Another Win at Big Slick!!!

£20 buyin with £10 rebuys yday, which means a £20 rebuy for me. I came a little bit late as usual and had an interesting table, which got more interesting as it filled up. Big Slick runs a monthly leader board, which I’m currently 3rd in. It is basically a four horse race with the winner getting a free £330 seat into the big main event in October. All 4 of us just happened to be on the same table.

The Rebuy period was crazy as ever with a few blind all in! I get AQ and double up early on but eventually lose it all by calling away up chips with small suited connectors. Got involved in a 4 way all in with 67 on a flop of 7 5 4 up against 85, JJ and 55s, I had outs but they all missed but a J hit on the river giving a newbie a lot of chips!! The pot was about 14/15k, which is plenty for after the break. A few more rushing allin and I benefit with a 53 calling two allins, I hit and got a nice stack. After the break plus the double add on was on about 8k and in for £60

In the freeze out stage I picked up JJ 2nd hand in a raised and took the pot down, then picked up AhKh and made the same raise the next hand and the BB called, I needed a caller here, blinds at 200/400 are high at the stage but I need to win big pots to get a stack. Flop is very nice; it comes 2h 5h and 4c. I have the nut flush draw and a gutshot str8 with over cards, he checks and I bet out 1400, he calls, he has around 4/5k left, the turn is a blank and he checks and I move all in, I feel he has hit a small pair and is winning. I am no longer favourite if this is the case and I need to push him off the hand and if I get called I got outs, if I lose I still have 4/5k left. He folds, later I find out he was flushing too! Dam!! Needed that heart to fall but then again he may push on the river if he misses and I would have to fold A high. I then pick up 22 and decide not to raise 3 hands in a row, on my immediate left someone makes the standard raise and its folded round to me, he had around 4k and I have almost 15k, I decide to stop n go, if no Ace hits the flop I’ll stick it in. Flop is 9 high and I go all in, he calls instantly and I think he mite have JJs but he does not just AQ, a miss on the turn and river gives me some more chips.

Me and this lady were both chip leaders on the table and things were going well for me, I pick my another nice hand with AK and raise, she calls in the BB, she was playing quite tight but I think overvalued certain Aces and PP. Flop came AK4, sweet!!! She bets out though! She was clearly new to the game and I feel she has hit her Ace, but she has a big stack and do not want get too much involved so I make a raise to 2k after she bet out 500, she quickly called. Turn is a 8 and she goes allin for about 9k! HUH!!! She cannot have a set can she? That would be sooooo sick! I eventually call and she flips over AT and is drawing dead I get up to 32k in chips!!! That actually enough chips for final table but there were still three tables left! So was in good shape, I never get a big stack but I like to think I play it well, so here was on chance!

There was a situation where someone was allin and there were 4 of us checking him down, by the river I had a pair of As, someone else had a pairs of As with a Q kicker and someone had AT for two pair. I mentioned to AT it may have been worth betting out the river to get one of us to call, I would have folded but i’m sure AQ would have called if it was a small bet. The advise was not taken well and a debate over empty side pots kicked out, I just felt he lose maybe a 1k bet here but I will right about that another day.

Get moved tables as the table break and I come across 2 new guys, who I had never played with before, the rest I knew quite well. We got down to about 7 on the last two tables when the SB raises my BB I see A5 and was thinking of shoving, he did not have lot of chips and I felt he might be making a move but I decide to call and see a flop, as I never seen him before. Flop is a big miss for me and he shoves, I then say you were pushing on any flop right, he said nothing but that was the vibe I was getting therefore my A high if good pre flop is probably good 2/3 time here as he misses the flop. But then again I had not played with him and I had only lost a few chips to his raise. I fold and he shows 9 high! Doh!!!!

We then get 7 handed on each table, and everyone rocks up as they can smell the final table. I was chip leader but one other new guy was close to me, so I politely asked him how many chips he had, he said ‘no’, hmmm ok I thought he was joking and said seriously how many do you have?, he refused saying count them yourself, me being at the other end of the table, it was not possible, I thought he was being a complete idiot about it, its is fair question and he really annoyed, he then made the dealer count it out, which I felt is just rude as the dealer is a mate of mine and I do not want to waste time giving him extra work. I said to myself I’m raising his BB next!! I know its very immature and stupid but he did really annoy me, especially as he claims to have played an EPT (which turned out to be a £300 freeze and not the main event) and he had just gone to the WSOP and was very proud about it. That actually made it more annoying about his table behaviour, that he had played a lot and still was acting like a muppet. He then tries to be cheeky and I asked me for a chip count at, which I immediately reply 29 thousands with out any hesitation, of course I did not have that many chips but I was roughly right. But I did say to myself I’m going to bust him out.

He limps UTG 6 handed I find KKs and say here we go! I’ll get him here, I’m in the SB and I raise it up but he folds, what was he limping with 6 handed. Really do not like that play limp UTG then fold to a standard raise. My stack was ok on about 40k just trying to take the blinds down once a round and get to final. Won a nice pot with J8, in the SB I call and the BB checks, Flop is 3 7 5 and we both check, turn is a Q and I check, he bets and I call planning to take this away on the river. River is a T and I fire out, he thinks for while and thankfully folds.

Made it to final about 4th in chips, which I was happy with, normally I’m at final with 4 BB but had few more than that today.

Final table started off dangerously as we had a MP raise, an all in and another all in. Folded round to the MP raisers who fold AJ and KQ vs KK was the 1st hand on final, KKs hold up but we still have 9 players. We get down to 7 people and I have not really played a hand, took the blinds with J8 and K9 and lost a small pot with AK.

7 left and someone raises in EP I see KKs in the BB and move all in, he calls with JJs and my KKs hold!. Few more go out and we were 5 handed for a while.

A normally sensible good player then goes a bit crazy and string bets an all in with KQ, he is forced to call and I see a flop and turn hitting a pair with my A4. I bet and he folds, so I mite have knocked him out if he didn’t string bet, but not 100% sure I would have called. He then later goes all in out of turn on a bluff, which had to stand and someone calls and he hit runner runner str8!!! He is not normally like this, I think it was the maowi sweet!! I was now getting short and was in allin mode, moved in with QJ on the button and the BB mucks AT, phew!!

I then push in the SB with A6 and get called by Q2 (short stacked) and lose that flip, it was taking a while to lose a player, eventually there were a few BB SB battle and situations where the BB had to call the raises all in. Mr I will not count chips, makes some very bad tournament plays as he kept folded when some with 2xBB moved all in on his BB. He then says to me, you call him! I say I have zero invest and no odds. He clear had more talk in his mouth than his poker game. He called the 1st two times and lose flips and then refused to do it after that, he kept two people in the game because he was not willing to gamble with 2 live cards when getting more than generous odds, so he annoyed me even more by bad poker comments. He then choose this time to mention he was chip leader for 3 hours at this years WSOP! Hmmmmmm
We get 4 handed and SB vs BB, the SB moves in on my BB I look and see 99s and call he has 44s and I win!

I then offer a deal, not a chop but a change in prize pool, stacks were 20k, 70k, 110k and prize were roughly £200-£395-£740 blinds were also very high but the chip leader said no, which is fair enough, but we all know what the curse is!!! He will go out next! Next hand he doubles up the short stack and then loses a big flip and he is out! We actually did a deal just before he went out and took £40 off the top to give to 3rd. Do not reject the deal people!!!

Get heads up with the guy I so badly wanted to take out but I only had 40k and he had 150k in chips! But I love Heads up poker! I was more than willing to take him on! I was short so was in allin or fold mode, this happened for 5 hands and then he makes a huge mistake!!! He says lets play some poker and flops, too much all in all in!! He clearly underestimated me!! If we play flops (my kind of game) I got this, he was the big stack and should be putting pressure on me every hand but he failed to do so. I was very happy when he said to play flops because I was more than confident to out play him. The very next hand I double up!! I hit the str8 while he had two pair, but if me or him moved in or fold pre flop he loses next to nothing. I got up to 140k and he now had 50k. He moves in next hand, I say to myself calling with any Ace and high K, I see Qd8d and think this is worth a gamble, if I lose I still have enough chips to come back and I call! He shows 45 and my Q8 is good for 1st place and 2nd on the big slick leader board but more importantly another win!!!! (oh and £700!!)

Gary's Home Game and £30 Second Chance

Monday

Gary invited me to his home game on Monday what was meant to be a £20 rebuy but changed into a £10 rebuy. Then he texted me later saying bring a jumper! I was slightly confused but as i asked for directions to his new (very nice) house he said we are playing outside!! Which reminded me of the Artic Freezeout where people played in the north pole and could buy chips with cloths, was an Inter Poker tournament with the WSOP 2002 winner R. Varkoni.

I arrived with Zenal and we had 10 players but one was under age!!! Gary little son was playing, Jay, which was nice. Atleast one new face the rest were the usual from the home game i used to play regularly last summer. I'm like the kid where there is a few 28+ and a few 34+ and one 45+ so alot of experience in there. But it a nice friendly game but for once i was not the youngest. There is a big divide among the players at this game. 3 never fold, 3 always fold and 3 mix it up! So its all about playing the player. ]I set the chips (as usual!) and we were ready to go!

The Rebuy period was slow to start off with but got more interesting at the end. folded most of my hands until the 3rd level. (20 min clock, rebuys for the 1st hour, 1k starting stack, with double addons at the end for £20) I got involved in a family pot with J2 in the BB and the flop came J A 3 and Jay goes all in and i call with middle pair, just looking to gamble, i had only had one rebuy and there were some big stacks on the table. Jay flips over AT and i needed help. The next card was a J! Bingo and i scoop the pot, but then Jays goes off crying!!!! Opps!!! I felt really bad he is really young! But Gary told him its apart of the game you got to learn!!! i felt really bad but its poker!!!

I ended the rebuy period with about average and with the 10 players we managed a prize pool of £430 and £200 to the winner, 2nd - £140, 3rd - £70 and 4th-£20, i was in for £50 totally so was in good shape. I decided to play ultra tight and let the rest fight it out. With in 30 minutes we lost half the field and i had not played a hand. Even though the blinds are low in this game it means nothing. People raising stupids amounts and still get action. One hand there were a few limpers, so i limped on the button with As5s, the BB (Mr aggressive) moves all in and gets a caller. Then a tight players goes all in on top and the caller calls as well. Now i know what you are thinking, there has to be a AK or AQ or JJ out there but nope!! Just KJ vs KJ vs 66!!!! The KJ wins with a flush!! The other KJ wins the side pot after hitting a Jack. Crazy game!! But its fun!

