Last Two Nights At Big Slick

Played the £30 second chance at big slick the other night, not too much to comment on, did not really play a hand in the 'rebuy' period. The reason is use the quote is that a feel a second chance or a double chance or even a triple chance tournaments should be played like freeze outs, if you can take your chips at the end of the 'rebuy' period then that is the best time to take it. If you gamble too much ie calling off all your chips on a flush draw and lose you not going to have more chips than if you played it normally. Some people feel they can gamble away thier 1st set of chips but those chips are still worth the same! Also if you take your chips at the end, you will have more!

Like i said not much happened, ended the rebuy period on about 3.5k (from 2k) and topped up 3k to 6.5k, did not even show a hand for the whole period, except one when i was in the BB and my Q4 held for Q high in a three way pot!! Nice! With two tables left i was below average (started with 5 tables), got moved tables as my table crash and 2nd hand in i was in the BB with my 2nd hand all night and i actually mean it the best hand before that was JJs early on. I really did not play too many hands, oh yeh had like QJ and 55s but i really do not seen them as hands. So it folds round and to be honest even though QQs is not a monster i needed some action, i'm mean at least someone trying to knick is fine, jus something, a double up here would put me in a great position for final and a good chance to win the £900 top prize. The button gets up to its usual tricks and raise to 7k, blinds at 800/1600 bit of an over bet. SB folds and i shove for 10.5k, auto call for the girl who raised but she took ages to call!!! At this point i want a calling thinking she had like J3 (yes niraj i know its your hand but against my QQs Loving it!!), she needed to calling 3.5k to win like 22k was an auto call, she eventually calls showing A4, im thinking, what took her so long, she clearly does not understand the game, if you going to knick the blinds and then want to fold when they shove you need to raise less so you can get away from the hand, otherwise you might as well go all in. That is just basic poker, why commit yourself when you do not need too, anyway the ACE hit! Damm although i picked up a flush draw on the flop giving me 11 outs twice but i miss and go home!!!

Played the £20 buy in with £10 rebuy yday but when i say £10 rebuy you are allowed to doube rebuy so i see it as a £20 rebuy, i feel you always want as many chips as possible so you should always double rebuy unless it gets too expensive.

Ok lets look at the rebuy situation, its a 3 table tournament where only top 5 get paid. Recently i have played these comps i end up spending £100 to £120, this is just stupid in my opionon, because i need 3rd or higher to Break even. The whole point of poker is to make money and you cannot expect to win every tournament no matter how good you are, so you do not want to be in a position where you only make monet if you come 3rd or higher, so i tried to budget my self to £60- £80

I succeed!!! Spent only £60, i took ten minutes out when i got a stack to make sure i would not rebuy. Although i was allin on the last hand for all my chips with K10 vs AJ vs AJ and i got lucky with a K. Although i'm only a 60% underdog, i end the rebuy period after a 3k top up for £20, with 10.5k and £60 down which is nice, i always want 10k after the break as blinds are up to 200/400, which gives me room to play. Again did not play too many hand, although a hyper aggressive player moves in UTG +1 on a 7 handed table and i move in with KQ off, he only had half my chips but i need to get everyone else away. Lucky for me no one else called, was a bit risky in such an early posistion but hey i needed a gamble, and i win a race!! whoo hoo!!

I some how get to final after doubling one guy up twice, i kept raising with junky hands like Q10, KJ and he kept moving in and i had to call him, (damm odds!!). I get to final and 1st hand in with have AK vs AA, ouch!!!, top 5 got paid so down to 8, i have no cihps btw and get a double up with 55s vs AQ, another race!!!, we lose one more and the chip leader limps in 2nd position! Limping on final table, hmmm not something i would do to be honest, but he is a good player and won the comp yday, but i feel he does not have a strong hand, maybe something like 109s or 65s or a small pocket pair, im on the button and see A10 and i'm sure im ahead and go allin. I still had some fold equity so if everyone folds i take a nice pot, as blinds are high. SB gets in his chips before me! i dont like that!!!! Then the BB calls for 'value' not sure why but fair enough, was turning into a big pot, the limper now HAS to call there is so much out there and got a chance to knock 3 people out!. He does call, Limper has Qc8c, i can beat that, BB had Kh7h i can beat that, SB has JJ DOH!!! Flop comes Q high, turn a T and now 4 diamonds, and i have the Ace of diamonds, any Ten! any Ace, any Diamond!! 14 outs!!! COME ON!!!!
NOPE!!!! blank on river and i'm out in 7th place!!!

Up to 320k action points on rivercard, doing really well playing $2/$4 and went home after each big slick night to make all my money back, hope im not turning into an online player like Flash!! Got the Big slick £200 on saturday should be fun, looks like a good structure!!! Wish me not to get unlucky!! I never wish for luck, just not to get unlucky! Its a game of skill after all (hmmm!!)

£300 Gutshot Series of Poker Main Event

10k Starting Stack, Two Hour Levels, £17,000 top prize OHHHH YEHHHH!!!!
I said to myself if I make £300 this month I will play in this event that I got to the final day in last year. I made £1400, so I could play in this event. A while ago I was looking forward to the comp but as the day came nearer I was not too excited. I felt I should be too determined or too focused or have such a high expectation on just one tournament. I’m not saying that it is bad to be focused but if I think too much about it I will play hands badly. I would try to stay in and I might miss an opportunity to get more chips. Phil Ivey says to be a good poker player you should be able to take a $50 note and burn it!! Ok I don’t want to be that good but the principle should be there that this is just another tournament even though it cost a lot more. For the £10 re buy or £100 freeze I do not think about the comps before so why should I do the same here.

I look around at my table. The most important thing in poker (deep stack tourney) is the table draw. Poker is a people game and the people who you will sit next to for the next 7 hours (7 hours to be played on day one) is crucial. So I look around, some familiar faces but nothing to be scared of. There were some strong players in this tournament but I felt my table was not if a high standard but some good players. Here is a quick round up of what I thought of my table in the 1st ten minutes I picked this up.

Seat 1 - a young kid who thinks he knows the game well, can tell by the way he moves his chips he has not played a lot live but liked to dwell up on decision to give the impression he always has a hand. He also had a lot of facial expression, which makes him very easy to read
Seat 2 – Did not want to go out today. He won a pot early on and kept 10k in chips to the side and the rest of his chips on the other side. He did not want to lose his 10k, which was nice to pick on
Seat 4 – Played a bit of cash with him but gave nothing away about his tournament game
Seat 5 – ME!!!!!!!!!
Seat 3, 6 and 7 gave nothing away
Seat 8 – Seen him play online at gutshot, very solid player, heard him talk about poker and he does not understand how big pairs lose to small cards
Seat 9 – Laid out his chips like he had all the room in the world, sign of a player who has not played a lot or never had a lot of chips
Seat 10 – Talked a lot about how he went to play the main event in the WSOP this year, played with him before, very solid
So that’s the line up, seat 3, 6 and 7 were a worry, just because they did not give anything away, which meant it might cost me a little bit to find out but the rest I knew where I stood.

1st hand I’m on the cut off as the button was placed on to seat 6. I find KQ I just limp and the SB calls and the BB a solid player raises to 300!!! Woo that’s a big bet. Blinds are 25-50, I would make it like 150 to go maybe 200, I decide to just lay the hand down as he made it too much to go. I want to play small ball early on.

