LOL Pub donkaments

There isn't a huge deal to report poker-wise from me - I'm probably just about break even this month. I've won my local pub game for the past two weeks and the top-heavy pay structure makes up for other losses. Yesterday there was approx £75 in the prizepool from a 27runner game and I got £40 for first. However I've been donking my money away in drunken cheapo cash games. I think I have a 'it is only a fiver, so let's ship it in' gambling mentality which I need to break free from.

I go to Tanzania on Thursday for 3 weeks so will be taking an enforced break. Having said that, a guy out there wants to learn how to play. He has railed me playing micro SnGs before where a win at that low level equates to about 3 weeks work. I will have a go at teaching him but I won't have the spare time to plough through hundreds or thousands of hands. For the final four days of my trip I'll be joined by Kieran who I know through poker - though he isn't much of a gambler which means it won't be a HU or prop-bet fest.

The break will do me some good I think - last year it was when I got back from Tanzania that I went on a crazy run. Fingers crossed the same happens this time as well!

And to go back to yesterday's game... I have never ever run so good. I only had two pocket pairs the entire game: 22 and 44, but time after time I got my chips in bad and came out ahead. On the final table I caught numerous 3-outters. Poker is so much easier when that kind of stuff happens.

This might be my last update in a while. I'm not sure whether to do Trip Reports In-Running when I'm away or do them on the Gambling Network Forums or not do them at all.

Onlineaments

I've not had a proper session online this year but I think tonight will be the night. I'll likely play approx 20 MTTs on Boss ranging from the freerolls and €0.10+r up to the €20 deepstack. The ICOP game this evening is a €40+r which I am perhaps rolled for but would not feel comfortable playing if I am going to be 9-tabling.

I've recently joined FTP so I can check their Rush tournies. So far so bad. Ive played a dozen or so tournies without a cash. They are fun to get a poker fix but I doubt I'll play sufficient games to really get to grips with the strategy involved. I've run pretty bad in them - whenever I get a big hand someone either has a bigger one or they do me in with rubbish they should not be playing. I am at the $1 and $4 level and so the games are full of idiots which makes it harder to learn. At least in a non-rush format I can beat those stakes so I'll likely stick to what I know best.

My live game has not been great of late. I did however ship a stud tourney last week - the first time I've played stud outside a HORSE environment. I haven't won or even cashed in Gala in my last half dozen visits. I'll be spending March in Africa though so will be having an enforced break which should do me some good. Having said that, someone out there wants me to teach him how to play the game - I think that will be a difficult challenge.

Weeee for steaks!

Two guys I have percentages in have binked in the past 24 hours. My slices aren't vast but I'll have turned $50 into $450.

It has been so long since I had a return from someone's BAP. It also means my Stars account will be topped up as it had dwindled to under $50. I'll no doubt spunk it all away trying to sat in via Steps to live stuff.

So thanks Paddy and S4ooter!

Amsterdamned

My plans to play a €100 tourney in Amsterdam failed. I arrived at the New Holland Casino at 7pm and the game kicked off at 8pm but all the 100 seats had been sold in advance. I never considered this might happen as it doesn't happen to regular casino games in the UK. It also turned out to be a €100+10 single rebuy. I only had one free night amongst the four I was in Amsterdam so I didn't get the chance to check out games in other parts of the city. There were cash tables in another room, but the cheapest was €2/€4 NLHE, so I gave it a miss. Also, the players I saw walking around looked like they knew how to play.

Playing in Amsterdam was central to my New Year's poker resolution to play poker in three different countries this year. I will be going to Tanzania in a few weeks with a poker player but I dont know if a HU match will be sufficient for me to count that country. Can I also include Scotland later in the year as they are hosting both a UKIPT and (I hope) a CBMPT and chances are I'll play one of them.

So now no poker is planned until Bolton for the APAT team champs this weekend. Well, I might be at the local pub tonight for the £3 buy-in two-30-player-games-in-an-evening-crapshootalolament and I'm playing a live £20 STT tomorrow.

Deep and weep

I played a proper live deepstack game at the weekend: 30k in chips with 4x60mins and then 30 min levels. All this for £25. Not too bad at all.