We are 5 handed before i play a hand, i find JT and call from the SB, we have a family pot.
Flop K Q 3 rainbow, i check and Myron (mr aggressive) bets out and Minh calls (never folds) and i call, the rest fold, turn is a sweet sweet 9! Nuts!!! i check and mryon checks (very surprising and i'm not happy but Minh bets out 500 (same bet on flop) i make it 1500 to go, (they will pay anything with top pair or a draw so i feel i need to bump it up now other wise if they miss the draw i get nothing, when i say draw i mean any draw even a gutshot or a bottom two pair draw!) Myron then moves allin!!! Bingo!!!! Minh thinks for ages and folds his J9!! i call and Myron has pocket AAs (damm!!!) the one hand he slow plays!!!

We get 4 handed and in the money and i win a few pots, i checked round i always fired out a small bet to steal and it worked a few times. Mryon was on the short stacked but kept doubling up and before we knew it he was chip leader again. Last time we played a comp it was me and him heads up. He is so aggressive and crazy but he is so fearless a quality i do not really have in my arsenal. In cash games or a slow clock tournament he will be hurt but in this kind of game it works!! Minh goes out next when he moves in with Ax and i call with AQ. Then Gary loses a big pot, he flops an opened str8 flush draw when Myron has flopped the str8. Gary misses and on the river with just a pair bets out 4k (average stack 15k) and Mryon makes it 8k, Gary shows me his hand i see a pair of 9s and suddenly he calls! i was like huh and he misread his cards!!! Donkey move!! HE thought he had a str8 and Myron leaves Gary with a BB. Next hand im in the SB with J6 and move in, Gary has to call with JT, and i hit 3 6s! Sorry mate!!!

Heads up again with Myron, last time we played he won! I remember i floped a royal flush draw and he floped the flush and we got it all in and his hand held up, i really wanted the win this time. There was only £60 difference in prize money, so it was all about the win and i love heads poker!!!

BLinds were quite high and Mryon had a 3 to 1 lead on me but i felt confident i was sure he would bluff at the wrong time, but too be fair he had not bluffed all night!! We play a few small pots mostly checked down or a bet on the flop took it. Blinds went up again and i picked my AJ. I raised and he called. Flop came J K 3 and he checked and i bet, he called. Turn a 8 and we both checked, river a blank and he checks i bets out and he is about to fold, then he changed his mind and moved all in!!! HUH!!! He had me covered so the wrong move here and he wins, i got middle pair which is very stong HU but why as he check raised me all in here. I thought for ages thinking he has not bluffed all night, but then i thought why would he play a K like that , then i thought if he sucked out 2 small pairs on the river gd luck to him!! I figured he mite have a weak J and i called! He shows 22!!! My AJ was good!!!!!! later he said he just wanted to show me a bluff! and give me a rub down!!

We then were all in 3 hands in a row, after the last pot crippled in and my A2 lost to his QT and then T9 lost to his KQ and then my A6 beat his KT and i won!!! Another win for me!!! I guess they come together!!!! Was a good game, hadnt had a home game for a while and was some good fun apart from making J cry!!! Sorry mate!! You will get me in the end!!!

Tuesday

£30 Second chance at big slick, not much happened played alot of hands at the start to get a lead, called a raise with T 8 after another caller and flop came T high and i pushed was immediate called by the raiser, at this point i say ' can i get me chips bk thought she had JJs but she had KKs instead! Doh!!!!!
Buyin for 3k and now in trouble, but blinds still low, pick up 88s and flop a set and win about 1k, i then go up and down a bit.
One hand annoyed me, i got my stack to 7k, which is alot, was the only guy on the table who had to rebuy so everyones 'average' was 2k while mine was 5k. Anyway it folds round to the SB who calls the 75 (blinds 75/150) and i check in the BB with T7, flop comes Tc 3d 8d, SB checks and i check, hate betting out top pair heads ups. Turn is 9d but i'm not too worried about him having a flush, i also pick up a str8 draw. He checks and i bet out here, he calls, hoping no more diamonds. River is a black 2 i miss my st8 but i still have top pair and he checks to me, i then bets out 550 and he raises to 1500, hmmmmmmmm, ok he is a solid player, not played long enough with him to think he is a rock. He might be looking to out play me as he seemed a confident player. I eventually call thinking he wouldnt have check the flush draw HU and checked it to me on the river, i felt the only hand i could lose to was 8 2 for two pair. So i call and he flips over the flush! Opps! Apparently to the table it was obvious he had the flush! But not to me! Maybe i over thought the hand, oh well atleast i got some information, unfortunately i had to pay for it.

I then get my stack up back to 7k ish and the short stacked raised it folds to me and i have 99s, i could stick it all in but i thought i would stop and go instead. Stop and go means see the flop and stick it in after (if no Ace), if he has AK he is calling all in pre flop, against any pocket pair you therefore do not want to raise because he is called and it will be a 50/50 instead if you see the flop and go all in he only sees 3 cards, which he is only likely to hit the flop 1 in 3 times. I see the flop and it is 9 J 3, bingo!!! Forget the stop and go!, i check and so does he, the turn is a 3rd club, i move in hoping he has the Ac, he calls and i flip 999s quite confidently then he shows JJJ! Ouch set over set!!! So sick!!!!! Atleast he did not have too many chips, so i lose another 3.5k!

After the break, i didnt get going and joined in with some prop betting, i picked my mates favourite hands , Guvs 74, Pratik K9, Zenal K2, Nirajs, J3 and my A9, nothing came in and Mr Riveru won a fiver of me!!! I was soon out when i moved in with A8 and got called by JJ and AK! Opps!!! oh well £60 down!!!

No Poker All Weekend!!!!

Did not play any poker this whole weekend!!!!
But i kept myself busy! Went to PeterB' for mates nephews bday party and went to see ARSENAL!!!! Beat Man Utd 1-0!!!! In their own back yard!!!!!!! Go on ARSENAL!!!!!!!
On a side note i was in the Man Utd Stand sitting with my friend PAV a Manchester Utd fan! hahahaha, i have never been so quiet when Arsenal scored!!! I jumped up and was about to open my mouth and then stopped as i saw 70,000 Man Utd fans drop their jaws in slience!! I look over to the Arsenal Section and they are going mental!!! I would have done anything to be in that stand!!! Oh well, still a great results!!! Guess Ashely Cole has no idea what he is talking about! Oh btw we did this without Henry and Van Perise!

To keep all the poker readers happy i dug up an trip report i wrote about the UK student Poker Championships 2005 and 2006, enjoy!!! (sorry for the poor English!!)

2005

I started off quite slow (after spending the night in James’s Volvo) and became increasingly bored after not playing the first 12 to 15 hands, so I decided to make a move, dealt Qd6d and raised in mid position. There were two callers (inc. Lego) and flop came A K J, the callers checked, which invited me to bet, one folded one called, on the turn was a 3 and it was checked to me and with a stronger bet took down my first pot, which after that hand I never went lower than 10k (starting chips)

The next crucial hand was a few hours in. Dealt QQ raised and then there was an immediate re-raise to my right. I flat called and flop came 3 rags with 2 hearts. I moved all in and the player to my right called instantly with a flush draw with his Ah Kh. He hit his flush on the turn, in a pot of 40k.

Was on slight tilt after the hand and got Ad Kd in the big blind a few hands later. Few limpers and I moved all in with my last 14k. One caller with Qd Jd (a bit loose!) and my AK held up and it was my first and last time I committed all my chips in day one!
The rest of day one was good for me slowly winning chips and knocking at least 9 people out on the way. Although with the increasing blinds towards the end my chips stack started to decrease as my attempts to steal the blinds were not always successful.
Finished day one with 48K, which left me 23rd out of the remaining 30.

After a long night (but thankfully in a bed!!) talking to the Warwick boys I picked up a lot of advice, which was thrown at me and was much appreciated, I had the confidence in myself to go on and succeed. On day 2 there was a roll back on blinds, which allowed more room for poker to be played. I quickly found myself short stacked and found Ah Kh after a strong raise by who I believe will be the next Scotty Nyguen (table talk!). I moved all in for my make or break hand. He called as the raise was very little with his pocket 8s. Flop came three hearts!

After accumulating more chips, I found myself flat calling a 1/3 of my chips away and was extremely frustrated. During the break I spoke to Dave Lu who gave some strong advice about calling my chips away and told me to either fold the big hands or move all in! This was some great advice and yet so simple. After the break and playing more poker my chip stack increased to 96k but the average stack was 140k but I felt comfortable. I again found Ak off suit in late position. Then ‘Scotty Nyguen’ again raised the same amount as he did with his 8s. I decided to take Dave Lu advice and move all in or fold after thinking for at least two minutes (which is a long time for me) I mucked the cards, decided I had enough chips not to race with. Scotty whose actual name is Alvin flipped over KK!!! The hand felt like a winning hand after making a strong fold and gave me great belief in myself to make the final table. An hour later I found myself all in again after finding pocket 8s after Phil (Mong Mob) made a raise. He had to call with value but only with an A2. The 8s held up which doubled my chips.

I made the final table by winning a few pots and trying to steal the blinds every 2 rounds, so the blinds would not affect me. I found myself in the final table on roughly 230k which left me in middle position. After an hour in a few players were out. A short stacked moved all in and I found pocket 7s which I pushed with and held up against his AJ. Later I raised with A10 and Lego found A9 (my favourite hand!!) and moved all in, which was less than my raise. A10 held up and unfortunately lost Lego who played extremely solid poker for a good 15 hours!

When four handed the poker chips were quite even and chips were swing all over the table. I could not pick up many hands and stealing the blinds were essential. The next big hand was against Darius who had 200k less than me. I limped in with 9h 7h and he checked in the Big Blind. Flop was A 7 2, I bet 50k and he raised after thinking for a while. I then thought about the size of the pot and it was difficult to put him on a high Ace with no raise pre flop. So I re-raised to put doubt into his mind of how strong his Ace was or if he was bluffing. The pot became over 400k and my heart was beating extremely hard. But he came over the top all in. I folded but felt I made the right move. But it did do me some good as it gave me the table image of someone who will try to win every pot.

