High Stakes Poker Warwick Style!!

HSWP (High Stakes Warwick Poker)

The game was set!!! After 2 weeks we brought the game back, we had a few changes and a much stronger line up (no offence to who played last time). This was something I was really looking forward to as was at least half the players involved. The game was now 50/£1 blinds with a max buyin of £150 and a min buyin of £40. I advertised the game to the usual lot by text and then posted on the forum, the game was filled with 2 days and the game was on! We had ten players in the game and even someone on the waiting list. Just a quick note I will and cannot go into too much detail about certain hands and moves taken place in the cash game. Most of the players in play last night read my blog and it certainly an –EV play for me to reveal all my thoughts about the game. Sorry!

Last time we played the blinds were £1/£1 and I played terrible, I lose most of my chips with KKs and two pair but I was calling off my chips way to much. I actually lost most of my chips picking up ‘playable’ cards and calling raises, missing flops and folding to any heat sent my way. This is just awful, these are the kind of player you loved to play against and I certainly was not going to play like this again. My key thoughts were to think of position position position. Upon two requests to do seat draw I agreed. So we pick our seats from ten and I picked someone picked seat two for me, in case you do not know I never like to pick my seating card, I always get a dealer or another player to pick it for me, just a silly superstition thing I guess. I like seat two as you can clearly see the whole game from the side, I hate seat 1 and 10 as you on next to the dealer and cannot see the whole game while seat 5 is too much in the middle and sometimes gives you too much attention, which does not suit my game.

Players – Seat 1 – Guv, Seat 2 – Dhruv (me!), Seat 3 – Scott, Seat 4 – Tom, Seat 5 – Mark, Seat 6 – Nick, Seat 7 – Kader, Seat 8 – Mitesh, Seat 9 – Jaime and Seat 10 – Rob
If you know the players we have a tough game ahead. I have certain reads and ways I would play these players but as most of them read my blog I cannot be too detailed as mentioned earlier. I would normal go into detail here and explain my views on each player, but here is generally and pre game game plan, Guv very aggressive and can make moves with anything, was simply going to play position against him and hope for him to fire out some bluff. Against Scott was going to play big pots when I had it, as the money does not mean as much to him so I feel he is more likely to call, Tom I tend to stay out of his way playing cash as he tends to be quite conservative, if he is calling me he probably got me, Mark is a rock of rock not wanting to get involved with him with an Ace in the hole, only would play very creative cards, Nick the wildcard!!! The non Warwick boy! He texted me out of nowhere asking about the game and I said why not! Kader another potential wild card in the game, have not played cash with him for ages so I felt I would wait and see how he plays before attaching any reads to him. Mitesh is trick and can go either way, sometimes folding the 3rd nuts but then calling all in with top pair, was going to play tightish against him but definitely not afraid to bet him off hands. Jaime was someone I am likely to check call a lot from. I know he loves big pots and I would be control the pot more than anything against him. Rob!! Hate playing rob!! Most people who think why as I win a lot of money against him in the past but Rob is the type of player who wins or loses £200+ pots, I like to win £30 pots and grind on my stack up and Rob definitely does not like letting me do that!

Ok, sorry poker fans out there but my girl mates are all annoyed that i do not mention them in my POKER blog! So i have decided to keep them happy!! Hello girls!!! I hope this keeps you happy and you might check the blog once in a while!!!

Back to the Poker!!

So the game starts off very slow. More than half the table brought in for £150, a few for £100 and one for £40, so we had the range in their, I normally like to sit with the max in any game but my limit was £250 again tonight, and felt if I sit with a £100 and go broke I can rebuy for £150 knowing the game will be deeper then. So it made more sense to have £150 when the game is deeper rather than rebuying for £100 or going £125 each way. The game was seeing some normally raises and most pots were taken down on the flop. Mark moved in early on twice I think but no caller. The game was definitely going to pick up. I then limp with AK in late position. Scott and Nick call. Flop is 7 7 T. No good for me and I check after Nick checks Scott follows. Turn is a Q and I pick up a gutshot and two overs. Nick bets out £5 and I call, ok not a great call with just a gutshot on a paired board but if he has a 7 I might get a few chips here. Scott then makes it £18ish to go, Nick thinks for a while and makes it £35 more, I quickly fold and Scott calls. The river is a 5 and Nick checks instantly, Scott gets a chips count of Nick and moves him in for another £45ish , so the pot is around £170 and Nick slowly decides to call, They both say 7, and Nick with the A kicker scoops a £200+ pot!

