Pokerstars Blogger Championships

Played event three of the Pokerstars Blogger Championships tonight.
After an hour I was sitting pretty in about 20th place and then I saw that there were 1000 runners left and it was midnight!
I decided then that I might as well play recklessly with the intention of spewing away my chips or building a huge chip lead. Fortunately for my bed sanity prevailed and I was out 5 minutes later when my up and down straight draw couldn't get there against top pair and I was out.
I don't think I'm going to play any more until the Main event since winning will probably need me to be up till well after 4/5am.

Day 2

First hand back and I'm in the big blind at 800/1600 200 and there are 2 limps.
I look down to see 9dTd and shove, all fold and I'm up to 19000. Terrible play by the limpers with my stack size!
We then had an all in which was survived but it left the loser with only 5600 chips left.
Then, on my bb the short stack shoved in the cut off which was called by the sb after a good think. I decided to fold with 34o had 34 and folded. As it turned out we would have split the pot 3 ways.
A few hands later and the short stack pushes again from early position. When I saw TT I shoved for 15000 only to run into the big blind holding QQ.
The board came Q75 and paired the 5 on the turn to leave me out short of the money.
Nothing I could have done there.
Enjoyed the game but would have been nice to get some chips at some point!
Good luck to Andy and Jimmy who have both made the final table.

GUKPT side event - Bolton - every hand revealed!

I started off recording the main hands I played in this tournament but I've ended up recording pretty
Much every hand I've played ala Gus Hansen.
Everything has been recorded on my phone so it might not look tidy when I upload this post.
If so, I apologise in advance and I will tidy it up tomorrow,
For now, enjoy it, if you like this sort of thing, if not, skip through!

Level 2 50/100 with 7500 starting chips. It's folded to my button and I raise to 300 with 88.
The flop is Js 7d2d and after 2 checks I bet 600 into 900 and get reraised to 1700 by the bb so I fold.
I might have been ahead, but I can't call!
Level 3 75/150
Checked kj in the bb, flop k high with 2 diamonds and I check called the button's 350 steal and checked the turn rag
River came a third diamond so I just had to check the river with the intention of calling a medium sized bet on the river
Which didn't come and I won the pot to get back to 7500 chips.
Level 4 100 200 25 ante after a limp I raise KQ and got reraised to 2200 all in by AJ and I had to call the 1700 and a king on the turn meant I had 9900.
I then got moved to a new table between jimmy morgan and steve holden.
One of the first hands and there are 3 limpers and a go to call the 200 with T7 but throw a 1000 and 100 chip in by mistake. With
One caller I have to continue bet on the AK 3 flop which is called. I check behind on the T turn and fold to the pot bet on the riverm Down to 5800.
Next there is a raise to 650 by jimmy so I call with 77 and there is a squeeze to 2200
. Jimmy then did his usual hollywood think before reraising and saying "go on I can't pass with
his KK and I folded leaving me with 5025 chips.
After a button raise to 800 I went all in with JJ and he folded AT, up to 5675.
Moved tables which is a shame because when the blinds go up the limpers on he old table would have been profitable for a short stack.
Raise from buddy to 1500 who folded his KJ to my shove with AA, 7125 chips but would have been better because ash told me he would have set me in in the sb with K9!
Next level 200/400 50 ante.
Down to 4750
Not played a hand that level with junk hands and. Saw 2 flops in the blinds.
Didn't even have any spots to steal.
Second hand in it's folded to me, all in 23o, I pick up the blinds.
Next hand and there's a raise to 1500, I'm all in again with KK. He says he raised blind and. Calls 24hh flop
comes K99 2 hearts but I survive and up to 13000
300/600 50 next, all in or fold.
Raised late pos to 1700 KJ and bb called and check folded in disgust on an ace high flop.
Next hand raised 1600 AT all folded, up to 15500 with the average 19200 and 34 left.
After a raise utg and 2 calls I called 1600 more with 34 and missed.
10500 left.
Folded to me on the button I pushed TJ and won the blinds, 12300, blinds now 500/1000 100.
Raised 88, all folded.