I moved up in chips after the beat and the table had more swings with Calum from St Andrew taking a chip lead. He then found KJ under the gun and moved all in. Dice man then moved all in with QQ, I folded my KQ quickly while Darius called with his AJ (but had low chips) the board came with 2 Jacks and 2 Fours, knocking Dice man out and giving Calum over 2 million in chips. Darius survived one more hand with the high blinds and it was heads up between me and Calum.

The heads up was a fantastic experience with the crowd cheering and the trophy on the table! (unfortunately the money was not there!) It was £1,180 each but the winner gets a seat into the WSOP 2005. Although I started with only 300,000 chips and Calum had a commanding chip lead with 2.25million. The heads up lasted about 15 minutes with Calum moving all in with any two cards (Also known as the Argyris approach.) I won 3 double ups but with the high blinds every fold almost took a 1/3 of my chips away.

Calum limped in under the gun, I saw 98 off suit and checked. The flop came 9 high, with me hitting top pair. I checked and Calum moved all in. I immediately called and stood up thinking this was my chance. A win here would put me on 900k and with a good chance to win. When I stood up Calum turned over pocket QQ and my heart dropped! The tournament was over!

2006
The Official Poker Tour of 2006 to the UKSPC Part One by Dhruv ‘The Kid’ Doshi

It was that time of year again for the Warwick elite to step up and travel to the annual UK Student Poker Championships and once again show their domainance in the field of Poker. We certainly have the largest poker society in the UK and in my belief we have the best Poker players on average then any other university. This was our chance to prove that statement as a team of 24 Warwick students came together to play in the UKSPC 2006.
However there already signs of problematic trip as a week before the main event, which was a £30 freeze out and with a seat up for grabs to the WSOP or WPT in Paris, the venue changed from the Corn Exchange in Edinburgh to St Andrews Student union, which created a big problem as we had booked into a hostel weeks in advance in Edinburgh but now we had to travel during the Saturday and Sundays mornings to arrive to the poker competition. It was absolute disgraceful that they move a 300 runner event 7 days before the event, even though details for the event were posted 6 months ago! It really reflects poorly on the student organization or the organization of the sponsors Betfred.

It is 30th March Thursday night and Tom Grundy, Gurvinder Singh and myself Dhruv Doshi leave my house in London just after watching Eastenders where Phil Mitchell escape death some how by 2 large skips crash his car with him inside but he manages to be ok. We head off to pick up the one member of the Warwick team who does not go to Warwick, my friend from London, Niraj or Neal as he likes to be called. We then set off but we were delayed about 5-10 minutes as my Navman was taking ages to find the route to Coventry. Eventually I gave up on the satnav and went ahead although 5 minutes after driving it started to work so things were looking good. We then have numerous conversations about the tournament and previous poker situations we have had. The next stop was Park Royale (Dave Lu you would love this place) where we were to meant another member of the Warwick Team Saef Shah. We got some food at KFC before Saef arrived and that we went to the megabowl to play some Arcades and the IT box. Both Tom and I cashed out some money, Tom playing Hex and myself playing Turbo 21, the machine was paying out!!! It was very difficult to walk away!!!

So we were off to Coventry, after driving for another 30 minutes we hit some traffic on the M40, which was surprising, it then came to a halt. We then saw police cars, ambulances and fire trucks driving by, this was not a good sign. Five of us we in the car in total darkness as all the cars had their engines off and cars lights off. The other decided to go for a walk on the M40 and see what was happening, they walked about ½ mile away from the car asking people if they wanted to play some poker, although another was asking them for some weed. Guv came back first and told me that it could take up to four hours and I was like ‘No way’ as we were playing to play a home game that night but a four delay would mean arriving at Coventry at around 4 am. It was about 12am and Tom said lets opening up a book to see how long we would be here. Neal optimistically took the first time slot of 1220-1230 and I went for 1230-1240, Guv and Saef argued for the 1250-1am time slot and Tom took the pessimstic view of 100-110am we were all along way away. We decided to play a game! (One of the first steps of a real road trip). Tom suggested some sort of mental poker. Then I refined some rules were we had a 5 man game. Tom and I went heads up. Saef gave Tom a random hand, Guv gave me a random hand and Neal the independent player would deal a random flop. Tom and I started on 100 chips with blinds at 5/10. The game did not sound exciting at first but we got a real kick out of it. Especially when we went all in and stated our hands, which we could not do as Neal would know what we had. If anyone wants the exact rules of Mental Holdem or any questions please contact me. The best moment of mental holdem was the matching up between Saef and Guv. Saef was short stacked to around 30 chips and gave had the lead with 170. Tom whispers to Saef ear a certain hand. I whisper to Guv Jack of clubs, Jack of Diamonds. Guv calls the BB and Saef pushes all in and Guv immediately calls and says ‘Jacks!’ we all start laughing as now Neal job of dealing a flop could not be random. A ruling was made and Saef said he was given QUEENS!!!! He is an 80% favorite! So to keep the game fair I gave a number between one to five to Guv and Neal had to pick the number. Guv has a 20% chance and this seemed like the best solution, a real deal could not happen as Saef had such a strong lead to double up. I gave Guv the number 3, we all looked towards Niraj, he thinks and looks towards the roof of the car and say ‘THREE!!!!’ Guv wins!!! Guv gets the outdraw!!!! (A sign of things to come maybe!) We had created a game with everything!!! We then heard word that a lorry had tipped over and spilt its content. By now it was 2 am and no one won the book! We then played some 5 card draw using some Landora cards I found in the boot my car, I have like 20 packs!! Then we played a word game, which did not last long. Tom the token white guy in the car won every game we played!!!! And in theory he sort of won the book of how long we were stuck in traffic as he picked the latest time slot. Time went by quite quickly and before we knew it, it was 330am and the cars started to move! YES!!!!! Only 3 and a half hours waiting on the M40!!!!!! We got to Leamington at around 4ish and dropped Tom off and then went to Coventry to drop Guv and Saef off while Niraj stayed at mine in Coventry.

Friday 31st March, I picked Guv and Saef up and we went to Warwick University to meet up with the rest of the Warwick poker team and to pick up the new token white guy Stuart Black who knows a lot about Everything! We all met up at the Car park with 2 other cars there however we were short two cars, porno Mark’s car had car problems and Dave Lu’s car team were meeting us at the first stop off point, as he was getting back from Reno in USA after playing the WPT event and reaching day two. We got given the car challenge sheet, where we had to take part in various car challenges. The win would apparently get a free diner trip to wing wah. We completed the first challenge very quickly with a photo of people standing on a round about! Then we were off to the first services stop about 120 miles away. Was a good trip with standard talk but we moved away from poker for a world and experienced the knowledge Stuart had on the Wrestling world. A point which was quite interesting was how clever everyone was in shot gunning the front seat or trying to seat behind me, (as the leg room was more on my side than behind the passengers seat) Guv was very clear in that respect going for that position rather than the difficult job of shot gunning the front seat, Saef was amazingly quickly at doing so to be fair. He managed to get the front seat on more than 80% of the time. We got to our first stop and decided lets complete Time Crisis 3 between my car and Andy Fong, we failed big time! And moved on to the pool challenge which never cashes out but Saef managed to win back his pound! After the rest of us wasted a £1 each! The next stop was another 100 odd miles away at Gretna in Scotland. We played some dodge 5 card draw with lives, instead of chips, started with 10 lives and each round you ante one life and if you wish to change cards it would cost a life, then if you win the showdown you gain a life, was a great game but a little bit dodge as I was driving on the right lane and was swaying along and rub my car against the barrier, while trying to look at my cards! Do not try this at home! I eventually won the game! Playing heads up with Guv and changed all five cards and getting 5 jokers in return! (What a Fish!) YES!! We got to Gretna and got some food and were off quite quickly, this was our last stop before Edinburgh and to be honest I was very disappointed that we could not find the Monopoly roulette that we found last year on the summer poker tour!!! Oh well!

We arrived in Edinburgh at about 9-10pm, although we made our first Scottish visits at a pizza pasta kebab place but we walked in and there was an Italian TV programme was on and the people in their were Italian! Oh well we tried to get some Scottish culture in us! We got to the hostel and was very impressed, they had a cinema room an internet lounge with around ten computers, the rooms were small but nice and also a bar. We finally got some poker going. We had to cash games running. One was a 10p/20p and the other was a 20p/40p games, they had a TV lounge also which was perfect for a good poker game. Decided to keep the game quite small as we do not really want to go broke before we even got to St Andrews. The games were very lively and we had a waiting list on both games! By the end of it everyone was up or down £5 no real big swings but we had a good game. I probably should mention at least one hand as this is a poker report and so far I have not talked much about poker. One hand that stuck out in my memory was when I got bored of playing quite nutsy I thought I was time to make a move. I limped UTG and I think Tom raised on the button. Niraj called and I re raised. Tom call as I’m sure he was playing a type of hand we all like to crack big hands, and the Niraj called as well. The flop cam down J high and two rags, Niraj bet out and I raised with Ace high, I think I had something like As10s. Tom quickly mucked and Niraj thought for while folded and showed me top pair. Then at the end of the night I cashed everyone out and a few people went straight to bed. As we know in all cash games there is always like an odd or difficult number to cash out because people have like £2.25 owed or £0.60 and in the pot is all £5 notes at the minimum. So I introduced ‘Whore Poker’ which is something my local home game does at the end of the night. Anyone with a random amount of changed left over gets to play. Whether it is £3 or 20p they get to play. It ends up that there is around £10 or £5 left over, in this case there was £10.10 left over. Myself, Jaime, Kader and Neal all had a round amount left over. So I deal everyone a hand. I had AK, Jaime had K9, Kader KQ and Neal 53. I was looking strong but a lot of cards to dodge, I needed an Ace. Flop
8 8 8!!!! Looking good for me. Turn J even better river Q!!!! Kader rivers me and scoops £10.10!!!!! We then went to sleep however it took another hour to get to sleep as people were making prank calls and making jokes. I tried to knock knock trick but no one fell for it. This was me knocking on the wall expected people to think someone was at the door! We had bunk bed by the way! I think we got to sleep by 4ish and ready to wake up ay 845 am!!!!!