3rd hand in I get 66 and seat one has already limped, so I limp for 25, the button the solid player in seat 8 makes it 200 to go, the limper thinks for a while and calls, I call as well. Pot 675, Flop , 3 6 5 Bingo Bango Bongo! I got top set, not the nuts but a very nice hand. Seat one check, I check to the raise and he bets out 400, seat one raise to 900, hmmmmm ok do I raise here or smooth call, I don’t have the nuts but folding is out of the question. I decide to smooth call. The button decides to call as well, which make me believe he must have an over pair to raise, bet and still call a raise on a raggy flop. Seat one could have a drawing hand like a pair and a gutshot or the nuts, lets hope not! Turn is a 7 , not the best card if seat one was drawing. But he checks and I lead out, the button thinks for a while and calls and seat one folds, so seat one must have been making a move as he folded quickly. So now I know I have this guy trapped! River A , hmmmmmmmmmmmm. My read is a big over pair, has he really got pocket AAs and not hit a higher set, going with keeping the pot small I decide to check the river and call a bet. I think I would check the river also if a K comes at the end. He looks really puzzled and checks, I show my pocket pair thinking its good and he flips over his three ACES!!!! Ouch!!! Down to 7.5k early on, not a good start

I then pick up 65s in MP and too be honest I feel sick at the moment, I have just lost a big pot and I think a lot of people would go broke there or at least lose half their stack, on the bright side I felt I lose the minimum in that hand, as I’m sure the guy is not folding AAs, the level of skill just is not that good. Now it folds round to the SB who calls and the BB makes it 150 more to go, I call and the SB folds. Ok I do not need to be playing this kind of hand heads up, as it works a lot better in a multi way pot but I have position and I’m steaming just a little bit. Flop 4 Q 3 , ok that’s is a nice flop for me, but also it’s a flop that I feel has missed him, I feel there are only 4 raising hands in that position that would like that flop AQ, AA, KK, QQ, everything else has missed or has an over card. He checks to me and I check behind, sense he may want to check raise me, which I cannot let him do as I would fold my draw and if he has something like QQQ or AQ I think I can win a big pot with my free card. Turn is a J , and he checks to me again. I have to bet here now, if someone checks to me twice I have to bet out, otherwise no point in calling with position, he called but did not seem too happy. I immediately put him on AK, he has a gutshot and 2 overs, which he feels he needs to hit to win. River is a sweet 7 giving me the nuts and checks again, before the river was dealt I was just thinking please no A K or T, any other card and I fire out, its irrelevant that the 7 came to make my straight once he checks to me I’m betting to take the pot away but now I’m betting to get a call, he dwells and I know he has AK but I need a call so I decide to give a bit of talk. I have seen this guy at gutshot who gets quite annoyed about people and hates being bluffed. So I just say ‘It cannot take that long to fold AK’, he got very annoyed (this is not my usual style, I was still annoyed about the set of 6s against As and now I have the nuts, I want a pay day). He tells me ‘yes I do have AK what do you have, do you have a pair, I truthfully said NOPE!’ He eventually folded and I mucked my hand and take a small pot down.

I then pick up AA a few rounds later and lose to 33, who flops a set, I lose around 2k there as well. I then picked up a lot of small pots, when ever some one checked to me I just fired out. I won a lot of pots in the SB, when a ‘family pot occurs’ ( a lot of limpers) and im in the SB I called, BB checked and a flop would come down, Everyone would check to the turn and I would fire out. No one would expect the SB to be stealing! I took about 7/10 pots like that but a few times I got a caller. When I did I just put them on a draw and if a safe cards comes on the river I bet out again. I then got to the 1st break which was the 1st change of blind level with 9.6k in chips, which I felt was enough considering the dealer wanted to knock me out! I wanted about 10.5k to 12k after the 1st level but I still had plenty of chips.

At the break just checked up on my mates Dave, Niraj Jamie and Tom all had entered and all were still in, Niraj going strong after hitting a straight flush!!

So off to the new blind level of 50/100. I didn’t play too many hands. I picked up KKs and won a nice pot. Got one caller from the BB who fires out on a J high board, I just smooth call, disguising the strength of my hand, although I give him a chance to out draw me. Turn comes a blank and he fires out and I call, river a blank he checks, I value bet and he fold 10s and is absolutely disgusted. I show my KKs to say look I had you. In my opinion, playing 10s out of position is difficult, but I would check raise the flop with the J only being the over card, if it was an ace I mite check fold but I would check raise here as a Jack flop would miss a lot of my ranging hands. Also by check raising you have taken control of the hand, by him just betting and getting called he had no idea where he was in the hand.

I then pick my QQ I raise it up and get an immediate call to my left, which a poker player never likes, he was a quite tight player so I do not like being out of position against him. Flop comes Ad 8d 3d , ok I got the 2nd nut flush draw but the Ace on board takes away a lot of my hand, but I bet out and the guy raises me, hmmmmmmm I wish I checked and called the flop instead. I felt I could not call as I feel he was a tight player, he didn’t re raise with KKs early and check call 3 fours on a 4 4 A 7 T board as he was worried about his kicker. SO!!! Is my QQs good, I don’t think so, is my flush draw good I think so, I got 11 outs but the pot has got a lot bigger, now if I call on the flop I’m out of position and if I miss it will be very expensive on the turn, I decide to lay it down and waiting for a better spot. (Sweet just won a $500 pot in my online cash game, flop KhJh4h, I got JJ and check raise, he then pushes I have to call for $85 more, he has KcQh, poor play by him, only 2nd nut flush draw with top pair, oh well, he doesnot catch up!!! YAAAAA)

I pick up QQ again and I make the raise to 300 and the same guy calls, yuk! I hated playing this guy. Ok flop comes A Q A Bingo Bango Bongo!!!!!!, I decide to check, and he checks behind, turn is a blank and I bet out, he then raises me, hmmmm ok I have the 3 nuts, AQ wins and so does A+turn card. I was feeling really paranoid so I just smooth called putting him on AK AJ maybe AQ but that would just be sick. So in my head I’m thinking no picture card (although a Q would be nice). River bring a baby card and I get off my paranoid issue and fire out, he thinks for a while and says this is a bad call but I will call, now I feel safe as he flips over AJ and I win a nice pot! I end the next level on 12.5k and things are looking good.

Blinds up!!!! Oh a funny point, I raise with 109 in MP and the SB thinks in seat ten while seat one shows me his cards!!! Jake the dealer calls John I the Tournament Director over, and explains the situation. Seat one is told to show the hand to seat ten as well, but he folds and I take the pot, John I then tells the kid you now have a 10-minute penalty, lol. The Kid did not take it well and said you have to be kidding me and just sat there, I said politely mate just go before it gets worse, (you can tell I went to private school!! Lol). Ok for the people who think that was harsh, it is in the rules and John I is always firm but fair, he is recognised as one of the best Tournament Directors in Europe.

Back to the poker, well I try to bluff a few pots and got my hand caught in the cookie jar, showing K high in one hand, opps. I then pick up, yes you guess it QQ again! EP raises up, solid player made about 4 raises pre flop in last 5 hours, so I just smooth call in the BB, did not feel to tangle too much and would chuck on a Ace high board. BB calls as well. Flop 10 6 3 , good flop for me and I check, BB check and the raiser bets out 1.6k, I then decide to take the lead and raise to 3.5k and the BB CALLSS!!!!! OUCH!!!!! HUH!!! Im screwed!!!!! I started the hand with about 10.k and now only have 6k left after my raise but what the hell does he have!!! The oringinal raiser fold after taking awhile. I’m compelety done with the hand, There is no hand I’m beating that he can call a check raise with, The turn is a K and I check, he bets and I muck QQs face up instantly!!! That crippled me, ok where did I go wrong??? Should I have re raised pre, as I was out of position for the rest of the hand or did I get away with it for less chips. The BB claimed he would have called a re raise pre flop. In that case I would have lost my stack on that flop. Hmmmm this hand killed me, I was down to 6k, the blinds were still low but mentally felt really hurt. I make it to the next break with 5.3k and in big trouble, blinds were still 100/200 but now with a 25 ante. So each round is costing 550, and I have 10 rounds to go.

