Allinstevie's Blog

Back Blogging

2009-11-18T13:05:00.000-08:00

OK, so basically i have no excuse for leaving this so long and actually have no idea why i have. Think the main reason i have left it so long is because after my good start to the WSOP it all went pear shaped so to speak. Was chip leader in the $3k Horse event approaching the money bubble when i lost 3 huge Stud 8 hands holding 4 to a low and 4 to a flush after 4 cards and not making either on any of the 3 occasions. Ended up with a min cash in that busting shortly after the bubble.

Didn't make a day 2 in any of the other side events but made day 3 in the main event holding an above average 150k stack. Was plain sailing up to day 3 just constantly accumulating and never really playing any huge pots but it wasn't to be ultimately. Playing 180k and 1200/2400 blinds i found a/k in a really good squeeze spot and when the original raiser put in a 4 bet i got it in unfortunatly against his a/a and couldn't get there.

Anyways theres gonna be too much to talk about for 1 blog post so will try to gradually get up to date in the next few days and start blogging again.

Quick WSOP Update

2009-06-10T03:40:00.000-07:00

So far have played 4 wsop events and made 3 day 2's with 2 cashs. Going into day 2 of the 3k horse tomorrow with a slightly above average stack. Was a really long day today and not much fun for long periods. Made a lot of hands in the 1st 4 levels and ran pretty well to have a 22k stack going to the dinner break. But for the next 3 lvels, couldn't make a hand to save myself and dwindled all the way back down to 10k. Won a pretty big limit holdem hand though in the last level to get back up to 24,500 where i finished the day.

Min cashed my 1st event ($1500 nl) losing a race just into the money a/k vs 9/9 vs another shortstack at the time who later went onto final table the event. Best part of the event was coolering Pab a/a vs k/k in the 1st level. Crazy that the 2 of us were on the same starting table considering the size of the field.

Busted around 4.30pm and dave (sexygee) rung me to say he was coming in for the $2500 round of each (plh / plo) at 5pm. Wasn't that convinced on playing as my omaha game isn't the greatest and i was pretty tired after 2 days of playing the $1500 but with a few mins to go changed my mind and registered. Basically played pretty tight throughout the event as there was no antees involved and i had some super sick omaha players on my tables so i didn't really want to get involved with them with marginal hands. Went pretty deep though eventually busting 20th when playing a 50k stack at 2/4k plo i opened 4/5/6/7 double suited for pot and the bb basically set me in with k/k/9/7 1 suit. Flop came down a/q/7 but i turned a 4 for 2 pair but it gave him a flushdraw, anyways he hit a king on the river and i was gone. o yeah, guy who busted went on to win the event, so guess if i win bot of my busthands i have to bracelets now. Pretty happy with the result though and it was a solid start for the series, 2 for 2 in my 1st 2 events.

Next up was the 5k nl, 15k starting stacks but a pretty tough field. Got up to 28k after the 1st few levels but then bluffed off in a pretty bad spot to bring me back to starting stack. Basically blinded down to about 10k at 200/400 when the loosest guy at the table opened to 1200 utg, stationish player flats the button and i ship in my stack with 8/8. Button simply never has a big hand here and i expect to take the pot right there nearly all the time. Takes the utg player like 5 seconds to announce call and i'm just praying to see a/k and am pretty shocked when he turns over q/j off, whatever, queen on the flop and i'm gone.

Anyways, hopefully i can run good tomorrow in the horse and make another deep run, gl me, 1 time??

UFC

2009-05-25T14:44:00.001-07:00

Went to the ufc saturday night which was good fun, as usual there was plenty of alcohol involved and it was a definatly a good night. We were betting on the fights among ourselfs which saw me coming out around a $600 winner, weeee. Still gonna be painful to pay out pab on the berbatov bet though when it becomes official after the champions league final on wednesday.

Pokerwise, not a lot been happening, been grinding 400nl 6 max most of the month and been winning at a descent rate but nothing too exciting. Centrebet have been having quite a few great promotions this month so have been trying to put in a lot of volume there to clear my bonuses and that. Been playing a few tournaments here and there as well and managed to luckbox a win in the stars 109 double chance last week for 9k.

WSOP starts this week as well so starting to get excited for that and will blog about all the events i play there too.

You got knocked the fuck out

2009-05-07T11:08:00.000-07:00

Got to vegas on thursday, but didn't get up to a lot until saturday night when me, pab and moorman went to see the Hatton fight. Atmosphere was electric and it was definatly a very enjoyable night. There were some pretty good fights on the undercard as well but it was obviously a little dissapointing to see ricky get smashed up so convincingly. But all credit to pacman, an absolutly amazing fighter and hope we can all get to see pacman vs mayweather in the near future which should be epic.

After the fight we all went to the nearest bar and started to get on it. Was a pretty messy night, with plenty of shots etc and needless to say come sunday morning nobody was feeling that healthy.

Managed to feel a little better around 6pm and decided to jump in a few of the late sunday tournaments. Got a huge stack in the sunday night horse on ftp but things didn't work out for me in the money and i busted a dissapointing 7th. Found myself itm in both of the big double tournaments when moorman told me if i managed a double final table i'd get 20% of the big double jackpot, and if i luckboxed 2 wins then i'd get 75% which was worth around 20k.

In the 1st one i lost a chiplead race on the final table bubble which left me super short but fortunatly another guy busted on the other table so i scraped out a 9th place finish. This left me in a strange situation as a shortstack with 11 left in the 2nd. A double final table was worth 5k wheras to win the tournament outright was only paying 2800. So obviously the aim was to try to make the final at all costs. So i basically hadda fold in quite a few spots where i'd be shoving or calling off with my <10bb stack. I managed to make the final with 1bb lol and busted shortly after. Was kinda tilted though when i noticed another guy had managed to double final as well so we had to split the bonus each getting 2500ish.

As this was going on i had also been building a stack in the 109 6 max also on ftp. Seemed to be 1 of them tournaments were everything was going right. Got the chiplead around the money bubble and cruised to the final still holding the lead. Got hu pretty even in chips and it was a pretty swingy battle but i felt i was in control of it all the whole way. Eventually won when my a/9 beat his k/k when he was short for $7,500. So was a pretty good sunday considering i only played a handful of tournaments.

Plan for the rest of the month is to play a few turnaments when i feel like it and some 6 max cash the rest of the time. HU cash tables have been really slow lately and i've started playing some 6 max instead and so far have been enjoying it.

Whats been happening

2009-04-20T08:52:00.000-07:00

Basically the grind has not went as planned. Had a great start last month quickly showing 20k profit in the 1st week / 10 days but just spent the rest of the month giving it back. Ran really poorly though with holdem manager showing me running like 12k under ev for the month, but i definatly did let my bad run affect me and had a few tilt sessions coming up to the end of the month.

Still decided to go to dublin for the irish open with a few mates though which was good fun. Felt pretty good going into the tournament and had around a 18k stack going into the 1st level of antes and felt i had a descent feel for the table. 1st hand back after break i raised a/9 utg + 1 to 1050 @ 200/400 playing 7 handed. utg + 2 calls and we go hu and see a 9/5/3 flop. I cbet 1550 which he quickly min raises to 3100. At this point i was fairly confident he was bluffing from watching him play. Decided the best course of action was to just call and let him continue his bluff which he had been doing previously. Turn was a 10 and i check called his 4500 bet with the plan of calling all rivers. River 6 and i called his 6k bet only to be shown 6/6 for the rivered set. Bleh

Unfortunatly this left me with 3500 and i looked down at k/js utg next hand and quickly shipped it in. Got it through and won a flip with 6/6 in the bb next hand vs the sb's q/8s. Basically grinded the rest of the day never getting above 15k and finished the day on 12,300 with the average around 22k.

With blinds at 400/800 going into day 2 it was pretty obvous i would either double early or bust. Unfortunatly it was the latter when playing 11kish in the bb it folds around to the sb who limps. I'm shoving here normally pretty wide but can't belieeve my luck when i look down at a real hand in J/J and ship it in. The sb is a pro of some sorts whos been on tv and that b4 who tanks for litterally 5 mins whilst taking a moment or two here and there to give me a stare down b4 calling off 40% of his stack with a/6. Obv ace on the turn and gg me.

Been playing a few online donkaments recently as well prolly because of my lack of motivation for cash at the min. Managed a win in a Stars 109 for 10kish and a 2nd in the fulltilt 100r 6 max for 8500. Cashed for 10kish as well in the scoop $2500 hu busting 13th as well as an even chop in they're weekly sunday hu tournie for $13k last night.

Plan on getting back into the grind this week b4 we go to vegas next thursday for the ricky hatton fight, weeeeeeee. We'll be staying on in vegas after that with the wsop starting about 3 weeks after that, so should start blogging again more frequently when the wsop comes around.

Grind

2009-03-10T03:55:00.000-07:00

Been back from australia just over a week now and been back grinding. Want to try to make all my expenses and buyins for the wsop between now and may 01st when we fly out to vegas by grinding mainly 2/4 and 3/6. So far the resuts have been encouraging although i havn't been able to play on my usual ipoker skin because it keeps disconnecting me for some reason. Because of this i've been playing mainly on fulltilt the last few days.

Also, eventually got around to getting holdem manager installed and it seems like a fun toy although i don't really have a need for the hud for hu poker. So expect some graphs and that in the future.

Overdue Update

2009-02-19T18:28:00.000-08:00

Not been playing anywhere near my usual volume since i've got to sydney and thats prolly the reason for the lack of updates. Still been winning though when i have played but on a smaller scale. For starters its really hard to get action here because of the time difference, so if i sit down at 1pm to play its 2am UK time when there isn't an awful lot of traffic on my usual sites.

Because of this and the fact i'm surrounded by a group of guys playing donkaments have found myself playing a few of these now and then. Last few weeks, i've managed a 4th in the $109 double chance turbo, 4th in the ftops horse $500, 7th in the sunday 100r turbo and a 5th in the Stars wednesday $300. So feels pretty good to have grinded out a bit of a profit from mtts again although i feel it coulda been a lot more if i ran a little better on the finals.
Congrats to the other guys in the house too who have all been crushing, Pab's shipped his 1st tripple crown since we been here, moorman has retook his no.1 ranking on P5'S and shipped his biggest score to date winning the Sunday 100r for 88k, mbn, and JP has shipped the UB $1K.