PART TWO

It’s the early hours of the day and I’m awake after Saef shouts at me as he is leaving the room to get up! Its 845am and to anyone who knows me that is very very early for especially as I went to sleep at 4ish the night before. We all got ready and met for breakfast downstairs where they gave us bread and butter but we had to make our own toast which was fun was good to get some food in us. We left for the main event. I set my Satnav to St Andrews, I was on my way with Stuart Guv Niraj and Saef in my car, I forgot to mention in the report part one before that Stuart came up with a team name for us, which was the BCKs, which was the Brutal Collusion Kids team. For those who do not understand the name, it’s basically a combination of all our nicknames. Stuart is known as Brutal Stack, Guv and Saef’s mob name is CC with they phrase being ‘collusion’ and as you know I’m the Kid, Niraj did not get in but he became an honorary member of all three groups! So the BCKs were off, my Satnav said the trip would take 74miles! Ouch!! Was not happy to see that but we were off, Tom ‘Animal’ was following me to St Andrews and later on Dave Ralph who was in Animals car mentioned I was going the wrong way! The problem with the Satnav was it avoids toll roads and therefore took a route, which tool an extra 30 miles DOH!! But as we had started the trip and already 45minutes in , I thought turning rounds would not make a difference so we continued! It ended up taking two hours to get to St Andrews instead of one, another and not the last problems my car had on the trip. This was very frustrating as it added more time to the journey and I was very tired. Everyone in the car except Stuart I think actually went to sleep on the way to St Andrews, which is fair enough but left me half awake on the road! But lucky nothing went wrong.

We arrived at St Andrews and from the start they did not fix problems that I think occurred last year. When drawing the seats last year they would make you register then pick your own seat by picking a random card out of the 300 available. On the UK student forums Betfred and St Andrews university asked for some feedback and this was a problems many people commented on as people found themselves on the same table as the guy behind them in the queue, which tended to be people from the same university. So I expected this year to be different to avoid this, however they did something even worse. They had 3 different stalls where universities would go to. Therefore all the Warwick players went to the same stall to pick their cards, which makes it less random. What’s the point in asking for feedback if they are not going to listen to people’s suggestions? I also heard that the organizes did not even have a Tournament Director program on the day of the event and they had to get one of a student at the last minute. This unfortunately was not the last of the problems the tournament had. I drew seat 3 table 3 and headed towards the venue one room where the tournament was bring held. I looked around at a very familiar scenery with a bunch of young poker players, chip riffling, wearing hats, sun glasses and one guy had a mask on like in the film Jason X. I looked at my table and I was on the feature table and a little smile was put on my face and realised this has to be a sign of things to come. Then I heard Rob Jagger was on my table and I enjoy playing with Rob but I realised it would be difficult to be table captain as he is a very strong player and can be very aggressive, no one else on my table looked familiar or looked the part to be honest and I was feeling confident and felt playing small pot poker would payoff in the long run as the blinds are very low early on and there was time to play, although this was not the case later on in the tournament. Ok now the poker talk begins!

Just before I sat down I went over to Guv and said this was the table I sat on last year, which eventually led me to second place so good luck! To see Guvs report click here

I played a quite tight in the first level but picked up a few interesting hands like tens, Ak, AA and some suited connectors, unfortunately I did not connect on any flop for a while and lost 2k in calls and raises The table was not as I expected. Last year players were very tight and did not want to go out but on my table people were very aggressive at the wrong times. I explained to people at the break that it was Donkey vs Donkey on my table and the outcome was a Donkey gets a double up early on. For example one guy raises 6-7 x BB when he raises. One guy slow plays A10 on an Ad 4x 8d 5x board and when he hits his two pair, which gives the flush out he bets and gets raised and then he pushes and the guy had KdJd, and calls with the nuts. Another hand someone raises 7 x BB UTG and pocket 55 calls, by the way the raiser has not played a hand for 50 minutes. Flop comes A K 5 and UTG goes all in for 9k and the guy with 55 calls in a flash, I felt I dealt out AA and KK. UTG has KK and takes a 20k pot down. I won my first pot when Rob raised up 3 x BB I looked down and saw tens and flat called and so did the cutoff and the BB. Flop A 10 5 - 2 clubs. BB checks and so does Rob, I bet as I like betting sets when there is an Ace on board and I feel Rob may check raise me here. As Rob is a very strong player if he feels that you are slightly weak he is not afraid to put his chips in to find out and I know that so I feel I strong bet here may induce a steal however Rob gets a good read on me and put me on a monster. The cut off calls and everyone else folds. Turn brings a 5 and I have my house, feeling the guy is drawing to a flush which I now hope he makes. I check and see what he does, if he comes out betting I feel he does not have the flush draw maybe a rag Ace or he was fishing around with a KQ or a J10, which means I would flat call and value bet the river. I feel if he checks behind he looks to be flushing and if the flush hits on the river I can put a bigger bet out and if it does not hit I mite check the river and induce a bluff. He ends up checking behind me and I feel he is weak and I am not getting paid. The river is a big card but cannot remember so if he was gutshoting or playing to high cards he has connected, so I bet out and he takes a while to call and shows A8 off he says ‘I called because I’m interested in seeing what you have’. My read was wrong but I guess I was just hoping he had a bigger hand. I’m up to about 12k. Then something really bad happened. I did not want to be there! I felt really tired and started to walk about. When I was at the table I kept my head down on the table. I was not watching the game and was just playing my cards and playing badly. I was extremely tired but that is no excuse I should have been able to focus on move away from the table for a while until I was focus. I then made a move on a very tight player with J high on a As Qs 8c 3c 7c board with 3 clubs. He checked all the way and so did I as I had a flush draw on the flop. He then bet the river and he was a solid player and raised him, he thought for a while and called, I mucked and he showed three 7s. Word got round that the winner of last year was out! In the first or second level! I thought that would have encouraged me but it did not help. Lucky the break was close and I felt I needed a break to get me focused. I then won a big pot with AK which was a 3 way pot but checked down till the river and the BB bet out when the Ace came, I smoothed called and it was good. The break came and I was very annoyed with myself I knew I was not going to do well as mental I was not in the mood for the tournament, I spoke to Jaime another driver and he felt the same way as I did. We could not really hack it, which I think now Dave Lu needs a mention as he was playing great poker and he had a very long trip indeed. After being knocked out in Reno at the WPT, which must have felt horrible he went on back to England and drove straight from Heathrow to Scotland, which really must have taken it out of him but Dave was going strong. At the break Warwick had lost a few men. Niraj won the fisherman prize of first out, which was one of the car challenges so BCKs got some more points but he was unlucky as he had middle set and was raised on the flop by top set only for it to go all in on the flop. That is a very difficult situation and you will not find many players who could get away from that. Most Warwick players were sitting on around 6k – 12k with Stuart and Guv on about 14-16k.

After the break I found myself short stacked as many people were doubling my on my table. Rob went out before the break after moving in on a gutshot against a player with two pair. We had a few new players and the players were not of great standard but they getting chips by battling the donkeys on the table, I was just praying to get into a hand with one of them. I was left with 7k and blinds were 150/300. I found JJ UTG and raised up to 900. I got called by two very fishy players and thought great. But needed a half decent flop. Flop comes K 5 3 and I check. The other two check behind. Turn brings a 2 and now two hearts. I check and plan to move in if one player bets. The next player bets out my stack and I was definitely calling. But the other player in the hand pushes for 4.3k. I had about 6k left and the first to bet was on 18k. The other player pushed and I had a decision. I know I am beating the first better however I cannot call to go to win a side pot. I eventually put the second player on K6 or a similar hand. I then said I’m beating you to the initial raiser and showed JJ, he goes you are right as I fold. He shows 77 and the other guy has Qh8h. I could not believe it! I did not think he would put all his chips in on a flush draw and he was flat calling draws and not sticking all his chips in previously. 77s hold up and I feel absolutely gutted. I was steaming as that pot would tripled me up and got me in a position to play some poker. A level later I push with 77 and someone thinks for a while and calls with KKs. Nice! I walk away from the table disappointed but felt I did not deserve anything especially as I was playing poor poker and was not in the right frame of mind. As I spoke to other Warwick poker players I found out we had lost about 10 out of the 24 who entered. It was not going well however Guv Dave Lu and Animal were going strong.

Fruit!!!! Move to the side Johnny Chan because the Warwick poker society has out done you. The last week of term we had a fancy dress poker tournament with Dave Lu going as Johnny Chan by bringing an orange with him to the table. Tom, Flash went to Tescos and bought some Kiwi, a Lemon, an Orange, a Banana, some grapes, a Cabbage, a Melon and a Mango and gave to all the players still left in the tournament. After the lunch break and a few levels down the line we only had six players left. Guv, Dave Lu, Sunny, Animal, Porno Mark and Andy Fong. It was not going well for Warwick poker soc but the players left in all had the ability to get to day two. I was watching Dave Lu and Guv a lot. From what I saw Dave was controlling his table without showing any cards and he chip stack was growing and even started to cover his Cabbage! Guv was hitting a series of hands and may have outdrawn a few players but was playing great poker and one hand I remember he called someone down with Ace High in a nice pot and it was very good.

Cash games got going and Sit and Go’s as well on the side. I played some cash and donked off my stack. Rob replace my seat in this very loose game and called a guy down in a £100+ pot with 33 on a Q 9 5 7 A board and it was very good! Go Rob!! I played a Sit and Go after for £10 and did a 50/50 deal with Saef who was also playing. I told Tom that I would play like a lunatic and limp UTG and re raise as much as possible, I also missed the first level off play. So I played my first hand and we were down to 8 players from ten I was UTG and limped. Tom was in the background laughing and I could not keep a straight face. But anyway everyone follows the limp and the flop comes down and is checked to me. I bet and everyone folds. I then raised many pots and overbet the flop if I had it on not. When down to 5 players I raised with Q2 UTG and SB pushed I called in a flash. He had JJ, first card out was a Q!!!! Oh well!!! It got to heads up and I took it down with £50, Saef came in 3rd. So we took £70 between us and split it.