Now I get aggressive looking to double up. I pick up A8 and raise and everyone folds, I then pick up 63 and raise and everyone fold. I then pick up Jc7c and raise and the solid player on the button who has only raised twice in 6 hours (AA once) re raise but not a lot, the SB then calls, I then think! Hmmm do I call, im out of position on the raiser and could push if no Ace falls, but then I got to worry about the SB aswell. I am suited (poor excuse) but gives something extra, but I feel there are too many dangerous flops for me to call. Flop comes 3 clubs!!!! Sick!!! SB bets half his stack and the button moves in and the SB folds!?!?! Yuk!!! What did he have, I felt he had KK or AA with big club in his hand! SO annoying but that’s what I get with raising with that crap! This was the big missed opportunity for me, but then again he mite have hit the higher flush or may have flopped a set as the flop came Q high, but then I could have said, ‘ PASS THE SUGAR!!!’ (Club flush vs QQQ. Joe Hachem WSOP 2005). I become really short when I pick up pocket 10s against AA on a 8 high board! Just nothing was going right for me, I get down to 2,8k and Donna (other TD) mentions that there is 20 minutes left until day one is over, I looked at my stack and I did not want to come back with that many chips, so I started to move in, I moved in UTG with A10 and pushed with J9 on the cutoff, then the last hand of the night came I found 55s UTG and pushed, the SB called with A10 and I lose the race!

Not much went right for me, picked up some nice hands but no good flops for me, I was not aggressive enough on flops and pre flop in my opinion but that was not my game planned I wanted to play flops turns and river which is what the structure allows, surpirisingly I did not pick up AK or AQ once in the 7 hours of play, they are great drawing hands but I mainly picked up made hands which are hard to improve on. Oh well, got the £200 comp at Big Slick next Saturday and want to focus more on my cash games online, on about 300,000 action points on rivercard only 1.7million to go and I get my $2000 buyin into the WSOP!!!!!

Tag Team Holdem at Gutshot and a $30 Rebuy on Ultimate Bet

Ok went to the play the £100 tag team holdem at Gutshot 2nite and was really looking forward to it. It has a 30 min clock with 4k starting stack, which is nice. The way it works me and my partner Pratik, Patrick, will tag in and out every 15 minutes as will everyone else in the room. Its as simple as that.

I take the 1st level and win the 1st 3 out of 5 hands, with AJs, QQs and K6. I made small raises pre and bet small on flops turns and rivers. Even flat called a river bet with two pair with AJ just to keep the pot small, was not looking to play big pots early on, there is just no need, I was really enjoying myself and started to look forward to the main event on Friday which is a real deep stack comp.

Pratik, Patrick comes on and plays solid, I don’t think he picks up many hands as when I come back the stack is the same. Ok so I come back and limp in with a few pairs and not really hit much. Pratik comes back on and doubles the eventual winners up. He limps with AQ in middle position (mp), which I do not like at all. The SB then moves in for about 2k as he sees weakness in limpers and feels he can pick up the pot, which is fair enough. Pratik calls knowing the style of player he was up against. The guy has 94, 1st card out is an Ace followed by two 9s! Oh well we lose some chips, down just below average.

I come back to the table and the dealer goes oh your partner got unlucky, I said not really he played it badly and AQ vs 94 is not unlucky, just poker, I mean two live cards against two unpaired big card is not too far behind. Not much really happens, we are down to short stacked poker and its all in or fold. I move in UTG with 97 and no one calls, I later raise with A10 and someone pushes, I wanted to call but we had enough chips to get people of hands later. I hate calling of my chips without a big big hand, although I will raise with a large number of hands. While pratik was in he picked up AAs and doubled up and then we had a nice stack. Then he was back in he picked up JJs after UTG pushed allin he had a decision. We had more chips than UTG by about 5 BBs. What should he do? The player who pushed is a solid player who is aware of his position on the table and I feel he pushed with AQ minimum and 99s or higher. However many players also push UTG on the short stacked with marginal hands as they are in the BB next and then the SB. This is also a good position to bluff at, which is why I pushed with 97 earlier. So pratik eventually call, which I think is a good call in this type of tourney. When the structure is not great you have to take gambles. Hopefully he has a small pair, he had AK and we are off to the races!! Ace hits and we are crippled, was a big pot and a win there with 4 tables left would have been very nice. We then get bk to allin or fold poker. We are down to 3 tables and im in the SB with 4 BB. The button raises. But what was interesting was that his raise was in his hand before the action got to him or before he looked at his cards. This gave me the impression he is raising with any two cards, which is fair enough when the BB and SB are short stacked. So he makes his raise and I look down and see an Ace and I go all in, he has to call as it is just a little bit more. Ok I have looked at one card, not the best poker but I know my A high is good 90% of the time, it does not matter about the other card. Ok I also know what if I have A rag I’m at best a 50/50 to a KJ, J10 but I felt we did not have enough chips to pass the small edge we had pre flop. He flips over Q10 and a few Qs come down and we are out!!!! On a nice note my good mates Gary and Zenal end up 2nd place and take home £1300!!

So went home early as I wanted to stay away from cash games as the main event was just around the corner. Do not think I had ever left gutshot so early, was about 12ish. So got home early and decide to play some online poker while watching some High stakes poker, which I downloaded the other day. So I tried to play some Royal Holdem and Pineapple on Ultimate Bet but no one was on the site, I looked over to the tournament section and saw there was a nice $30 rebuy a 10k Gtd but had already started. But UB does this thing called alternative list, which means you can come into the tournament when someone get knocked out but out but only in the 1st hour, I was 14th on the list and felt I probably would not get a game but I thought I just sign up anyway, plus if I get in it will be towards the end of the comp which would be good for me as a $30 rebuy is quite expensive, as I always take the double top up, which would turn it into a $60 rebuy. I eventually get the seat 3 minutes before the rebuy is over. I take the instant top up and then add on at the end of the level. I spent $90 and had 6k but average was only 7k and the UB structure is quite nice. So I had a fair shot and spent the minimum.

I play a very tight game early on and get a double up with some drawing hand, cant remember off the top of my head. But I like playing a tight game when I have average chips on the table. But when I got up double up I started raising every 3 hands, putting pressure on especially the short stacks. I played a lot of position poker by raising on the cut off a lot so if I got a call I would be in late position. Played a nice hand with 63, where I raised in late position, one of the blinds called. Flop came A 4 5, he bets out, I call, turn he bets, I call, river he checks and I push half of his stack in with 6 high, knowing he feels if he re raises I have to call (which I would not with my hand) as I made it looked like I am committed so he needs a hand to play back, he folds, which was nice. I played a lot hands like that just betting and betting, which is what I like to do. Also flopped some nice hands and picked up a few big hands which didn’t get cracked which was very nice. I was in the top 3 chip position when 50 left until final 2 tables. I slowly went down the order just because I kept playing small pot poker, which I feel I do better than a lot of people. I love keeping the pots small as the bluffs and suck outs are cheaper and you can call on scary boards cheaply. But with everyone else playing big pots more people went out and stacks got bigger. This is what I feel is a weakness to my game, especially it not so deep stacked tourneys, as I avoid big pots. So I never pick up massive pots unless someone is doing something silly or I get lucky (So not often!). I get to final and everyone is paid $200 (top 20 got paid) So now I at least double my money and I have my eye on the $2.9k 1st prize.

