The Nemesis & Journo

Sounds quite a good name for a local pub yes... err, well maybe not!

Anyway, the reason for the title is I have decided that in the poker world I have a nemesis. I am not a naturally superstitious person and I believe that there should be no reason why one person should hold some sort of curse over another. I often hear the words, “oh, he’s my nemesis” and just think to myself… shut up you fish! What you mean is that he’s better than you at poker and he beats you out of your pension every week because your fundamentally crap at the game, but for the first time in my life I am with these fish and am starting to believe that maybe there could be such a thing as a nemesis. Here are some dictionary definitions that just about sum it up perfectly;

1. Something that a person cannot conquer.
2. An opponent or rival whom a person cannot best or overcome.

Now, I am not saying I am being outplayed here, what I am saying is that there is one guy I play quite regularly with that I just can’t beat and it is purely down to bad luck on every occasion.

I played the £500 freeze out last night at Gala Notts and yet again, I was knocked out by this same foe. I have a good poker memory and as like most people it remembers the bad and unjust better than the good and legitimate. However, that aside, no matter how hard I strain my brain and summon the dark grey matter to provide an example, I cannot think of an instance where I have conquered this nemesis. I can count 6 examples of where I have been dispatched by this same enemy, five of which involve woeful bad play on their part (not mine) coupled with sickening outdraws administered by the poker gods, who are clearly acting some retribution on my ass for something I did once! The other involves me running a perfectly good AK push into a fortunately found AA in the BB. There is quite simply nothing I can do. Here's where I turn into Hellmuth momentarily... I played near perfect poker last night for 3 hours in the £500 freeze out at Notts and built my 15,000 starting stack up to 26,500 without really breaking a sweat. Average chips was around 20,000 and the blinds were 400-800 on a 45 minute clock, so I was looking for a metaphoric pitch for the night and was thinking about bedding down for a couple of hours unless I found a monster. Then the following hand occurs, which whipped the proverbial rug from under my feet;

The action folds around to the villain (a very loose, clueless player who couldn't fold a paper napkin) who raises to 3,700 one from the cut-off. He has about 40,000 and by some divine intervention is the table chip leader. I am on the button with AA. I give it a dwell, ask for a re-cap on the amount of the raise and I make it another 10,000 to play leaving me with 12,000 behind. I didn't want to give him a cheap option of calling and hitting something on the flop and I wanted to make it look like I had enough chips behind to fold to an all-in (he loves to re-raise me and anyone he thinks may be an 80/1 shot or better to fold). I also thought that even though he is simply not capable of a fold himself, he may actually get out if I move right in here, and I didn’t want to give him an excuse to pass. The villain thinks for a good couple of minutes and tells me he would like to put me all-in. - Much obliged tyvm sir and all that, "I call". Due to my tight image and the fact this is a slowish paced, well structured event, I would fully expect any other player here to have KK but he (not to my surprise really) turns over JJ, the rest is history and the Nemesis strikes again. I was pleased to see he showed some class though by smiling to his next door neighbour and later telling everyone who would listen how he bust me and how he takes me out of every comp etc etc.

Anyway, it’s a bad beat, they happen, that’s poker but I am starting to think I need to fight the curse, shoot down the nemesis and that whenever I play against this guy from now on I am going to take some ridiculous gambles, push my luck and generally look to act some revenge, surely I am owed some fortune – it all evens out in the end I’m told!

Oh, and the journo bit….?

I’ve started doing some writing for UK Poker News, so thought I would put a link to their site on the right hand side and a couple of links to my articles on here from time to time.

Good luck at the tables and try to avoid those losers that tell a story and it just ends up being a disguised bad beat! – Tossers!

Shef-failed :-(

After my last chirpy post about the overnight situation at Sheffield's Summer Festival, this one will be a little more somber.

