Fish and Chips

A poker themed blog, charting the demise of my degree and the rise of my poker career.


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Wednesday, December 22, 2004

Help! I'm A Fish

I did a bit of last minute Christmas shopping yesterday (didn't get it finished) while my better half was passing her driving thoery test (hurray!). While perusing the 'Bargain Bucket' of DVDs I came across two copies of a DVD, which - at £3.99 each - I could not fail to snaffle up. The DVD was entitled "Help! I'm a fish"!! I'm sure they will come in handy as booby prizes in some tournament or other and they looked really crap too - It appeared to be some cartoon movie about two city workers who were suddenly turned into fish (or maybe they just took a weekend break to Atlantic City, ha!).


Well it must have been fate, because I did a whole lot of money in the cash games at the Gutshot last night. I could have got away from top two pair when, on the botton, I was checkriased by the big blind and then check-re-raised by the next guy along. With no posiible stright or flush draws on the board it was fiarly obvious that he had a set, but I still called with top-two. I lost my next buy-in bluffing all-in on the flop with an open eneded stright draw. I thgouht the other guy could fold enough times to make it profitable play but he called with his over pair and I got no help fomr the last two cards. Things started to go a bit better and I won my first pot of the night after that! Then I picked up QQ in good position, I raised preflop and got one caller. The flop had staight possibilities so I bet the maximum; he called. The turn broguht a flush draw; again I bet the pot and this time he raised all-in for only about a quater of the pot more. I had to call, althoguh I was worried about two-pair or a straight. The river completed the flush draw and pair up the 9 that came on the flop. He turned over 97o for a dirty dirty river beat.

He beat me with 97 off!

Oh, the irony of it. 97o is the 'guest hand' that we all love to overplay at the University Poker Society Sessions. If it wasn't for the fact that I was now down £500 for the night I could have had a good laugh about it! The other, important point here is that these are the calls that one has to be very happy about - very reminiscent of Party Poker!

That was enough to put me on tilt and I lost the last few morcels of my third buy-in raising all-in with another opened ended flush draw. I, thankfully, ended up not having to show my cards and it looked s thought I'd taken another bad beat when he showed his turned two-pair.

YukertonMcYuk!

Right I now need to go and finish my Christmas shopping. I may not post again before Chirstmas so best wishes for all your festivities. I'm planning a big New Year's post reflecting on the last 9 months of my life and lokking forward to my first full yar of poker playing, so stay tuned!

Sunday, December 19, 2004

Getting Up When It's Dark

It was barely light when I drove back from The Gutshot at 8 this morning and there are now, at 4:30 pm, only a few morsels of daylight left. Such is the life of a live poker and one that many players will be all to familiar with. In fact, as live poker goes, a 10-hour session really isn’t all that long...


...however, since virtually all my poker to date has been on the internet (with the odd home game thrown in here and there) where one can log in and out as and when one pleases and where places like Party Poker have a constantly heavy stream of traffic, poker has been able to revolve around other commitments such as sleep and fiancées! When one has to invest time and resources to get to a card room there is a greater need to play for longer in order make the trip worth while. The ability to play more than one table simultaneously on the internet and the fact that one is dealt up to three times and many hands per hour online compared to live means that one’s earn rate for any given stakes is likely to be much higher online than it is live.

There are clearly many reasons for playing live. One of the biggest attractions for me is the social aspect of live play and the banter at the table I found myself on for the majority of last night was excellent.

The first table that became available was a 25p/50p PL game with a fixed buy-in of £25, which was self-dealt. There was also a very juicy £1/£2 game with a minimum buy-in of £50, which I had been eyeing since the tournament. Luckily I didn’t have to wait long for a seat and one opened up just to the right of a pretty loose aggressive player who ha accumulated a faire sized stack – excellent!

Unfortunately I was being dealt utter crap and I had to sit back and watch as he and another buy to my left kept haemorrhaging chips to everyone but me, but on the plus side, this didn’t seem to be deterring them from reaching into their wallet.

Having been dealt trash consistently for the first hour or so I get dealt KdQd I forget my exact position but I know a guy behind me raised after I’d limped it – I’m guessing that if I limped with it then I was probably in early position. There were two or three callers by the time it came back to me so I also called. The flop came queen high with two hearts, it was checked round to the preflop raiser and I took it down with a cheeky check-raise. I’d imagine I had him beat, but since that was the first real money that I’d committed all night there’s a small chance that he might have put AQ down, but he didn’t think for long about it so I doubt it.

I didn’t really get involved in many big hands. I continued to be dealt utter crap which every now and then allowed me to take advantage of the Rock-Of-Gibraltar image that I’d been exuding, but never to win any big pots.