I’m about 5th in chips going into the final table. Now my strategy for final is to play quite tight, as now every decision can cost real money. The blinds were nice, they got the game moving but were not to high. The way I like to play final is quite tight when 9 – 7 handed. I like to sit back and let others knock each other out. I would prefer to stay out of their way and move up the money and get my self in a good position to win, which is easier when u have moved up to $800 in real money. Many people say , oh I play for 1st! and most people say that straight after they have been knocked out of a competition, which I think is just an excuse, I like to wait for good opportunities. Even last years world series of poker champion said that you cannot knock everyone out, as he sat back on final and let the others battle it out. I have spoke to a few mates about this, the whole I play for 1st thing. I strongly feel its not that important. However I’m not going to go into detail about that for now, as this entry is getting long enough, I will come back to this issue later on as it is a key one.

Back to the final, so plan is to sit back, 1st hand, I get AK in LP and someone in MP goes all in for less chips than me. I call and the BB (chip leader thinks for a while) I do not like that, he folds and types in he had AK. While the cards turn over I see I’m up against the cowboys KK, opps! So much for staying out of trouble. I lose and now on the short stack. A few people go out while I just steal on the cut off or in LP. We get down to 6 handed and I move in with A3 and the BB calls with A6. Well I’m completely dominated and need a 3 to take the lead however there is a 25% of winning and a 35% chance of splitting the pot so there is only a 40% chance of me going out, we end up splitting the pot which I am more than happy with. I then move in with A9 and big stack calls me with QJ and my A9 holds up. I move up to 2nd in chips. We then lose a few more people. When I doubled up I started raising most hands but not the big stacks blinds, I felt I should stay out of his way. I felt good with a few of us left and wanting it to get heads up. With the blinds reasonable I felt I could take anyone on heads ups as long as I’m not out chipped by more than 4 to 1. So we get 3 handed and the short stack raises in SB I got 77s and shove it in. He thinks for while and calls with K10, I win a RACE!!!! Whoooooooo!

So we are heads up. 1st gets $2960 and 2nd gets $1700+ so we are playing for $1200ish. He has a slight chip lead. I play a lot of small pots at the start to see what kind of hands he is playing heads up. I even call with K high just to see what he had, hoping K high was good to but it wasn’t L. I edge up with these small pots, so I have a chip lead of about 90k with 590k in play. I pick up the big hand AA! In a full ring game AA is massive but needs protecting, when heads up its soooo big that I wanted to take a gamble on them to win a big pot. He limps in SB and I 2x raise. He calls. Flop 6 5 2. He bets and I call. Turn 9 he bets I raise and he pushes!! HUH!!!! Now the pot got big! Like I said I love small pots but can never win a big pot here is my chance for a big pot and the win! (been a while) This would also be my biggest win ever!. I think for ages and final put him on a pair + a gutshot! I call, he has J5!!! SWEEET!!! River a J!!!!! YUK!!!!!!!!!!!
I now have 90k and he has about 500k blinds at 3k/6k, I’m in trouble!! I feel sick and almost give up, I fold the next few hands as I pick up 104, 62, 83, 82. I then say to my self if I fold the next hand I have no fold equity (enough chips to get the BB to fold to an all in raise) So I say to myself, I’m all in next hand. I pick up good old 10 4 and push and he folds. I’m now down to 32k btw he should not have folded any two cards there. So I then go allin with a A rag and get called by QJ and win! Get back up to about 90 k, I then push with KQ and he calls with K10. I get back to around 200k and type in the chat box, the game is back on, in other words no more all in rubbish, lets play poker! Back to small ball and I grind up above him, Blinds were going up so even the small pots were nice. With the chip lead I raise with KJ and get called, flop Q 10 8, nice flop, over card plus open an ended, he checks I bets he calls, turn a J, he bets I call, river the 9, he goes all in! I got the nuts and call! He has two pair and my straight is good!! I win a tournament!!!! My biggest tourney to date!! And with GSOP round the corner it should be sweet!!!! WHOOooooooooooooo!

Donkey of the Day
Award goes to DWEBB85 (or 86.87.88.89) who played heads up really badly!! He played the tourny really well got lucky on me heads up, which is fine but he should have stuck me all in every hand once he had that monster chip lead on me! But thanks i'm £1200 richer thanks to you! Royal Holdem here i come!!

£30 Second Chance at Big Slick

Not much to say today, i have not played too much online poker, as i want to get ready for the Gutshot Series of Poker Main event, which will hopefully be a 4 day a event for me! I feel my online game can affect my live game so i want to stay clear of big games, so recently been playing some omaha hi-lo and badgui games instead. Just opened up an ultimate bet account, going to deposit £100 and just play some fun games like Royal Holdem and Pineapple at some low stakes just for fun.

Went to Big SLick and took the rebuy after 3 hands. UTG raises and i flat call with AK, the SB then re raises and UTG folds i then decide to push, thinking here is a good chance to double up and if not just rebuy. I felt i was ahead as the SB was a gd player i mite have been squezzing to take the pot down, as i showed weakness by flat calling a raise, therefore he cannot put me on strength. Here i decided not to play a small pot with AK, which i normally like to do in the early levels, but i felt this may set up a good image for me as well. People may not decide to make moves against me, if they know im not afraid to stick all my chips in. He calls in a flash with KKs, oppps! and i dont get lucky REBUY!!! the rebuy gives you 3k and the buyin gives you 2k, so i got more chips than everyone but the guy i gave my chips too. I play a more solid game and get to the 1st break with 3.5k, although i was targeting around 5k. Not much else to say really i played quite a solid game and my hands held up. One interesting hand before final was a nice battle of the blinds, SB limps and i check with 104. Flop 3 Q 10, SB checks but looked like he wanted to bet out. So i feel he wants this pot and may check raise me if i bet. That was the 1st impression i got, he is a solid player but is willing to bluff to take a pot down. So i decide to go on my read and bet out to see what he does, he makes a fairly quick raise, so i feel this was definatley pre determined, now the question is does he have a had? I feel he may have had a draw or just air. I decide to find out and re raise him back, to which he folds. Apart from that i took the blinds once every 2 rounds and stayed about average til final

Final was quite shooty and with 6 to be paid we were a long way away. We get down to 5 handed and i pick up my biggest hand of the night in the SB, it folds round to me (im the shortest stack) i look and see one Q and say allin, then see the other card is a Q (oppps!!!) i really wanted to slow play this hand, i couldnot afford not to get paid at that stage, the BB folds and i miss an opportunity, Im out next hand when i push on the button with a K, SB finds JJs and no suck out
Ended up £24 up!!! Whooo!!!
Sorry not too interesting today, 2mr should be a good write up, going to gutshot to play the tag team event with Pratik and also buyin into the GSOP main event, so 2mr costing quite abit!!