Weather in sydney has been absolutly horrible last week, with constant rain all week, although its picked up again the last few days and the 1st week we were here it was absolutly scorching. Have been and done a few things around sydney including the bridge climb and going to a 1 day cricket match which just seemed like an excuse for a day out drinking in the sun. Been plenty of drinking going on as well with a few memorable nights and quite a few horrible hangovers.

Should start updating more regularly again now as i expect to be going home in the next few weeks to get my grind on b4 vegas.

O yeah, we're going to vegas 3 weeks early too cause we've managed to get ricky hatton tickets, weeeee :)

Aussie Millions

2009-01-20T03:06:00.000-08:00

Siigh

Don't think in all the live tournaments i've played i have ever seen a weaker starting table, everybody was just really bad and limping along having a great time everyhand.

Got up to 25k pretty early when random australian limps utg + 1 i make it 725 from mid with a/k and he flats. Flop comes a/kh/4h and he check calls 1100, turn is an offsuit 5 and he check raises my 2200 to 5k, i flat and the rivers a uglyish queen of hearts, he bets 5k again and i just call, he proudly tables his a/10off like its the nuts.

Float between 30k - 40k for the next level when i raise a/kss utg to 850 at 150/300, get 3 callers b4 the bb ships his stack in for 9k, i ship in my 30k and the other 3 guys get out of the way and we're off to the races vs q/q. Flop comes a promising 10 high with two of my suit but i obv have too many outs and the inevitable running bricks come. To make matters worse as i'm counting out the chips to pay the guy he says "thanks for that m8" classy.

2 Hands later and down to 25k its folded to me in the sb and i take a peek at 8/8, with an absolute monkey in the bb i raise it up to 900, he pretty swiftly makes it 3k, have a quick look at his stack which looks around 14k total and ship it in, he insta calls and i think i'm in trouble till he flips a/qoff, he just flops an ace and when its counted out he actally had 17.5k. Shortstacked after that and pick up zero hands and get zero resteal opportunities and eventally shove 11bbs utg +1 with j/10 and get called by a/10 and fail to improve. Another fun live tournament.

Thank god i'm gonna be in australia for a while so i'm not tempted to play anymore stupid live donkaments.

WHats been happening

2009-01-11T06:30:00.000-08:00

Obviously i still have to finish my prague trip report, which i should get around to in the next few days. Had a pretty eventful christmas with plenty of drinking with friends etc.

December turned out to be a pretty good month at the cash tables even though i played relatively low volume with a week in prague and 10 days off for christmas i still managed to profit around £35k.

Left for the PCA in the bahamas on the 4th of January, played day 1a where i finished the day with 40,800 which was slightly below average. In between day 1a and day 2 i played "The world cup of poker" a pokerstars event with 9 teams from accross the world playing off to decide the "world champions". Think we probably had the strongest team in it and we were all a little dissapointed to bust 5th. Think i made a few marginal decisions when i played and was definatly quite nervous as i'd never played on a TV table before. But it was a pretty good experience anyways.

Day 2 of the pca just really sums up my year at live events. Grinded all day with a shortstack picking my spots really well to keep my stack above the danger zone, then with 202 left and 199 paid raise 10/10 utg when i havn't played a hand in forever, the bb who i had been chatting with a bit sets me in for around 25bbs. Meh its the bubble and he was a descent player with a bigish stack so he definatly doesn't need a huge hand to be doing this so i call and lose to a/j when he binks an ace on the river. Standard.

Flying back to london today, where i'm gonna crash with moorman for a few days before we both fly to australia on thursday for the aussie millions and then onto sydney after that to meet up with pab and a few other friends for a month or so, Should be fun.

EPT Prague

2008-12-22T11:10:00.000-08:00

Got to my starting table and recognised nobody. Didn't play a hand for the 1st orbit but 1 guy had been playing every pot and splahing around quite a bit. Raised a/j from the cutoff to 150 and splasher reraised it to 450, i called. Flop came a/3/4 and he fired 700, i called, turn 2, check check, river repeated the 3 and he fired out a pretty big bet of 2400, couldn't really put him on a hand and it looked like he was just trying to buy the pot with a big bet so i called and he mucked k/q.

Few hands later the cutoff makes it 200 and i call on the button with k/q. Flop comes down k/x/x with 2 diamonds, he checks, i bet 300 and he check raises to 1100, i think a few seconds before making the call. turn is the 8 of diamonds, and he checks and i check behind, rivers a blank and he dwells before checking, i fire out 1600 and he calls and mucks.

Few hands later he raises again to 200 from utg, i call utg+1 with q/q and unfortunatly we go to the flop 6 way when splasher and his mates call as well. Flop comes down k/q/j and its checked around. Turn repeats the jack, and the sb leads for 350, bb folds and utg calls, i make it 1350 and its folded back to the sb who insta calls, and utg also calls after a think. Rivers a blank, and i bet 3400 and again sb snaps and utg folds. He tables a/10 and i'm off to a pretty good start. Maybe coulda got his stack if i bet the flop but don't think i played it that bad.

Table broke shortly after and not a lot happened for the next few levels. Stack fluctuated between 30 and 20k. Shortly after get moved to moormans table and just know theres gonna be fireworks. 1st few hands in i raise a/10 off from mid position to 850 at 150/300. Moorfish obv flicks it in on the button and we go hu to the flop. Comes down q/10/7 and i fire 1400ish and he calls. Turns a deuce or something and i check and he checks behind. River repeats the 7 and i "value bet" 2500ish, he slowrolls me for a minute before calling with q/9cc, wtf, your the best.

So with moorman to my left and blinds up to 200/400 i decide to sit tight for a bit with my 17k stack. Then the perfect situation comes up a few hands later, moorman raises utg to 1200, and its folded to me on the button, i look down at k/k on the button and just know hes never giving me credit for a hand and repop it to 3600. Obv he tanks for a few mins before setting me in. I call and am actually a little dissapointed to see he has an overcard with the a/5dd. Flop comes down 8/7/5 with 2 diamonds and i'm just about to go back up to the room and set fire to moormans clothes but miraculously it bricks out bring me back up to around 36k.

Don't play particularly well for the rest of the day and tried to much to steal blinds when i shouldn't with so many short stacks and wittle down to 25k again where i finsih the day.

F Live Poker!!!!

2008-12-15T22:09:00.001-08:00

Another EPT bubble , this is getting frustrating, must be 3 or 4 now with zero cashs lol, anyways, more detailed trip report to follow in next few days

Last minute trip to Prague

2008-12-08T07:12:00.001-08:00

Currently sitting in Gatwick airport waiting for a flight. Had decided to skip the ept prague but late friday night moorman convinced me to come along.

Pretty good week in cash banking a £10k winning week even after a pretty bad/tilty day on friday. Just been playing for a half hour on stars while waiting to check in and won $2500 so should cover my expenses for the trip. Ship

Playing day 1b on wednesday so wish me luck!

GUKPT ( Pretty long)

2008-12-03T16:10:00.000-08:00

Arrived in London on Tuesday expecting to play the £500 side event. Unfortunatly the event was sold out by the time we got there and with a 50 player strong alternate list me pab and the troid decided to have a few beers and watch the football instead. Obv we ended up drinking double JD's until 6am, and playing in a crazy self dealt £1 / 1 game where buyins were flying all over the place. Good fun.

Moorman, Gregior, Johne147 and Clarkatroid all played day 1a on Thursday and obv Moorman finished the day as chip leader.

Me and Pab played Friday and i don't think i got above my starting stack the whole day. Flucuated between 10k - 15k for the 1st 4 levels before going for dinner. Raised 7/8cc from mid position 1st hand back after dinner and bet folded a k/8/3 rainbow flop against the tightest women in the world who check raised. Was struggling after that and basically played push fold poker for the next 3 levels. Got my stack from 6k back up to around 14k when loose middle aged guy opens to 2400 @ 400/800 from the hijack, i ship my stack in from the button with a/qdd and he snaps me with 5/5. GG me. Pab finished the day with a huge stack just behind moorman.

Saturday, decided to go play some live cash and rail a bit of day 2. Played £5/10 for like 6 hours and finished + £50, basically made no hands the entire time and had no interesting situations. Meanwhile moorman maintained his impressive run of 9 consecutive day 2's with no cashs losing a 220k flip at 1.5/3k. Pab however managed to build a nice stack and maintain it all the way to the final table going in 5 of 9 i believe.

Unfortunatly on Sunday i was travelling home and was unable to rail Pab at the final table that was paying £180k ftw. Got home pretty tired from the early start and decided to try a few of the sunday donkaments. Started at 7pm and promptly unregistered from everything shortly after 8 cause i had no patience and was playing like a mug basically. Decided catching up on the weeks TV was a better option.

Obv after an epic to and fro hu battle Pab managed to ship the GUKPT final as well. Sick result and well deserved. The £140k not to shabby either. Think they agreed to flatten the payouts a little 4 handed.

Been back playing cash since. Booked a small win on monday and have been battling a bad reg yesterday and today. Was up £5k on him yesterday when he quit me but unfortunatly i donated £2,000 of it back just when i was about to call it a night and a couple of weak players sat at my tables.
Today the same guy i killed yesterday came back and sat on 4 of my tables. He plays pretty aggro but spewy imo and i managed to win another £3,500 from him. Played a pretty long session of about 5 hours straight and was 6 tabling for most of it. Managed to come out +£5,000 when all was said and done which i'm obv happy about.

Update

2008-11-20T15:20:00.000-08:00

Cash still going pretty well. Heaters definatly over now and its been quite a bit of grinding, which isn't as much fun :(

Last week involved quite a few days of breaking even and think i finished the week a few k in profit.

