Howdy folks.
Pretty solid week again as far as poker is concerned. Played three tournaments since last Wednesday. The first was the Friday deepstack in D1 (which I won the previous week). Last hand before the break, blinds 200/400 I'm UTG+1 with AK and a stack of 11,000. Slightly below average. Anyway UTG limps, I make it 2k button calls back to the original limper he makes it 4k. I hated it but I moved in assuming I'd be racing and hoping he has AQ somehow. Button folds and UTG asks for a count. At this stage I know I'm at LEAST a coinflip. Anyway he finds out its 6k more and calls. Rolls over the monstrous 9 10 offsuit. Of course spikes a 9 and I'm outta there, not much fun and pretty tilting but such is life.
Second tourney, usual D1 5k. Tournament got 83 runners quite an achievement. Fair play to Ken and Robbie they're doing a great job down there in keeping the customers happy, I think of all the clubs I've played D1 has the friendliest and most welcoming atmosphere. Anyway, 20 players left I'm cruising with 40k. Went a little card dead and lost an AK v JJ for a monster stack and that left me short-ish. My last hand kinda sucked because it was completely unavoidable. UTG limps, which he had been doing with 70% of his hands. Folds to me on the button with AcQc I insta-ship 22k (blinds were 1500-3000), then sb re ships 60k. I knew the absolute worst hand he'd do this with was JJ or AK. Anyway limper folded and sb had AK. No joy and I was out 8th for a min-cash plus scalps.
The final tourney was the 10k in The Jackpot. I've stated previously how much I like this tournament. The structure is awesome and plenty of entertainment value for your hard earned Euro. With 2 tables left I had 5 big blinds after losing a preflop all in KQ v K3. Anyway I shipped with J10 off suit and got called by AA. Happy days. When I seen the aces I said, "my hand wins this every time." The flop rolls off 457. I then said "Don't worry its coming!" Turn J...........River 10. BOOM!!!! The entire table went into convulsions of laughter, it was pretty sick. Anyway final table went pretty smoothly and I ended up chopping it for a monkey each, not too shabby.
Poker aside I was at propaganda in the academy on Saturday night. Bit of a youngish crowd but the music was nothing short of epic. It was literally like having my iPhone on shuffle the €4 JD & Coke went down a treat. My biggest problem with going out to nightclubs is that all this chart and r'n'b garbage that gets played actually hinders my good time. I'm a bit of a music snob but I physically cant listen to fucking Rihanna and her bloke who beat her up in a nightclub or anywhere else for that matter. Rant over!!!
This weekend I'll be heading to Amsterdam, actually could not be more excited. Last time I got hit by a didlo fired out of a strippers minge so there's more of the same to look forward to, stories shall be told next week!
Later dudes.
Thursday, February 24, 2011
Wednesday, February 16, 2011
Sick reads and good results
Been a pretty good week since my last post. I've played three tournaments with a 1st place and a 3rd place. Both the cashes came in D1. The win was in the €45 Deepstack and the 3rd was in the Monday 5k.
Was pretty disappointed not to scoop on Monday. I felt myself and a guy who I had never seen up to that night were the only two solid players who cashed. The final table was pretty poor standard and if I had any sort of solid cards I would have been confident of another win for the books but sure whatever it was a nice cash and some well needed Dublin tournament league points, I was in some danger of missing out and not being able to defend my title. The sickest hand I played in a while also came Monday. I was in middle position with AT and decide to limp for 1k (My Stack 13k, Blinds 500-1000). Went to flop 4 handed with a Q89 raindow flop. Checked all around. Turn 2 checks to button who is table chip leader with 30k and bets 2k, folds to me and I call. I really think I've the best hand here and if I'm wrong I have a gutshot to hit so I call. River comes a 7, this doesn't complete much. I check again and he insta-moves all-in. I hated it. I was seat 10 so I had to ask the dealer to move back a little so I could get a look at the dude. He didn't look comfortable at all. He was super rigid, playing with his cards and then he noticed I was staring at the thing he was doing with his cards and stopped immediately, I made up my mind I was calling off my tourney with A10 high. I slid my stack in and he taps the table and says "good call" and shows me A10, ARGHH!! It was sick but not one person even attempted to bluff me and were pretty astonished I made the call. It was sweet to make the soul read yet sick at the same time not to scoop the pot.