£10 Rebuy Plus Some Cash at Big Slick

Ok well I tried doing a bit of a Phil Hellmuth today by coming into the tournament half way during the 2nd level but it did not help, as I didn’t last too long. I didn’t do it on purpose as its the start of a religious week and me and my brother had to go to the hall for some prays, so as soon as I come down and sit on my table I look around and see a few regular faces and one player whose record and Big Slick speaks for itself, so was not too happy to see him there, but it was one of the outer tables, which break up soon, so I knew if I got deep there is a chance I would get away from him. Although normally I hate moving tables as you tend to bump into 6-7 new players and you might have to sacrifice some chips to gain that information. But I did not last too long after the rebuy period. Rebuy period was quite normal, although I raised with KQs and everyone folded! Hmmmm not the usual rebuy on that hand! I ended up £60 down with 5.5k infront of me, which is not good as the blinds are 200/400 after the break I always try and target 10k. The freeze out period started and played a few pots and then found Q2 in my BB with the SB and button completing. Flop Q 2 9 bingo bango bongo! How to get the chips? SB checks I a check to the button, I feel he has a marginal hand pre, K10, QJ, Q10, KJ, and would bet on this flop, he fires out. I was not sitting too deep as a I said before and neither was he, so I felt raising after the SB fold was too strong, I needed to gamble a bit too ensure a double up. I flat call and the turn is a 4 (safe card, didn’t want a high card to fill out a straight), I check, he bets 1k I raise to 3k and he goes all in for 1k more, which I call, leaving me with 200 chips left, so basically all in. He has got Q9 ouch! He has flopped top two and I go broke, I’m all in the blind the next hand and my 52 (gutshot powerhouse is no good against A5, guess the power house does not work at Big Slick). Such an annoying way to go out, a few hours before I sent a message to a player at Big Slick about never go broke in an unraised pot, especially in the BB or SB. I have been out in sooooo many comps where I have been in the blinds are seen a cheap flop. A lot of people start a bad beat story by saying oh I was playing K3 or Q7 and flop came blah blah blah, the 1st thing in my head is Why are you playing that hand! If you play trash fine! But know you flops!!

So I sit on cash after wasting £10 on the roulette machine, I sit with £80 on the £1/£2 game (the £50 game, no straddle). First 5 hands I get dealt 4 pocket pairs, and I played them as I always do, flat called a raise pre flop each time. Had 55s and the flop came 10 7 6, hmmmmm a good flop for 55s but not a great one. 4 players in pre and it checks all the way round. Turn is a 3 and checked to the button who bets out £10 everyone folds, im last to act and call with a gutshot and a pair, the river is a 2, another low card but not what I wanted, I check and the guy bets £20. Ok never played with him before but I felt something was not right. He could bet a 10 or a 7 on the flop when checked to him and saw the double check to the button as an invitation to fire out, hey I would do the same. He may think im drawing so he bets the river again, I call to find out what kind of player he is and also feel I may have the best hand I felt I was about 60% sure. I call and he says you must win. I show and he mucks. I pick up 77s and flop a set and bet out, I get raised and someone calls, I then re raise (board was straightening (is that a word!) and flushing) and the raiser calls, I push on the turn and he mucks. About an hour in I pick up AQs I just limp as the game got quite aggressive later on and people raising every hand, I want to see a flop and not get re raised off the hand, some one raises and I call, flop K J 3, ok I miss the flop but have a gutshot straight draw and I feel my Ace is good. So I have 7 outs and also my call might freeze him on the turn and I can bluff the turn. I honestly did not put him on much of a hand, he fired out a weak bet on the flop, so I called. Turn is a 10!!! Bingo!!! I now have the nuts but the board has two flush draws out there. He again bets out a weak bet and I move in, after a little bit of acting, me raise was just over double his bet. He calls, I say I got the nuts, he shows KKK, ouch!!! Sorry mate, his weak bets were actually him saying play back at me! The river doesn’t pair up and I take a £140 pot away, he took the beat very very well, even though all the money went in when I was ahead he still did not kick up a fuss like most people do. Lucky me!!! That’s all I can say, wrong read got me paid but at least I had the wrong read with outs, I always say bluff with OUTS!!

I did not really pick up any more hands except a few broad way cards and saw a few flops and missed. Until I picked up 99s on the button, everyone limped and I did the same. Flop came 4s 9s 3c !!! Bingo! SB bets out £10 and someone calls, then a guy raise to £50, hmmmmm I have the nuts what do they have, I figured the £10 bets were on a 9 or maybe a 56 or a KJ of spades. The £50 bet represented A9 or maybe 10s, but did not think he had 10s as he would have raised pre, so I figured maybe a lower set or two pair so I shove my money in being quite confident of a call. He thinks for a little while, while everyone folds and calls with JJs, (think he was looking to limp raise with JJs pre). The first I look for when he flips his cards was if he had a J of spade which he did, turn is a spade! Yuk!! Went from 2 outs to 11 outs, river is a blank phew!!!!!!!

Not much happened after that and I won a few small pots and limped my way down a bit, ended up £310 up in the cash, which was nice but £60 down in the comp but still a nice day for me, and £250 to contribute to the GSOP on Friday!

Donkey of the Day!!!! Guess what it is ME!!!!!!!
During the rebuy I check raise with top pair K7 on a board of K J 10, Player A calls me, turn is an 8 and A checks and I push, he calls with two pair K8, I flip K7 and get my wallet out, turn is a 9 and I give the dealer £20 for a double rebuy!!! Player A very kindly said you have a Straight!!! DOH!!!! Never thought I would give my self this award!!! The worst thing is I really hate it when people beat me and don’t know they have won, and for me to do it is TERRIBLE!!! And I deserve the award!!!One more thing before I go off to bed, this donkey of the day thing is just a little bit of fun! Its just a joke and not a name and shame thing, that I get a kick out of, if people feel hard done by or do not want me to include them in the nominations that is perfectly fine and I’m sorry if I offend anyone. Just trying to make my Blog a little bit unique!!!

Ladies Night At Big Slick!

After a late late night last night i woke up at around 630pm (went to sleep at around 1pm after a night out in london, where 8 of my mates crashed round my after) and i decided not to go all the way to gutshot and play the £100 freeze, which hates me!!! (Bubbled twice and 12th once, and final 2 tables loads of times!) I thought to go Big Slick for Ladies night, which is a unique comp, where ladies enter for free and get 1500 chips and men buyin for £20 and get 1500 and there after there is a £10 rebuy for 1000 chips. So i make my way down there and Dave Lu and his Girl friend Lauren have come to play as well, anyways we draw seats and i'm on lauren table, which is NOT good, she is a good player and very tight, therefore hard to get some chips pff her especially in the rebuy period, when its all about getting chips on your table.

The rebuy period starts off very strangly, we were 7 handed which was quite annoying but the worst thing was in the first 20 minutes no one rebought!!! The table was very tight and that does not work for me! So i started getting aggressive, which backfired and meant i started spending alot, which is not great in these 4/5 table comp as by haveing 5/6 rebuy you now need to come 4th or 5th to break even, which is not the way i like to play these comps. At one stage in the 2nd level one 3 people had a rebuy, one guy only had one rebuy and me and this other guy had the rest! This was not a good start to the night, i end up spending £90 before i get control of my game and pick up a few pots in a row with AK and then got quite lucky, on a flop of 7 5 4 rainbow i check raise allin the big stack with A6, he calls with 56 and i hit runner runner flush!! OHHH YEH!! Now i claim i never give out alot of bad beats and to be honest this really isnt too much of one, we can chop a few ways and an Ace will scoop for me, but there is one rule i will always say, there is NO such thing as a BAD BEAT in a REBUY period. One outters or running one outers, you lose REBUY!!! If not you probably should not be playing a rebuy comp. Ending the rebuy on 10k plus the 3k double addon for £20 left me on 13k and £110 in which meant i needed to come 6th or 7th to B-E.

