Manchester Recap
Gosh! So much to write about. Where to start? Should I commence with last weekend shenanigans, hands from the tournament, carry on with the 'poker and my life' series, or write about how I'm thinking of quitting my job.
What? Did someone say quitting and job? Urm... well, maybe. Kind of temporarily, sort of...urm. Watch this space
Moving on...
So last weekend and the GUKPT event in Manchester.
As I posted, I busted towards the end of day 1a with a pretty poor play. I guess I was a bit tired and conscious of the need to double up before day 2. It was level 7 and blinds were 150/300/25. I had about 15k in chips. So maybe I was less desperate than I thought. Anyhow. An early position player limps and I make it 1200 in late position with 99. The small blind flat calls and the limper calls. On a flop of T22 with two spades the small blind bets 2500. The limper passes. I have a brain fart and push all-in. The small blind insta-calls with kings. His flat call should really have sent alarm bells off, but clearly it didn't. A small defence was that he had been on my first table of the day and had been flat calling a lot of preflop raises and then playing aggressively after the flop, but equally he was always doing that when he has position.
So how about some other hands:
The first two levels were pretty good to me, aside from the very first hand which could have landed me in a lot of trouble:
Julian Gardner in middle position made it 150 to go (blinds were 25/50). I call in the big blind with AJ (I know, a monster holding out of position against a good player!). Flop of AQQ and I check-call his bet of 250. A blank on the turn and he fires out 400 which I raise to 1400. He thinks briefly and flat calls. I wish to god that I'd just folded preflop until the river brings another Ace. Whoohoo! I bet 2000. He raises to 4000 and we split the pot when he table A9. There's nothing like taking things easy in the opening levels!
The next big hand I was involved in saw a player limp in immediately on my right and I raised to 450 (blinds 50/100) with pockets kings. The big blind and the limper called. They both checked a 933 flop and I bet 900 which only the limper called. We both checked an Ace on the turn. He checked to me again on the river when a second Ace fell. At this point I was certain I was ahead and thought for a while before betting 1500. He thought for ages during which time I tried staring hard at him in an attempt to convince him that I was bluffing. Eventually after two or three minutes of thinking he raise another 2000. That really confused me. I was so certain that when I made the bet I was in front and yet he just made what looked like a value raise. Eventually I called and he had to show his 66. Ship it.
A few hands later I managed to see a cheap multiway flop from the small blind with 33. The flop came a beautiful 443 and I decided to lead out in the hope of catching someone with a four and building a monster pot. Only the big blind called my bet of 350 and I fired out 1100 on the turn. He called. Thoughts of monster under the bed caught up with me briefly, but I got the better of them and bet 2500 on the river. He kindly called with 22 stating that he put me on over cards - well duh, clearly!
This took me up close to 20,000 and one of the early chip leaders. Unfortunately I decided to splash around a bit and ended up spewing a few chips chasing draws and getting my continuation bets raised.
I ended up back where I started with 10,000 going into the dinner break. I'd just been moved to a new table and it looked as pretty tough. After dinner the deck hit me in the face, but I either didn't get paid very much or had to lay down good hands in the face of too much pressure. I put down AK after I raised was flat called and then someone else reraised. I put down JJ after raising to 900 and the big blind going all-in for 9000. In hindsight a call might have been in order there as he did it a couple of times more, that kind of over bet looks a lot like AK and at a tough table I should probably he happy taking a 50-50 shot. I then got AK and QQ and hit a set of tens but made only a couple of thousand on each hand to find myself at about 16,000. I then got moved to a better tables with lots of big stacks who were throwing chips about. I could surely double up here if I hit anything good. Unfortunately I was there for about 10 hands before moving again and then came the 99 v KK hand.
I was pretty disappointed to bust especially since I had been in the top five in chips after the first couple of levels.
I considered heading back to the hotel room as I was worried about tilting in the cash games, but in the end I felt that I'd managed to get my shit together enough. It was certainly worthwhile both financially and for entertainment value.