I tried to get involved in some pots but not much was happening for me and I refused to play rags, especially with a £100 stack and raises up to £7 pre flop (with limpers) I decided I would be more selective in the hands I was playing. The next interesting hand that happened was against Tom and Kader. Not really sure what happened in the had but Kader flopped a set on a three spade board and lead out, Tom called and the turn paired the board giving Kader the house, Tom had A3, three of a kind. On the river Kader gets it all in and Tom calls. Kader get just under a double up.


There were a few limpers in the pot and Guv makes it £5 to go, which was way to small a bet. He gets 4 callers while holding the two ladies QQ. Flop is 6 6 2, a nice flop for Qs, ok the paired board is not nice but a 6 is less dangerous then two Ts or 9s or 8s in my opinion. It check to Guv and he fires out £20. Mitesh smooth calls and Jamie makes it £55 total. Guv then calls!!! Hmmmmmm Ok I think QQs need to run away here, he has lost £25 in total and calling another £35 and sitting with only £100 behind makes me think you are commiting too much here with a turn and river to come, also what does Mitesh have, a 2?? More likely a 6 in my mind. At this point I knew Guv had a big pocket pair and could not let go! I figured Jabon to have something like 88s or 99s finding out where he is but I definitely read Mitesh for a big hand. Mitesh then moves in!!! Jamie says he cannot fold was only another £35ish more (at most) and Guv slowly folds! Mitesh flips A6 and Jamie has K6!!!! Ok you might be thinking why did they flip it well at High Stakes Warwick Poker we give the option to take insurance (ie split the pot there like 80/20). Run it twice or run it three times. Mitesh took his advantage and said to run it once. The turn is a heart giving Jamie a flush draw, he not could hit a heart or a K to win, or a 2 or a 4 to split. Jamie then asking if Mitesh wanted two rivers but Mitesh kept to his word and said just once, the river was a K!! Jamie wins a £275ish pot! Seems like 3 of a kind is a dangerous hand to have in this game!!!

Mitesh leaves the game and Richard Myles joins in. He is a interesting player but not played with him a lot, I thought I’d see how he plays before making any reads. At this time I played a few small pots and lost a few and won a few. I was sitting on about £130, so about £30 up without anyone taking much notice.

Rob Jagger then gets involved in a few all in moves after calling Jambons re raise with 63 and flopping two pair against his AAs, I think they run it 3 times with Rob taking 2/3 of the pot. Jagger then out drew AA with a pair and a gutshot! In the middle he tried to bluff Guv off KKs which did not pay off as he instant mucked after Guv called his river bet, classic Rob! Last time Tom called Rob with J7 high to see Rob instant muck!!!

After playing for a while I was impressed by the way Kader was playing he was picking up a lot of pots with his continuation bets and kept the pressure on, But I picked up on his style of play later on which caused me to have a few battles with him. I like to play pots against people who I have a comfortable read on, as its no long about cards vs cards its player vs player the true art of poker comes into play. I limp with 4s5c and Kader makes a raise which gave me the impression of a steal raise, so I call, the flop is 3d 3h 5h and I check, he checks behind, then turn is another heart and I feel I could represent the flush here but decide to check to see where he was, he lead out £18 and I quickly called, I feel he may have a big heart so I want to see a blank on the river and then come out firing, the river however was a Jh, YUK!!! I think for a while, thinking whether to put a stop bet out there or not but then I thought Kader might not be able to fire another shell and might check behind. I check and he fires out £40, I had around £90 in my stack and felt pushing was not an opposition. I really wanted to make the call but the way he was playing before I felt he was not going to fire out without a Kh here. I felt he had the big heart on the turn and kept to my read and eventually fold, he claims he had Ad9d, if so well played sir!

