Another Sleepless Night
It's gone 10am and I've just rocked in from an all'night home game down in London. I managed to get an hour's sleep at about 7am after I busted out and was waiting for the others, but that's another story.
The game's hosted by the guy who set up the Poker Society here at Oxford University. I'd played with him a bit last year while he was still around in Oxford doing his teacher training. He's a tough player. He's now down in London teaching part time and playing online poker for the rest. I'd heard about the game through other Poker Soc poeple who I p[lay with on Sunday nights. It's only a 10p/20p NL game but by as the night progresses it gets pretty wild and there's commonly in the region of £500 on the table by the end of the night.
This was the first time I'd played there and it lived up to all expectations. I'd been filled in about the quality of play - only a couple of fishes a majortiy of reasonably solid players and a couple of god ones - definately the possibility of a big score.
Although the initial buy-in was only £20 I went along with £100 just in case. For the most part of the night I just folded crappy cards and watched as 10x the big bet raises preflop were common place and usualy called in at least two places. I got involved in a few hands with the hammer, some speculative pairs and suited connectors, never really connecting and loosing a lot of small pots. Consequently my stack gradually diminished and I topped it up a few times as others' grew and grew till I was in for about £50.
Then came a big hand which, although I havent' really had time to think about much, I think was played fairly badly on my part. I saw AsJd on the button and called in a multi-way straddled pot. The flop came QT9 all spades giving me the nut-flush draw and an open ended straight draw. The guy hosting the game bet £1 (about 1/3rd) of the pot in early position. Don, a good player from Oxford, raised it to £6 and the guy (slightly loose, but not too fishy) immediately on my right raised it to £12. Despite the huge number of outs that I could have had, I had to figure that a lot of them were gone (made flush, other Jacks and especially the J of spades). But instead of getting away with only 40p invested, I called the £12 and went all-in for my last £20 more!
The host folded easily. Don gave his move a lot of thought. We'd both been involved in a big pot last year where I moved in with top pair on the turn after a three-suited flop and almost got him to lay down the K-high flush (??!!). This time he must have believe me becasue he folded what he later showed to be an 8-high flush. Unfortunately the guy on my right called with JsTc. He had a pair of tens and a lot of my outs were not good or already spoken for. I got no help and found my self reaching for the last £50 in my pocket.
Again, this gradually got frittered away, I borrowed another £20 and was sat with about £30.
Finally things started to improve I won a few medium sized pot then doubled up with a set of 9s against a flush draw. Eventually I found myself back up to even.
At about 6am I finally got my first big hand of the night. The best I had seen so far was an AK which failed to hit and my pair of 9s. I looked down, and - oh joy of joys - saw two gleaming black Aces.
The guy to my right had just won a £400 pot calling with TT against what surely had to be an over pair but turned out to be King high!!. He raised to £2 and I made it £7 in total. Every one else got out of the way and he called. The flop came K8x with two clubs. He lead out £15 and I made it £50. He immediately went all-in over the top. With £120 in the pot by this point and only having £40 left myself, I had to call.
He turns over QcJc for the flush draw.... I dont really need to fill you in on the rest, do I?
I was surprisingly calm at this point and wasn't too worried about tilting, but the combination of tiredness and the need to borrow money prevently me from continuing, instead I grabbed some much needed kip before driving Don adn Eric back to Oxford.
I figured a coffee might be in order before we left London. I'm not a big fan of instant coffee at the best of times, but when the combination of the sugar and the granules comes one third of the way up the mug it's makes it pretty muich undrinkable.
This probably explaines the fact that, now back in Oxford, instead of grabbing some well needed kip, I'm logged into Party playing the $100 NL tables and sweating The Film Geek, who is now only two spot away from a place on the Party Poker Million IV. [EDIT -he made it. Congrats dude]
Speaking of the PPM, I'm giving myself my final chance to qualify for the cruise on Sunday night in the last semi-fianl that they're running. I've spent quite enough hard earned bankroll trying to qualify, so this will be my last shot.