Friday was one of them tourneys where I never made it out of auto-pilot. Nothing was a struggle. All bluffs worked, value bets paid and ran pretty well. Me and a good mate of mine Al finished 1-2. Nice when it ends up that way. He's got really good at tournaments really quickly, sure he'll have more results sooner rather than later.
As for tonight I'm stuck between the 10k in Jackpot or Arsenal-Barca. Pretty sure I'll make the trip into town because I love the structure of that tournament and I'm due some rungood in Jackpot. Looking for 3 cashes in a row, feeling really good about my game and life is pretty good at the moment.
On a personal note, been out kind of on the regular at weekends with friends and haven't had a shit night in a while. Looking forward to this week for another night out then Amsterdam next weekend. Had a blood test today which I got because I'm a new patient at a local doctor. So fingers crossed I've no secret diseases except gambling addiction.
Run Good Folks.
Was pretty disappointed not to scoop on Monday. I felt myself and a guy who I had never seen up to that night were the only two solid players who cashed. The final table was pretty poor standard and if I had any sort of solid cards I would have been confident of another win for the books but sure whatever it was a nice cash and some well needed Dublin tournament league points, I was in some danger of missing out and not being able to defend my title. The sickest hand I played in a while also came Monday. I was in middle position with AT and decide to limp for 1k (My Stack 13k, Blinds 500-1000). Went to flop 4 handed with a Q89 raindow flop. Checked all around. Turn 2 checks to button who is table chip leader with 30k and bets 2k, folds to me and I call. I really think I've the best hand here and if I'm wrong I have a gutshot to hit so I call. River comes a 7, this doesn't complete much. I check again and he insta-moves all-in. I hated it. I was seat 10 so I had to ask the dealer to move back a little so I could get a look at the dude. He didn't look comfortable at all. He was super rigid, playing with his cards and then he noticed I was staring at the thing he was doing with his cards and stopped immediately, I made up my mind I was calling off my tourney with A10 high. I slid my stack in and he taps the table and says "good call" and shows me A10, ARGHH!! It was sick but not one person even attempted to bluff me and were pretty astonished I made the call. It was sweet to make the soul read yet sick at the same time not to scoop the pot.
Friday was one of them tourneys where I never made it out of auto-pilot. Nothing was a struggle. All bluffs worked, value bets paid and ran pretty well. Me and a good mate of mine Al finished 1-2. Nice when it ends up that way. He's got really good at tournaments really quickly, sure he'll have more results sooner rather than later.
As for tonight I'm stuck between the 10k in Jackpot or Arsenal-Barca. Pretty sure I'll make the trip into town because I love the structure of that tournament and I'm due some rungood in Jackpot. Looking for 3 cashes in a row, feeling really good about my game and life is pretty good at the moment.
On a personal note, been out kind of on the regular at weekends with friends and haven't had a shit night in a while. Looking forward to this week for another night out then Amsterdam next weekend. Had a blood test today which I got because I'm a new patient at a local doctor. So fingers crossed I've no secret diseases except gambling addiction.
Run Good Folks.
Monday, February 7, 2011
Downswing
Poker is a mind fuck sometimes. Win a tourney and boom you're invincible, you're awesome, you're freakin' God. Go on a downswing swing you feel like a loser, you suck and will never win again. Some people deal with variance better than others, I'm generally ok with it, but the current run of crap I'm having to deal with to make (or lose) money would test Gandhi's patience. Gandhi was a very tight aggressive poker player :)
The only way I'm getting through this is to realise that this run of horrid luck WILL change, I'm too rooted in logic to think anyway else. In fact I don't really have the right to complain considering I didn't even play much last week, only two tourneys with no cashes but a decent run to 11th in the Wednesday 10k in Jackpot.
All in all I don't have a whole lot to write about this week. I played very little poker and had a decent weekend. Had a small party in mine for the Superbowl, plenty of beer and an in-human amount of wings that my mate 'borrowed' from his shop made it a good night. The game itself was awesome, Aaron Rodgers bossed it from QB and was a super deserving Superbowl MVP.
On the subject of sports Liverpool beating Chelsea the weekend was one of the highlights of our season so far. Tactically Chelsea played perfectly into King Kenny's hands by playing so narrow, directly into Liverpool's flat 3-man backline. The win was made all the sweeter by Torres' no-show and subsequent removal, the 'bigger club' rubbish he came out with after his move pissed me off. It will be a long time before Chelsea are a bigger club than Liverpool. Robbie Savage summed it up nicely on Twitter.