Played donkaments on sunday with the usual heartbreak. Final tabled the weekly mixed holdem tournament on stars where a win would seen me breaking even for the day but busted 6th 4 betting all in on the turn with just a flushdraw against the bb's turned 2 pair.
Finished 10th in the ipoker Irish Open feeder which paid 4 seats and cash prizes to 7th. Shoved 10bbs from the cutoff with 6/6 and the bb called me with a/k, a rivered king putting the end to that tournament.
Had a few other cashs along the way including a run in the early ftops and the million and ub 200k, had stacks in all of them at one point or another but nothing matterialised busting them all for a small cash.
Just to top of the night i bubbled the 200r on stars finished 47th with 45 paying where i had a top 10 stack from the 2nd break. F Donkaments

This week has been a lot better though at the hu cash tables with me showing a £11.5k profit since monday, a lot of which came this evening on william hill. My opponent got pretty badly tilted early on in the match then joined another table and continued to spew for the next hour resulting in a £4,500 win for me.

Heading off to London on Tuesday to meet up with Pab, Moorman and Clarkatroid. We're all gonna play the GUKPT Main event and prolly the £500 side event on the tuesday night. Wish us luck, about time 1 of us did something at one of these.

Ship da monies

2008-11-06T14:09:00.000-08:00

Best week by far at cash,

tuesday after i posted had a really good day on ipoker mostly at 3/6 and 2/4 with some 5/10 clearing just over 12k for the day.

Wednesday was a fun day, had a pretty swingy day on ipoker and was down most of the day b4 a late rally finishing up around $800. Just when i was about to finish up a poor player sat at both my 2/5 tables on cyrpto. I was beating him pretty bad and he asked if i wanted to play 5/10 instead, i agreed. Soon into the game he asked if i would play 4 tables instead of 2, again i obliged. A few hours later he quit me with me around £5,500 in profit.

Today i opened up a new ipoker account on a different skin where they've offered me a better deal. My account there is now in pounds so i deposited £5k to get me started and after a swingy 6 hour session was showing a £3,000 profit. Cyrpto i also had another good day. The guy from the night before sat at 1 of my £2/5 tables and dropped a few buyins. Played another opponent who was pretty good and won a 600bb pot where i'm not sure i played the hand well. Getting it in for that much isn't great but obv when i 4 bet the flop i'm committed. I obv get there anyways seeing how nobody runs better. http://www.pokerhand.org/?3414464
So finished the day + £4,000 on cyrpto.

In other news, going to see Kanye West in Belfast saturday so will prolly play some tomorrow and none over the weekend as i expect to be pretty hungover sunday. Big fight saturday night (Calzaghe vs Jones Jr.) as well, so expect to have a house full of drunkards come fight time early sunday morning.

Rough Weekend

2008-11-04T10:42:00.000-08:00

Not at the tables though. Friday i was at a wedding which was good crack and everybody ended up really drunk. Obviously we were all straight up the road again saturday morning and in the pub promptly for 11am. Full day drinking Jack and coke and i was home in the bed at 10pm. Managed to pay for the whole weekend though with a few lucky football bets including late Everton and Spurs winners.

Sunday was a complete write off and never even thought about playing any of the sunday majors. Monday i got up feeling not much better than sunday but decided to load up a few hu tables around 4 o'clock. Mind wasn't on it though and wasn't playing anywhere near my best. Stopped playing a few hours later after losing a few hundred.

Started feeling a little better around midnight and played a regular hu at 5/10 on crypto for a few hours. Won a 400bb 3bet pot when i called his crai on the turn with top pair and a gutshot vs his bottom pair and he tilted really badly after and i ended up taking around 7.5k off him b4 calling it a night.

Still running goot

2008-10-30T16:04:00.000-07:00

Basically what it says on the title. + 13k today, 8k of which came on the hu tables on crypto where i recently deposited. Not an awful lot of traffic here but have been sitting at a few of they're $2/5 hu tables recently waiting on action whilst playing my regular ipoker games. Standard seems pretty poor in all and will definatly keep playing here and try to spin up a roll on this site as well and hopefully move up limits if i continue beeting the games.

Descent Sunday + running good at cash

2008-10-29T16:35:00.000-07:00

Played all the usual Sunday donkaments. Went deep in quite a few. Finished a dissapointing 15th in the 100r on stars for 3kish when i was a bigstack from start to finish. 3 Bet folded my stack away in this and busted shipping in 15bbs after a raise and not getting there vs 3/3.
Bubbled the 50r in a pot for the chip lead getting k/k in vs a/q on a queen high board but busting when the river brought another queen.
Went deep in the million but busted around the 200 mark losing a standard flip.
Deep in the mulligan as well but donked off my stack in that and can't even remember how i busted around 30th.
Pulled out a win though in the ipoker 109 double stack for 8100. Got a stack around the bubble and just added to it steadily until the final table. Think i busted almost every person on the final table and had like 60% of the chips in play 4 handed.

So with my ipoker account at a new high, mixed in some 5/10 hu cash on monday with my regular 3/6 + 2/4 tables. Ran really well and managed to bank a + $10k day. Biggest winning day to date.
Tuesday was more of a slog playing the same. Quickly got stuck around 3/4k but put in a really long session to end the day + $2k around 8 hours later.
Today continued my running good and was quickly up around 7k. However played really sloppy towards the end of the session basically giving money away to finish the day +4k.

So far the standard at 5/10 is significantly higher than my regular 3/6 + 2/4 games. Only had 1 player sit with me who was noticeably bad compared to 2/4 where prolly half the players that sit arn't good. So will continue mixing in some 5/10 with the regular games and although its imposiible to continue at my current winrate, hopefully i can continue to beat the game.

whats been happening

2008-10-24T10:58:00.001-07:00

Since my last post, have hardly played any poker. Flew to london for ept london. Got there a few days b4 it kicked off and got to watch another moorman blowup in the wsope. Joking, but according to Mike "the mouth" Mattasow he coulda got away from his k/k vs Johnny Loddon on the bubble of a huge tournament.

EPT London started off pretty well and i was chipping up pretty nicely, got moved to Gus Hansen and cicky corens table and continued to add to my stack. On my 3rd table of the day though things went downhill, raised 9/7hh from mid position to 800 at 150/300 and the button flat called as did the bb. Flop came down a/k/9 and i shoulda jst check folded but fired around 1700 into a 3kish pot, button flat called and bb passed. Turn was a blank and i'm done with the hnad, but it goes check check. River brings a 7 giving me a shitty 2 pair. So he has around 7500 left with like 6400 in the pot. I tank for a little and set him in. Think i def get a call from worse but he quickly snapped me off with a slowplayed a/a. Was kinda short after that and busted shortly after getting it in with a flushdraw and missing. So that was that.

Me Pab and moorman decided a few days later that we could do with a break from online poker and decided to go to cyprus for a few weeks. Was a good break with plenty of alcohol fueled nights and good weather to boot. Me and Pab also had a 5k bet on Berbatov to score + 20 goals this season for utd in all competitions and think i have a pretty good edge here after he banged in 2 in the champions league the other night. Go Berba 1 time!!!

Got back home wednesday and just lay about but have had 2 pretty good days since winning
around 10 buyins on the hu cash tables.

WCOOP Update etc etc

2008-09-29T14:24:00.000-07:00

WCOOP went dissapointingly to be honest, few deep runs and few cashs but prolly lost money in it. Don't think i'll play the mixed games to be honest next time around cause i'm mostly a huge fish in these and didn't muster a single cash in any non holdem events. Ended up missing the 5k main event when a group of us headed up to starbane saturday night for a MMA cage fighting night. Was pretty good with a few good fights. However since we were drinking vodka from 6pm, things quickly got messy. Most of the night is a blur after we got back into omagh, but sunday i was in no fit state to play, coupled with the fact tyrone was playing in the all ireland final i decided to skip it. Tir Eoghain Abu!!!

Cash last week was pretty meh. Monday went really well making 15 buyins promptly followed by losing back 10 the next day. Wednesday saw a small profit, and thursday / friday i don't think i coulda run any worse, resulting in my laptop getting smashed up friday afternoon.

Took saturday off and played donkaments sunday. Had to borrow my fathers laptop which isn't the greatest. Resulted in me playing solely on pokerstars as fulltilt kept freezing the laptop. Ran shitty in all the major tournaments, getting in 100bbs preflop vs an absolute idiot with a/k vs a/j in the $500. Also bubbled the early 100r for like the 5th sunday in a row.

As i was only playing stars, ended up playing a lot of the smaller tournaments i wouldn't play because of extra monitor space. Built a huge stack in the 20 1r/a but busted 18th 4 betting a/jdd into another aggressive big stack who called with 7/7. Finished 4th in the $88 4 max tournie losing 10/10 vs a/k for around 70% of the chips in play. Busted 18th in the $50 1r/a shipping 19bbs after a constant cutoff raiser with 5/5 from the button but running into the bbs k/k.

Was in and around the chiplead for most of the 50r. Got to moormans table and he was tilt shoving 50bbs every hand. Got my 40bbs in against his 8/4off with a/ks and managed to hold. Continued to build after that and had a 300k stack approaching the final 2 tables. Bluffed off half my stack with about 13 remaining but managed to double back up when my a/3 got the most rediculous hold ever vs k/qs.

Ended up with 1.2mill 3 handed against 2 good players. Raised 10/10 on the button to 75k at 15/30k and the bb playing 1.5mill repopped it to 300k. I got it in and he quickly called with k/q. Flop came down 10/9/2 and things were looking good till he caught a jack on the river. 12K for 3rd though giving me a winning sunday which is always nice.

Also covers my ept london buyin, flying to london tomorrow morning and meeting up with a pab, moorman, stevie444 etc, so hopefully 1 of us can run good and ship a major live tournie.

1 Time!

Few deep runs

2008-09-16T06:35:00.000-07:00

Tried playing a full schedule of donkaments 1st day of wcoop but after a couple of hours of the usual bs / bad beats quickly unregistered from everything else. Since then have only played the wcoop events with a few hu cash tables in the backgound.

WCOOP started off shockingly and didn't record my 1st cash until the $300 hu event, won 1st 3 or 4 rounds pretty convincingly and thought i had a legitimate shot at a deep run. Wasn't to be though, as i lost my next match itm against a poor opponent in super quick time. Lost a lot of my cchips early when my bottom 2 pair got counterfeited and then lost k/k vs 5/5 to get back in the match.