I'll keep you posted...
The game's hosted by the guy who set up the Poker Society here at Oxford University. I'd played with him a bit last year while he was still around in Oxford doing his teacher training. He's a tough player. He's now down in London teaching part time and playing online poker for the rest. I'd heard about the game through other Poker Soc poeple who I p[lay with on Sunday nights. It's only a 10p/20p NL game but by as the night progresses it gets pretty wild and there's commonly in the region of £500 on the table by the end of the night.
This was the first time I'd played there and it lived up to all expectations. I'd been filled in about the quality of play - only a couple of fishes a majortiy of reasonably solid players and a couple of god ones - definately the possibility of a big score.
Although the initial buy-in was only £20 I went along with £100 just in case. For the most part of the night I just folded crappy cards and watched as 10x the big bet raises preflop were common place and usualy called in at least two places. I got involved in a few hands with the hammer, some speculative pairs and suited connectors, never really connecting and loosing a lot of small pots. Consequently my stack gradually diminished and I topped it up a few times as others' grew and grew till I was in for about £50.
Then came a big hand which, although I havent' really had time to think about much, I think was played fairly badly on my part. I saw AsJd on the button and called in a multi-way straddled pot. The flop came QT9 all spades giving me the nut-flush draw and an open ended straight draw. The guy hosting the game bet £1 (about 1/3rd) of the pot in early position. Don, a good player from Oxford, raised it to £6 and the guy (slightly loose, but not too fishy) immediately on my right raised it to £12. Despite the huge number of outs that I could have had, I had to figure that a lot of them were gone (made flush, other Jacks and especially the J of spades). But instead of getting away with only 40p invested, I called the £12 and went all-in for my last £20 more!
The host folded easily. Don gave his move a lot of thought. We'd both been involved in a big pot last year where I moved in with top pair on the turn after a three-suited flop and almost got him to lay down the K-high flush (??!!). This time he must have believe me becasue he folded what he later showed to be an 8-high flush. Unfortunately the guy on my right called with JsTc. He had a pair of tens and a lot of my outs were not good or already spoken for. I got no help and found my self reaching for the last £50 in my pocket.
Again, this gradually got frittered away, I borrowed another £20 and was sat with about £30.
Finally things started to improve I won a few medium sized pot then doubled up with a set of 9s against a flush draw. Eventually I found myself back up to even.
At about 6am I finally got my first big hand of the night. The best I had seen so far was an AK which failed to hit and my pair of 9s. I looked down, and - oh joy of joys - saw two gleaming black Aces.
The guy to my right had just won a £400 pot calling with TT against what surely had to be an over pair but turned out to be King high!!. He raised to £2 and I made it £7 in total. Every one else got out of the way and he called. The flop came K8x with two clubs. He lead out £15 and I made it £50. He immediately went all-in over the top. With £120 in the pot by this point and only having £40 left myself, I had to call.
He turns over QcJc for the flush draw.... I dont really need to fill you in on the rest, do I?
I was surprisingly calm at this point and wasn't too worried about tilting, but the combination of tiredness and the need to borrow money prevently me from continuing, instead I grabbed some much needed kip before driving Don adn Eric back to Oxford.
I figured a coffee might be in order before we left London. I'm not a big fan of instant coffee at the best of times, but when the combination of the sugar and the granules comes one third of the way up the mug it's makes it pretty muich undrinkable.
This probably explaines the fact that, now back in Oxford, instead of grabbing some well needed kip, I'm logged into Party playing the $100 NL tables and sweating The Film Geek, who is now only two spot away from a place on the Party Poker Million IV. [EDIT -he made it. Congrats dude]
Speaking of the PPM, I'm giving myself my final chance to qualify for the cruise on Sunday night in the last semi-fianl that they're running. I've spent quite enough hard earned bankroll trying to qualify, so this will be my last shot.
I'll keep you posted...
posted by Pinky @ 10:09 AM
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