Then news came that Andy was out and only 5 Warwick players left with 50 players to go. The support was great for the players as many of us stayed to watch and support our fellow Warwick players. Tom ‘Flash’ was the biggest cheerleader of them all and I quote claims ‘Dru I sweat Warwick Blood’. What a line! How is he not going to be president next year! Suddenly there is a big pot and Animal has moved in, the Warwick Mob cover the table and surrounded it, but wait! Porno is thinking! And he goes allin!!!! Someone from Warwick is going to get some chips! By wait the BB calls and I’m thinking this can not be good; there are only 2 hands he can call with in this spot. (Assuming he is a good player) Big Blind turns over KK, Animal AQ and Mark AK. Flop JKJ!!! Warwick lost two players in one hand!!! But they played great and did well to get that far into the tournament which started to become a crap shoot. Only Guv Sunny and Dave left. 31 players left and Guv is second to act on his table and see he has a tough decision. He had jus doubled up with 10s against 22s and was comfortable, he looked troubled and folded. He then came over to me and told me he had KKs!!! I was not happy! I thought he had AQ or 99 and maybe AK, but he felt a raising war with the Big stack in the BB would not be good, I felt it’s the wrong move as more chips tomorrow the better even though it was the bubble. Speaking of the bubble Betred’s ‘Tournament Directors’ were awful, early in the day they made a poor ruling on my table about the wrong turn card and on the bubble there was no hand for hand!!!!! That is shocking, everyone tournament whether small or big or online or landbase goes hand for hand but this tournament did not!!! However Guv Sunny and Dave got through to the next day, a great achievement by all. Guv had 110k, Sunny on 80k and Dave on 70k, with the blinds rolling back to 1k/2k for day two it looked promising.

We then went all together to get some food at a Pizza Kebab place, which was too funny! We packed out the place and the owner started dancing about when some 50 cent music came out, we got a group picture with everyone, I’l try and upload them soon, should be in the picture section.

We then got to the hostel played some Omaha and the STA casino, which was great fun and I eventually got to sleep by 5am!

PART THREE

I have woken up again at 845am! On the 2nd of April 2006. After going to sleep at around 5am after taking part in the Kader Jac and Jambon Casino, when I say taking part I’m mean dropping £15 to the house after Jambon constant hit amazing cards in blackjack, even if felt sorry for me and he was the house! So I woke up feeling very tired but knew I had to get out of the hostel as we were an hour away from St Andrews and a £20 freeze out was starting at 11am with registration ended at 1045am and with 100 capped players. So we had a quick breakfast and we were off. I set up the Satnav so it took the toll road, which meant it would only take an hour and I also followed Jambon just incase anything went wrong. So got to St Andrews in just under an hour and rushed to the door and the little bold man told us we are not open yet, it was 1050am. We were confused but realised it was down to another poor student organised event. We waited about in our cars as it was cold and wet eventually the doors opened and they started to register us. A few of the Warwick lads including myself and Flash decided we were going to play like donkey and do new crazy stuff in this tournament that we would not normal do. My normal game is appear as the table captain who deals the table and control the pots, in term of presentation and helps out people or certain rules but I went for the flip side. I looked at my cards by picking them up and putting them next to my eyes, started to raise with abosulte junk in early position and so forth. Flash claimed he would do the same and check raise on any draw. Jamie got a last long bet going. Everyone put £5 into the pot and the person who lasted the longest wins the lot. We had 7 entries, Jamie, Tom, Rob Crowley, Niraj, Chris Burton, Andy Fong and Myself. As me and Tom were going to play like donkeys we did a 50/50 on the last long bet, as with our new style we would either get a lot of chips or be out early. However Tom did not play this style as two hands in he flopped a set against two players who had 2 pair and more than trebles up. I however played like a fool and started raising up and was re raised twice but still called with J5 and 106. Lost a few chips but gained a few with Q6. I limped UTG and mid position raises, SB calls as so does the BB, I re raises Q6 and the table folds although the initial raiser thinks for ages. He later shows JJ and I’m outraged clamming I had QQ, I went on for about 5 minutes going how can you fold, you should have doubled me up etc. My table broke and word got out that Warwick had lost about 4 players already! I moved to Jambon’s table and we both smiled at each other as he knew how I was playing. First hand I find Ad3d UTG and raise and everyone folds to Jamie he thinks for a while gives me a smile and folds, I show the Ace. I then re raise someone pre flop with KcJc (Happy Guv!) the raiser flat calls and the flop comes two clubs and 9 high. I push all in and the raiser folds. The player on my left says you are lucky I folded. I said why he said he folded 99s, the nuts on the flop, could have been trouble for me. I actually had a nice stack about 4k, starting stack 2.5k, with around 70 of the 90 players still left. I then actually fold a hand QQ and I raise and I get flat called. Flop comes 10 high and I push only to be instantly called by AA… ouch!
I then start to walk around got some food and saw Flash was doing well. I came over to him and he tells me, ‘that the guy in the car was well happy he folded JJ pre flop’ I looked at him and he was the guy I re raised with Q6 to, as I had something invested in Flash I tried to tilt him and said I had pocket 10s.

Main Event Day Two
Sunny and Dave Lu were put on the same table as play resumed at 12pm. Guv was on the feature table, again where I started off last year with 30 players left. Although there were only 29 left this year. The atmosphere was not great but the Warwick boys got a lot of supported, but every once and a while we kept hearing bad news, Guv lost a big pot with top pair against a set, all in on the flop and Dave couldn’t pick up any hands however was grinding it out, he didn’t get many chips but was winning small pots with cards he was getting. Sunny was going strong but was stealing the blinds on the button a bit too much and it cost him some chips. After Guv lost a big pot with AQ against the set, he pushed with 86 and 72 both times hitting to stay alive and got his chips up. He then found tens and raised, he got re raised and called. The other guy had QQ and hit quads! Unlucky Guv but well done. You may have got lucky in some hands but you played very good poker to get to day two. A mention must be made about the blind structure, it was a crap shoot!!! Blinds were doubling up every 30 minutes and there was no room for play. We then hear news that Dave was out. Mid position raises with K10 and Dave in the SB finds AQ. Dave thinks about folding knowing it’s a 60/40 but also knows that you rather push all in than call an all in. Also Dave’s game on the flop is amazing and never needs to stick it all in pre. But Dave made the correct decision and pushed, which the other guy had to call. River is a ten and we lose Dave. Again well played, he must have been exhausted especially coming from Reno to London to Scotland in a very short period of time. A few moments later we got to the final table with Su-Ho representing Warwick!!!!!

Black Jack
On the side action, Rob Crowley and Flash were going very strong in the tournament. I was offered a chess game by Stuart after stating I do not want to play any more poker but he is too good and it would not even be a challenge for him. I then saw a 3 packs of cards I said, ‘I’m going to try and get a blackjack game going’, as I thought I cannot be the only one tired of poker, this is me nicking the STA casino idea. So I sit with Alex Straight making sure everything works out. I made a blackjack table, with min bet of 20p and max bet of £1. I started to walk around the room asking people if they wished to play, but most people laughed and walked away. I got one customer though and the game started of small and he bought in for £5 using 20ps and 50ps, which was good as it is easy to pay people out. We played for about 5 minutes and it was quite even. Then people started to watch and Jambon came to play as to a few other students. I allowed 7 boxes max with max of 4 players playing. The game got very popular and we had a waiting list of 3 players. Jambon then decided to set up another game. He did so and he filled upped his seats very quickly. Was a great laugh and shows you do not have to play poker all weekend. I ended up about £30 up and had a great time, even the people who lost a few £s here and they were happy to play! It was probably the cheapest game around as well.

Final Table
Ok Final table! As soon as it started I crashed the black jack table, although Jamie kept going, which proved to be a mistake as he was paying out big! Just as the final table started Flash bubbled in the £20 freeze out and Rob Crowley was flying the Warwick Flag. He ended up in 4th place and took around £150 but I’m not sure exactly how much it was. Sunny was very short stacked on the final table and could not do much but fold or push. Sunny was in the SB and pushed against the BB who folded and the Warwick fans cheered very loudly, it seemed we were the only ones who cared as others played cash games on the side. As the blinds were so huge most players were short stacked and Sunny called an all in against a big stacked, at the time he felt it was the right decision because he knew the blinds were folding and felt he was getting good odds against anything but an over pair. But the guy had KK and Sunny’s 65off suit was no good and Sunny finishes in 8th place with £385! Well done Sunny a great weekend and you did Warwick proud! The Warwick team left St Andrews slightly disappointed as we just expect great things as we are clearly the elite society in the UK, especially after seeing the shocking bad play by some players in the tournament, which I like to see as Donkey vs Donkey.

Mission ImpossibleWe left St Andrews at around 545pm. But the car had changed Stuart was replaced by Tom and the token white guy remained in my car for the whole journey back to London. I set up my Satnav to Coventry where we would lose Guv. The Satnav said 365 miles and my eyes dropped! I was on about 3 hours and an half hours sleep. We were driving pass a country home in Scotland and Tom said look at that sign, it was outside someone’s house, a sign that said ‘Honeysuckle Cottage’, we thought it was hilarious and felt this could be our team steal. Saef ran out of the car and ran back into the car in a panic as the people were at home and vision of an angry Scotsman coming out was not pleasant. But there was a problem the sign was too big and Saef just managed to get it into the front seat as I sped off the edge of the sign was about half an inch away from my eye. We then laughed for about 5 minutes as we got off the country and safety put the sign in the back seat! So we set off and before you knew it the whole car was sleep, which is fair enough I would do the same thing in their position. My eyes started to feel very heavy and I woke half the car up as I drift off and the car drifted from one lane to another! That woke up realising I nearly killed everyone! I told everyone that I need to stop so we stopped at the next services station and I got some food. I woke up a bit and the car set off and everyone was talking again. But an hour later everyone was back to sleep and I was very tired. The loud music did not help and looking at the same M74 road for an hour got my very sleepy. So the next service stop at Gretna we stopped and I told the lads to go inside the service stop while I slept in the car and I said come back in an hour. I started to drift off then the car next doors alarm went off and did so for the next 15 minutes. Then I started to drift off but then Tom came knocking on my door! Asking for poker chips! Which I gave and then said ‘Do not come back!’ I then woke up an hour later and we were off. Apparently the guys played a very crazy Omaha game, which I could just about follow. We stopped off at the next services stop but just to fill up on petrol and the un thinkable happens. I was still a bi tired and drove into the lorry petrol stop instead of the car petrol stop. As I drive away from the petrol stop I hit the risen up curb and drove up above it to get back down but there was a problem, I could not move! One of my wheels were in the air! The wheel was spinning but there was only movement at the back wheels. We were stuck on a sort of curb! We were all tired and had no idea what to do. Saef got out the Honeysuckle sign and placed it under the wheel to allow it to touch the ground and I would drive off it but it did not help! We had no idea what to do! I decided we need to lift the car, there was five us but we could do it, we lifted and tried to pivot the car round but it was useless, we made some progress but the car was in trouble. Then a huge lorry drove in to fill up his tank and a giant of a man came out and like five little girls we asked for ‘help’ He said he a deep husky voice, ‘there are 5 of you LIFT the car’ So we all got on the side of the car and lifted and the car moved with ease as Colossus moved the car single handily, it was an incredible sight! We were shocked, stunned by this Colossus. He then kicked the front of the car and it came straight off the curb! I felt a lot more alive and it was another 220 miles to Coventry! I told Saef in the front seat who kept winning the shot gun that I think I can drive all the way back, no more stops! I felt alive and so did the car. It was just passing midnight and we called up Pav to sing happy birthday to him! Then to try and keep everyone awake Tom suggested a memory game, where each of us had to remember the last thing the other guy said. So Saef started of saying ‘I went to shop and bought a bag’ then I would say ‘I went to the shop and bought a bad and some underwear’ then Guv would say ‘I went to the shop and bought a bad and some underwear and a leather jacket and so one, we ended up getting 24 items before the game ended, if you get an item wrong you are out! It is a lot harder than it sounds! Please contact me for full rules of the game! Then game last about an hour and the drive was going well. We stopped off at Guv’s house in Coventry and left to London another 112 miles away and I was feeling good! An hour later I dropped Saef off in Central London and an hour after that Tom in Balham and 10 minutes later Niraj in Norbury and 2 minutes later arrived home at 6am!!!! The trip took about 12 hours!!!! It was crazy! But it was done, the travel was crazy but it was an amazing trip!!!!!