The night after grinded the $500 6 max Pot Limit Holdem for a few hours and slowly built a stack approaching the bubble. Got really lucky itm when a good player raised the cuttoff, i 3 bet the button with q/q, we were really deep, and he 4 bet, got it in and he quickly called with a/a but i binked a queen on the flop to become one of the chipleaders.

Things were comfortable until we got down to about 50 players when i got moved to a tough table and bluffed off a lot of chips. Tightened up considerably and mostly jammed a lot over the loose players opens for the next few hours and started rebuilding my stack. Thought i had the perfect spot to add a lot of chips to my stack, when loose player opens the button and even looser player repops it from sb, i pot it from the bb for about 80% of my stack with a/q but the sb had q/q and i couldn't catch an ace to bust a dissapointing 25th.

Had a few deep runs sunday as well finishing 55th in the ipoker 250k and 35th in the fulltilt 750k , couldn't get anything going deep in either tournie and was really card dead in both. Final tabled the 50 1 rebuy/addon on fulltilt as well but busted 8th losing a chiplead race vs jcamby/pokerpro who obv went on to pick up the win for 10k.

Cash still going pretty well showing around an 8k profit last week.

WCOOP

2008-09-05T10:14:00.000-07:00

With the wcoop starting on stars in a few hours will probably go back to playing tournies for a few weeks. With huge prize pools on offer every day and bigger prize pools in the regular tournaments there hopefully sould be a few opportunities for some big scores. As well as this have teamed up with moorman and titantom32 in the wcoop team contest on pocketfives which means i'll be donating in the stud and omaha events as well.

Cash has been pretty meh this week as well, booking a 2k win on monday followed by a 3.5k loss on tuesday where i was just on super monkey tilt from the off and shoulda quit early on. Wednesday i never played any poker and thursday made 2.5k, so a small profit so far.

2nd week of cash and sunday what coulda beens

2008-09-01T09:00:00.000-07:00

Had a kinda weird week playing cash, ran really well on monday to have my biggest winning day to date of + 7k, rest of the week i ran pretty bad and didn't play my best either and tilted way too easy.

Monday + $7k
Tuesday + $700
Wednesday - $2k
Thursday + $2k
Friday - $3k

So ended the week around +4.5k which u can't be too dissapointed about.

Saturday i decided to play a few donkaments after having a pretty shitty day playing cash on friday. Nothing was working out for me here but i ended up with a stack in the mansion $1k 6 max with a few hours left in day 1. Obviously a few of my friends randomly land round to my house with a few bottles of vodka with 1 hour remaining in this and we all start drinking. Finish up on mansion with 85k and 1 of the larger stacks in the tournament.

Wake up Sunday morning with the standard brutal hangover. Don't think i woulda played at all if i didn't have day 2 of mansion to play. Register for a few of the early tournaments but stop registering all together at 7pm as i'm just feeling too ill to play.

Mansion starts of poorly losing half my stack early b4 grinding my way up to 350k without many major confrontations. As is the way with these type of tournies, the structure was excellent all the way through until the latter stages when it became a bit crapshooty. Lost a critical race with around 30 left when my k/q < 4/4 to leave me short with around 15bbs and shoved the button a few orbits later with k/10 and couldn't get there vs a/9 finishing 25th for 5k with 186k for the win.

While all this was happening i had been quietly building a warmup stack. From the money onwards i was always in and around the chiplead. But with around 30 left i kinda messed up my stack by raise folding away around half of it. Tightened up a little and managed to outrace 9/9 with a/q to double with 16 left. Was playing around 15bbs with 12 left when the button raised and i shipped it in with a/10, he snapped with a/q and i was in trouble. Flop came q high and i was drawing basically dead. Turn however came the Ks giving me a flush draw and a gutter and i managed to bink a jack on the river for a lucky double. Won another few pots and went to the final table around 4th in chips with 5million.

Final table started off poorly when i raised k/jcc from mid position with only 1 short stack behind me i would have to call. Obviously he shoves and i didn't get there vs his q/q. Didn't get any other situations or hands and blinded all the way down to around 10bbs when i shoved with 10/10 and the bb called with a/k. Couldn't win this 1 when he hit running hearts to 4 flush me and bust 7th for 21k. As with the nature of tournaments your always gonna feel dissapointed when you don't win and this is no different especially with $135k ftw but 21k is still a pretty good payday and a winning sunday thats hard to come by.

1st week playing cash

2008-08-25T16:57:00.000-07:00

Played 100% cash monday through friday with pretty good results considering the stakes i was playing. Played 90% 2/4nl with a little 3/6 all heads up banking a +17.5k week. Standards pretty soft so far and plan on playing mostly 3/6 this week and see if it gets any tougher.

Friday night had a few friends around and we got pissed up and played the wii. How fun is this console, only got it during the week and its like the greatest thing ever.

Saturday was a complete right off due to my raging hangover and on sunday decided to play most of the sunday majors. Was a typical sunday with a few deep runs including a 40th place finish in the party 300k and a deepish run in the million finishing around the 300 mark but as with most sundays it ultimatly finished in a losing day.

Update Time

2008-08-14T19:38:00.000-07:00

Been back from vegas 3 weeks now and not an awful lot has happened to be honest.

Online wise, i've not been putting in much volume in mtts and when i have the results havn't been great. Went pretty deep in quite a few tournaments and had a few final tables here and there but nothing to get overly excited about.

Starting to put in some volume again on the hu cash tables and recently opened up a new ipoker account. Deposited a few k and been trying to grind it up playing mostly 2/4 hu on bluesquare. So far results have been pretty good and the standard seems to be pretty poor with a few exceptions. So the plan at the minute is to try to grind my roll up there and move up in limits.

Not long back from Luton where i flew over to meet up with Moorman, Pab and Dave to play the GKUPT event. Tournament started off really well taking my 10k starting stack up to a peak of 30k in the 1st few levels of play. Then played a pretty huge pot at the time in level 4 or 5 when i flatted a raise pre with 5/5 and got 2/3rds of my stack in on a board reading j/j/5/3 only for the river to repeat the jack and lose to 9's. Grinded a few more levels and busted last level of the day shoving my 10bbs from the button with 5/7cc and running into the bb's 8's. Seeing how we were there for the whole weekend and i busted thursday night, just got pissed up for the next few days. Unlucky Moorman who went deep busting 16th place playing a million chip pot when the chiplead was 550k, hero call didn't work out for him this time.

Back home

2008-07-23T03:18:00.000-07:00

K, by the lack of updates its probably obvious that the wsop didn't go all that well. I cashed in the 3k nl playing pretty well for 2 days but never having chips. Lost a/7 vs 6/7 on the bubble and busted shortly after we got into the money shoving 11bbs with 10/j into a/k.

Was in for the minimum in the 1k rebuy (buy in, rebuy at start and double add-on). Basically thought i was free-rolling after i found out dave and pab were in for 10k a piece. Never had a huge stack in the tournament but was always comfortable and got my money in blind on blind in the last level of day 1 with a/a vs a/10hh to bust when he just flopped a flush.

In the 5k 6 max had a really tough opening table with a really good crazy aggro high stakes swede. Won a big pot early and busted Daniel Alea when i flopped a set, lost a few pots then got my entire stack in pre with aces vs queens in level 3, bink the queen on the river to bust.

Played a few of the $1500 crapshoots and can't really remember much about them. Remember i busted 1 of them in level 2, when i raised my 30bb stack 3 x from the cutoff with a/j, cutoff flat called, and the button who was tilting after losing the last pot just shipped in 25bbs. Would normally fold here but just thought his range was so wide and u gotta take chances in these things to go deep, so called and lost to his 10/3off when he just flopped a 10 and held.

Main event - started off like a horror show when i found myself down to 10k from 20k in level 1. Played a really important pot in level 2, where i raised a/9 on the button and the bb defended. Flop came a/q/j and we both checked, turn was a blank but bringing a 3 flush, and he check raised my bet which i called, river bricked and he led into me for 5,5k of my remaining 8k, being the station i am i looked him up and he mucked bring me back upto starting stack again.
Was playing 25k in level 3, 150/300 when everything went wrong. Folds round to guy in mid position playing 14k who raises to 950, i look down at a/a, oh oh, aand repop him to 2925, he ships in his 14k when everybody else folds and i make the obvious call. a/a vs a/k no problems, king on flop and another on turn, down to 11k.
3 Hands later, same guy makes exact same raise utg to 950, i look down at k/k and elect to flat call. Everybody else passes. We see a flop of 6/4/4, he bets full pot, around 2500, i fully expect him to call me with any overpair and ship in my remaining 10k, he says "guess i have to call" and flips over his aces, standard, gg me.

Last 3 weeks comprised of lots of drinking and general messy hangovers. Including a night where we all decided to go to the Orleans and get stupidly drunk and play 1/2nl cash. Me and pab flipped to see who would have position on who and i lost. Managed to go through around 15 buy ins that night and lose somewhere between 3-4k. Obv we all went to the rhyno at like 8am when we were done and not fit to stand.

Online been going ok, but not great, won the 50 1 r/a on fulltilt twice in the last week, including 1 on sunday for just under 10k. Kinda drained after 2 months in vegas of non stop tournament poker so will probably take a week or so off away from donkaments.

Event 21 $5000 NL

2008-06-11T19:33:00.000-07:00

With a $5k buyin and a 200bb starting stack i was really looking forward to this event. My 1st table seemed pretty tough with Huck Seed and Intervention to my left and everybody else seeming to know what they were doing.

For litterally the 1st 4 levels i played zero interesting pots and my 10k starting stack dwindled away from calling raises in multi ways pots with small pockets hoping to flop a set which never happened. Intervention busted getting his money in with a flopped straight vs 2 pair vs a flushdraw and was promptly replaced by Bond18. The 1 weak spot at the taable was replaced by men the master and my table seemed to be getting even tougher.

Luckily shortly before the 2nd break my table broke and my new table seemed a little softer. So i come back from 2nd break with 6500 and the blinds going up to 150/300 leaving me without a lot of room to maneouver.