Bigger Club 1 Better Team 0.
Tuesday, February 1, 2011
Football and losing, yet still winning.
I held off on my usual Monday afternoon blog post until today due to the transfer deadline day being yesterday and what a transfer deadline day it was. As a life long Liverpool fan it was pretty hard to see Fernando Torres move to Chelsea but £50m is a lot more than the player is worth in my opinion. Fernando gave us some great years and was an amazing servant to the club but the way he conducted himself this January showed a lot of disrespect to the people in charge at the club, Kenny Daglish and LFC fans worldwide. His transfer request that arrived in what seemed to be nano-seconds after Chelsea bid for him left a sour taste in the mouth. His decision is even the more baffling when you consider only this summer he stated his long-term commitment to the club while Hicks & Gillette were in charge, two blokes who brought the club to being literally one or two days decisions away from not existing. Now we have NESW at the helm who clearly have long term ambitions and willingness to spend money he immediately jumps ship, tough one to get the head around but sure good luck El Nino, cheers for raping Rio and Terry. We'll always have the memories.
On to the future of LFC. Luis Suarez is a monster signing. Liverpool have a horrid reputation for ruining good players but I really think this one will work. He has pace, he is extremely instinctual in front of goal and has the passion to succeed. I'm very surprised we got him but obviously pleasantly surprised. As for Andy Carroll, £35m is a sick amount of money to pay for Andy Carroll and from a strictly business point of view yes its a massive gamble. I know these hypothetical situation are sometimes silly but I really dont think Liverpool would have got anywhere near £50m for Torres in the summer and probably would have got Carroll for £25m but what's done is done. I think Suarez and Carroll can now start a pretty formidable partnership. A Drogba-esque brute of a man in Carroll who's only 22 who can score a bag of goals on his day and a natural born finisher in Suarez with a proven record internationally and domestically who will be a constant nuisance to defenses in the Premier League. It's an exciting time to be a Liverpool fan thats for sure.
On the poker front, this week was a mega dud for me. The last two Monday's I've got my money in with T7 on a A779T board just to be shown A7 and AK on a K75 flop to be shown AA. Pokers no fun when this keep happening. Wednesday lost a race for the chip leas QQ v AK, then shipped AK v QQ for an above average stack. Obviously lost both races. Pretty massive pain in the hole. Friday was pretty standard, 16 players left I ship 10x short stack KcQc called by JJ and missed. Blergh!!
My only saving grace and the moment is my mate Ray. We play pretty much all our tourneys together and swap 15%. He's been running/playing really good poker recently and has put together some nice results. I bought 25% in the D1 Cash League final and he cashed for €900 so that was nice, add that to a few other little results he's thrown together and he's breaking keeping me in the plus column.
Keep it up mate :)
On to the future of LFC. Luis Suarez is a monster signing. Liverpool have a horrid reputation for ruining good players but I really think this one will work. He has pace, he is extremely instinctual in front of goal and has the passion to succeed. I'm very surprised we got him but obviously pleasantly surprised. As for Andy Carroll, £35m is a sick amount of money to pay for Andy Carroll and from a strictly business point of view yes its a massive gamble. I know these hypothetical situation are sometimes silly but I really dont think Liverpool would have got anywhere near £50m for Torres in the summer and probably would have got Carroll for £25m but what's done is done. I think Suarez and Carroll can now start a pretty formidable partnership. A Drogba-esque brute of a man in Carroll who's only 22 who can score a bag of goals on his day and a natural born finisher in Suarez with a proven record internationally and domestically who will be a constant nuisance to defenses in the Premier League. It's an exciting time to be a Liverpool fan thats for sure.
On the poker front, this week was a mega dud for me. The last two Monday's I've got my money in with T7 on a A779T board just to be shown A7 and AK on a K75 flop to be shown AA. Pokers no fun when this keep happening. Wednesday lost a race for the chip leas QQ v AK, then shipped AK v QQ for an above average stack. Obviously lost both races. Pretty massive pain in the hole. Friday was pretty standard, 16 players left I ship 10x short stack KcQc called by JJ and missed. Blergh!!
My only saving grace and the moment is my mate Ray. We play pretty much all our tourneys together and swap 15%. He's been running/playing really good poker recently and has put together some nice results. I bought 25% in the D1 Cash League final and he cashed for €900 so that was nice, add that to a few other little results he's thrown together and he's breaking keeping me in the plus column.
Keep it up mate :)
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