Richard Myles had been playing for just under an hour and must of got bored or something, I do not know what happened pre flop but on the flop of J 3 6 two hearts, Nick bets out, Rob raises and Richard Re raises! Nick then moves in and Jagger folds. Richard then calls with AQ high!!!! HUH!!!!! Nick is slightly confused as was the rest of the table! Nick had Ah3h and had Richard crushed, Richard had 3 outs, They decide to run it once as Nick is a huge favourite and the pot was over £300+ The turn is a T and the river is a off suit K giving Richard the NUTS!!!! So so so so siccccccckkkkkkkkk! Nick took it really well and re loaded! The deck was just sick!!!

I was still grinding my stack! Just thinking position position position! Was up to around £130 now, and I limp with QJ, Mark raises it up and I call. The flop is J high and I check, Mark checks as well, I’m thinking he could have TTs JJs or AK here. The turn is a T and I bet out Mark calls, I then check in the dark. The pot is about £30 ish and the river is a Q, now I cannot beat AK!! Mark bets £7! What a value bet! I pay him off just to see if he called with the gutshot or not, he did and AK is good! Bet more Mark then I can fold!!!!

PIZZA BREAK!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!! (the game was meant to start at 730 and finish at midnight but rumour had it we would play to 3am!! Life as student hey!)

I then pick up AK and make one of my 1st raises of the night. I get about 6 callers! Nice!!! I almost see the pot as an unraised pot in my mind, and I hate going broke in an unraised pot so I was not going to get too busy. The flop is 5 A 4 two hearts. It checks to me and I bet out £18 and Jambom calls, Rob then moves!! Woaaaahhh!!! Classic Rob using his chips here, I thought I might be a slightly favourite here but I have only commited about £25 and thought I could get my stack in a better spot, if he has a pair + a flush draw, also worried about Jambon calling with a set in the middle. Jambon folded anyway and Rob scoops the pot. This is probably one of my weakness as a poker player, I always fold with the small edge I feel I have which stops me from taking down big big pots with just one pair. I do not know if I should be working on things like that or not, I feel in a tournament the strategy is different depending on stack sizes and the blind structure but in a cash game you can always reload! This is definitely an interesting topic because do you need to win pots like that! I was comfortably grinding out £20-£30 pots without too many showdowns and making money. Something I certainly need to think about put a comment on my blog!! Would like to here some people views on this.

The very next hand I pick up 66s and limp, Scott raises behind me and I call, no other calls. Flop is 3 6 7 ! Bingo Bango Bongo! I check and Scott bets out £8 and I call. The turn is an 8, bit of a danger card and I check, her bets out £18 and I move in for another £55ish. Scott immediately tells me ‘Did you flop your set’, I said nothing and he eventually calls, with what I think was QQs, I showed and he did not so we just ran in once. I thought he might have got away from the hand there but I could have easily had 89 and playing it fast after maybe being taken off my AK the hand before. As my £55 bet was an over bet that might have helped me get the call. That got my stack up to about £180

I pick up JJs later on in my BB, Jagger limped on Scotts straddle of £2 and Guv called as well, I made it £10 to go and Scott and Guv folded while Rob called leaving to just me and him!!! Not happy hate playing him when we are both fairly deep and I have a had like JJs which is difficult to improve on. The flop is a good one 2 T 3 rainbow, I check trying to give Rob the impression I had AK/AQ, (early I bluffed rob in a £60 pot on the river with AQ high) He fired out £20 in a £24 pot, I check raise to £55 and Rob calls, Boooooooooooo!!! What has he got! I know he likes playing 10-2 ! But really??? Does he have the set , I could not but him on 45 as I think he moves in or folds on the flop rather than flat calls my raise. So I’m not happy I still have £120is back and looking to shutdown! The turn is a J!!!!!! Bingo!!! I think for a while hoping Rob does have a set and I check, he moves in and I call! He has 222, ouch! Sorry Rob! My JJJ holds and I double up to £370ish!

Ollie the dealer then needed a break! So I dealt for a bit while our dealer went downstairs to relax. I decided not to play and deal, which was nice to give me a small break. Once Ollie came back I played a few more pots looking to take more pots down and called with connecting rags pre with my deep stack. We saw a few more all in with Rob getting unlucky picking up KKs when Tom limped with AAs and Mark kept finding AK against others people AA and KKs.