Tue/Wed/Thursday at Big Slick

Tuesday

£30 second chance and another 10th place for me! That’s two weeks in a row! Very frustrating, ok only 6 or 7 actually get paid however its still annoying to get close and blow out at the end. Also at Big Slick I’m currently 3rd on the leader board and every one on final (9) get extra points, which would help me get closer to a free £330 seat!

Anyway at the end of this tournament my mate said to me, ‘That must have been very boring I do not remember you playing a hand!’ He was right! My stack stayed at 5k for like 3 hours, which does not help at the end when blinds are 800/1600. Once again I could not pick up a big hand in a big situation. I mean that when someone raises I did not have enough of a hand or enough chips to chuck it in and get him to call/fold. I just remember folding a lot and when I moved in I never really got called. My last hand was 5 handed and 1st to act bets out like 3xBB and with my 5xBB I move in with A10, saying, ‘ This has to be good’, When 5 handed the strength of hands increase a lot. Also there is a lot of raising hands that I’m ahead of and a few I’m coin flipping with, which I would take at this stage! But of course he has AK and I go home! But at least I avoided the cash games!!

Wednesday

£20 Rebuy at Big Slick. I actually did a Phil Hellmuth again as the Arsenal match was on against Hamburg. So I called up ahead and told Big Sick to register me and I then left home as the Arsenal match was dying down. We were comfortably winning 2-0 and I heard the rest of the match on the radio on my way to Big Slick. (Going to see Man Utd Arsenal on the weekend!!!!) So I turned up about an hour into the comp which left me with 15 minutes plus 3 hands to play the rebuy period, which is good enough. Did not feel like going crazy in the rebuy period and this helps if not there for long. I took a top up, then doubled up, then took the double add on. So had around 7.5k going in after the break, which is enough. Only a 3 table comp, so felt I had enough.

After the break again I did not play too many hands. One guy moves in UTG and I pick up AQ and think for a while, I have invested zero into the pot and do not need to get involved thinking it probably a coin flip for 80% of my stack, but then he started talking about A rag and then I got the impression he had AJ!! So I call the BB then calls with A7 for value, which was fair enough as he was short stacked. UTG has AJ and a 7, hits meaning I lose the main pot but win the side pot, I think I broke even in the hand. Again not much happened, I raised a few pots and took then uncontested, but raised twice and got called twice and got checked rasied all in on the flop, which is not nice! I never have anything!!! There were about 15 left and I’m looking around the remaining to two tables and I just see a wall of chips everywhere!!! I had nothing, as usual! At this point I start to think, what am I doing wrong!!! I cannot ‘gamble’ when someone has already rasied and another guy has called, I’m not good enough to play Q7 and J5 and hit two pair on flops, I was just really annoyed. I’m mean all the big pots that were one were with AA or KK or AAs and KKs getting cracked and I could not get the cards to do that. A few hands later a big stack limps in MP and I got KhJh in the SB and push all in, he calls with out thinking (opps!!) Should have realised that I had fold equity against other players but not this guy, he really was a calling station, even when he had AAs he called off all his chips. He flips over A3 and I’m not in that bad shape, he is a 54% favourite, the flop helped me giving 2 hearts but I miss and go home! I got to do something different!!!!

Thursday

£10 rebuy with a £5 bounty. Pratik just came back from Prague and Neal was up for Big Slick tonight as well which was cool, he had not played live for a while. There were some other games on tonight a big sat to EPT at the Vic and a big £200 freeze at South end where Zenal went for the night, last time I spoke to him there were 16 left and he was still in.

Had Pratik on my table at the start of the comp and I doubled up the rock of all rocks in the 1st hand! Opps!!! Then lost a few other hands and before I knew it I was in for £65!! Not a good start!!! But played more tight and got my stack up to 7.5k going into the break, which is again very nice and in for £75, definitely wanted to get more aggressive in the middle stages.

I do get aggressive but in a different way, I wanted to make even small raises then I normally do so the BB and others will get involved cheap, I then played position and my hand strong. But getting them to call pre flop makes pots a lot nicer. I won 2 nice hands with 55s and Q9, I made smaller raise like at blinds at 400/800 I made it 900 more to go and so forth. Getting two callers, pot = 1700+1700+1700+400 = 5,500, my stack after the raise was only 6k and to take a pot that big on the flop was very nice. I then pick up AK and raise it up the BB calls and the flop comes A high, bingo!, he checks to me and I bet out, he then mucks! AJ!!! Huh!!!! That was meant to be my double up hand but he lets it go! Great fold sir!!!

I still do not have a bounty chip!!! 12 players left and I get moved to a new table where to my surprise I’m on a table and I have only played one of the players before!! That’s is quite shocking to me and annoying. As I move Pratik gets knocked out of the comp, Neal was out as well, so just me left in. I pick up Q9 in the BB and we are 6 handed and the button limps (never seen him before) and the SB calls and I check. Flop 9 T 7, checked round, I feel strong about my hand then the turn is a 6 but gives 3 spades on board and I have the Qs. SB checks and I check (mistake, should have bet) and the button checks, was also thinking maybe to check raise. Annoying when u get thrown into a hand with people you have never played with late into a comp. River is a Q and I have two pair. SB bets out 2k and I think about it and call. Picked the safer options and now the button goes all in for 2.2k more! SB instant mucks and I think, I say to him, ‘You really raising here with AQ,’ sort of the only hand I can beat, maybe KQ, I then look at the pot and it was 12k and if I call it would be another 4k on top, so was a nice pot and I still had just below average if I make the call, so I call and he got KJ for the straight!! Yuk!!!

Final!!! I have about 14k and blinds are 1k/2k 7 BB!! Plenty for me!! Pick up a few hands and move all in and get no callers built my stack up but then lost it back in the blinds. We get down to 7 handed and did £30 off the top for a bubble prize. I’m in the BB and UTG moves in for 8k, Blinds 2k/4k and then someone else moves in for 12k total. Its folded to me and it cost me 8k more to win 2k+4k+8k+12k = 26k. I look down and see 10c 2c! Doyle!!!! I decide to call thinking here is my chance to win the comp, as long as the do not have pocket 10s or higher I’m not in too bad shape, people not happy when I flip my cards over! But here are the number, UTG has 62 and MP has 99 against my 10 2, 99s are a 58% fav, my 102 is a 28% and 62 a 13%. Ok so I am just very slightly priced out but if you add the value of knocking two players out and moving up the money I felt it was right to do, plus I had 2k left if I lost and could fold the next few hands hoping to move up. The flop is 6 3 5 two clubs!! Bingo! Turn is another club and they are drawing dead! Sweet!!! After the hand I was 3rd in chips and thought to my self, I’m in a position to actually win a comp at Big Slick.

My plan now was to stay out of people way. There was one very aggressive player and I did not want to get in his way, he never raised just all in or fold!! Very difficult to play against players like that. We got down to 4 handed and I had not played a lot of hands and my stack was decreasing, I was in the SB and moved in blind just to pick up the pot as the BB looked like a quite tight player. I then did it again and he called with A7 and I turned over QT, I hit a T and we are 3 handed. We asked to cut a deal to flatten the price structure but the chip leader said no, and the curse of that it, you are going to be out next!!! Button (chip leader) raises to 8k and I have As8s and call and the BB moves in for 24k. Button calls, I know I have the button beat, I know I’m losing to the BB but I was thinking of maybe getting a side pot going with the button, if I move in he has to call. But I worked out the side pot even if I won would be less than the main pot which I had invested, so I folded. BB had 99s vs buttons K8 and 99s held. My A8 would have won the side pot! Oh well. The hyper aggressive player then gets involved with the other guy again and he takes him out, we are now heads up and there is about 185k in play and I have 35k and he has around 150k. So he has just over a 4 to 1 chip leader and he offers me some extra money to walk away. I reject the offer saying I love heads up poker, plus the blinds were not too high and I was willing to play, I really enjoy heads up poker, its pure poker to me. Plus I want to win a comp!!

Ok so 1st hand I limp with 67 and flop the nuts we check all the way and on the river I move all in, he folds. Then limped a few times and made small bets when I missed, got caught a few times but succeed a few times as well. He then moved in a few times on me and I was lucky not to find a big hand as he flipped over AK and AQ those times. I was getting a bit low and found K3 on the button and moved in, he called instantly with A2 and my 3 hit twice giving me some chips but still in 2nd place. I pick up J8 and limp and he checks, Flop J 9 3, he checks and I check, turn is a 4 and he goes all in and I call. He has 97 and no help on the river gives me the chip lead. We then do another deal and took £50 off the top and gave it to 2nd which meant we were playing for less. I then take a few more pots and have a nice chip lead, I then raise with 10 5 and he moves in, I call instantly just because there is too much in there to fold, he has A3 and I have a 40% chance of winning the comp and I hit a T followed by a 5!!! I finally win a comp at Big Slick!! £502 plus £25 in bounty chips, which I gave to the dealers as a tip!!!!!
Felt good to win a comp and now I have a chance to get player of the month and win a free seat into the £330 comp! I do not think I did anything different, I kept to my game plan and just won a few coin flips!!!!

