Rollercoaster Ride

I recently signed up to PKR in the hope that the nice graphics and adverts will attract some casual players.

Add to that 30% rakeback and $600 of first deposit match bonus and I was hoping to build from there.

The software is quite good to look at but the action can be a bit slower than othersites and I've found that playing more than one table is very difficult as the cards are hidden until you look at them so I'm only playing 1 table at a time.

Anyway, last night I had a couple of hours playing $1/$2 no limit full table starting with a full buy in.

To say I had some wild swings is an understatment of massive proportions.

The first noteable hand I had was holding KK v AA, he raised in late position to $12, I reraised to $40, he made it $120 and I went all in for $160 which he called.

Then he called me a donkey when the flop came KTK.

I've read a few articles by people who think that in this sort of situation folding to the reraise is -ev.

Next came a hand where I raised to $8 in late position with Kh9s. With 2 callers the flop came down QhJhTh flopping me a straight and up and down straight flush draw.

I lead out for $16 and was called and reraised to $50 I raised all in and was called by both players, the check raiser with AQ for the flopped higher straight and the button with AhKs for top pair and nut flush draw.

So now I've gone from thinking I've probably got the best hand or best draw to needng the 9h for the straight flush as my only out!

Should I have been thinking about folding in that spot?

I know I'm not drawing dead whatever scenario and I presume it's just one of those hands I can't get away from.

I would be interested to hear whether others think I played it wrongly.

Next came another pair of kings in the small blind after a button raise.

I flat called the $12 as did one other.

The flop came down AQ9 rainbow and I'm cursing the A knowing I'm now behind so I checked and the button bet $12 but I decided to call in the hope that a K would allow me to stack a big Ace.

- this is where, in hindsight, I know I should have folded.

Anyway the king came on the turn and now I bet $50 which was called by the limper and raised by the button.

I called thinking, you can't have TJ and so did the limper who had TJ, and the button had AA, so I'm drawing dead to the case K!

I also got a pair of tens in the session with a T4T flop, but, of the 2 other players that also checked the flop, the small stack of $31 bet £20 on the third heart turn card which I called hoping the button had a flush.

He folded and then, to cap it all, a 4th heart came on the river and small stack check folded for his last $11 obviosuly not having a heart!

Another hand involved a flop of 568 when I held 56, the turn 5 giving me a full house that lost to the pocket eights of my opponent and my session went from $200 to $0, reload, down to $130 up to $530, and back down to $100 finishing at $150.

Then tonight, withing 10 minutes I've got 66 in the big blind and call the $4 raise from the UTG which was called by the sb.

The flop came K65, I checked, utg bets $12 I raised to $48 and utg is all in for $130 and its 666 v KKK. I've never known so many big hands to come up against each other in such a short space of time.

Damn variance!!!

I hope it's not the way i'm playing it!!!

champions

When these Euro championships were starting, at first I wasn't too bothered cos England weren't playing but I got a sudden realisation just before the start that half the Liverpool team would be in the Spanish squad, so why not follow as though they were England.

So I did and had a few quid on them and all of a sudden I had found my enthusiasm for the tournament again.

Add to that the fact that Spain had by far the best squad and, for once, the team I am following wins the things!

Come on you Spain!

.......Fernando Torres,
Liverpool's number nine!!!!!

Lazy lazy lazy

There just aren't enough hours in the day......

either that or I'm just too lazy!

I just never seem to get around to updating this and when I do I can't remember any specific hands as it is a while since I played them.

So I'm toying with the idea of changing the tack of this slightly and paying a little less attention to specific hands.

I don't know, I'll see how it develops.

Since I last updated I've played a couple of times coming 8th for something like £120 and busting out the hand before the rebuys ended and not bothering to rebuy, especially after passing on 2 occasions with suited connector type hands with only 1000 chips and blinds at 100/200 only to see the flop give me a full house if I had played!

However, the biggest event in the last couple of weeks was courtesy of Ladbrokes.

I won a share in their horse last year and because it didn't run due to injury it was carried over to this year too.

Well they had a shareholders event at Windsor a week last Monday and I qualified for that in the freeroll which gave me the night's accommodation in the Copthorne Hotel in Windor and hospitality at the racecourse with free food and drink and a poker game afterwards in the hotel - along with $150 expenses.

I had a really good time, meeting the other 19 players who won their way through.

we ended up having a little STT after the event between 4 of us in one of the players' rooms, the highlight being me calling an all in bet when a flush card hit the turn when it was heads up for the other player to show his flush that he had mis read as the Ace of spades he thought he had was the ace of clubs!