This interesting hand developed as well. It fold round to Guv on the button and he makes it £5 to go. I see AK and smooth call. Scott then makes it £30 more, Guv moves in!!!!! Woooaaahhhhhhhhhhhh! What just happened here! Guvs all in was about £130sih. I had nearly £380 in front of me, I then asked Scott for a chip counts, he had around £120. I looked back and saw I have invested £5! I was not worried about Guv at all to be honest. I felt he was getting bored and had not played much recently and wanted to play. At best I put him on TTs or AQs AT BEST!! Now Scott worried me, the side pot was clearly not enough against Guv to get involved just to play Guv, as it was quite clear Scott was commited to the pot. Then I went into the memory tank, I played against Scott about 6 months ago when there were two limpers UTG and UTG +1 and a raise in UTG + 2 and he re raised with KKs, I then moved in with AsKs in the SB. Later he said, you must put me on KK AA or maybe QQs there if he calls me. So that was running through my head as well, thinking Scott is not re stealing was also running through my head and on that knowledge I felt AK was at best a split and if Guv had TTs or a Ace in the whole or Scott has QQs and Guv has an Ace my outs are less. But also it was button (Guv) vs SB (me) vs BB (Scott) which can make people do some crazy things! BUT I decide to fold! Guv has QJ and Scott had AK!!!!!!! Right fold? Maybe in the long run, especially after only investing £5! Guv sucks out!!! The Jack hits! And Scott loses another big pot. He then got it in with QQs vs AK later on and Jambon hits the A then continues to hit the flush as well!

I played a few interesting pots with Kader. I picked up 35 against him and called his raise, he fired out the flop and I called with air and then he checked the turn for me to beat it away from him, I then had Qh8h against him on the cut off 7 handed (Rob and Scott left and Tom cashed out) I just limped and Kader checked his BB. The flop was 9h 7h 2c. He checks and I bet out £5, he calls, turn is a 5d, He checks and I bet out £8, he makes it £24 to go, I quickly call, to represent strengthen and knowing I had a lot of outs and position on him on the river. The river is an 8 and I miss everything! Except hitting one pair. He checks and I lead out £35. He quickly folds 7 5 face up!!! I was like pheww!!!!!! I was surprised he folded but he later explained the range of hands I could be on and I win every time minus the busted flush draw! I got my stack up to about £420ish

The very next hand I limp with Ah6h, approaching 3am. Kader makes it £11 to go and Guv calls and I calls as Kader was on about £380ish and felt I could take a big pot here, although Kader had played me well one I was drawing. He got me off the nut flush early on when he over bet the pot in position, I just didn’t call as I felt if I hit I was not getting paid off. The flop is T 4 2 all hearts!!! BINGO!!! BANGO BONGO!!!!! Guv fires out £25 and I go into the tank. Guv only had another £90 back so I know he is committing here, putting him on a small flush. So I need Kader in, I think for a while check my cards and eventually call. Kader then asks Guv how much does he have left (Bingo!) Kader then bets £125 Guv only having £112ish left. Guv instantly calls the his allin, and I instantly move allin!!! Kader asks for a count as I count out another £400! At this point I put Kader on top set and I get nervous. I feel this is the only hand he is thinking with and raising £11 pre flop with. The joker! Was just sweating me out! He had Pocket JJs with Jh and he was never calling!! Guv is the one with top set though! At one point there was almost £700 in the middle!! Eat your heart out GSN with your High Stakes Poker! I decide to run it three times with Guv, thinking I would take two pots down, which did happen. I won a £12 side pot off Kader, and 2/3 of the main pot!!!!!!

What a game!!!!!!! Definitely looking to hold another game like this and Ollie’s services of £5 an hour was awesome! I ended up with £545!! and I think Jambon just over doubled up his buyin and Kader just under doubled up with his. Definitely felt I played well was a bit annoying I did not make the call against Kader with the 45 but over was happy with the way I played, although it is nice when cards go your way!!!

Girls this one is for you!!!! (wow 3,800+ words damm!!!)