The game was pot limit with 10/10 blinds. A bit big for my bankroll but if the game was good enough I would just sit tight and wait to be paid off. I sat down with about £1000 just in time to see Mad Marty Wilson drop about £4k. No sooner did he get up Dave Dubai took his seat armed with a full bottle of red wine. It only took him a few orbits to run his £1k up to about six and he was totally dominating and tilting the table. It was quite a sight to behold. On a flop of 996 with two diamonds he managed to get all-in and called for about £3k by a chap with KQ and no diamonds. Dubai had 57 of diamonds and hit his flush on the river.
By this stage, having tried to limp into a few pots and having been ground down to about £800 in the process I realised that this was not going to be the way to play in this game where most pots were straddled at least twice and two raises before the flop were common. I was going to have to pick a hand and go with it. Dubai's crazy drunk Scouse mate had sat down and was playing just as crazily. They announced the last three hands for the night so Duabi paid for everyone who was to tight to put in their own straddles. So it was straddled to £80, the crazy Scouse raised, Dubai reraised and I found ATo in the £40 straddle. I managed to grown some balls and stuck in my £800. Everyone got out of the way and they both called. In fact they both went over the top for another couple of grand each. As it turned out my AT was in excellent shape against 9T and K2. I was very happy to see a flop of 48T, less happy to see a jack on the turn and ecstatic to see a blank on the river.
Quite a night!
Over the three days I played I actually ended up down in the cash games and I was obviously disappointed with not getting further in the tournament, but overall I had a great time, met some very nice people and had a whole heap of fun.
A big thanks to DTD Poker for sponsoring me and Congrats to Dave Colclough and Richard Ashby, fellow DTDers who won it and final tabled respectively and to Simon Nowab who final tabled in the £300 event on Sunday.
After a the weekend losses and expenses and after a nasty few days in the world of online cash games, I have a bit of bankroll rebuilding to do, but hopefully it wont be to long before I can take another shot at one of these GUKPT events.
What? Did someone say quitting and job? Urm... well, maybe. Kind of temporarily, sort of...urm. Watch this space
Moving on...
So last weekend and the GUKPT event in Manchester.
As I posted, I busted towards the end of day 1a with a pretty poor play. I guess I was a bit tired and conscious of the need to double up before day 2. It was level 7 and blinds were 150/300/25. I had about 15k in chips. So maybe I was less desperate than I thought. Anyhow. An early position player limps and I make it 1200 in late position with 99. The small blind flat calls and the limper calls. On a flop of T22 with two spades the small blind bets 2500. The limper passes. I have a brain fart and push all-in. The small blind insta-calls with kings. His flat call should really have sent alarm bells off, but clearly it didn't. A small defence was that he had been on my first table of the day and had been flat calling a lot of preflop raises and then playing aggressively after the flop, but equally he was always doing that when he has position.
So how about some other hands:
The first two levels were pretty good to me, aside from the very first hand which could have landed me in a lot of trouble:
Julian Gardner in middle position made it 150 to go (blinds were 25/50). I call in the big blind with AJ (I know, a monster holding out of position against a good player!). Flop of AQQ and I check-call his bet of 250. A blank on the turn and he fires out 400 which I raise to 1400. He thinks briefly and flat calls. I wish to god that I'd just folded preflop until the river brings another Ace. Whoohoo! I bet 2000. He raises to 4000 and we split the pot when he table A9. There's nothing like taking things easy in the opening levels!
The next big hand I was involved in saw a player limp in immediately on my right and I raised to 450 (blinds 50/100) with pockets kings. The big blind and the limper called. They both checked a 933 flop and I bet 900 which only the limper called. We both checked an Ace on the turn. He checked to me again on the river when a second Ace fell. At this point I was certain I was ahead and thought for a while before betting 1500. He thought for ages during which time I tried staring hard at him in an attempt to convince him that I was bluffing. Eventually after two or three minutes of thinking he raise another 2000. That really confused me. I was so certain that when I made the bet I was in front and yet he just made what looked like a value raise. Eventually I called and he had to show his 66. Ship it.