Bounty Tournament and the Big Game!

Played the bounty comp at Big Slick, where it’s a £10 rebuy but if you knock someone out, as in make them leave the comp, you get a fiver!
I do really well in the rebuy period and get my stack up to around 17k, which is plenty and I got up to 14k after 50 odd minutes so I actually left the table for 15 minutes to make sure I don’t blow my stack away. Ended up spending £40 in chips + the £5 bounty chip. Did not really do anything different in terms of hands I played, my hands just held up and sometimes I got lucky. A big hand was when my AK held against K9 and A7, I started thinking this is not right, there is no way the poker gods will allow this and they will get me back when the rebuy period ends!!!!

2nd hand into the rebuy period 1+UTG raises like 7xBB, which is over half his stack, a strange move in my mind. He was below average but his raise threw out the idea of 88s or 77s to me I’m in the BB and have not looked yet. It folds round to me, and I say to the guy, ‘that’s a big raise, 3xBB is probably enough’ I then look down and see JJ and say ‘ok Allin’ he is not happy but calls with A9. The £5 chip is in the pot!!! I’m a good favourite to take the pot and take home a guarantee of £5! But two aces hit the board! Ok so not down to about average stack. I play nothing for ages!!!! The cards were sick. Just could not do anything, yes I know a good poker player does not need cards but if you have trash every time and people raise in front of you its very difficult in these kind of comps to push them off and make a successful move.

But I had to do something and I played a very bad hand. I’m on the button and someone limps in front of me. 7 handed 3 tables left (started with 4 tables) I have A2 and I raise it up and the blinds fold and he calls. Ok not great that he called but I do not put him on the A (would have raised on Cut off) and at least I got position. Flop comes K high, which in my mind is the worst possible flop as I give him a range of hands like KJ, KT, QJ, KQ basically broad way cards. He played a KT to a big raise, so that plays in my mind but he checks to me, as he should, always check to the raiser so you can check raise or let him bluff out. I decide to check behind, turn and river he checks to me and I just check behind thinking he has a bad K or a small pocket pair and would not bet it. He flips over A7, which is good! Doh!!!! He checks to me three times and I did not bet! What is wrong with me!!! I feel I should have at least bet the turn to at least find out where I was. Arggg!!!!!!

I end up play no more hand and I was down to 5 BB and the blinds were about to go up. I was in the SB and feel if folded around I got move in as I lose all my fold equity when the clock goes up, I find J7 and go all in, the BB finds AT and was close to folding for some reason!! Call Quicker!!!! He does in the end and I get no help and I’m out with 17 player left.

One good thing about that day was that I had 3 aims, not to spend to much on the rebuy period, not to play cash live and not to waste any money on the roulette machine!!! 3/3!!! I guess next time I play my aim should be to get in the top 3!!!
Big Game!!! 200 Buyin 3 Players, 1st gets 500 and 2nd gets 100!!! Wait it gets even better! We are playing 6 games not just Holdem, each player chooses two games each


Amar : Holdem and Pineapple
Niraj : Royal Holdem, 5 Card Draw
Yours truly, Dhruv : A-5 low ball double draw and Omaha Hi-Lo (feeling the low ball games)

(p.s when I say the buy in was 200 I meant 200 pence!! What did you think I meant?)

This was the most fun I had playing poker for such a long time!!! We are all new to most of these game, although Niraj played a bit of 5 Card Draw and you know I like my Omaha Hi-Lo but the rest is all new. Amar commented that ‘why play these games, we know good’ me and Neal replied ‘we did not how to play holdem a few years ago!’ I learnt with these two boys, we started off with 3 card poker and monopoly money! Fun times for sure!! So when I make my millions and millions leaving in Vegas I wont forget you two! Lol (I wish!!!)

But the games were really fun, but obviously we did not know what was a good hand so there was a lot of bluffing and bluffing with the best hand situation. I’ll try and remember a big hand from each game

Holdem : I raise for like the 4th hand in a row with JJ, they both call (fish) Flop A Q 3, checked round, turn a T and checked to me and I bet out, Amar calls, Niraj folds, river the sweet K to give me the straight and Amar checks to me, I bet big and Amar instant calls (does not even move his chips in) so I think it must be a chop. I shows JJ and Amar mucks saying RIVERED!!!

Royal Holdem : I get JJ and Boards ends up something like A K Q Q T and Amar fires out on the river and I fold saying I cannot beat anything!!! Amar shows AT!! Doh!!!

Omaha Hi-Lo : This was the final hand of the night, me and neal heads up. Flop came 9 6 7 2 hearts, I’m holding QQ45 2 hearts and Niraj bets and I move in he calls instant, claiming he has a low! There is no low out there!!! Opps!!! He has a low DRAW though but misses and I take the 500p!!!

Pineapple: Cannot remember, boring game!!

5 Card Draw: Big hand early on, Niraj on the button and I’m in SB. Neal limps and I raise with 6644Q, Amar calls with JJxx, and Neal re raises!!!! I smooth call and Amar folds. I change one and so does Niraj, ok so I put him on 2 pair, ok a big draw like 789T all spades or something like that. I change my Q and pick up an Ace, we playing double draw so I got one more draw, I check and Neal bets out and I call. Neal got more experience than me at this game so I do not know how strong my hand is. I throw the A and pick up a 2, ok some people keep the A but why? Only helps if he got 6644x, which is quite unlikely. Anyway Niraj stand pats! Doh!! He is representing a 5 card hand as he is not changing. But there was something in his voice about the way he said ‘stand pat’ like he was too confident! So I check and saying to myself you can call his bet, he may have been trying to make a move before the cards were dealt. When I check he thinks and checks behind, so I think I must be good. I say two pair and he goes samem I say you win, he says I cannot! I was like I got 6s and 4s and shows 6s and 3s!! Yeh!!!!!

Low Ball: Was fun but nothing to big to remember.

Ok now here is something for you to do! Basically I only know a few of these games, leave a comment if you have any advise about the games in question or if you have any other fun games that are worth try, please leave a comment and let me know!!!

Dropping Back to $1/$2

Ok i have had my fun playing $2/$4 but i have realised in the last week that i really do not have the bank roll to maintain that high level of play, i say this after i just dropped £700 playing it in the last week and its just some crazy hands where i lose it all. Here are some examples

Button raises i call with 4d5d 6 handed. Flop 4 5 9, i check and he bets out $16, i call, turn a 2 and he bets out $32 and i move in for another $180ish and he instantly calls with TTs fair enough, all though he has put in no thought to what i have, fair enough, he sees an over pair he thinks its good. So he has 8 outs to out draw me a T 9 or 2, and the 2 hits!

I pick up QQs and some guy who raises every other hand raises to $12 and i make it $44 to go, and the guy next to me moves in for about $180, i think for ages thinking he would do the same with AK, JJ and low but also KK and AA but i call and he flips over A5 Sweet!! First card down is a A! Doh!!!!


Hands like that just kept on happening, AA vs top pair and then he hits two pair on river, etc and the classic over pair vs set, also had a set over set the other day that hurt $900 pot especially as the board paired giving both of us a full house, he rivered the set/house.

Ok i know this sounds like a bad beat post but it aint!! Just explaining why jumping up to $2/$4 was clearly a bad idea. I just dont have the bank balance at the moment to with stand all these beats/ cold decks and to play at that level you need it, so i'm going back to $1/$2 and try and stick there for at least 6 months and re build my roll until i can afford to lose big on $2/$4!!!!

3 Bad Nights at Big Slick!

Monday

£10 rebuy! Managed not to spend too much in the rebuy period but had a very dead table in terms of rebuys which meant that if anyone got moved on our table broke we would in trouble as there were not many chips on the table, I had aroun 7k after the break which is ok but not alot, lost a big pot with AK vs JJ all in pre, which was during the rebuy. Not too many interesting hands that i can remember i pick up 88 on the short stack a few levels in after the break and move in, one guy calls and the SB dwells up, he had less than both me and the caller, he eventually calls and shows QQs lol!!!! SLow roll??? I think so!!! QQs hold up but my 88s were gd against AK and i win a BB!!!! Yes!!! Literally a chip and a chair, fold the next hand i find AA the hand after i move in!! 5 callers and its checked down! Some one rivered a flush and i'm out!!! Oh well atleast i was only in for £40

Sat on the small cash with £100 and found Q10 and called the BB from the SB was about 4 others in the pot. Flop Q T A, gd flop with two pair, str8 out there but hopefully get action out of the A on board, i check, planning to check, bottom two never too strong, but it checks round, now im thinking some has KJ, not a set as no raise pre flop OR no one has anything. Turn is a lovely T Bingo! Bango Bongo! i now check hoping some else has hit the T. BB takes a deep breathe and bets like someone put a gun to his head, he gets a caller from the button for £8 and i feel he is soooooo strong so i bump it up to £20 and he mucks instantly i was like HUH!! Bad read but the button still called me! River was a blank and i bet £35, she moves in instantly and i call, was not sitting deep enough to even think about her having A10. She shows the str8 and i show the house. I eventually lose my winnings to one guy who quintupled up! With a str8 flush against my top pair, another guys flush draw and another’s guy weak Ace.

i move to the bigger game as this game was drying up. I play very solid on this table as people do not fold anything so it is very difficult to put people on hands, i try to play flops and nothing else, i need to hit but when you do its pay day!! Unfortunately i lose a lot trying to hit flops and i just could not connect. I pick up 45 and call, Flop comes 4 5 3, looks good but there is a str8 out there and a flush draw, but im happy to take on a flush draw, again i plan to check raise the raiser pre who WILL bet the flop, he bets out £20 and is raised to £50 by a solid player, i'm guessing 88s here but then a player re raised to £150 and this play is a very tight player and does not mess about, i think for a while and muck my top two pair thinking the last raiser has atleast a set if not a str8, the orginal better calls with Q6!! and the raiser calls, The tight player had A2, turn is a 2 and the Q6 takes a £500 pot!!! Mr A2 takes the beat VERy well and reloads for another £500, dont worry you will get it all one day!!!

I then pick up JJs and flat call a raise, flop comes A high with two middle cards and i call a bet, turn brings another middle card followed up by a £150 bet and a call, i muck not putting them on an Ace but one two pair or a str8, i think i can wait for a better spot, river a blank and player A shows a str8! i then pick up two big flush + gutshot draws and lose all my money because i never hit those draws! when i;m gettin great odds!!! So sick sometimes, especially when you see some guys who just do not miss at all!!!