I had a pretty good read on the guy to my right and made a couple of good laydowns. I raised three limpers with TT expecting that given my table image so far I’d get very few callers. Five people called! The flop was 35J (rainbow). It was checked round to me and with only one person behind me I bet just under the pot size – about £40. With that many people in the pot I’d be surprised if someone hadn’t got top pair but having it checked round to me, I wasn’t about to check too. I got one caller – it was the lag to my right. The turn brought another Jack and Mr. Lag bet out £30. This was about half of his stack and stunk of a monster, since I’d never seen him bet less than the pot. Not a difficult lay down with TT, but everyone else on the table thought I must have dropped an over pair and I wasn’t about to try to convince them otherwise! Mr Lag didn’t show his cards, but said that he wasn’t happy with the way he’s played the flop and he nodded when I asked if he’d had bottom set.

Very shortly after that I was able to see a flop with KQ. It was queen high and Mr. Lag, who I think had raised preflop, bet the maximum into a number of people. I figured he was frustrated at not getting the maximum from me in the hand before and was therefore not going to let the opportunity slip here, but I got away from my KQ, everyone folded and he showed AQ.

Late night became early morning and I was sitting with exactly the same amount as I’d started with. The table had dwindled somewhat and we were down to four players. I stepped up the aggression and took down a few small pots and we had the first pot of the night where no one called a preflop raise! I then lost a largish pot: I raised on the button with Kd9d and the big blind called. The flop was all undercards with one diamond he checked I bet just under the pot (about £35 and he called). The turn brought another diamond and I wished I’d taken a free card because he check-raised the hell out of me and I had to fold.

There were another couple of hands towards the end of the session, which – although I won – I could have played better and extracted more:

I raised preflop with AK and got one caller – a big stack to my left who had been playing a lot of hands but also giving my preflop raises respect. The flop came Ten, Jack, rag, with two diamonds. I bet out £20 and he called. The turn brought my Ace; I bet out £50 and again he called (without too much problem). At this point, it looked quite likely that he was on a flush draw and when the river was a blank I check to him hoping to induce a bluff. He checked it too and showed AdQd. That was obviously a missed opportunity to earn more, but that was one of a very small number of hands that would have called a river bet and which I was beating so I’m not too unhappy with the way I played it.

One hand I defiantly made a mistake on was when I called a preflop raise from a guy in the cut-off when I had Ks8s in the big blind. A middle position player also called and the three of us saw a flop of 78T (two diamonds). I checked and the other two also checked (I thought that rather than betting this out I would check raise the cut-off if he bet). The turn was a King (which also brought a second club) and I led out for £20. The mid-position player called and the cut-off raised it to £50. At this point I should have re-raised because it was very likely that the player in the middle was on some kind of a draw. Instead I just called, as did the remaining guy. The river brought a blank and my second mistake of the hand was not betting out at that point. It was checked round and the cut-off showed AK. The middle guy said he had a nine for the up-and-down straight draw. I’m pretty disappointed at the way I played this hand. I should certainly have charged for all the draws on the turn, and having not re-raised at that point I missed out by not betting the river.

It was pretty much breakfast by this point and the guy I’d met up with was down £600 for the night (whoops!) and was ready to call it a day. I agreed to play one more round of the blinds and the very next hand I looked down and saw two gleaming black Aces – finally, a hand! I was first to act and made to maximum raise to £7. I got 5 callers, eek! The flop couldn’t have reassured me more when it came 3A5 (two spades), although it was going to be hard to see where I was going to make any money. I bet out $40, which was essentially the size of the pot. I thought it unlikely that I’d get any callers since there was only one remaining Ace, but I needed to charge for any flush draws out there since that is the only hand that would be likely to call. Everyone folded, but I was happy to take down a reasonable sized pot and finally find myself up a decent amount for the session.

Overall I finished about £100 up for the night after I’d deducted my tournament losses, which I was pretty happy with. I hadn’t seen many flops, but then I got dealt rubbish for most of the night. The mistakes I made weren’t huge and hopefully I can learn from them.

I’m going to try and go to the Gutshot at least one more time before Christmas. I can’t go tonight unfortunately, as we have family commitments, but I may head down on Monday and/or Tuesday. On Monday there’s a £20 rebuy tournament where everyone puts up an extra £5 bounty on their own head, which adds an extra bit of excitement. Tuesday is the £5 rebuys beginners’ night, which is always fairly busy and very wild – a lot of dead money for the taking as well as some juicy cash games on the side.

That about wraps things up for now. I’ll try and sneak in another live update, when I’m next there.

Peace Out.

Live From The Gutshot!

Just a quicky while I wait for a table.

I'm now out of Oxford and based down at the in-laws in London, so obviously the first thing I do is hit the Gutshot!

