More bubbles in Manchester

Bolton
£50 rebuy satellite to GUKPT Manchester
42 runners 6 seats
4000 starting chips

I decided on taking another shot at the Manchester GUKPT event last night despite my diminishing bankroll.

Afterall, Bolton is still my favourite card room and the chances are I'm going to be playing in Birkenhead tonight as well since I can't play 5 a-side at the moment.

My first table was very interesting as Nick Slade was there doing his best to make sure there were a lot of chips on our table by having 9 rebuys.

It was really good fun though although it didn't start off too well.

Third hand in and I have kd9d on the button after about 6 limpers as there usually is in this sort of rebuy event so I called the 100 and the big blind raised to 500 which was called by two others before it got back to me.

So I called along with the small blind meaning there were 5 to the flop which was K96 rainbow.

The bid blind lead out for 2000 leaving him 1500 behind and it was folded to me with the small blind to act.

I felt that in this spot a flat call was the best option as it lets the small blind call with a wider range of hands and the big blind was probably committed to the pot if I raise now anyway and is likely to still call on the turn.

Unfortunately the small blind folded and then the turn was an ace giving AK a better 2 pair.

Big blind bets and I call expecting to be behind a lot of the time but resigned to the fact that this would have happened regardless of how I played it.

He did have 2 pair and no miracle on the river meant I was rebuying hand no 3.

Anyway, things got a lot better from there on as I started to get a few hands and with Nick on the table there was always going to be action.

He had a bluff at me when I was holding top 2 pair on one board after betting flop and turn and checking the river and I also managed to get him to raise what I made look like a blocker bet on the river when a 3rd club arrived but I actually had the nut flush.

It was good fun though and I decided to have a bit of a laugh with Nick who was calling most raises in the hope of building up a big stack.

Since he was trying to size his bets so that would be left with 2000 chips post flop and then be able to rebuy (For the non players who read this - you can only rebuy when you have less that half the 4000 starting stack)

I decided that next time I raised it would be to 1900 - leaving him 2100 chips and so not able to rebuy.

Anyway I got AJ on his big blind and, as expected he did, call cursing me, but then he bet 200 on the flop so that he had only 1900 left and could rebuy and let me raise to take the pot down.

I had 22000 chips at one point and was down to 14000 at the end of the rebuy period.

So I topped up and then the serious poker started.

After that things went along well with me staying at or above average chips for a long while until we got to the last 2 tables.

There was then a big hand involving KK v AA where the player to my right doubled up to 40,000.

The very next hand and he raised again to 5000 (blinds were 600/1200) and I looked down at KK so I reraised all in to 22000 which was folded back to the raiser.

He dwelled up and asked me a couple of questions which I ignored and eventually said to me that he was going to pass these for the first time before folding.

I showed him KK and he retreived his QQ and was very happy with himself.

Thinking back on it maybe I shouldn't have showed him as he was very relieved that he made the right decision but my plan was to use this later on whenever it came to sb v bb as I know that he passed AK earlier to a solitary raise so I knew that if he limped against me I would be able to raise with any two cards safe in the knowledge that he would almost certainly pass.

Unfortunately I got moved tables almost immediately.

I did get some nice cards on the next table including KK twice in 3 hands as well as AA and TT in a short space of time but the only time I got any action was when I raised with AK and had one caller who said that he was calling because I had raised his blind every time (with the good cards I might add) and when the flop came 9T4 he went all in meaning I had to pass, only for him to tell me he had KQ - if you believe him!

By now we were down to 11 players with 6 seats available and I raised from 4,000 to 10,000 with AQ on the enormous chip leaders big blind - he had 120,000 of the 460,000 chips in play.

After an age he decided to raise it again to 30,000 setting me all in.

Given his chip lead and that even though he had been betting almost all of the flops that he saw, he hadn't been raising much and there was no need for him to get involved withough a good hand so I folded my AQ face up and he showed his AK meaning I would have been dominated and almost certainly out - good decision.

Anyway I survised as the small stack until there were 9 left and after stealing a couple of blinds I was eventually all in for 13,000 on the button with the blinds at 3000 - 6000 with K9 which was better than average and the big blind called the extra 7000 without looking and turned over 5d4d which inevitably spiked a 5 on the turn to put me out just short again.