A few hands later I managed to see a cheap multiway flop from the small blind with 33. The flop came a beautiful 443 and I decided to lead out in the hope of catching someone with a four and building a monster pot. Only the big blind called my bet of 350 and I fired out 1100 on the turn. He called. Thoughts of monster under the bed caught up with me briefly, but I got the better of them and bet 2500 on the river. He kindly called with 22 stating that he put me on over cards - well duh, clearly!
This took me up close to 20,000 and one of the early chip leaders. Unfortunately I decided to splash around a bit and ended up spewing a few chips chasing draws and getting my continuation bets raised.
I ended up back where I started with 10,000 going into the dinner break. I'd just been moved to a new table and it looked as pretty tough. After dinner the deck hit me in the face, but I either didn't get paid very much or had to lay down good hands in the face of too much pressure. I put down AK after I raised was flat called and then someone else reraised. I put down JJ after raising to 900 and the big blind going all-in for 9000. In hindsight a call might have been in order there as he did it a couple of times more, that kind of over bet looks a lot like AK and at a tough table I should probably he happy taking a 50-50 shot. I then got AK and QQ and hit a set of tens but made only a couple of thousand on each hand to find myself at about 16,000. I then got moved to a better tables with lots of big stacks who were throwing chips about. I could surely double up here if I hit anything good. Unfortunately I was there for about 10 hands before moving again and then came the 99 v KK hand.
I was pretty disappointed to bust especially since I had been in the top five in chips after the first couple of levels.
I considered heading back to the hotel room as I was worried about tilting in the cash games, but in the end I felt that I'd managed to get my shit together enough. It was certainly worthwhile both financially and for entertainment value.
The game was pot limit with 10/10 blinds. A bit big for my bankroll but if the game was good enough I would just sit tight and wait to be paid off. I sat down with about £1000 just in time to see Mad Marty Wilson drop about £4k. No sooner did he get up Dave Dubai took his seat armed with a full bottle of red wine. It only took him a few orbits to run his £1k up to about six and he was totally dominating and tilting the table. It was quite a sight to behold. On a flop of 996 with two diamonds he managed to get all-in and called for about £3k by a chap with KQ and no diamonds. Dubai had 57 of diamonds and hit his flush on the river.
By this stage, having tried to limp into a few pots and having been ground down to about £800 in the process I realised that this was not going to be the way to play in this game where most pots were straddled at least twice and two raises before the flop were common. I was going to have to pick a hand and go with it. Dubai's crazy drunk Scouse mate had sat down and was playing just as crazily. They announced the last three hands for the night so Duabi paid for everyone who was to tight to put in their own straddles. So it was straddled to £80, the crazy Scouse raised, Dubai reraised and I found ATo in the £40 straddle. I managed to grown some balls and stuck in my £800. Everyone got out of the way and they both called. In fact they both went over the top for another couple of grand each. As it turned out my AT was in excellent shape against 9T and K2. I was very happy to see a flop of 48T, less happy to see a jack on the turn and ecstatic to see a blank on the river.
Quite a night!
Over the three days I played I actually ended up down in the cash games and I was obviously disappointed with not getting further in the tournament, but overall I had a great time, met some very nice people and had a whole heap of fun.
A big thanks to DTD Poker for sponsoring me and Congrats to Dave Colclough and Richard Ashby, fellow DTDers who won it and final tabled respectively and to Simon Nowab who final tabled in the £300 event on Sunday.
After a the weekend losses and expenses and after a nasty few days in the world of online cash games, I have a bit of bankroll rebuilding to do, but hopefully it wont be to long before I can take another shot at one of these GUKPT events.
posted by Pinky @ 11:23 AM
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