I returned to day 2 with the chip lead (all be it a marginal one) and left about 2 hours later with nothing more than an all-over numb feeling and double my buy-in scruffily shoved into the back pocket of my jeans. Its not like i murdered my stack, its more a case of i never got going and nothing really happened for me. Perhaps i tried to force it a little and press home my chip advantage on the table (although on reflection, it wasn't that much of an advantage as nothing more than 5 BB's seperated the top 4 players and no-one was too far behind to cause a problem). Playing on tables of 7, you're never really that far from the button when not in the blinds, which encouraged me to get busy early, which also on reflection was perhaps a little reckless and i had to lay down AJ and 44 to all-in re-raises within the first half hour. This put me on the back foot and i slipped down right into the pack again. I managed to re-raise my neighbour all-in just prior to the final in a battle of the blinds, which got me up to 40k(ish) (he showed AQ and folded, I mucked J4 and smiled) and i soon after stumbled into the final with 38k with the blinds at 2k-4k and an average stack of 50k. I was 7th out of 10 starting the final and the chip leader probably had around 100k, so i had room to play but wasn't in great shape really.

I lasted all of 1 hand in the final when i was dealt AK UTG+1 and raised to 12k. Everyone folded apart from the BB who was 2nd in chips. He pushed all-in and i wasn't folding for my last 36k with blinds at 2k-4k and me having to pay them next hand. I put him on 10-10, JJ or QQ and couldn't refuse a race for what the pot was offering and the pot woul have made me chip leader once more, so i called. He turned over J-J and i missed. - OUT!

It felt like such a failure. All i could think about coming back for day 2 was how useful £10k would be to me at the moment and how even a three or four way chop would do nicely. I didn't anticipate failure and a few scraps to take home but i suppose that's tournament poker - you can die at any moment! I analysed it all the way home but i don't think i can play it any differently. I am not cold folding AK, although i suppose i could have limped with it UTG+1 and checked out the action - its marginal. Any thoughts anyone?

Notts Gala have a £500 NLHE over the BH weekend that i am toying with the idea of playing. £500 is at the top end of what i would willingly ante up for a tourney so i guess i'll just see how i feel about it later in the week. Maybe i'll just buy a lottery ticket on wednesday and see how i'm running. :-)

Sheffield Summer Festival £300 NLH - Overnight Situation

F***ing rain woke me up after about 3 hours sleep and there's no chance of getting your head back down when your bedroom is on the top floor in the roof! grrrrrrrrrrrrrrr.....

96 runners, great structure, plenty of atrocious pokering by some and after a proper struggle early on and hours of infuriating grinding i am now in good shape. There's 14 left on 2 tables of 7 (10 get paid). First prize is just a smidgen over 10k, so there's plenty to play for. We played until 4am and surprisingly some of the shortstacks decided to hang on and didn't do their finest kamikaze lemming impressions as is what normally happens in these 2-day jobbies, - perhaps they were watching Tikay at Luton!?

I have 56k in chips (average is about 35k), which is either the chip lead or very close to it. I had 77k at my peak (2.5 times the average) about 70 minutes before the end but had a mis-read with 10-J when i thought I had pocket jacks (obviously) and a minor accident with 9-9, where i raised in late position only to be heftily and quickly re-raised by my next door neighbour, who was one of the only two players at my table who could seriously damage me, so i folded and he showed J-J, so i guess i dodged a bullet there!

I've got some ironing to do and have to take up the wooden flooring in my hallway so the concrete floor underneath can be leveled and the wood floor re-laid tomorrow. - Rock n' roll!!

Nice Call Sir!