So, off to Birkenhead, I've got to cash soon.....

Warning, Ice can seriously damage your health

Played 5 a-side last Friday and pulled my calf muscle, so, as suggested I put an ice pack on my calf to reduce bleeding in the area and aid a quicker recovery since I am due to play in a football aid charity match on May 20th against the Hollyoaks football team.

Anyway, I left the ice pack on until it defrosted which was about 25 minutes and my calf was a bit sore after from the cold.

Saturday morning and I wake up to still feel the pain, look down and there is a huge blister the size of my fist. It seems that you shouldn't leave the ice on for more than 10-15 minutes at most otherwise you can get an ice burn which is apparently worse than a normal heat burn.

The picture was taken today, 6 days after the event. You can see where the walk in centre have removed the top of the blister.

So be warned!!!

Maybe some warnings needed on the ice packs!

Bloody sore!

More Satellite fun

Thursday April 3rd
Bolton £150 f/o
70 runners

I like the Bolton cardroom, it is the venue for my first cash in a ranked event and it only takes me 30 – 40 minutes to get there.

They’ve also started a couple of good tournaments including this one on the first Thursday of the month and they are even starting a monthly Omaha tournament which I might try out next month for something different.

This tournament starts off with 7000 chips and you get another 7000 any time within the first 90 minutes.

My first hand of significance was when I was in the big blind (50/100) with A4 which was limped around to me making 4 to the flop which came A J 6.

I checked and there was a small bet of 200 which I called.

The turn was another ace which I checked again and he bet 600 which I raised to 2600 and he called.

The river was an 8 and we both checked, me hoping for a split pot but his 9 kicker was good enough.

So with 3500 chips left I took my second chance.

I then got AA on the button after 2 limps, a raise to 600 and a call before me so I reraised to 2600 which was called by two players.

The flop came down a pretty safe Q62 which was checked by the original raiser, the caller went all in for his last 1600 which I flat called and the raiser folded.

Cards on their back and he’s got 22 for a set of 2s!

A lovely ace on the turn though and I’ve doubled up to 16000.

Unfortunately that’s where it ends though because, as has been the pattern this year, everything went downhill from there.

Whenever I raised I missed the flop and if I continuation bet they've hit.

Eventually I’m ending up all in with 4 or 5 big blinds left and if I’m ahead I get overtaken or I’m behind and stay there.

So I’ve been experimenting the last few days online, trying to open up my range a bit in the latter parts of the middle of the tournaments to try to avoid getting small stacked.

I’ll keep you posted on how it goes.

I did play another WSOP satellite on pokerstars on Saturday.

I qualified for it on Thursday using 40 FPP to play in the 4000 FPP satellite with 3 seats available.

There were 500 + players and I got down to 31 players at 3.30 am when I was really struggling to keep my eyes open after a week of very late nights.

Anyway I played this hand really poorly starting off with 100,000 chips and the blinds were something like 1000 2000 ante 100.

I had AhKd in late position and there was a raise to 6000 which I reraised to 18000 and he called. The flop came down 7h 5h 2h so when he lead out for 20 odd thousand and I decided that I would play it as though I had flopped the flush so I called.

The turn was a 5 and he bet again and I considered raising but again thought that if I had the flush I wouldn’t raise here and so flat called again.

The River was another 7.

At this point he bet 30000 of his 50000 into a pot of 80000 and I’m thinking, if he’s calling my reraise with a pair then how could he have been betting like that with a 7, surely he would have slowed down on the turn.

Anyway he had 10 7 and I had thrown away 80000 chips!

I'm not 100% sure about the betting numbers above but i'll check them tonight and update them if they are way out.

I know I should have raised his flop bet and stopped the action there and then but it's all very good saying that in the fresh light of day!!

Needless to say I went out soon after.

So that's it, I've not played much this week as I have been catching up on some sleep but I'll be playing tonight and probably goingto Manchester tomorrow.

Satellite near misses

Well, doing the updates more regularly didn’t last very long.

Played Thursday 27th in Manchester Circus in a £30 rebuy with the winner getting a seat in the GSNPC.

Started well and built up a healthy stack without the need for any rebuys.

This kept me going along with a healthy stack until we got near the bubble.

