> £765 ($1415) Profit/Loss for 2006 -> +$13666

(As from 7th August rate of exchange is calculated at £1 = $1.85)


Sunday night I played on Willy Hills. Attempted to win a seat at the Grand Prix...uh oh...104 players and only THREE prizes...uh oh...50th or so! I attempted a shot at the £50k guaranteed tourney..uh oh..247th! I also attempted to win a seat at an EPT event of my choice..and this is where things got interesting.

113 runners and 5 payout spots. Two seats. Three cash prizes!

With 10 left I have 12k in chips with everybody else at the table in the 30k bracket. I double through when my 9-9 beats A-J. I double through again when my A-A beats Q-Q and suddenly I'm chip leader with 8 left!

I continue to knock out players including another 54k to my stack when my A-A beats up 5-5 and with THREE of us left I'm chip leader on 130k. Another player has 80k and another on around 70k. I then get Js-8s on the button and this is what happens next...

Game #2175637853: Hold'em NL (800/1600) - 2006/08/13 - 22:10:00 (GMT)
Table "EPT 6600 Final 3173053 - 1" Seat 9 is the button.
Seat 5: shuffle10 (78010 in chips)
Seat 7: P.LeGuen (76370 in chips)
Seat 9: Ukpoker1 (128120 in chips)
shuffle10: posts the ante 200
P.LeGuen: posts the ante 200
Ukpoker1: posts the ante 200
shuffle10: posts small blind 800
P.LeGuen: posts big blind 1600
----- HOLE CARDS -----
dealt to P.LeGuen [4d 4c]
Ukpoker1: raises to 4800
shuffle10: folds
P.LeGuen: calls 3200
----- FLOP ----- [As 4s 8h]
P.LeGuen: checks
Ukpoker1: bets 20800
P.LeGuen: raises to 71370 and is all-in
Ukpoker1: calls 50570
----- TURN ----- [As 4s 8h][7s]
----- RIVER ----- [As 4s 8h 7s][8c]
----- SHOW DOWN -----
P.LeGuen: shows [4d 4c] (A Full House, Fours full of Eights)
Ukpoker1: shows [Js 8s] (A Flush, Ace high)
P.LeGuen collects 153740 from Main pot
----- SUMMARY -----
Total pot 153740 Main pot 153740 Rake 0
Board [As 4s 8h 7s 8c]
Seat 5: shuffle10 (small blind) folded before Flop (didn't bet)
Seat 7: P.LeGuen (big blind) showed [4d 4c] and won (153740) with A Full House, Fours full of Eights
Seat 9: Ukpoker1 (button) showed [Js 8s] and lost

I'm shouting at the computer 'no pair up...no pair up'. The guy has 10 outs! Three A's, two 4's, three 7's and 2 8's. A poxy 8c falls on the river and I'm hero to zero in zip time!

Ok..I still have 50k left but for the next 5 mins I can't find a hand and am ante'd away to 35k when I get 7d-6d and decide to try my luck. All-In!! As it happens Mr SB has 8-8 and calls. No miracle and I'm out in 3rd for an €853 consolation prize which I immediately withdraw as a sign of my disgust with Willy Hills software!!

Update: I find that the player who gets lucky on me is David Barrie from Glasgow! He has a blog which describes his fortune in this hand and berates me as a player!

Wot a TOSSER! He obviously thinks the sun shines from his arse if he thinks HE's a good player. I look forward to reading about his demise at his chosen EPT tournament which he has NO chance of winning! Scottish git!!!

Aug 8th - £100+£10 NL Hold'Em - Western Club

It takes an awful lot of things to go right on any given night of poker for the winning post to appear. Good cards have to just better than other players holdings, draws have to get there and sometimes even the 6/1 shots have to come home. Tonight was one such night for me!

After suffering crap form since my return from holidays things had started to look up on Monday night when I found myself with a nice stack of 20k before being cruelly knocked out by the ubiquitous 6/1 shots getting there for my opponents.

Fifty seven runners chimed up £100 each giving a prize pool of £5700 (rounded upto £6k by the club) down at the Western Club for the £100 NL Hold'Em freezeout event. With 5k in chips to start and a 30 minute clock this would turn out to be a long night!

With so many chips to start you could afford to take time. Luckily for me my chip count doubled virtually every time I played a pot!

First time I held 2-2 in LP and, with blinds at 150-300, I raised to 1500. Both the SB & BB called. Flop was K-Q-8. Check. Check. I bet to 2k to indicate strength but the SB called. I was pretty much done with the hand! A lovely 2 fell on the turn. Check. I bet another 2k and my opponent went all-in covering my last 4k. I, of course called, and the SB was no doubt gutted to see my set as his K-Q holding hit the muck in disgust once a 9 had appeared on the river!

Next up I doubled through an opponent holding 7-2!! Holding 7s-6s, in LP, I limped in for the 400 blind. All passed to the BB who checked. Flop was 2s-3s-7h. The BB checked. I threw a 1k chip out. The BB re-raised me to 4k. I then went all-in and he called for 10k flipping his 7-2 (two pairs) for all to see. The 8s fell on the turn and no 2 came to save his soul and I was upto 24k!!