Not a good night for me but made back some money online.

Tuesday

£30 second chance a comp i really like. good structure and a nice amount of chips i turn up a bit later but only missed a few hands. It was a really strange table, i only played with 2 players on that table before! which is not normally the case these days at big slick, so i sat there patiently at the start just working out how everyone is playing. Same old bad play i see, people raising way too much and players not taking the pot down when checked to them twice and even three times but hey i like to see that. I cannot remember too many big hands before the rebuy period, i was on about 8k after the break which is a nice amount.

I take a few uncontested pots down, find AJ in early i raise it up, guy calls me, with only 2400 chips left and i think i made it something like 2k to go, so there was around 4.5k in the pot and i basically put him all in blind, flop came Q T 9, so i am up and down and he calls, he has AK with which gave him a gutshot and a flush draw! surprised he did not stick it all in pre to be honest. Anyway i miss and double him up. I then win with 99s vs AQ yes i know i won a RACE! shocking!! On about 10k and UTG a solid player raise, i find KK and think for a while and decide to move allin, some guy thinks for ages and said 'i cannot fold this, it would make me a German!' What the hell does that mean!!! But it put a smile on my face as he must be behind KKs and looks like he has to call! otherwise he will be a 'German' i figured he had AK or TTs, he thinks for ages and lets it go, damm! and Utg quickly mucks. The now ‘German’ folded JJs! Damm that was a missed opportunity for me, but I wanted to try the all in move more to try and get more chips! Guess it was not the right time to do so.

Blinds are now quite big with three tables left and I I’m in the BB we are 6 handed on each table and UTG moves in for 5k and blinds are 1k/2k I find A6, ok UTG has moved in what does that mean, according to all the books he must have a strong hand to moves in early, however I’m very suspicious of people who move in UTG, when blinds are high because they know they are the BB next and the SB after that and those blinds will cripple they stack and moving in now will give them a ‘free round’. Another point is the player is the time who wants chips, he doesn’t like been short. Also my A6 is ahead of KQ KJ QJ, which are legitimate hands to move in with 6 handed on the short stack, but the problem is even if I am ahead I’m never going to be too far ahead also he could have a big hand!! Like AJ AQ AK!!! I decide to call, I’m so tired of getting to final with so few chips, he had K4 and I’m a 63% fav but the 4 hits and I lose, later on I raise with AT UTG and the short stack the the BB says if I don’t not have an Ace I’m calling, he does not and calls with J2, which was fair enough as he was quite short stacked. I was a 67% fav this time but the 2 hit Twice! And I lose another pot!!!

Then I moved in on the button with Ah2h and the BB thinks for a while and calls with JJs!! Call quicker!! I’m stealing!!!! But guess what I get LUCKY!!! I hit an Ace!! Whoo hoo!! A few hands later I make final and one guy went out 2nd hand and we said £60 off the top for 8th place and I was all in next hand in the SB with A3 after a loose ish player raised it up with KJ, I lose and I’m out!!! Oh well a break even night, getting very annoyed with these 5th 6th 7th 8th 9th places had soooo many yes I know I make some money but I need that big win!! Its so frustrating, ive tried not taking on those 55/45 situation and ive tried taking them on but nothing works and those hands are crucial in these night time tournament, which are quite shooty. Oh wel!!

Wednesday

Played the £20 buy in with £10 rebuy comp, played very tight in the rebuy and did not even re buy!! I took the double add on and was in for £40 total which was nice, also had 10% in mr Riveru. I got my stack up with a few drawing hands and hit a few flops, then lost a lot with AK (again to 99s) I never win those races in the rebuy period, which can really build my stack! I then get most of it back with AJ vs QQs ( I got lucky but it does not count in the rebuy period in my books) I end the rebuy period with 8.9k which is good as only 3 tables in this comps.

Interesting hand came up when I was in the BB with A4, EP limped and the SB folded and I checked. Flop came 6 4 2, I check and EP checks, ok now I think my 4 is good, he would have bet the flop if he limped with a pocket pair and my 4 should be good unless he got 666, turn is a J not a nice card for me to see and I check, he bets out and I call, I feel I’m good here but do not want to raise as I don’t think he will fire another shell on the river, river is a J, ok this is a great card for, it makes it less likely for him to have a J, so the only hand I’m worried about is 666, which would give him a full house. I check and he bets out 3k and I have 5.8k left, hmmmmmmmmm it’s a nice pot to win and something told me that I should call this. As I was the only one in the pot I started to talk out loud, I said what did you limp with, not a PP because you have to bet that flop unless you have 666, so you cannot have 88s or 77s, I then say I can beat KT, you would have raised with an Ace or KQ etc, I kept saying I can beat KT, so I called and he looks at me, waiting for me to show my cards, but the rules of game say the last better should show 1st, he shows KT!!! OHHHH yeh!!! I guess I do know something about this game!! Got some surprised looks after the hand though!! I just smiled!

I felt this was my time now to get into the game and make final with plenty of chips, I then have KJ in the SB and limp to disguise my hand, the BB then moves in and I have him covered, if I lose, I’ll be just below average. I call and he flips over K2, he did it blind! Great for me and my KJ holds and I’ve got some chips to play with!!!

Ok I have made the change to gamble and get those chips and it was working, I had about 21k with 12k being the average chips size, with two tables to go I was in the BB with 67 and the button moves in for 5.8k and the SB calls for 4.9k, I have 1.2k invested in the BB and it was another 4.6k to call and I said I need to do some maths, the pot is 5.8k + 5.4k + 1.2k = 12.4k and its 4.6k more for me to call so I’m getting 2.7 to 1 to call and knock out 2 people with only 16 left. On the people side they moved in, in a desperate way so I did not read them for a big pocket pair. I call and they flip over AQ and AJ and I loved it, I’m a 33% fav to win the hand and the odds I was getting were huge. But I miss and lose 5.8k.

I then tried to take the blinds once a round but got card dead and people kept going all in before me, blind were 2k/4k and average was about 20k I had 12K and called an allin with KQ, I felt I needed to gamble and with the blinds folding and extra dead 6k helped! But he had AQ and I go out in 10th!
On a happy note mr RiverU chopped 1st place and I took £45 off him! So I ended up £5 up in the tournament!

I sat in cash which I tried to stay away from. I played two hands and there is no happy ending! Played KJ flop came J T Q, not a bad flop I check in the SB and 4 people were all in by the time it got back to me and I decide to fold on my up and down draw with middle pair, one guy had the flush draw, one str8 draw, one 2 pair and one set of Qs, which held up.

I then find AA and raised the pot and got 6 callers! That’s not good, flop comes Q J 2 and one guy bets £15 (loose player) everyone folds to me and I raise £60 more, loose guy calls and so does the rock on the table, not happy thinking rock may have QJ, turn is a 2! That’s a great card as I got the nut two pair. Other 2 guys end up all in and one got 10 9 and the other Q5, ok not K Q 8 and I take a £350 pot!!! River K!!!!!

Good night Big slick!!

Omaha Hi-Lo!!!!! / More Cash

From the post before i mentioned that i was playing a omaha hi-lo comp, $33 limit one, which i love to play. I like this game more than Omaha hi because i feel the weak players get punished more. Davey Lu thinks that in hi-lo the players mistake are rewarded with sometimes half the pot, but i feel that the weak players tend to get 1/4 of the pot as we chop the low and i win the high. Also there is always dead money in these multiway pots, where one person just going for the low, one with just a high and 2 others going for both (me!) Its just so sweet when they bet and raise the whole way with just a low and i come in to scoop or atleast take 3/4 of the pot.

Like i said im not going to give a proper report because it is a confusing game to talk about, i WON!!!!!! YEHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHH i got $1306 comming 1st out of 162 runners was pretty sweet. i dont normally win comps, i have a lot of 3rd 4th 5th 6th 7th to my name, which is soooo annoying so nice to win this to go with my big win on UB last week. We did a deal heads up and changed it from 1st - $1450ish and 2nd - $970ish, to $1300 and $1100, i was more than happy to deal as we were both tired and happy with over a $1k. We tried to deal 4 handed but one guy kept on rejecting the offer so we played on and it was sweet when i knocked him out. When then dealt heads up even though i had more chips, i just do not like going back on my word. By the way this was an online comp and you mite be thinkin how are you doing deals!!! Well on Poker stars you can call the manager to the table who will stop the clock as long as everyone is sitting out. Then the manager will 'run the numbers' according to chips in play and the prize pool and offer the chop. Its a nice feature to have when the game is going no where and there is a big jump between 1st and 4th, when all it takes is one hand, lucky for me after the deal got rejected i was on the winning side of that one hand when i got aggressive with 24JJ on a 355 flop turn a 6 giving me the str8 and a 65432 low, he had 555 and couldnot let go!! Sweet!!!!


So played some cash yday which went well, ended up about £250 up in the day, cannot remember any hands in detail right now, played so many, in about 370k in term of action points. Oh yeh there was one lucky hand, well not lucky more timming, there was a 5 minute break in the omaha hi-lo comp and i thought lets play some holdem on rivercard! I like poker star comps because when i get deep you can blow up the size of the table to the size of your laptop screen, which gives a nie focus on the game. Anyway during the break i got on to a table sat with $250 and as i sat down there were 2 ppl on their backs, A9 vs AA all in pre flop, this was obviously surprising. So player in seat 3 had the A9 which lost. Anyway i pick up QQ UTG after auto posting and make it $15 to play, Seat 3 raises to $40 and i flat call to see a flop. Flop comes Ten high and i check to the re raiser, i could have pushed, or checked to see where i stood but i decided on that flop to check raise all in, if he had KK or AA gd luck to him! Although in the pass i have thrown away QQs on a J or T high board putting someone on AA or K but this guy seemed a bit funny especially after the hand before, he then checks behind and i feel he has AK or 3 Ts which would be sick, turn is a Jc and i bet out $80 and he moves in, there are 3c on board and i have the Qc, if he has 3Ts i got 11 outs lets just hope he doesnot have AcKc, i call and he flips over Qh 7c, he is drawing dead! Sweet river gives me the flush and $515 in my hand, i stay for a little while but the table crashed as this guy moved all in every hand after that, but i did not get a hand, he take down a nice pot with 62 allin vs AJ and then lost it all with J5 vs KQ, crazy game! But great timing for me!!!!
Mite go Big slick tonite but not sure, parents came back from india yday so mite jus chil at home, we'll see