I have been playing a bit more live poker recently as I was getting fed up with the on-line game and i didn't want to turn up cold to the £300 F/O at Sheffield on Thursday having not touched a playing card for the best part of 2 months. Although playing in a few smaller live games just prior to a decent sized tournament is reasonable preparation for getting the routine and feel back, it can also be counter-productive, especially given the huge gulf in the types of game played, their respective structures and the standard of player you are likely to encounter. I am expecting the Sheffield freezeout competition to be fairly tight (by South Yorkshire standards), you get 5000 chips and 45 minute levels (blinds start at 25-50) and the players will vary from 'reasonable' to 'pretty decent', with the odd good player sprinkled into the mix. However, the Notts £30 No-foldem holdem re-buy bingo chip chucking contest is somewhat different; 2000 chips, (blinds starting at 50-100) 25 minute levels and players that range from 'newbie' to 'useless' with a few notable exceptions that can play a little bit. Here's an example hand to give you the flavour:

About 1/2 an hour after the re-buys finish, so you're out if you make a mistake!:

Blinds 200-400, average chips is 9500. A pot develops in typical Notts style with 8 limpers (yes EIGHT). I am UTG+1 and the only player not wanting to see the flop with my 8-4o (an immediate insta-call for most of the table) but hey, i'm way too tight for these fellas!

Flop is Qh-9c-9h

Its checked round to the cut off who has around 18k and announces "Raise" and puts in 2500. Before anyone else can act one of the other players (not the dealer) declares in a not too friendly manner that it should be "3200"as this is the "pot". There's a few murmours of agreement from some and there is no thought from anyone that the player hasn't made a mistake worthy of the death penalty after all and may actually only want to bet 2500 into a 3200 pot. But as this is a Notts pot limit game it seems that betting exactly the amount of the pot is the only accptable bet in this casino - something of a local practice or custom). A player is seen to be something of a weirdo or a maverick if he starts betitng anything other than whats in the pot! FFS! Anyway....He gets 3 callers! (how many 9's in this deck!) I am starting to think there must be some big hands out here (who's trapping who?)

Turn is 8s

Its checked back round the the aggressor who again announces "Raise" and puts in 4000 (more arguments ensue about the size of the pot but they all call anyway except the guy in the SB who reraises all in for another 4500. They all call the reraise and as everyone except the aggressor is now all-in they turn their cards over.

Player 1 (the aggressor) KhJh
Player 2 (calling station 1) 10h-8c
Player 3 (calling station 2) 3-3
Player 4 (reraiser) 8h-10s

The river is the Qd and the K high aggressor takes down a monster!

Analyse that f***er if you will!

Not a 9 in site and no-one even has a Queen. The guy with 3-3, really can't be serious but he did get rivered i suppose (it's unlikely he's made a good read here though, he probably just couldn't find the fold button!) I particularly like the guy's back raise with 8h-10s (is he colourblind?) once he catches the 8 on the turn. I wondered for a minute whether he thought the guy betting out would fold for the 4500 extra into a 30k pot but i don't think anything like that would cross his mind - perhaps it was a value bet with his 9's and 8's?! - who knows, after all 2 pairs is a monster hand right?!.

Anyway, despite struggling to conceal my mirth at the above hand, I finally busted out when i pushed my 8BB's all-in with AQs from mid position only to be called by K4o on the button by a guy who only had 10BB's himself. Is this the worst call ever?! Anyway... he spiked a King and all i could say was "nice call"................................................................................ You fucking MUG!

I am still at a loss as to how he makes this call, my only idea is that he either;

1. is incredibly stupid and mistook his 4 for an A and didn't want to admit it
2. is incredibly stupid (i guess this is a given) and thought he was ahead after i had pushed all-in with Q3 15 minutes earlier to double up when i only had 5BB's and was on the button in an unraised pot. Its amazing how bad players really can't see past the cards in poker. They don't see the difference in the scenarios or situations or how stack size and position affects nearly every decision in tournaments. He probably just thought "oh this guy raises with Q3 so my K4 has him nailed - right?" -.... Wrong dickhead!

Oh well, there's always another day.

Good luck all, here's hoping you don't run into K4!

For The Good Of The Game

It's the final of the 2006 WSOP pokerthon later today. It’s taken 8 days to get from over 8500 hopefuls and a scattering of absolutely no-hopefuls to the final 9 poker gladiators who are going to battle it out for $12m in dirty US greenbacks. - Nice!

