Interlude

I thought a brief update on life back in oxford was due so here we go.

I've been back 10 days now and I've done eff-all regarding work, which is not ideal. I have an extended essay to write and two exams coming up in June, for which I'm yet to do any studying.

I've been playing a wad load of poker, however, since I dont really seem to have shaken off my nocturnalism (if it's not a word, then it should be). I've been getting beaten up playing the $100 NL tables on Party the past few days and I've been getting sunk midway through every tourney I play at night, with a couple of notable exceptions (they're only really notable because I got sunk slightly later on in the tourney, but hey, sucess is all relative):

I played a WSOP qualifier on Paradise last weekend ($25 rebuys and add-on). There were 165 runners and one place into the WSOP main event was garunteed, which meant that Paradise ended up overlaying the prize pool with about $2K. As ever, I spent most of the tourney as a small stack, but managed to come from the brink of death back into real contention and found myself at the final table, with about average chips.

I eneded up busting in 9th place. My KK came up against 99 and 88. There was a 9 on the flop. Winning that pot would have rocketed me into the chip lead and almost ensured my making it down to the last 3 or 4 players. That would have put a seat in The Big One well within my reach, but 'twas not to be.

Last night was also a big one. I played in the $11 rebuys and add-on on Poker Stars which attracted almost 1,000 runners. The prize pool was garunteed at $25K but reached almost $40K by the end of the add-ons. I was in for $33 and managed to get one double through in the first hour which put me just under average at the first break. I trundled along there or there abouts and gradually became one of the smaller stacks - something I'm getting used to recently, but on the plus side, I think I'm playing it well and I ground my way back up and over average. Actually I'm fibbing. There was no grinding to it; the deck hit me sqaure in the face and I could do nothing wrong. It's a shame that noone else came along for the ride, but I gues 7 or 8 preflop takedowns is a good as a double through. The key hand for me came when I picked up AA. I had about $55K in chips. The average was about $35K, blinds were 1,000/2,000/100. I was in EP and UTG made it 6,000 to go. I popped it up to 20K. I got one caller in LMP then the button went all-in for about $30K. I called and so did the guy in LMP. The flop was T94. I pushed and LMP called. The big bling had QQ and LMP had 99. AAAAAAAARRRRRRRGGGGGG he had me well covered. It was going to happen again. I was going to take an early morning exit when someone's middle pair sets up and cracks my AA or KK as has happened SO many times this week.

BUT I pulled a mirable ace on the river and duly performed my most exhuberant (spelling?) yet silent fist pump so as not to wake up the whole house. That triple-up put me in 4th place with 120 runners left.

The top 81 places got paid ranging from $75 all the way upto $10,000 for first place. Things continued to go well and I cruised into the money. I managed to avoid tangling with another big stack at my table: he raise before me and I let TT go preflop. It was the correct descision, despite the fact that I would have busted 4 players: Mr.Big Stack had AQs, Mr. Small Blind had KK and Eigt Big Blind had KJs. There was a ten on the flop! It was still the correct descision, though, so cant grumble.

Once the blinds got to the 2K/4K/200 level they really started to hurt, people were busting fast, and I found myslef slipping down the leader board. Just as I was on the verge of becoming one of the smaller stacks I picked up KK. A raise and an all-in in front of my was a bit scarry especially as the all-in came from a massive stack that had just busted someone else's KK with his AA. As much as I might have been dreading putting my money in there was no way I was folding and I was very happy to see myself up against AK and AJ. Tripple up!

That shot me right back up near the top of the leader board, but it wasn't soon till blinds made any sized stack vunerable. I had to let go of AJ on the flop after raising preflop and getting two callers. I also had to bail with 44 preflop after raising first in in the small blind and having the big blind come over the top of me. Another big chunk was lost with JJ. I pumped it up to 32K in early position (big blind was 8K) at that point and a small stck on the button came over the top for about 10K more. I couldn't really fold since I was getting about 9-1 but I knew I wasn't going to like what I saw and he duly flipped over QQ.

Back to smallstack's ville. With blinds now up to 10K/20K/1K I wasn't going to last long with a stack of only 100K without making some kind of a move pretty soon. The moment of truth came when I was in mid position with KQ. I've been debating my push here and I think it's a close call. I could just have survived one more hit of the blinds but it would have left me needing two double-ups to stay in contention. I got called by AQ and the board was insignificant. I busted in 26th place and received $215 for my troubles.

It was just about enough money to warrant staying up all night - it was 8am by this point and Miss Pink was up and about to head to work! - but it was mega frustrating to come so close to a big score. The problem with KQ is that if you're called you're only ever going to be 50-50 or worse. Pleanty of pockets will call you (at best 50-50) a lot of Ax hands will call (60-40) and all hands that dominate KQ will call. This makes KQ only a bit better than a random steal. But I still think that KQ was enough given my situation. I was in mid-position so a blind steal was not out of the question and if I get called I just have to hope that it's a 50-50 or at least hope that I have live outs. I didn't, and that's the way it goes. I was going to have to make a stand within the next 15 hands and KQ might well have been the best I was going to see.

NEWS FLASH: Greg Raymer will be playing at the Oxford Cup on May 8th. The Oxford cup is a student poker event with invited guests and pros held at the Randolf Hotel in Oxford. At the time of it's conception back in 2000 it was the biggest poker event in Europe.



Raymer will be giving a talk the day before. The craziest thing is that this talk will not be about poker. He's gonna be talking in the University Science Museum about FOSSILS!!

Man I sure wish that it didn't coincide with Miss Pink's graduation, but it does and that is an undeniable priority.

Peace out and keep on your toes for the rest of my USA trip report. I'd imagine there are either two or three more installments to come...