I've just bust out of the £20 rebuy tournament I was playing. I never really had the chance to accumuloate any chips, but fortuantely I was only in for the initial buy-in and a top-up. During the rebuys I was up and down a little but with 20 minute levels it became something of a crapshot. I was shot stacked with 2000 and blinds of 350-700 didn't give me much room to maneauver (appologies for the dyslexia!) so I stuck it all in with A7o in mid position and hoped for the best. THe bigblind called with K5s. The turn brought my Ace, but he hit a backdoor flush, so now I'm waiting for a table in the cash games.

There's a very juicy looking £1-2 PL tables, but a lot of the easy money will have dried up by the time I get to sit down and the remaining players will be building their stacks. I guess I'll have to play it by ear, but it would be a shame not to play some more cards.

Ah ha. I hear my name being called. There's a 25p/50p PL game starting up - that will do nicely.

By the way, there is nothing more to read, so don't click on the link below!

Wednesday, December 15, 2004

First Big Win!

I've finally notched up a big tournament score. Last night I finished 3rd in The Steps Challenge on Party Poker for a $3600 payout!


This 'shoot-out' style tournament has only recently been introduced by Party and is really a great idea. It is a series of 'Sit-n-Go' tournaments in which the top finishers gain entry to the next level (Click here for a better explaination). You can buy in directly at any of the 5 levels ($12, $55, $215, $535, $1065) or work your way up from the bottom.

I'd been playing them for a week or so and after 5 frustrating attempts at Step 1 I finally made it to Step 2. I ended up having to repeat Step 2 but from then on I moved up each time.

Essentially there is no money paid out before Step 5 and it's not possible have you buy-in to the higher levels refunded if you decide that you dont want to play them. Once I'd got to Step 5, I'd have been very happy to be able to cash out the $1065 entry fee, but I had to play it, and I'm pretty glad about that now! Step 5 pays the top four places $9K, $5K, $3.6K, $2.4K.

The night after qualifying from Step 4, I had a bout a million dreams where I finished in 5th place and got a fat $0 for my effort and I was conscious that I could easily build the whole thing up too much in my head to such an extent that it would afect my game. I therefore decided simply to sit down and play it without worying too much about who else was registerd (a lotof big players buy-in directly into Step 5) or about how much money was at stake (at least in the initial stages of the tournament).

I ended up at a table with two big names that I recongnised from watching prevoious Step 5 events, "Galapagos" and "DrunknMasta". Galapagos was two places from my right and from the start it was clear that my blinds were going to be somewhat under attack.

I played very tight right from the start and just observed everyone else. Our table was generally extreemly tight. It seemed that the other table was a lot looser and they lost a couple of players early on. I kept a float for the first 45 minutes or so and then the blinds began to eat way at my stack - combined witht the fact that I had the two big stacks on either side of me. Fortuantely just before we got down to the last 10 players I doubled up with AQ against KJ.

On the final table, the blinds were again too big to be comfortable and I was soon one of the smaller stacks again, but as luck would have it mt re-raised all-in with AK got called by AQ and doubled me up to take the chip lead.

By the time we were 6 handed I was third in chips and, again, I had the two big stack either side of me (Galapagos immediately to my right) which was not making life easy, but I knew that if I just played sensibly, I had a good chance of making the money from there.

The guys who finished in 5th place - and who garunteed the rest of us a sizable payout - was seriously unlucky. He went all in as the small stack with A9 and Galapagos called and caught a 7 on the river with his A7... ouch! Still that meant a minimum of $2,600 for meeeeeeee!

I made one mistake when we were down to 4 players. The blinds were 200/400 and the button went all-in for a total of 1400. The Small Blind folded and the action was on me with KQo in the Big Blind. I had about 5000 left and had to call 1000 into a 2000 chip pot. Looking back on this, it should have been a call. It didn't represent a huge amount of my stack and I was getting decent odds from the pot. Especially seeing that that a few hands later he went all-in with K5. Galapagos called and busted him with A6.

With 3 of us left I was the smallest with about 5000. The other two had about 7500 each so really it was anyone's game. Two hands later I picked up AJ in the Small Blind. Gapagos raised to 1,100 on the button and I went all-in for 4,500 in total. He called and flipped AK. I was a big underdog, but then a Jack flopped making me a huge favorite to win the hand, BUT... Turn - King; River - King. I was history.

Galapagos went on to win the $9K and the other guy took $5K for second. I really was so close to making a massive score, but I cant be at all unhappy with my third place and $3,600 - not bad for a $60 investment!!

I think I'll put most of it towards the bankroll - I've had a couple of big cashouts recently so my aim for a while has been to rebuild the roll. However, I'm a bit stuck for cash at the moment so some of it may have to go towards rent, bills and christmas prezzies!

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Quick update of everything else:

My work in the lab is finally coming to a close. I've not got any great results but hopefully it should be enough for my project write-up. I've got a big day tomorrow craming in the last few things then friday will be mostly christmas party-style things, which reminds me - I have to go and get a 'Secret Santa' present.