Chip leader is former Hollywood agent / promotions dude Jamie Gold who has over $27m in chips (about 1/3 of the chips in play). Obviously a clear favorite but wait, what’s this?! - He says he doesn't want to be famous so he may just dump his chips when heads up and deliberately come 2nd! - wtf?! - Apparently he doesn't need the money and $6m would be just fine thank you very much! - What a twat!! - If he didn't want to win the fucking thing then why enter? - So I say for the good of the game lets hope he gets cold decked and bad beated early doors and goes out on tilt in 7th or something.

I'm not there to watch and won't be following it at all but I’ll be sort of secretly funking for Allen Cunningham (2nd in chips with $17m) - again for the good of the game. - He seems a decent chap, obviously an outstanding poker player (you only have to look at his record and results to see that) and he plays the game the way it should be played – quietly going about his business, accumulating chips, reading the game and doesn’t brag, boast, shoot his mouth, talk trash or disrespect his fellow players; he’s one of the good guys of the game (like Greg Raymer) and it would be nice to see him take it down. Although if he does it would be interesting to see whether PokerStars will be able to wrestle him from the Full Tilt stable to become one of their World Champ Ambassadors – I very much doubt it this time!

Full chip counts for the final are below – robbed from somewhere, I can’t remember where!

1. Jamie Gold - $25.7m
2. Allen Cunningham - $17.7m
3. Richard Lee – $11.8
4. Erik Friberg - $9.6m
5. Paul Wasicka - $7.9m
6. Doug Kim - $6.7m
7. Rhett Butler - $4.8m
8. Michael Binger - $3.1m
9. Dan Nassif – $2.6m

Good luck all!

Pokerbility Odds Calculator

I've been messing about recently with a new odds calculator called 'Pokerbility'. It instantly works out the odds of your hand and the odds of it improving to a better hand by the river and it also tells you the probability of your opponent having a certain hand - its quite scary how fast it works! Oh, and for those really lazy folk and those that are learning the game it also suggests what your next move should be (check/fold/raise/check-raise/check-fold/limp-call/re-raise etc.) You do need to configure it though to whether you want to play tight/loose/aggressive pre-flop, post flop etc but it does adapt to your style of play over time. It also works on most internet card rooms and they are adding more every week.

I have never really used one of these poker odds calculator thingies before but thought i would give it a try and to be honest it was real eye opener and its excellent for cash games in particular for checking whether you are getting the right price to draw and what your odds of hitting are. Anyway, enough of this shameless plug!... Its free to anyone who signs up through one of their affilated poker rooms - thats how they make their money but when you sign up there are varying deposit bonus options (as long as you use their bonus code) so as far as i can see everyone's a winner! if you fancy giving it a go just click on the link on the right hand side of this blog in the 'links' section.

good luck!

Live and Kicking

I made a return to the live scene last week. I played the Notts Gala £50 NLHE (with 2 optional re-buys) last Thursday. 67 runners, I managed 5th for £500. Not bad I suppose considering my lack of live action recently but I suppose it's like riding a bike really - you just never forget. I really enjoyed it and it made me realise what I miss about the live game - the banter, the atmosphere, the ability to get a feel for a player or make a read based on anything other than previous actions and betting patterns - I like to be able to watch a person's behaviour at the table and get a read that way. Its amazing what you can pick up if you're attentive.

The structure of the competition is actually one of their best on offer for the week. Its still comparatively dire but they have time constraints and they have to get it finished so there is no point in moaning about it. 75 minutes of rebuys (3 levels of 25 mins) starting with 5000 chips and blinds at 50/100 so by the time the chip throwing is done at the end of level 3 we are at 200-400 and an average stack of about 12k when your allowed to in effect pay for 15k's worth of chips - still OK i suppose. However from here on in it gets spicy and it becomes important to manage a short stack (short compared to the blinds) well, pick your spots well and duck and dive - refusing a gamble or turning down a potential 50:50 is just not an option. I managed to accumulate well and stayed above average all the way down to the last 3 tables. I started to get low and was moved tables as lowest chips*. I had been card dead for about 3 levels now and with the blinds doubling every 25 minutes you can imaging that this is like running backwards. Anyway, long story short and I triple up with J-4 in the blinds when the board comes 4-4-8 and I am seemingly invisible to the rest of the table who have started a raising war all around me with 9-9 in the cut off and fuck knows what UTG and UTG+1. I then get a short stack push from early position with A-10 and I have AA on the button, i give it the chin scratch, puppy dog eyes and make a seemingly reluctant call for half my stack but can't persuade either of the deep stacked blinds to triple me up again and i just win a good pot (although i would have been out had the BB called with his Q6s!! - he's a pure gambler and thought for a good minute before mucking).