I then just played a solid tight game and in these comps there is not too much room to play, i waited for nice hands or atleast be in position to take any pots away. I showed a tight image and as we got down to 2 tables i was on about 22k, which was above average but not comfortable as most one day comps are quite crapshooty and 15BB is not really enough to play with. So this guy moves to my table, i think his name might have been scott but not too sure, he had a betfair chip, a smile on his face and he knew Dave Pomroy from somewhere, if they play together then im in trouble, but this was just my 1st impression. I tend to size up my players when they sit down, i mean it easy a people game. He then started talking alot and knew a few people, although i hadnt seen him before. So i thought lets see what he does, he reminded me of Daniel Negreanu, not because he was at that level, just because he talked alot and wanted to see and play flops and would talk people into doing things that he wanted and always kept a smile on his face. Daniel does that alot before he ROBS people blind (not a pun) but people do not seem to care as he keeps the game friendly, im not saying this guy did this as well as daneil but he definately saw alot more flops in his BB then any other player, as more people were limping, even though the blinds were huge. (Sorry if i ruined your game plan!!! Sorry if i have totally misinterrpretend the situation but its a complement (such bad spelling!!)). He basically dominated the table and built his stack up while mine went day as i could not play a hand for like 4 orbits and my stack went down and blinds were going up. When 11 left i moved in with Q10 UTG (5 handed) BB called with A5 and i got lucky and stayed alive. 11th place went out and the usually do a deal for 1oth place came up and we all agreed £50 off the top for 10th. I then moved in UTG the next round with 10s and 'Daniel' called for about 70% of his stack, pot was around 58K with blinds at 2k/4k and average at about 28k, by the way he called he did not seem to happy, so i felt at worst 50/50, he flips over AJ, which i dont think is the right call against my range of 'allin hands'. The only hand he dominates (ie more than a 65% favourite) of my range of allin hands is A10, although i make the same move with KQ, im only a slight dog, if i have AQ/AK he is in trouble and if a pair higher than 10s, again he is in trouble. Also he has invested zero in the pot and i dont think you want to be doubling me up (yes i think im a dangerous player) when at best you are 50/50, but then AGAIN, we are 5 handed, everone gets paid, AJ is a big hand 5 handed, i could be making a move, and its a chance to knock a player out and still have chips spare if wrong. So we were off to the races, all blanks and an ACE on the river DOH! oh well cant complain, 50/50 when the money went in and lost. I walk away with 5 points for the league and £60 less in my pocket! I head off home not wanting to play cash, i feel tournys are gd in live rooms and cash is better for me online, i play premium cards in cash games and waiting in a live card room for that can take allllll night long!
Went home, watched Arsenal mess up against Villa, ate some food and went to play some Mario Kart at my mates house, we ended up playing a £1 freeze out, with four players picking one game each!!!! Holdem (boring Pratik), Omaha (Niraj), Irish (Amar) and Royal Holdem (Who else but me!) We played for like 3 hours and Niraj took out Pratik and Amar in the same hand of Omaha, it was 5am and offered niraj a chop!! £2 each!!!! Fun Times!!!!
Hmmmm I know what you are thinking????

Who is Donkey of the Day???? Well didnt see to many bad plays! I mean i did see bad plays but couldnt really see any awful plays, oh no wait!!! In Royal Holdem (Cards only 10 to A in the pack) Niraj flat called with the NUTS!!!! Board of A A K 10 K, Amar bet out with the K and Niraj flat called with AK, I said why you do that! He goes he could of had QUADS!!!! I laughed saying HOW!! You got his OUTS!!!!
So well Neal the Steal you win the DONKEY OF THE DAY AWARD!!!!! Congrats!!!

P.S While playing at Big Slick, i mentioned my blog and someone said yeh I saw it on the front page of the big slick website, I said no its on the forum section, so i had a look and someone has put in on the front page which is quite nice!!! Although i wonder if it will stay there when i start talking about my days at gutshot, hmmmmmm lol

Pocket Pairs !?!?!?!? Yummy? or Not?

Hello all, hope the blog has been interesting so far. Today I just want to focus on pocket pairs in holdem. Whether it is a cash game or a tournament these are crucial hands to play or not to play. In poker I think the best way to play is to give yourself easy decisions and I feel pocket pairs CAN give you a very difficult time. Ok lets take PPs in cash games for now (response to Perrys email, thank for the email, nice to get some feedback) If playing a full ring game (9/10 handed) making easy decisions easy is crucial. As I have stated before I love small pot poker. Therefore increasing the pot with hands like 88s or 67s is not the way forward in my mind. Yes, it does disguise your hand as most people feel if you raise you must have a range of hands like 10s to AK. Unless you are on a table with non-believers, which in my opinion is often the case. Most bad players do not care about your image; they just play their cards and nothing else. This is especially true in a live card room where the standard of play, in my opinion, is pretty poor. At the higher levels you will have to mix up your game you otherwise you will not get any action when you pick up a hand.

This brings me back to a night at Big Slick. I made the final table with a comfortable chip stack and played a solid game, stealing when needed in position, but when moving in, I had the goods. I get to the final and raise a few hands early on picking up the blinds, one guy moves in on me and I call with 10s which hold up. Then I raise with KKs and AQ moves in instantly without a thought for all his chips, (Ace hits) Then raise with AQ and some moves in with garbage and hits, I then move in with 66s and A10 moves in instantly! So a lot of players look at their cards and do not care what has happened before. This doesn’t happen at the higher levels.

So anyway back to PPs, I like to limp and flop big, as in hit a set. A few weeks ago I loved calling raises, but not re-raising, just to flop a set and hope they catch top pair or have an over pair. If you play it right, especially betting out if an Ace hits, you can get the guy to move in or re-raise you, and from then on it depends on the player if you want to stick it in or smooth call and check the turn. However after playing this style I felt it was unprofitable. I kept calling raise missing the flop and folding. You flop the set 12.5% of the time and to call off $16-$20 or £7 to £13 (depending on the stakes) it gets quite expensive. For this play to work we need to be achieving a +EV, which means if we spend $200 for say 8 flops we need to making more than $200 after taking those 8 flops. Now, unless you are a lucky player *cough GUV cough* this is unlikely to happen. As on some occasions you mite flop a set of 5s of a 2 5 9 board on the original raise made it $16 to go with AK off and got no part of the flop and is willing to let it go, so you end up paying $16 to win $16 on the 12% chance of hitting that 5, that does not sound profitable to me at all. Also going back to giving yourself easy decision if the flop comes 9 5 3, and you hold pocket 88s what do you do now if 3 other people in the pot and the original raiser comes out betting?

So I have mixed it up a bit with small pairs. I tend to only raise with JJs and above and only re raise with KK or AA, maybe QQ if against a short stack or if I feel I can get it heads up. I do not really want to play QQ strong in a multi way pot. So now it comes down to who you are playing against, if you are playing someone who plays AK hard see a flop and if you avoid an A/K/Q bet it out or maybe check call if you are sure they will play the nut high hard. But remember any Muppet can wake up with AAs not matter how bad they play, so you cannot always assume they have nothing. Another thing to be careful with when calling with PPs just hoping to flop a set is the worst thing in holdem SET over SET!! That just hurts thinking about it! YUK YUK YUK!!! The whole point in calling a raise with a PP is to crack a big hand. But what is a big hand AK or AA. If the flop comes 9 A 6 and you have 99s and you are getting action did they raise with AA or AK, hmmmmm.