Luckily 2nd or 3rd hand back belowabove jams his 2.5k utg and i reship my 6k with a/k off which holds vs k/10, bringing me up to 9k. I then pick up jacks on the button a few hands later and the sb ships in 6k after my 850 open and i manage to hold vs a/qss giving me 16k and a playable stack.

I then raise a/9hh from middle position to 850 and get 1 caller and the bb comes along as well. The bb seemed to be a firly good online player whose name i never caught, but he'd been involved a lot so far with a few 3 bets etc. Board comes q/q/2 and i bet 1450 after its checked to me, guy behind folds and after a brief tank the bb repops me to 4150, i tank for a little while and decide hes full of shit and jam my 15k. He passes fairly quickly.

So i now have a 22k stack and raise j/10ss utg + 1 and everybody folds. Next hand i pick up q/q utg and make it my standard 850 utg playing a 23k stack. 30K stack flats from mid position and the sb jams his 4500 in. I dwell for a minute before anouncing i'm also all in. Flat caller behind basically beats me into the pot and i'm fearing the worst until he flips over J/J, sb tables k/qoff. 1 time dealer!!!!! The flop comes a/k/4, ah well theres still a 40k side pot to worry about. Jack on the turn though and i brick the river and lose a 50k pot at 150/300.

Yeah w/e, f live poker imo.

Event 13 $2,500 NL

2008-06-11T18:49:00.000-07:00

Started off pretty well. Get dealt a/a early and make it 150 @ 25/50 and get a caller on the button and the bb calls as well. Flop comes 6/4/2 rainbow and i bet 300 when its checked to me and the bb calls and surprisingly the bb calls as well. The button had been pretty active so far and seemed to want to outplay everybody post flop.

Turn is a jack, the bb checks again and i decide to check as well to see what the bb is going to do when the button bets. Button bets 1100 and the bb folds, i decide to flat as i don't want to push out all the hands i'm beating and give him a chance to bluff the river. River comes an offsuit 10 and i check again, he asks how many chips have left. After i tell him around 2500 he bets 1350, i snap him off and he just mucks meaning i don't even have to show my hand.

Table gets broken shortly after this and i'm moved to a new and much tougher table including 2 guys who have a 2nd place finish to their names already this series and TheWacoKid and a bunch of other yong internet pros.

A few hands in i raise a/kdd from the hijack to 150 @ 25/20 and the 1 weakspot at the table repops me to 450 from the cutoff. I decide to just flat call and we see a flop of a/9/4. I check, he bets 700 and quickly re-raise to 1900, he can't get the rest of his 5k chips in quick enough and i make the call. He has a/10 ad i manage to fade a 10 for a healthy 14k stack in the 1st level.

I lose a few pots from c betting and getting 3 bet when the next interesting hand comes up at 100/200. Thomas Kremser (EPT Tournament Director) raises to 600, and a name pro whose name i can't remember flats, solid English women flats on the button and i call with 7/7 in the bb.

Flop comes 9/7/6 2 clubs and after a brief dwell i decide to lead out for 1700. Mr Kremser tanks for a bit and repops me to 4100, the other 2 people in the pot both time bank for several minutes before passing. I pretty quickly shove and he pretty quickly calls off his remaining 6k with a/a and i'm shipped a big pot.

Table breaks again and my new table seems pretty solid with 1 or 2 exceptions who bust pretty quickly. I don't get much going in the next few levels with every raise getting 3 bet and all my 3 bets getting cold 4 bet and find myself with an 18k stack at the dinner break.

The table LAG raises utg to 2000 @ 300/600 and i pick up a/q utg + 1. He'd shown down 7/5off after an utg raise a few orbits before so i'm definatly pretty far ahead of his raising range here. But i don't think with a 30bb stack i can afford to 3 bet here with 8 players behind me so i elect to flat call. The button flat calls as well and both blinds pass. So theres 7500ish in the pot and we see a q/5/2 rainbow board. UTG leads for 4500 and with a 16k stack i just ship it in. Button folds and when utg snaps i know i'm prolly in bad shape. He tables 5/5 for a flopped set and even though i manage to hit another queen on the turn i can't catch a miracle runner runner and am eliminated.

Event 9 $1,500 NL 6 Max

2008-06-05T15:18:00.000-07:00

With 3000 starting chips (60bbs) its a really shallow tournament so i went there with the intentions of building a stack early or busting.

We're playing 5 handed as a guy hasn't arrived yet and i raise j/10ss utg 1st hand to 150. Button calls and the bb defends. We see a 9 high flop with 2 spades and i lead about half pot after the bb checks, both fold.

I then fold my small blind and bb to raises and on hand 4 its folded to the cutoff who raises to 150 i re-pop him to 475 on the button with a/k. He then 4 bets to 1400 and i shove. He tank calls with q/q, lol, 1st card on the flop is an ace swiftly followed by a queen and a 10. I miss my gutshot and am elimiated in the 1st 5 mins of play.

Event 7 $2k NL

2008-06-05T13:42:00.000-07:00

Table draw was kinda exactly what i expected with a mix of young and old players. Tournament started with 4000 chips (80bbs) and a 60 minute clock.

Won a few small pots in the 1st level and had arounds 4800 chips when the following hand came up. UTG raises to 300 and gets 2 callers when i look down at aces in the small blind. I repop it to 1200 and utg flat calls, utg + 1 passes and an older weak player flats on the button.

Flop comes down q/10/6 with 2 hearts. Its not the greatest flop in the world but with over 4000 chips in the pot and aroound a pot size bet left i decide to shove. UTG can't get his money in quick enough and the old guy on the button turbo snap calls as well so i know i'm in trouble. UTG flips up J/8hh for a gutter and a flush draw and the button flips q/q for top set. However i manage to bink an ace on the turn and hold for a monster pot early sending me up to around 15,000.

Not a lot happens for the rest of the level and i lose a few small pots from whiffing flops and getting 3 bet and go into level 3 with around 14,000 when the following hand occurs. Joe seebok raises utg at 100/200 to 600, i flat call utg + 1 with a/k and a shortstack shoves from the button for 2800, Mr Seebok folds and i call. Unfortunatly the shortstack flips a/a and has me well and truly crushed. I obviously manage to flop a king though and then turn a flushdraw and bink another king on the river. Running pretty hot so far. n

Doesn't last for long though when guy raises from the hijack and i flat on the button with 8/6dd and the bb defends. Flop comes down 10/8/8 2 spades and the bb open shoves for 3.5k into a 2k pot, original raiser gets out of the way and i make the call. He has k/9ss and gets there on the river to take a little chunk out of my stack.

Go card dead for ages with all my c bets getting picked off and find myself back down to 8k at 200/400/25. I reship a button raise with k/j off which gets through and call a shortie shove with 7/7 which holds vs q/2hh when i hit running quads after the queen flops and go to dinner break with 13.5k.

Come back from dinner at 300/600/50 and pick up k/qo on the hijack. I raise to 1675 and the button who was a bit off a spewtard flat calls and the blinds get out of the way. Flop comes down a/10/x, i consider checking because if i bet and get raised i now have a pretty shortstack and no room to maneouver, however the guy was bad enough to call a shortstack raise with a lot of suited connecter type hands and small to medium pairs. I decide to fire 2575 into the 4200 pot and he snap sets me in. Siiigh.

So i'm back down to 9k and get no playable hands and go through the blinds once. Eventually pick up a/joff after a loosish guy opens from mid position and give him the pile. Hes getting pretty good odds after he makes it 2k and i shove for 7.2 and makes the call with k/10. A king on the flop seals my fate and i bust around 300th from 1600 runners and 160 paid.

GL to Moorman and Dave (sexygee) who both made it to day 2 and are in the money at the minute.

Update From Vegas

2008-06-05T13:07:00.000-07:00

Arrived in vegas last Monday with moorman, Pab and Dave arriving the following morning. The house is really sick and without a doubt one of the nicest places i have ever stayed. Below are a few pictures i've stolen of pabs blog.

So last week all we basically done was drink, play pool / x box and play online. Had a pretty good week online with a 2nd place in a stars $100 freezeout and a 5th in the 100r when my jacks went down to 10's allin pre for the chiplead.

Sunday was another day filled with what coulda beens, final tabled the early 6 max tournie on fulltilt but played really bad and busted 4th. However got off to a really good start in the ipoker $1.5mill guaranteed $1k buyin. Was chipleader for most of the tournie and just built up a huge stack on the bubble with some of the tightest play ever to be seen from the shortstacks.

At the same time i was quietly grinding the stars million and cashed with a pretty short stack. Doubled a few times and ran pretty good and next thing i knew i found myself with a top 10 stack with 100 odd players left.

With ipoker paying a whopping $330k for the win and stars with $200k, things were looking promising for a good start to the trip. However a series of unfortunate events had me finishing 13th place in both tournaments within 30 seconds of each other. Eventually busted stars shoving 14bbs blind on blind with a/7off and running into a/k. And couldn't outrace the invincible k/q with my a/9 on ipoker. Siiigh, someday.

Decided against playing the $10k pot limit on friday as everybody else in the house was having difficulty getting hold of dollars, so the 1st event we all played was yesterdays $2k.

Quick Update

2008-05-27T10:47:00.000-07:00

Still playing more cash than donkaments at the minute. But played a pretty full schedule on sunday.

Managed to final table the party 300k again for the 2nd time in 3 weeks. Was chipleader on the final table bubble but lost a monster race when i got it in with 10's vs a/k and lost. Got to the final table pretty short and busted 7th when i jammed 7's utg and a similar stack called with a/q.

Went pretty deep in the stars $500 tournie. Then this hand came up with around 70 left. Heat raised 8 x from mid position and i jammed 21bbs from the sb with a/k, he snaps with a/joff and gg me, 170k pot.

Pretty sickening to bust this way, heat is some guy from dublin but i have no idea who he is and he obv plays really well.