I then manage to cruise to the final table of 10 in 7th place. I am below average, have less than 10BB's (so has everyone except the 2 chip leaders) and have drawn seat 3 which means i am straight into the BB for 8k of my 67k stack. I need to move but so does everyone else - this has fast become a Turbo SNG and it was my plan to play the final exactly as that. I duck and dive, grind and push my way up the ladder as players fall to the chip leader who seems like he is a one-man wrecking crew who actually knows it is his night. Meanwhile the short stack at the start of the final who started with just 10k in chips with blinds at 4k-8k and in the UTG seat now has over 130k!! and is in 2nd place. I make my one mistake of the entire competition with 7 left by having to fold to a reraise preflop when I shouldn't have even been trying to win the pot in the first place. - In what was all-in or fold poker, this was a bad play and i was pretty disgusted with myself. I was left shortish again and in need of a double through. A couple more players had been gobbled by the blinds and with 5 left i found an unraised ready to be nicked pot staring me in the face from the SB, unfortunately i had Q3 staring back at me from the hole! I quickly considered my options I had 60k, the pot was 24k and the blinds were 2 minutes away from going up to 10k-20k. The BB had the same chips as me and easily enough to fold so i just stuffed in and he called after a dwell with Q-Ks and i was gone.

All-in all a good return to playing live. - I'll be going again this Thursday and then playing at Sheffield next week. I was going to try Luton's fessie this week but to be honest i just can't be arsed with the drive down the M1 and the fact that i would have to make arrangements to stay over should i get through to any day 2's. - lazy i know but so what!

WSOP
I think we are into day 5 or 6 now of the main event and to be honest I'm bored of it. There are about 40 left and i have heard of 3 of them. I don't know any of them and i don't care or give a shit who wins the fecking thing. - maybe its about time everyone stopped giving a toss about this event - the prestige has gone from it. 8500 runners is just too many. I can't see it happening though - apparently you can already win seats for WSOP 2007 on some sites! - WTF?!

Anyway - be lucky!


*Gala still insist on moving the lowest chips when balancing tables. - yes its totally unfair, yes it creates a seat of death situation and yes they refuse to listen when you offer them a fair alternative of moving the BB to the next available BB on the short handed table. I have told them that moving the short stack makes no more sense or is no more fair than moving 'biggest feet' or 'longest hair' but still they are tied by corporate rules or something like that....... sigh!

You Little Whore!

I discovered the world of bonus whoring this week. I was getting a bit fed up of playing on one site and the beats were becoming infectious and many so I thought a change of scenery might do the trick (its nothing to do with my play you understand :-)) I took a look around to see what i could find. I was quite pleased, it seems like every site under the sun wants a piece of me and i suppose providing you have the time and the initial investment it can be quite worthwhile setting up new accounts with a variety of different sites that offer sign up bonuses. It can also be a good thing playing against new players with different styles. I registered with Neteller and cashed out 1/2 of my stars balance into there and have spread the love around my new poker homes. I've set up 4 new accounts and am occupying my time playing on them for long enough to earn my bonus (most sites have a stipulation for how many hands or how much rake you have to generate before you get the bonus, which i suppose is fair enough - no-one likes to be hit and runned, not even multi-million dollar corporations. Wish me luck!

WSOP....

Congrats to Foxy on his 3rd place finish in the $5000 PLH event - a nice chunk of change for a top bloke :-)