Tight cutoff Raised to 3000 on my big blind when I had Ac 9c, I folded with 12300 behind.

Folded K4hh on button, blinds had nothing but don't want to shove every time.
Next hand Jd7d the same, bb raised the sb limp.
Blinds up in 8 mins I'm going to have to raise next button if folded to me.
Blinds 600 1200 100
A9 on button, all fold, stack is 8300. All in again soon.
Nice time to find AA all fold 11600.
After a limp, I called in the small blind with KJ, it was checked around on the 732 flop,
I bet 2200 on the 9 turn and took the chips, 13100, 18 left.
99 in the bb but a raise and reraise meant I folded, 11500.
4 hands left for the night, blinds are 800/1600 200 tomorrow.
Last hand, after a limp from a guy who just raised 3 hands in a row,
all in 10500 with 6h7h. All fold, including a good player called Raf who folded TT which is a bit tight
Given my stack size but I was raising an early position limp on the blind of
Howard plant and he still had a few to get past, facing at least overcards normally, I would suppose.
Anyway, I'm back tomorrow for day 2 with 18 left, including Andy Booth and Jimmy Morgan out of the Liverpool lads who were on the cruise with us in 2008.
£17,400 in the pot, 10 get paid with the winner picking up about £5000.
Let's hope one of us wins.
Good luck also to terry owens, another Liverpool player who is on the final table of the £50,000 1st prize main event.

Quad twos again?!!

Played cash tonight at the circus in Liverpool.


A couple of hours in I'm sitting on a stack of £600 from a starting stack of £100.


I had built the stack through a few nice pots including one hand where I had limped in the big blind after the button had straddled and I was holding KK.

No one raised and I checked an A63 flop and the button bet £16 into the pot of £16. I called this having expected him to bet most flops. The turn came a 7 and I decided to check again and let him continue his bluff.

The river was a J diamonds that put a flush on the board and I checked a third time hoping to see a check back but he bet £100 on the river.

At this point I am only beating a bluff but my plan all along had been to let him bluff at me. The fact that a backdoor flush had arrived factored into my decision but I felt that he was more than capable of 3 barrel bluffing so I took my time and asked him if my pair of kings were winning.

To cut a long story short, after a couple of minutes I got the smile I was looking for and called to see his 35 bluff and rake a lovely pot.

Anyway, I also had a couple of hands against John, a pretty good lag player, who will raise a lot of his buttons.

On one of these hands John had raised again on the button and it ended up me betting the river and john flat calling with trips that he had made on the river. After that hand we talked afterwards about how john couldn't raise because he was only getting called by a better hand.

There were 2 pots where each of us made quad 2s before the fateful biggest pot of the night.

With a straddle from John on the button I flat called with 99 along with john and a couple of new players. The flop came Kc2h3h and the new player bet 10 into the pot of 18. I called along with John. The turn was a 2, which was checked all around and the river was a wonderful looking 9 giving me a full house of 9s full of 2s. I bet 50 into the pot of about 60 and John thought about it for ages before raising £200.

This is where it got interesting because of our previous conversation.

I have to admit that I did consider folding because of our previous conversation, however, I just called, even though he could have had K2 for a lower full house and he showed 22 for quads and raked the pot.

I've never been so disappointed to walk away with a profit of £80 for 2 hours work!!

Things went from bad to worse when I got to the car park.

Parking is normally £2.50 (after 18:00 apparently) which we get from the casino, however, when I went to pay the machine asked me for £12. After cancelling and checking the tariff on the wall I realised that this was because I had arrived at 17:57. So I reluctantly put my ticket back into the machine to pay my £12 but now the machine was asking for £15!

After looking around for the hidden cameras that had to be filming me for some TV prank show, I check my ticket only to see that it had just clicked past 1:57 which meant that I had gone from the 6-8 hour tariff of £12 to the 8-10 hours rate of £15!!!!

If only I had arrived 3 minutes later.

Needless to say I won't be playing the lottery this week!!!