Arrived in vegas on yesterday and think the 1st event i'm playing will be the World Championship $10k Pot Limit Holdem on Friday

Frustrating Sunday

2008-05-12T13:38:00.000-07:00

Things were looking good when i found myself deep in the 1st 2 tournies of the day, the sunday warm up and party poker 300k. However i managed to bluff off a big stack in the warmup and then lost a flip to finish around the 100th mark. Made the final table of the party 300k though,going in with an average stack. However being party, the average stack was 10bbs and i was eliminated 9th shoving a/jss from mid position and running into a/k. 9th place = $4,400, 1st place = $50k

Things were looking really promising however in the full tilt $500 ftopps Heads Up event. Had won my 1st 4 or 5 matchs and was down to the last 32. Was drawn against cmoney a pretty good mtt player and who def seemed capable heads up as well. Things didn't start very well and i quickly lost half my stack. However grinded it back over the next 40 mins and found myself in the chip lead. We got ourself in a race situation then, when he raised the button, i 3 bet a/k, and he 4 bet, i jammed and he called with 10/10. I lose the race and gg me. $2,200 for 22nd.

During this time had been cruising along in the full tilt $150 40k guaranteed which actually had a prizepool of $110k. Made the final somewhat shortish but doubled up with 6 left and won a few nice pots and was in 2nd place with 5 left. Raised a/2cc utg 5 handed which the village idiot in the sb flats, even though he only has 10bbs. Flop comes down kc/x/5c giving me the nut flush draw. Villian has about a pot size bet left after the flop and jams i call. He has k/5dd for a flopped 2 pair which turns into a boat on the turn. Obv i catch my flush on the river when i'm drawing dead. Lost my momentum after that and jammed 11bbs from the sb with q/7dd and lost a 60/40 to a/j. Out in 5th for $6,700 but $25k for 1st.

After that i kinda lost interest, but got a stack in the stars $20 rebuy. Made the final table but donked out in 9th playing some pretty retarded poker.

A profitable day but still dissapointed to not close out something and get a really big payday.

Overdue Update

2008-05-07T23:55:00.000-07:00

Since Monte Carlo havn't been putting in a huge deal of volume mtt wise, but been going semi deep regularly which is encouraging. Won the Stars Midnight $100 freezeout for just under $12k last week as well as getting to the last 2 tables in the wednesday $300 and tilt $100r 6 max.

Been playing quite a bit of hu cash last few weeks. Mostly $600nl with some $1000nl mixed in. So far the results have been quite encouraging but have only played 15k hands. Played a few hundred $220 hu snsgs on stars too. Apart from a few regulars who are good the standard seems to be pretty bad and i've been killing them so far. Party poker recently added hu sngs as well and wow the standard there is just lol.

Heading to Vegas now in a few weeks for the wsop and lets hope i run good there so i don't come home broke. Lol. Staying with Moorman and a few of his mates for 6 weeks so should be fun as we both like a drink, so should have some good stories anyways.

Monte Carlo Day 2

2008-04-15T09:06:00.000-07:00

Things didn't start off as planned, when i slept through my alarm. Woke up knowing something wasn't right and checked the time, 2.30pm shiiiiiiiit, a quick wash and sprint to the cardroom. Find myself blinded down to exactly 18k with 30 mins left at the 300/600 level.

For 2 levels i mostly just reship on late position raisers to keep myself around the 18-24k mark. Then at 500/1k guy opens from mid position and i look down at a/joff in the sb, i ship in my 19k stack and after a brief dwell he looks me up with a/10cc. We see a pretty sik flop of qc/jc/3 but running bricks ship me the 40k pot. I start to get more active and seem to be getting quite a bit of resspect at the table when the following hand comes up. I's just raised the button with some suited garbage when the next hand i look down at k/k in the cutoff. Make it my standard 3300 @ 600/1200, and the button, a pretty good spanish player flats. Flop comes 6/6/5 and i lead 5,200 which again is smooth called. Turn is a jack and i check raise the guys 14k turn bet all in which he snap folds. Up to 85k.

Things go horrible wrong shortly after when i bluff off aroun 25k on a ah/10h/3/5/qh board with q/j into a turned set of 5's. Very next hand i get a/k off utg and raise again to 4300 @ 800/1600, i get 1 caller in middle position and the button tanks for a bit before shoving for around 40k. I pretty quickly reshove and the flat caller fold. Button flips a dominatd a/qss.
1 time, obv not as the board runs out 7/5/4/a/q, shipping the guy a 90k + pot. When the dust settles i've got 12k left and in the bb next hand.
UTG raises and the shortstack sb shoves for around 25k, i look down at 8/8 crippled and decide to gamble and call off. UTG folds and i'm up against a/k, things are looking promising on a q/3/3/7 board until the king hits the river, standard. Siiiigh, busto 140th place. Such a stupid game.

Sunday Day off

2008-04-15T08:34:00.000-07:00

so on the day off, i decided to play the sunday donkaments online. Things didn't start great bubbling the warmup and party 300k. But i found myself with a stack and going deep in quite a few of the later ones. Had a small cash in the sunday million, and bubbled the final table of the tilt 17.5k. But had a stack itm in the party hi roller. Got a stack when eisenhower 4 bet 9/10off all in pre into my a/a and never really looked back. Ship the 17k for 1st.
Also had a stack in the late 100r and Fulltilt mulligan, busted mulligan just in the money when my a/k couldn't outrace q/q in a monster pot. And got coolered with 13 left in the 1oor when a 10bb stack shoves and i reshove my 20bb stack with Jacks in the sb only to have the bb wake up with aces. So i didn't get finished online until 7.00am and play starts for day 2 at 1pm.

Monte Carlo Day 1

2008-04-15T08:21:00.000-07:00

Day 1 started pretty well wih a really soft table draw and i managed to chip up to 23k in the first 30 mins. However unfortunatly the table was one of the 1st to break and my 2nd table was a bit tougher and most seemed to know what they were doing. Got myself up to 40k when marcel luske limps utg, utg + 1 lmps, i raise it up to 875 @ 100/200 with a/q off, Everyone folds but marcel. Flop come j/8/7, marcel checks and i check behind, marscel fires 1200 on a 10 turn and i decide to peel 1 off, bink king on the river and i raise his 2k lead to 7200 and he snaps with a set of 7's.
He got payback on me a little later though. Marscel raises to 700 utg @ 150/300, he'd been raise 4 x with his strong hands so i put him on a more marginal hand he wants to see a cheap flop with. I repop it 2225 utg + 2 with a/qoff. He calls and we go to a j/10/7 board. He check calls a 3200 bet from me on the flop. The turn brings another 7, after a bit of deliberation i decide to bet 6k and he tank calls. River brings an ace and he immediatly leads for 3k, theres like 20k + in the pot, after a think i just flat to be shown k/qoff for the straight. Siigh.
For the rest of the day i stayed between 30 - 20k and finished the day on 27,100.

San Remo Update

2008-04-12T02:40:00.000-07:00

For starters to all the people who bought a piece of me in Monte Carlo, ty and i play today (Saturday).

San Remo was a pretty fun place. We stayed there for nearly 2 weeks and on week 1 the weather was amazing. Never had a chance to play the main event as it was already sold out. Ran pretty hot in the 500 euro sngs though, cashing 5 of 6 with 2 1sts and 2 2nds.
Played the 2k euro side event also, which had a rediculous 400 entrants and a whopping 200k euro 1st prize. Played really well for the most part and with 40 left had a legit shot at a big score. Was in complete control of my table with solid reads on everyone. However i then managed to run kings into aces in a chiplead pot to bubble. 36 paid. Siigh

Played 5/10 cash for the rest of the week, where i ran ok and never had a losing session. Every table i played on had at least 1 or 2 crazy rich itialians which can't be bad. Heres an example.
Crazy italian limps utg and gets 4 more limps behind. Good young italian makes it 80 euros to play on the button, crazy guy calls and another guy calls behind. Flop comes 10/8/2 (2 hearts), check, check, good player bets 200 euros, back to crazy guy who after a short dwell shoves f0r 2.7k, cold caller gets out of the way and good players snap calls for 2k. Young italian tables k/k and the rich lunatic shows q/7off for no pair no draw. However running hearts are good to ship him the 5k pot. Was fun to play if you could avoid the suckouts.

EPT San Remo / Monte Carlo

2008-03-26T01:30:00.000-07:00

So i've decided i'm going to travel over to these events with Stevie444. Unfortunatly San remo is already sold out but they seem to have a few side events to kepp me ammused. Theres a week between that and Monte Carlo, so we will probably just travel France/Italy for a week b4 heading to Monte Carlo.

So stevie's talked me into buying into the EPT Main Event as it has no cap. Direct buy ins through pokerstars cost $17,750 so again i'm gonna be selling %'s of myself for the tournament. All enquiries to be directed to allinstevie@hotmail.co.uk

1% $177.50
2% $355.00
5% $887.50
10% $1775.oo

Brazilia

2008-03-26T01:27:00.000-07:00

Qualified for the inaugarial LAPT Tournament in Rio de janierio Brazil, should be fun, think a few of us will be going. Stevie444's already shipped a seat and moorman prolly will as well when he puts a bit of effort in.

Easter

2008-03-25T00:38:00.000-07:00

So had a few friends to mine on Good Friday, ended up getting a bit messy with a lot of vodka involved. 4 of us ended up staying up all night and heading straight into town on Saturday morning. So we find a bar that opens early and we're promptly sitting drinking vodka red bulls at 9.30am. Was never gonna be a marathon and surprised we all last until 7pm that night b4 calling it a day.

Needless to say i wasn't feeling the best on the Sunday and spent the most of it recovering in bed. Managed to get up really late and only entered 2 tournaments. Managed to final table the UB $500 75k guaranteed but bust early, 9th i think shoving a shortstack with a/3ss into pocket 7's and getting no help.

WOW

2008-03-18T23:50:00.000-07:00

Well, i thought it was never gonna happen but i finally had a good day at the tables. So far 2008 has been so sik. I'm currently on my biggest downswing ever and nothing has been going right. I was checking my pocketfives profile and i havn't had a single cash over $2k for like 2 months, which for a professional high volume player is insane.
Started with the fulltilt $200 turbo where i got 3rd for around $5,500, lost a/6 vs k/q for 90% of the chips in playbut played/ran pretty well.