On Saturday my better half and I are heading down to London to stay with her parents for a few days before Christmas as well as dropping off our the cat before heading off to spend Chritsmas with my folks. I'm planning to fit in at least two trips to the Gutshot before Chirstmas (probably Sunday and Tuesday) and with any luck I'll meet up with a few people from ITH.

Well, that about wraps things up for now. Catch you'all later.

Tuesday, December 07, 2004

Messing About On The River

This weekend I was mostly getting drunk on a canal boat.

We've got a friend who goes by the name of Jago and who has recently moved over to Enlgand from LA and he is living on a narrow boat which is currently situated about 45 minutes outside of Oxford. This guy read Classics at
Univ (University Colege, Oxford) back in the 70s and has now come back to do a doctorate in modern history. We first met him out in LA as part of a scholarship that our college gave us both, essentially to have a vacation in The States. The scholarship was funded by alumni and we essentially tracelled round The US staying with various old members and acting as ambassadors for Univ. It was a win-win situation. We got a free vacation, the alumni got to keep in touch with Oxford and student life via us, and the college benefitted from the good relationships we maintained for them. The only condition was that we had to produce a journal which now sits in the college library for future scholars to peruse before making their travel plans - I'll get round to posting some extracts from it at some point.

So anyway, Jago left Univ worked in the travel industry for a while before setting up a kids soccer magazine. He's sold that since coming over here and is now attempting to move his narrow boat to oxford. It's been a bit of a farse for him. He's had to double back on himself a couple of times due to lock closures and the odd break-down and after a month of travelling he eventually got back to where he started while we were on board on Sunday morning!

We drove about an hour east of oxford to meet up with him on Saturday afternoon after The Girl's driving lesson and after I'd been into the lab to make sure that my experiments weren't working. We droppped the car off at a train station close to the canal and with precision timing we arrived at the canal just as Jago was pulling up. We spent the remaining daylight hours meandering up the canal which culminated in decending 6 or 7 locks in quick sucession. I'd taken over the driving just before we got to the locks so I got away with watching the others put in the hard work!

Darkness got the better of us and we had to tie up a couple of miles short of where we had planned to, but at least we were in walking distance of a couple of pubs! Jago is a fantastic cook and before long we were swigging wine and munching on roast chicken. Much of the rest of the evening is a blur. I know for a fact the there was a substancial ammount more of wine swigging followed by a trip to both of the local pubs and I beleive that there was poker and vodka after that. We also had a long and drawn out battle with the coal burner, since some numpty had sold us wet coal. We got through a whole pack of fire lighters and most of the previous weeks newspapers before it finally decided to light!

I was not on best form the following day, to say the least. I managed to open a few locks before passing out again and waking up in timly fashion for lunch! I was supposed to be playing poker with some unversity friends that evening as well as needing to get a couple of hours work done in the lab. It was gonning to be a tall order.

We left Jago when we reached a neaby train stataion so we could ge back and pick up the car. In 24 hours we had travelled precisely two stops on the railway - a journey that takes the train 14 minutes - it's going to be a while before we see Jago in Oxford, me thinks!

Somehow I managed to drive us back to Oxford safely, before passsing out for a third time - this time in my own bed - and waking up with just enough time to play some poker. Poker was tough. We were playing at higher stakes than usual and there was very little easy money. Most of the big hands were pocket pair against poket pair. I doubled up with KK agaisnt QQ and then spent the rest of the evening gradually leaking it away. We also had AA agaisnt QQ and amazingly someone managed to lay down KK against AA. I ended up with about £10 more than the £50 I sat down with, but it was an enjoyable grind nevertheless.

By the end of poker there was no way I was going to get into the lab. I'd picked up a migrane and nedded to pass out for the final time that day. I wasn't feeling any better the following day as the hangover seemed to be merging itself into a cold. I managed to haul myself into the lab in the afternoon to tend to my cells, but that was about it.

The rest of this week has gone equally slowly. My cells seem to be growing at a snail's pace so I can't get the experiments done that I need to. At this point I have a lot of knoledge about the techniques and theory of the project I just have very little to show for it. With any luck, it shouldn't take too long for me to get the results I need, but luck is something that has eluded me so far in the lab.

I'm still keeping mostly away from online poker, although Party Poker have just introduced a new Sit-n-Go shootout tournament. It'll be much easier than my trying to explain it if you just click on the following link: Party's Steps Challenge. Suffice it to say that it's fairly addictive. I've been failing miserably at it. It took me 5 attempte to complete Step 2 and then I finished 7th in Step 2 - grrrrrr.

Right that's quite enough ramblings, I have to go and sing sweet songs to my cells in the hope of achieving grerat wonders. Peace.