Down to 2 tables and I'd got my chips upto 30k when I look down at K-K. A player, with slightly more chips than me, had already raised to 4k. I went all-in and after much hoo-ha he called flipping A-Q. At any time during the past three weeks he would have been a guaranteed shoo-in with an Ace likely to have appeared on the flop. This time no Ace appeared and I was chip-monster with almost 70k!

With 10 players left (9 got paid) I look down to see J-J. I flat called the 1200 antes in LP only to then hear David Young, an aquaintance of mine from my days playingg poker at Reading in the early 90's, raise it up to 7k. All passed to me!

Now to be honest I'd really no intention in getting involved here but it looked so much like an ante steal bet that I decided to put him to the test and go all-in. He'd surely pass!! Er...no...he called and joyfully turned over A-A! Oops!

The flop came 9-4-3-JACK-7 and poor Dave was left cursing his luck as 9th paid £181 and was better than a swift kick between the legs! Man...I couldn't miss!

It was 1.30am when the final table started. Players dropped slowly but by 3.05am there were 4 of us left. I had 97k, over a third of the chips in play, whilst the remaining 2/3rds was shared amongst the other three players.

I offered them a deal whereby I took £1500 and they got £1k each which they accepted!

Nice to be back in the winners enclosure :)

Entries ->57 - Place -> 1st - Win -> £1390 ($2571) Profit/Loss for 2006 -> +$12251

(As from 7th August rate of exchange is calculated at £1 = $1.85)

Aug 6th - £25+£2 NL Hold'Em - Grosvenor (Luton)

Having stated that my form is CRAP since returning from holidays last month I ventured upto Luton this evening to play in the £25 satellite event for a seat in next Thursday nights £750 event. Eighty three others joined me in the quest but with only 1000 points to start with and £25 a pop for rebuys it wasn't going to be a cheap night!

To begin with I did ok and got upto 2000 points without much of a sweat. I then ran pocket 3-3's into A-A, pocket 5's into Q-Q, A-Q into A-J (Jack on the turn) and I'd pretty much exhausted my buy-ins (£125 worth) when I get A-8 in LP and shove it all-in for the umpteenth time tonight. I get called by K-7 and luckily I double through!

Two hands later I get A-J and call a 300 'raise' from across the table. Flop is 9-10-Q. No messing and its all-in! My opponent calls with A-Q but a lovely 8 on the river doubles me up again!

I then get J-J and, in a 3 way pot, get all my chips in again. I'm against K-Q and A-9. The flop is J-K-Q-7-A and I'm suddenly on 8k which I then sit on till the break!

There are 14 seats guaranteed (£10,500) but with 60 odd runners still in there was a long way to go.

Shortly after the break we get broken and I get a seat next to 2 old dears who are guarding their chips for dear life. I pick up A-A (first time in AGES!!) and, luckily for me, Mr 'almost as many chips as me' goes all-in. I duly call and he flips A-K. Another double through and I'm upto 20k with the average around 7k. Then the wheels fell off!

Holding Ah-6h in MP and with blinds at 300-600 I raise to 1500. I get three callers! Flop is 3-4-6. I bet out 3k and get 1 caller! Turn is an Ace. The caller, who's BB, goes all-in and I duly call. He flips J-5! A 'two' on the river gives him the straight...grrrrrr!

Holding Ah-7h on the button I decide that a mini-raise from EP deserves a bigger pot so I go all-in. The original raiser calls and flips K-K! I sigh! I'm dealing though!!

Flop is J-7-A (yesssssss!!)...10...(uh oh!!)...KING!! Feck it!

I got bashed by a 20/1 shot on the river (ok...he could have hit a Queen as well for the straight)

Form is a wonderful thing...not!!

Entries ->84 - Place -> 40th - Loss -> £152 ($281) Profit/Loss for 2006 -> +$9680

(As from 7th August rate of exchange is calculated at £1 = $1.85)

Aug 1st - £20+£2 NL Hold'Em - Victoria (London)

Since my return from hols my 'live' form has been awful. I don't think that I've even come close, as yet, to accumulating enough chips in order to be a threat at the tables and once again last nights attempt at playing came unstuck in a big gooey way.

This weeks £20 NL game at the Vic attracted 50 runners. A pretty good turn out these days down there! With a 20 min clock and 1000 points to start you really have to try and get to the break with around 5k in order to have a chance later on. I had two rebuys and a top-up and at the break I held a stack size of 2400.

Once again I pretty much failed to get any decent startimh hands and I can't remember when I last got a pair of Aces. After the first hour of playing muck like 10-4, 10-6, K-7 etc etc I got kinda bored so started playing mediocre hads like J-9 & K-J like they were going out of fashion. Unfortunately for me, at the moment, they are!

After the break I'm looking to double up or die as I can't stand sitting around playing a tiny stack in a £20 comp. It didn't take long!

About 4 hands in I get 10h-9h and when someone from across the table went all-in I called. He flipped A-Q. The flop was 5-8-A-A-7 and that was that!

It pains me to say it but poker is boring at the moment! Ho Hum!!

Entries ->50 - Place -> 35th - Loss -> £82 ($144) Profit/Loss for 2006 -> +$9961