At 5am was sitting on 3 final tables and actually had a pretty descent shot at a pocketfives tripple crown. Won the UB $20k guaranteed for starters. Played hu for ages as we both were really deepstacked. Was really in control of the game until i donked a huge pot completly misplaying 3/3 vs k/k. Was down to 10bbs but won a few flips and eventually got it in against him shortstacked 5/5 vs q/j. Good for $5400

Simultaneously was 3 handed in the fulltilt late 30r. Kinda dissapointed with this as at 1 stage i had over 800k with the other 2 guys around 200k each. However i ran 9/9 into 10/10 and a/j into a/a. Busted when i raised the button with k/5cc and lost the lot on a king high flop versus lunatics slowplayed a/a. $3300

Was playing really well in the stars 20r but lost massive pot a/k vs a/j on the final table leaving me around 10bbs. Managed to mount a comeback however and kinda dissapointed with how i busted. Limp shoved around 25bbs blind versus blind with 9/10hh. Guy snap called and lost to a/k. Not horrible and not a massive dog but feel i was playing really well and 25bbs is a really healthy stack for a stars final table. $2400 for 4th and a really needed winning day at the tables.

Update

2008-03-13T22:34:00.000-07:00

Havn't been playing much to be honest, taking more days off, and when i do play seem to be finishing early and things. Been playing and running bad when i have been playing. Few minor final tables but been busting out early in them all.

Been experimenting with cash still and have logged around 15k hands in last month or so. Showing a profit but only playing small stakes and its been really swingy so far.

Not much to update

2008-03-02T21:35:00.000-08:00

Onlines been pretty much the same as it was b4 the ept. At the minute seems i am building some really nice stacks in tournies and just losing that crucial all in deep. :(

Sunday was a bit of a washout, thought i was in for a nice start to the day when i final tabled the 6pm 6 max tournie on fulltilt. Went into it with double 2nd place chips but managed to take 6th place. Weeee, ran 9/9 into a/a and q/q in a matter of minutes to leave me short and shoved 10bbs with q/k into a/k, Sigh.
At this stage i was 10 tabling and had big stacks in nearly every tournie i was in, soon changed when i got set over setted in the 100r in a 30k pot at 100/200, and lost q/q vs 6/6 in the Brawl for a top 10 stack aproaching the bubble.
Managed to get 35bbs in with a/k vs shaundeebs a/j in the tilt 30r but a rivered jack had me bubbling another tournie.
Had a few small cashs along the way including the million and had my hopes pinned on the $50 6 max tournie were i found myself 3/6 on the final table. Needed a win here to break even for the day or maybe even a small profit. Got in with a/a vs q/9off for the chiplead with 5 left and lost to a rivered straight, grinded for a while b4 lost a/k vs 2/2 to finish 4th.
Pretty frustrating day with plenty of deep runs and what coulda beens, ah well, always next week.

EPT Copenhagen

2008-02-21T05:08:00.000-08:00

Meh, busted with around 30 mins remaining on day 1. Had been extremly card dead all day and my stack kinda flucuated between like 12k and 6k for the 1st 5 levels. Table was playing a bit crazy with a lot of good agreesive scandanavians, so i was just playing tight looking for a good spot.
Found myself playing a 7k stack when i picked up 8/8 on the cutoff and raised to 1200 @ 200/400. The BB immediatly raises enough to set me in. I make the call and find myself in bad shape against J/J. However i get a much needed double up when the board runs out 10/6/6/7/9. Few hands later i pick up a/q in the hijack and make the same raise and guy jams around 5k from the sb. I call pretty quickly and manage to fold vs a/7ss.
Found myself back around the 15k mark when i pick up q/q from early position and make it 1700 @ 300/600. Guy flats from the sb and we see a dreamy flop of q/6/2. He check calls a 2k bet on the flop and check raises me all in on a jack turn. His k/q is drawing dead.
So now i got a stack and start opening a little lighter, however a very good laggy swedish guy is moved to my direct left and seems to be 3 betting everytime i open. Find myself around 24k when i pick up k/9ss and folded to me in the cutoff. I make it my standard 1700 and he makes it his standard 5k re-raise. I insta jam for 24k fully expecting him to fold, but bad timing on my part and he snap calls with a/a and am drawing dead on the a/6/3 flop.
idk, its 1 of them spots were you look kinda foolish when u get called but when they fold most of the time u add a nice little chunck to your stack. Ah well, had fun and will go and enjoy myself in Copenhagen now for a few days as i'm here until sunday. Not sure where my next live tournie will be as ept Warsaw is already sold out and looks like San Remo will be sold out pretty quickly also.

Drogheda European Deepstacked Tournament

2008-02-11T06:04:00.000-08:00

Played this during the week. Was a really fun tournament with a really sick structure. Was going well, just basicaly grinding most of the day, when i lost a pretty big pot with q/j vs q/10 on a q/j/2 flop vs the French guy who won EPT Prague. This set me back and i ended up getting around 25bbs in pre with a/k vs 9/9 with 5 mins left in day 1 and missing. Going to Copenhagen next Monday so will probably play some online till then.

Been experimenting in some cash games recently too mostly on Ultimate Bet with pretty good results, obviously don't have a huge sample size as of yet but things are looking promising so far.

EPT Copenhagen

2008-02-02T20:05:00.000-08:00

So i won a seat at this which starts in 2 weeks. Because i've been travelling to quite a few of these recently and they're basically pretty high varience. I'm hoping to sell around 50% of myself. The package is worth $11,150 so basically 1% = $111.50, 5% = $557.50 etc. Only want to sell in increments of 1%. If anybodys interested they can ship the dollars on stars or fulltilt (allinstevie) and email me at allinstevie@hotmail.co.uk, thanks.

Meh

2008-01-29T23:21:00.000-08:00

Still running really bad at the donkaments, managed to come 3rd in the 32k the day after i won it but thats about it. Had the worst saturday and sunday in memory. On saturday at 1 stage was chip leader in the money of the fulltilt $300 6 max, big stack on the bubble of the 50r and big stack in the ept copenhagen sattelite. Suddenly my laptop just freezes, and takes forever to reboot. So obv i'm blinded down pretty well in my tournies 30 mins later when i get everything going again. Quickly tilt out of everyhting from pure frustration. Think i have everything ironed out and see a pretty soft $2k step 6 sng to ept warsaw about to kick off so jump in. Obv the exact same thing happens again half way through the sng. fweilsvsjdivoadv;kvcaoeevpd

Was having a few minor problems with my laptop and luckily i ordered a new one a few weeks back and it arrived on monday there so back in buisiness hopefully.

Other news, think i'm gonna go the Drogheda next week for the European Poker Deepstacks tournament. 1500 euro buy in and a really sick structure. Starting stack of 50k chips at 25/50 blinds with a 60 min clock, should be fun.

Ship a win finally

2008-01-23T12:28:00.000-08:00

After having a pretty brutal week since my return from the bahamas i won the Fulltilt 32k yesterday for a little over 12k. Played a real good tournie and found myself among the chip leaders when we got into the money. Maintained that all the way up to the final table bubble when i 4 bet a pretty tight guy all in with a/q and after using up his entire time bank he made the call with jacks and i lost the flip.
So found myself as one of the shortstacks at the final table and just grinded while others were getting knocked out. Then doubled with k/k vs a/10 and again with a/q vs 7/7 and was among the chip leaders with 5 left. Dominated the table then and with 4 left had around 600k chips with the other 3 having between 100-150k.
Busted one of the guys with q/q vs j/j to go into 3 handed play with an overwhelmong chip lead. Got a bit impatient then and proceeded to donk off most of my stack doubling the same guy through 2 hands in a row. Short stack got unlucky to bust when his jacks lost to the other guys 8/8 and we went heads up with me trailing 250k to 750k.
With 25bbs though i still fancied my chances and within 20 mins had grinded him down to around 20bbs when he raised the button and i re-raised with a/j and he jammed. I flopped a flushdraw and turned a jack to beat his 10/10 and ship the win.

So basically, in summary thank god for fulltilt cause stars is obv rigged.

Not much to update

2008-01-16T10:58:00.000-08:00

Got back from the bahamas on saturday and then proceeded to have 1 of my worst sundays ever. Hadn't cashed in any tournies and was only going well in 1 (the sunday 2nd chance), had like top 20 stack on the money bubble, when all of a sudden my internet gos down. Was also in the 200r at the time and a few other random tournies. Phoned a few mates and they were all in the same boat, internet came back on after an hour and of course i had been blinded out or near enough in all my tournies. Had 4 bbs and was in the bb in the sunday 2nd chance.

Had a pretty miserable monday + tuesday as well and just seem to be running bad in general but this is to be expected and not a major problem.

Was planning on playing the GUKPT event in Brighton this week, but feel kinda burned out after all the travelling to and from the bahamas so decided to skip it, though i will definatly be playing quite a few of them this year. Going to skip EPT Dortmund as well but think i'm gonna head to Copenhagen in mid February for their event.

Update from the bahamas

2008-01-08T16:35:00.000-08:00

Busted day 2 of the main event when i got pretty short and lost a race. Pretty standard, had got up to around 70k on day 1 but lost a big hand near the end of the day to leave me kinda short going into day 2.

Managed to final table the $1k side event though, but could only manage 7th when i lost 2 prety big races. Called an 8bb shove with a/9ss but obv bricked on a k high 2 spade flop vs 8/8 and shoved 11bbs a few hands later with 10/10 but couldn't hold vs a/j. Good for a little over $8k, obv stevie444 who i'm travelling with went and won the whole thing for $73k. Good job we swaped 10% b4 the tournament.

Happy New Year

2008-01-01T10:35:00.000-08:00

So 2007 is just over. Been a great year to be honest and if 2008 is the same i'd be pretty happy.

January 2007 was probably when i started taking poker more serious when i took down the Stars Sunday Warmup for $43k. Since then i also took down the Sunday 2nd chance for 50k and went from Unranked in pocketfives to top 40 while holding down a fulltime job. November 2007 i decided to go fulltime and went from 50th to 19th in 6 weeks of playing on the pocketfives.com rankings. So now its time to set a few goals for 2008.

1) Make a major live event final table
2) Top 10 ranked player on pocketfives
3) $300K + Online Winnings
4) Final table the Sunday Million / Tilt 750k
5) Get back in shape, put on quite a bit of weight since i went fulltime.