By then I was down to 23000 chips with the blinds at 2000 4000 and I went all in with 9T in the cut off which was called by the big blind with A7.

A 9 on the flop was enough to give me a timely double up.

Got to the final table with about 40000 chips and after a couple of rounds, we're down to 8 players with the blinds at 3000 6000 and I'm in the big blind with 24o.

It is folded to the small blind who looks like he is going to pass but then decides to call.

As he's considering changing his mind about folding I'm thinking, lovely, you'd be silly to call now cos I'm going to raise you.

Anyway, he does call and I raise to 18000.

He calls and the flop comes 335, he checks so I go all in for my last 22000 chips and he called with A8 so were 50:50 - any A, 2, 4, 6 and I still win but nothing and I'm out for £200.

Not too concerned about this, all the money was in the top places with the prize money doubling from 2nd to 1st place which I think is way too big a gap but I suppose they often get chopped near the last few anyway.

Then I played a satellite to the GSNPC for £50.

This was one hell of a crapshoot but everything seemed to go my way and I got good hands at the right time until I was heads up against a young lad (Martyn Robinson) who I now know quite well (we ended up taking 10% of each other in the tournament and he ended up going out one before the bubble - who got a signed chipset).

Anyway, heads up I had a 3-1 chip lead and decided (wrongly) that I had an edge over him and so started to play a lot of pots with him, whenever I had a good hand he had nothing and whenever I bluffed at him he had the nuts.

Granted I didn't play well heads up and he took the seat.

I then played day 1a in the GSNPC and made what I understand now to be a bad read in the pivotal hand of my tournament.

Level 2 (blinds at 50 100) and I limped UTG with KK - something I very rarely do but decided to give it a whirl after I had talked to Jasmes Ackenhead about it when I was on the cruise.

Anyway, that is when the action started as there was a raise in seat 5 to 300 which was called in seat 6 and then reraised by the small blind to 600. I decided to 4 bet 1600 which was called by the small blind.

The flop came 7c6c4d and the small blind checked and I bet a hopefully weak looking 2000 which he flat called.

The turn was 8c and he went all in for his last 6000 odd - marginally covering me.

I stared him down as I do and asked him a couple of questions, telling him that I thought he had queens on the flop but he didn't really give me a great deal of reaction to this.

I ran through the possibilities and didn't think the set was very likely but maybe a possibility, maybe a pair of 5s if he was hoping to hit a set on the flop but flopped an open ended draw but thought that would be a check raise on the flop, maybe a flush draw but again ditto and then maybe queens or Aces.

After all this, and his lack of any nervousness when I virtually tild him I had kings, I felt he had to have aces and folded.

I've posted this hand on AWOP and Blonde and the majority of people have this down as an instant call saying he has 99-QQ although I still think he would have played aces the same way.

Anyway, it turned out that later he told Martyn who was also on our table that he had queens so again I probably made a bad fold, something I'm going to have to stop doing.

Maybe I'm looking for too many monsters under the bed when I get involved and I need to just accept that if he has aces in that spot then I'm losing my chips

Anyway, lesson learned I hope and I ended up going to the G in Manchester to play the £30 single rebuy and again I didn't need the rebuy as I had 22000 chips at the break (starting at 5000).

However, once again, the rising blinds as the tournament became a bit of a crapshoot meant I was out in about 20th.

I also bubbled in Friday's GUKPT satellite after having a pot checked down when I was all in by a "friend" who was a big chip leader with 55000 on the bubble.

I actually won that hand to get back up to average stack but then after a min raise from 3000 to 6000 by the UTG I reraised all in for 33000 on the big blinds with AhKh which was called by UTG with 77.

Not the greatest play by him but he won the seat and I got $0.

Thanks to Teambooth who I immediately deleted from all my contacts and buddy lists.

I know Mark from Leo's and I was not impressed at all.

Anyway, rant over…

Update, just played my first WSOP satellite on Pokerstars ($33 rebuy - 1 seat) and I ended up finishing 4th when my 110000 button all in with Q8 when the blinds were 10000 20000 was called by the big stack (400000 chips) with - wait for it ... 7c4c! - I had a really tight image too. 74! Oh well I'm going to have to play that tournament again, hardly had to do a thing to get people to donate chips to me - even accounting for the runner runner straight taking my first 4000 chips after I had doubled up early!