This brings me back to a hand, which I felt I played poorly online. I raised with QQ in early position on the $1/$2 game and got re raised. At this point in the game people were not re raising with AK or small PPs so I felt he has KK or AA, but he didn’t make the bet too large and I felt if I flop a Q I’m good but I said to myself before I called if the flop comes Ten high you not going broke (an example of making the decision easier for me). The flop comes J 3 Q, bingo bango bongo!! He checks!!!!! HUH!!!!! Why has he checked? I was very confused here and my read of KK or AA has gone out the window I feel he has JJ or AK now, I check behind encase he has AK and I need for him to catch up, but again I said if a ten peels off I will fold, then turn is an Ace and he bets out, I am now sure he had AK or JJ and I raise, he moves in and I call, he has AAA!!!! Ouch!! Now I realise he wanted to check raise me or keep the pot small on the flop, I think the money goes in on the flop anyway, but was disappointed I moved away from my original read of AA or KK and I think KKs gets away on the turn.
In conclusion playing PP for a set is slightly weak, you need to play it for something else unless in a multi way pot where the chances are someone will flop big or against someone who hates folding AK. But it is very important to know who you are playing against rather than the cards itself, you need to be making +EV moves every time to be a profitable cash game player, but then again sometimes you cannot avoid it, like in the latest high stakes poker where Gus and Daniel tangle in a $600,000 pot!!

Bad Night at Big Slick!! But Recovered Online!!

Played the £10 rebuy at big slick, which went really bad, was doing ok until i lost a nice pot with K3 on a board of K77, when jerome bet out i raised and mayur decided to move in with 66, myself and jerome called and we were choping until a 6 hit on the river, then i played QQ AJ and KKs and lost all those hands which were all in on flops or pre. It was a £10 rebuy but i take a double rebuy each time so each rebuy cost me £20, so it got expensive, ended up all in on the last hand with top pair vs a flush draw and the flush hit! So i double rebought then took the double addon for £40 total so spent about £120 and had basically the minimum amount of chips! Folded every hand in 1st orbit and picked up 55s UTG but the table was 6 handed at the time, i pushed needing a double up but i'd rather pick up the blinds with a hand like 55s, it folded round to Mayur in the SB who said i respect your bet and he folds AhKh the BB however did not and called with AsKs, flop bought 2 spades and i was out, went with my mate Pratik and with 3 tables left he was looking strong, he went on to come 2nd and take £500, which aint too bad, but he still has never won a comp in his life, whether its a home game or a 100+ runner event, he just cant play heads up!!

Cash game went really bad could not pick up a playable hand and every pot was raised! so it got expensive when i called with 6h4h and 7s5s and the flop was always JK10, so sick when that happens, was an action game but nothing going my way, David Pomroy came on the table (high roller, nice guy, met him through a mate) He sat in for £500 with everyone else on £100 although he didnt really bully alot, as he played a quite solid game unless he picked up A9 (his killer hand, if you see him on the EPT final table in Dublin, he calls an all in with A9 high vs a set and his runner runner for a striaght! Video is on You tube!) I got involved with him on a K Q 10 2 spade board, i was holding the Ks5s, which is a nice hand, i check raise all in to his bet and he calls instantly, now i think im behind but got outs, the pair and the flush draw can be such a lovely site but when you get called you are almost always behind. He goes to me sorry, he flips AJ i say hmmmm i got outs, turn is a 5 giving me 2 pair and a flush draw but a blank on the river means RELOAD!!!! I lose another £100 later on in the game calling a lot to see flops and never really connecting, was difficult to bluff as most people were betting and raising every flop and it was difficult to win a hand with out a showdown and in that sort of game you need to pick my hands and get the max when u got the goods and lose the min when you aint.
Over all £290 down at Big Slick (although £100 up earlier online) so not a great night for me, gona go play some $2/$4 and keep the grind alive!

Just played for just over an hour and made just under £300 two tabling, sat with $250 on two 6 handed tables left one with $240 and the other $800, just played some solid poker and not too many pots relying on draws, hate draws!!! Not really any interesting hands to post about, i just took alot of $20/$30 pots un contested, although I remember making a bad move early on
Was on about $300 with QJ and limp for $4, the SB makes in $16 to go and i call, flop Ks 10d 3s, he bets $32 and i call, turn is a 9s giving me the nut str8 but always there is no a flush draw out there, he checks to me, and i have to bet here incase he has the bare As and i cant allow him to draw out, at this point i feel he had AK and is scared of the 9s as it is a big drawing card. i bet about $50 and he calls, river is a 3c which pairs the board, so now i am losing to a flush or a house, he checks to me. i have two options here (yes i know you always have 2 options!) i can check as the only hand i will get called against is AK or a better hand or i can value bet and hope he will call with AK, i decide to bet out here another $70, he MOVES in and he has me covered. YUK!!! Now what? I wished i checked behind!! This is the problem with two tabling!! You lose EV on each table however ur overall EV should increase, i dont know how you manics like Jambon and Flash play like 6 tables it insane! So i think for a while and feel that he put me on a flush and knew i would bet the river which is great if he has a house, i felt he could on the turn on a draw but put him on the As draw but maybe he was looking to pair the board as he was sitting on KKK or 101010, i decide to lay it down and wait for a better spot, i felt for him to make that move he must be beating a flush, and have the house, although he could have had the AsQs as another hand to make the same move, he didnt show so dont know whether it was the wrong move or not.

Ok that was a bad hand i played but still ended up nicely up, so lets just talk about a nice hand i played before i go to bed, I pick uo 6s7s ( ohhhhhhhhh yeh!!) and someone min raises everyone calls, so $48 in the middle (well a little bit less due to rake, oh btw im on about 254k action points!!) flop comes two spades, i check and some one bets (on the button!) out $30 and i call, everyone else folds, turn is a 7 giving me a pair and a flush draw, i lead out for $45 and he calls but he only has $45 left so now i'm thinking i should have put him all in because i dont think he will folded to any bet on the river unless he is flushing aswell, if he had a big hand he should stick his last $45 in so i dont suck out, well the river is a blank and i push in his last $45 and he thinks for ages until the timer expires to FOLD!!! Phew!!!!, although comming to think about it i might be bluffing with the best hand there, it was a $200 pot which he folded for $45 hmmmmmmmmmmmmm!!!

Oh well gd for me!!! off to bed gd nite all !!!

New Feature : Donkey of the Day!!!

Im off to Big Slick tonight to play in the £20 buy in with £10 rebuy comp, should be good also need to get some more points on their leaderboard, where top place gets free entry to £330 comp and the next 49 get a seat into a freeroll to the £330 comp, with more points you have the more chips you start with, im currently 6th i think, gotta move up tonite!!!

DONKEY AWARD!!!!
Each night i play i'll be giving out the award for best Donkey!! Last night the first award was given out to the one and only WPT female poker player DAVID LU!!!!!!

This is just a bit of fun but also to show how many donkeys play this game!!!

Small Pot Poker?? Big Draws?? Royal Holdem??? High Stakes Poker 2x10

I woke up at my usual time of around 3ish, I normally wake up due to phone calls, which was the case today as well, stop calling me people!!! I sleep till at least 3pm!!!
I went straight on my lap top to play a bit of $2/$4 while checking my emails and all the poker sites and to make sure I downloaded the new high stakes poker, which is meant to be quite good as Gus has just joined the game, have not watched it yet but will give a review later.