So, gl at the tables and a prosperous 2008 to all.

Bahamas

2007-12-23T21:42:00.000-08:00

So i qualified for the PCA in 1 of pokerstars last chance seat only qualifiers tonight, so have to get flights and stuff booked now. Stevie444 qualified as well on Saturday so guess we can room together anyways, should be fun and definatly looking forward to being somewhere warm for a week as its frickin freezing here at the minute.

Early xmas present

2007-12-21T17:55:00.000-08:00

Played a few donkaments today and shipped the stars 100r for just under 15k, this tournie has been owning me pretty hard for the last few months so feels pretty good to eventually win it again. Got a bit lucky heads up beating a/q with a/j but played a real good tournie and pretty pleased with how i played.

Congrats to Joe Beevers as well for shipping the poker million, played a pretty solid game and got lucky when he needed to.

Not much happening

2007-12-21T04:47:00.000-08:00

Havn't really had the motivation to play much since i got back, been doing quite a bit of drinking/partying with friends who are back for christmas. Made a few minor final tables on tuesday but finished 5th and 8th.

Champions League Draw

Celtic v Barcelona
Lyon v Manchester United
Schalke v Porto
Liverpool v Internazionale
Roma v Real Madrid
Arsenal v Milan
Olympiakos v Chelsea
Fenerbahce v Sevilla

Not really expecting any easy games of this stage of the tournament and a game vs Lyon certainly will be no walkover. Utd definatly seem to be capable of beating anybody this year though and i really expect them to progress.

EPT Prague Day 2

2007-12-17T04:24:00.000-08:00

Get to my table not overly impressed at seeing dmmikkel to my immediate left with chips, but thankfully the table was broken after only a few hands of play.
Recognized nobody at my new table and played pretty tight for a few orbits. Then tight guy raises utg to 2500 (500/1k 200) and gets 3 callers, i call for value in sb with j/8dd. Flop is 10/9/x rainbow and original raiser leads for 2500 again into like a 15k pot. 1 caller and i call as well. Turn is a queen and i lead for 12k, utg guy insta jams about 40k total, other guy after a long think gets out of the way and i call and win vs his set of 9's.
For the next 3 hours i meet next to zero resistance and am just chipping up from raising every other hand. These guys like never played back at all unless they had a hand so it was just so profitable to steal.
Then b4 i know it i'm on the rail 4 spots before the money. Spanish guy had just won a monster pot with k/k vs q/q and had been riding his rush or whatever cause he'd raised my bb + sb the next 2 hands. So it comes round to him in the cutoff and he makes it his standard 5.5k (1/2k 300), i make it around 17k on the button with j/6dd. He flat calls out of position which he had been doing quite a lot and just check folding if he missed so i wasn't overly concerned.
We then get the dreamy flop of 9/8d/5/d and i'm immediatly thinking of my action when he donk leads into me for like 19k, i jam without giving it too much thought and he thinks for a few mins b4 calling with a set, wtf. Even against a set i'm not a huge dog but he makes quads on the turn and its gg me. I think i played the hand fine and on another day i have a 400k stack, a huge chip lead on the money bubble and almost guaranteed a final table.
Looking back now, it was a really fun tournament and good experience in being chipleader of a major tournament and hopefully its not too long before i find myself in similar circumstances again.
Pragues a cool city as well and theres plenty of fun things to spend your money on when you bust these kinda tournies.

EPT Prague Day 1 (cont)

2007-12-17T04:06:00.000-08:00

So i now have a really healthy stack and the antees have just kicked in so i get a little more active, but am still playing a pretty solid straight forward tag game.
So playing of around 40k theres 4 limpers (200/400 100 antee) and i complete in sb with 5/5 and bb checks. I lead for 2k on a q/8/5 2 diamond board and the bb raises to 5.5k, limpers fold and i set him in for around 15k total, i hold vs a/q. Very next hand i'm still stacking my chips when good young agressive player raises to 1200 UTG + 1, fairly tight capable player re-raises to 3600 in mid position and i look down at a/a, think i made it around 12k total and young guy tanks for an eternity b4 jamming 40k, mid position instafolds what he later said was a/k and i avoid a 1 outer and am suddenly chip leader on 100k. Easy game.
Play no other hands of note and finish the day on 122k

EPT Prague Day 1

2007-12-16T01:29:00.000-08:00

So i arrived at my day 1 table to find annette15 to my immediate left, not an ideal situation but nothing to be overly concerned with as from previous experience she plays pretty standard in the early stages of tournies.
So i basically fold for a few levels and pick up a few small pots when tight guy opens UTG + 1 to 450 @ 75/150. I flat from mid position with q/q. He leads for 600 on a 6/5/5 flop and i raise to 1600, he thinks for a minute and jams around 8k, i call and hold vs his 8/8.
A few hands later its folded to he button who raises it to 350, i flat call in the bb with a/10hh. I check call his 450 bet on a a/k/3 flop. He then fires 1600 on a 6 turn, i tank for a while b4 setting him in for 10k, he snap calls and i assume i'm drawing dead until he flips a/4 off and i scoop a healthy pot on a harmless river.
Next comes annetes bust hand, really spewy bad player limps at 1/200, i look down at q/q on the button and make it 800, annette re-raises to 2800 from the sb, i immediatly think i'm jamming on her when this guy folds and to my absolute shock the other guy flat calls. I tank for a while and fold. Final action was annette shoving a pretty dry board on the river and the guy calling, annette insta mucked. Not really sure what she could have had here and is as likely to have air as a/k.
K, this is taking longer than i thought, and i gotta go pack and get to the airport so i'll finish tomorrow.

Sigh

2007-12-05T21:00:00.000-08:00

Havn't been playing as much the last few days, managed an 11th place finish in the Stars Super Tuesday $1k buy in which sucked. Things were going really well for me and i was 2nd in chips with 20 or so left but i then lost q/q vs a/j to a rivered wheel and kinda lost my momentum. Got moved to a new table and the guy to my immediate left kept open shoving everytime i raised and i never had a strong enough hand to look him up. Eventually busted shoving 10bbs with k/j and not being able to suck out on q/q.

Been playing a few tournaments today but feel generally unmotivated and burned out so think i'm gonna take the rest of the week off and just chill out until we leave for prague on sunday, will probably do an update at some stage during the week regarding my progress in the ept event.

Limited Schedule

2007-12-03T20:50:00.000-08:00

So after a marathon 12 hour sleeping session to clear the weekends hangover, i was ready for action today. Decided i was going to be selective in my tournaments instead of just regestering for everything going nas per usual.
So never really had more than 4 tables going at any time and was more interested in the Man Utd - Fulham game than the poker for the most part. (Utd won 2-0 btw with ronaldo getting both, weeeeee)
Managed to go deep in the 100r b4 finding myself on the lower end of flush over flush around the money bubble. Scraped into the money regardless but busted shortly after.
Final tabled the $120 bounty on Fulltilt as well and was really in control of the table b4 guy limp shoved over my raise blind on blind with 6/6 and held vs my a/kss. 4th for a little over $2k.
Played 2 sats for the Monday $1k then and managed to get a seat in both so was basically getting paid $800 or so to play but managed to bust early when i couldn't seem to get anything going.
So, not the most exciting of days but prolly a small profit none the less.

F Stevie444

2007-12-02T13:14:00.000-08:00

Lol joke

So with 1 day to go in the month i was winning the monthly plb on pocketfives, but the thing was i couldn't play a full schedule on Friday as i was travelling to Belfast on Saturday morning with a few friends for the Kanye West Concert. Anyways Stevie went ahead and shipped the early 30r on fulltilt and the monthly plb with it. Kinda sucks to get so close but stevie's a real good player and nice guy to boot so congrats to him. Had a real good month and won the fulltilt monthly leaderboard which is pretty sick for my 1st month playing.

The Kanye West concert was really good as well, although i have to admit i wasn't is no.1 fan b4 i went but really enjoyed it and thought he put on a good show.

So we leave for EPT Prague next Sunday so think i'm prob gonna chill out until then and not play as much.

Good Day at the office

2007-11-29T01:11:00.000-08:00

had a pretty sweet day, winning the fulltilt 20k $200 turbo for like the 3rd time this month for $9.5k and then going onto win the pokerstars 20r for close to $9k. Have to admit i ran like god in the turbo and had some ridiculous suckouts, but played really solid in the 20r apart from a bit of donking around the money bubble.

Looks like this should wrap up the fulltilt monthly leaderboard and means a free 1k for me :))) Should also put me in real contention for the pocketfives monthly plb which would be pretty sick considering its my 1st month playing fulltime as i gave up my job as a trainee financial advisor at the start of the month.

In other news it appears imperium has been banned from fulltiltpoker for taking over/ buying somebodys account deep in the $535 million on tilt. Nobody knows all the details at the minute and obv Imp is one of the sickest players online but this is something that leaves a real sour taste and i completly disagree with.

Monday Blues

2007-11-26T18:01:00.000-08:00

Got up late and was pretty tired when i started playing. After an hour or so i knew i wasn't feeling it and unregistered for all the tournies that hadn't already started.

However still managed to go deep in a few. Managed to bubble the tilt 14.5k final table when a similar stack questionably called off with k/j and beat my 4/4. Things went better however in the $200 Turbo 20k Guaranteed, i ran pretty good and managed to take 2nd for 5.3k after his 8/8 held vs my k/j. Need an early night to keep me fresh for the rest of the week, which is the last week of the pocketfives plb contest which i will talk about later

Profitable Sunday WTF ??????

2007-11-25T23:43:00.000-08:00

quick update, took 6th in the big sunday 100r on stars for a little over $8500, was going well until i lost a flip and was then forced to shove a/rag over the agressive chipleaders raise and couldn't suck out on his q/q.

took 2nd in the tilt 30r as well for close to 4k. Hurt cause i had a huge chiplead and then couldn't hold a/j vs a/8 and he finally limp called 16bbs with j/q and turned a queen vs my a/6, meh a well a profits a profit

First post

2007-11-20T22:44:00.000-08:00

Ok guys, this is my first blog. I'm very new to all of this. A friend of mine kept saying I should get a blog, so here I am.