Great read by me then (not) - as he thought he had the flush even though he didn't!

However the best part of the night was one of the horses called Finnegan McCool, an 8-1 shot who romped home in an 8 horse race where I used all my sport betting skills by using the theory that "we're on a Ladbrokes poker event and there is a horse called McCool running. I read his blog every time it's updated so I've got to put some money on it!!!!"

So thanks to Mick for a nice little earner!

Anyway, I'll try to keep this up a bit more regularly.

Pokerplayer Championships

Haven't played live this week because I'm playing today in the Pokerplayer Championships in Bolton. I'll be setting off in a few minutes.
I did play a couple of tournaments on Ladbrokes where I won a very well structured $5 event for $600 odd but the best thing about the tournament was that when we got to heads up there was still a lot of play left. The heads up battlle went on for a good half hour or more with the chip lead swinging quite a bit. But I managed to overcome a 671k to 178k chip disadvantage to win.

However, more exciting was the opportunity I had in the Ladbrokes main event added tournament on Thursday where I was chip leader with about 20 players left. Unfortunately the average blinds in this event was on 7 big blinds at this point and I ended up going out in 12th with 44 against QQ after having got away with quite a few steals.

I could have been a lot luckier though as one hand I had raised about 3 times in a row and then I picked up 77 under the gun. Because I had been raising quite a bit at this point including 4 of the previous 6 hands (with good hands I might add - but they hadn't been shown down) so I felt that if I raised again I would be leaving myself open to a reraise with a much wider range so I folded. It did end up getting raised and called by 88 and AK-unfortunately, had I played I would have made a full house and won. That would have given me 3 times the 2nd place's chips but that's the way it goes and I don't like to say "I would have made xx" when I'm in a hand.

I'll update today's tournament tomorrow hopefully.

Cracks in the foundations

Where do I start, it's been a while since I updated about live poker and whilst I've only been playing once a week, it's sometimes difficult to keep the motivation each time you go out with jacks against J9 all in pre flop.

I suppose part of it is because the tournaments i'm playing become quite fast when it becomes all in or foldin the latter middle stages unless you have a very big stack.

But I won't go on, if someone could let the poker gods know it's about time I cashed that would do!

I'm actually writing this with my wrist strapped up pending getting it put into a cast on Monday. When I played that charity match last week I was tackled and fell onto my wrist.

It's been getting worse over the last 10 days and when I saw the doctor today he sent me for an xray where I was not only told that I had probably fractured my scaphoid bone in my wrist but he also showed me an old break on the other side of my wrist.

So as from Monday I'll have my wrist on a cast for 6 weeks.

As for tonight, well I've touched on my exit hand but the whole night went like that from the moment my AA wasn't good enough for QJ on a J high flop.

I did get one hand of luck when my 22 all in pre flop beat QQ to double me up.

Anyway, I registered for the Pokerplayer event next week in Bolton tonight so I'm looking forward to that next week and I'll take it from there.

It's back to the drawing board, re-read a couple of books and try to get back on track!

Chip and a chair

I haven't updated this for a while and I have 2 unfinished posts (well unstarted actually - but I have some notes)

However, I've just finished 2nd in the midnight Ladbrokes tournament and I'm absolutely over the moon.

It's not something that would normally get me excited as it's a $75 freezeout and the prize money of $642, whilst a welcome boost at the moment, is not one of my biggest wins but the nature of the win is what is most pleasing.
The reason is because 3rd hand of the tournament the following happened:
http://www.pokerhandreplays.com/view.php/id/6639

So this left me with 20 chips in the big blind.

I won that hand with 75 on 5 10 8 7 4 board winning 90 chips.

Then I'm dealt A5 faced with a raise and call but decide to gamble all or nothing, the 5678 10 board now gives me 360 and I have some play (starting stacks are 2000) 36 players, top 5 paid.

a few hands later and I'm dealt 44 in the cut off after a limp from the cut off (A2) and I raise all in and get reraised by the button (QQ) who is also called by the cut off. A 4 on the flop gives me the pot and I'm back in business with 980 chips and half the starting stack.

2 hours later and I've come second.

So as they say, all you need is a chip and a chair.... and a little bit of luck.

On a non poker front I'm playing in a charity match for the Football aid charity on Tuesday against the HollyOaks Team - something my neice and daughter are really looking forward to.

You can see the details of the charity here: http://www.footballaid.com/

I have to raise £600 in sponsorship for this so if anyone is feeling charitable, all donations are gladly accepted through pokerstars or paypal.

I've had a lot of problems with injuries recently so I'm just hoping to survive the match intact!!!