Sat down on 2 tables and sat with $250 on each, one was a 6 seater and the other a 9 seater. They are very different games, in the 9 handed game you want to play a lot more flops and premium hands while in the 6 handed game I like to raise more and play more position poker. I feel in the 9 handed is a more nutty game and less room to bluff. In the six handed game I picked up AA on the button, where UTG made it $13 to go, I don’t like to play this hand clever in anyway as I feel if you find it difficult to fold a hand you have to play it strong, in comps I might slow play a big hand but it cash especially in no limit you stack is always up for grabs I make it $54 to go (someone else called the $13), original raiser folds and the caller calls, I put him on a suited connector or a Pocket pair looking to crack my big hand. Flop is K high with 2hearts he checks to me and I bet around $80, he calls the turn is another h, I have the Ah in my hand which is nice but not a great turn card, checks again, I decided to bet here thinking he may have AK, and feel he will call another bet, which he does. Normally I might check here as scared of flush draw and also to keep the pot SMALL!, I love small pot poker and keeping everything under control, yes I do therefore allow people to catch up but I like to minimise the risk, like in early levels of a comp I will call a single raise with AK and not re raise in a cash game, there is just no need to increase pots. River is a blank and he checks and I fire out a small bet which is actually half his stack, he calls and I take a $400 pot away.

On the 9 handed table I call a raise with 7d8d, flop comes 5d k h 6d, ohhhhhhhhhhhh YEH!!! Nice flop for me!!! The raiser bets out and I make a raise, I feel he is continuation betting and I can take the pot here and also put pressure on him if he has AK, I mean after all I might have a massive draw but I only had 8 high! He then pushes back at me and I move in (guess I didn’t keep the pot small this time!!) He flips over KKK and I’ve got 15 outs twice so im a slight favourite in the hand but basically a coin flip. If only we could run it twice on the Internet!!!! Was a $500 pot and my whole stack.. I miss on the turn and he fills up on the river, DOH! In this blog I want to analysis hands where I lost money and where I could have made more money. Ok what could I have done differently? The fact is I got the money in as a slightly favourite, however if some (in a live game) one was all in and flipped over AK would I call with 77s for all my chips. The answer would be no, which is basically what I did here. It’s funny how people see draws as a massive thing but you are still BEHIND!!. Also when he pushes backs at me, I have to give him credited for more than AK therefore as a pre flop raisers I have to give him top set or maybe middle set, therefore a couple of my out draw cards are dead. So why do people constantly do this (including me!) In a deep stack tournament I might lay the hand down as I know it’s a coin flip, but in cash games I would be more inclined to call as you can always re load. So what do you think?? I could have check called missed my draw on the turn then re valuate the situation and fold to a pot size pot therefore only losing $40 odd bucks but what if I hit my straight flush on the turn which will send out warned signs to the player that every draw has hit, it would be difficult to get paid off then, especially if he only had AK, im sure he would still call a bet with KKK, as people just don’t fold a set! I think I will play the hand differently just depending on my mood really, stoped playing after an hour and ended my $150 up from the two tables. Want to go Big slick tonight for the £30 second chance but got a family diner to go to, so will probably end up playing some more wonderful online poker!


Didnt get to play much poker last night due to a family diner, therefore could not go big slick and joined Tom and Dave in the £30 semi freeze out as they call it, basically a double chance comp where you can take 1/2 or all your chips at the start for £30/£60. Another reason was after the diner by the time i got home the interent for some reason crashed!?!?!? Its really scary how much i need the interent, get so bored at home with out it. So i just ended up watching Big Brother until Davey Lu called saying him and Flash were outside my house. So i invited them in a round each of Holdem, Omaha Hi-Lo and Royal Holdem, basically choose a game each, i took Hi-Lo, Dave took Royal Holdem (only cards in the deck are 10 to A, then just play holdem) you can actually flop the nuts and be drawing dead!!!! and Flash took on Holdem as its the only game he can play and he is really boring!!! Dave was 1st out after trying to outplay everyone and then it was me and flash, i had him dominated in Omaha Hi-Lo, i played so well he is thinking of staking me in the $215 comp on stars, top prize over $7k. Tom caught a few lucky cards however to chop pots. But tom played a solid game and took it down!!! oh btw Dave came 4th in the Big slick comp after taking Tom out on the Final Table bubble with 65 against Flashes A5 soooooted ouch!!

Ok thats about all the poker i played!! So not much at all!
Donkey of the night goes to : Dave Lu
PS

High Stakes Poker 10 is great, i felt the game dried out a bit but there is a pot not to be missed!!! I will talk about it another day dont want to spoil it for anyone, but dont miss it!!!

Current Status As A Poker Player

I play a lot of poker especially during my summer holidays as to be honest their is not much to do, as a lot of my mates have jobs and i just bum around.
I have been playing alot of live poker at Gutshot and Big Slick in London, playing comps ranging from £10 rebuys to £100 freezes and playing cash from a £50 buy in to a £200 buy in.
Currently playing online at the Rivercard, which is a skin from VC and Doyle rooms, using that site to try and get 2million ish action points by next year so i can go to veagas and play a $2000 WSOP event for free!!! One million action points = $1000 buy in event. Currently on 240,000 points which took just over a month, which is great but everything will slow down when uni starts! if anyone wants to join the site let me know!! i can get you 5% rake back a little something for my self!! : ) Sorry to talk soooo much about my life i know the poker fanatics just wana hear about the poker and individual hands etc.. but im just giving a back ground of who i actually am!

Currently playing online on the $2/$4 cash games and they are going quite well, hoping to slowly move up and up for the next few years
Current short term aim is make £330 to play the GSOP (Gutshot Series of Poker) main event which is a freeze out with 10k stack and a 2 hr clock which is tooooooo sweet!! i played it last year and got to the final day but no cash :( but a great experience for me! But buying into to £330 comp is quite a bit so looking to make that money this month, up around £800 at the moment but as we know poker has its ups and down, if im still up by like the 20th i will play, also looking to play the tag team event which is a £50 + £50 comp which sounds gd, mite have to play with my annoying loud mate Zenal!!!!
OK enough about me!!!! next few posts is going to be all about poker!! Alot of analysis and evalution of certain players and hands, please feel free to discuss hands that i talk about and we can all help each other!!!!
Oh btw every table i play on there is always a DONKEY!!!!

The 1st Post/ Little about me

Hello!!!!
For those who dont know me and have decided to read my blog! its all about poker, was thinking of also making this a diary/poker blog but felt too many personal issue will get involved that i dont really need to share with everyone, btw my english is awful so you will have to deal with some awful writting skills, but what i lack in that, i will make up in pure poker genius! lol
Little about me..... My name is Dhruv Doshi (Dru for short). i am a 20 year old student at Warwick university (UK) currently going into my 3rd and final year doing accounting and finance which really sucks, very boring, if you thinking of doing it dont! Started playing poker about 2 and a half years ago with my two good mates niraj and amar after we got bored revising for A levels, just gave us something to do, we started off playing 3 card poker for 1p and 2ps and moved up to holdem playing for paper money!!! i learnt the game properly at uni and my game is improving every time i sit down, i played basically every day for the last few years, alot on the interent but i suck on the net and more live, which is where i feel i play my best game. i've played all over the country at Gutshot in london, Big Slick, Cat Luck, in scotland, oxford, coventry, birmingham, walsall and even in Paris at the famous aviation club, ok thats my breif into, now on to the poker!!!! oh by the way my favourite player is Phil Hellmuth the winner of 10 braclets go PHIL!!!!! Hopefully one day I would be as good as him!!