I was optimistic about my chances but I busted after about 5 hours. I was on the wrong end of a few coolers. My exit had me flopping a flush and he had a set. We got it in on the turn only for the river to pair. Earlier I had lost a fair chunk when I was the one who had the set and he made his flush. In another hand I turned a set but had to lay it down after a guy had raised-pre with J9 and then called a reraise and my magical set-making T on the turn filled his gutter-ball. Poker is a sick game.

It was fun though playing so deep and I wish I could have done a bit better.

Looking to the coming weeks – on Thursday I’ll be playing a €100 freezeout in Amsterdam. The following weekend I’ll be playing the APAT UK team championships in Bolton and then it is the turn of Star City for another team game. For both of which I’ll be representing the Gambling Network Forum. They should all be cracking fun.

2011

I've set myself some 2011 goals:

Play two UKIPT events
Play a live event with over a £500 buyin
Learn how to play from the SB
Win 10 times in Gala
Play in three different countries
Final table a CBMPT
Final table an APAT
Win a live game with over 100 runners
Play more sats/steps and get a WSOP package
Win a monthly title in the pub league
Get staked less and use my online roll to fund live entries
Finish €5k in proft on PCUK

All simple, right? If I achieve half of them I'll be happy enough. 2010 was a fantastic year for me - I had some CBMPT success and my win rate in my local Gala was approx 1 win in 6 games (with average fields of approx 60). I'm not going to assume that 2011 will be even better, cos 2010 could have just been a luckbox year, but some success would be very welcome. I've got the 2011 goals off to a reasonable start though with two wins from three games at Gala.

December write-up

I've not been playing much recently due to another bout of man-flu - I've only been to Gala once since my back-to-backs and I busted approx 20/90 shoving 12BB with KJ and the SB looked me up with an equal sized stack holding A6. I think calls like that deserve to be punished, but on this occasion it wasn't. Perhaps I do shove when too deep - and I'm fully aware of the weakness of KJ.

I've won a couple of pub games this week though - I think they had about 18 and 23 runners. The first one was a weird game - I got very short on the FT bubble - I got it all in pre with AQ vs Q8 and he rivered his 3-outter which left me 1400 chips and I was straight into the SB on the FT @ the 800/1600 level. I built my stack back up and on the way busted the Q8 guy when his KK were no match for my AJ. This time the karma gods were watching though as he raised and I shoved for not much more, it folded back to him and he thought for a bit and then said 'I guess I have to' and flips the cowboys. I had my coat on by the time I binked the river. He had a moan about being unlucky in a typical short-sighted poker player kind of way.

I then get crippled yet again with QT on a KJ9 flop versus A9 and then it comes running Jacks. By the time HU started I was short yet again - the other guy is a bit of a skinflint and wanted to deal for the £40 or so in the pot but I refused cos I didn't want him to go gung-ho on me. It seemed to work as I shoved every single button and he folded hands he shouldnt be folding. There were only 20bb in the game. Eventually he decided 97sooted was what he had been waiting for and my Q6 held.

As it happened, I got up against the same guy HU on Tuesday. He hadn't bought in to the pot though so the dynamic was different and I chipped away at him before he once again decided 79 was the hand to go with. He doesn't grasp the difference between a good all-in-pre showdown hand and suited-connectory cards which play better post flop.

I also binked a 220 player tourney online - shame it was only for €26 though. I've been losing for the past four or five online sessions and am down around €200. BRM means I can take a several month losing streak like this though - but I want to use some of my roll to fund some UKIPT and CBMPT festivals in the New Year.

January and February looks to be a busy month for me right now poker-wise. There are both the APAT and Not-the-APAT team events in Bolton and Birmingham, plus a UKIPT in Nottingham. I'm also in Amsterdam for a few days and one day I'll be all alone but I've sniffed out a €100 f/o which looks promising. I run good when playing in other countries so I hope this continues!

I'm off to Tanzania for the majority of March and then April-onwards I'll be playing the festivals.

One area which has been bad for me this past quarter are Bristol Poker Meetup games. I think I'm down around £200 when usually I'm a winning player. I'm not sure why that is. I offset that loss at a cash game the group hosted which is unusual cos my cash record isn't the best.

I hope both my readers have a very Happy Christmas and New Year.