Local Poker Tour

More for local Barrow guys, but feel free to comment if you think you have an idea or advice on this.

Over the last couple of months I've put some ideas together to create a local Poker tour, basic idea being trying to get some larger games going and a bit of a local scene rejuvenation. Also lots of places playing but all with their own local crowd so get people out and about into other games etc.

Here is a flyer I have done for it, dates may well change and I will update when they do.


Tried to get everything standard, but basics are

*£25 buy-in with 7pm start, but latecomers can buy-in upto 8:50pm to allow as many as possible to play. Games should finish about 1:15am.
*Their is a very progressive structure with double chance so should allow quite a bit of play even for the aggressive monkeys amongst the runners.
*Leaderboard based on all finishes with a great prize of a £150 seat at the Blackpool GUKPT 2 day side event in November.
*Their will be a 2-day Grand final to the tour with a £60 buy-in and top 3 in the first events will win seats as part of their prize.
*Trying to get the venues to add extra money based on number of players (hopefully £2/player over the initial 25 players) and this will pay for the GUKPT seat, 2 trophies and a little added money to each tourney/final.

Got a couple of the legs sorted but need to finalise the rest will post back when its done, but everyone seems "up for it".

GUKPT crapshoot.........No thanks ! !

I got a bit of freedom Saturday evening, so decided to pop down to Manchester and play the opening side event of the Manchester leg of the Grosvenor UK Poker Tour (GUKPT).
It was a £100 freezeout with almost 200 runners starting at 6pm which should have made for a great comp, but to be honest it was only slightly better if that of a normal evening casino game. You got just 5000 chips which meant lose your first hand of any size and you are under pressure. There are some missing levels on the structure and the clock is just 30 minutes through.
So sounds as though I had a disaster, far from it really, but was still out within 3 1/2 hours.
I started brightly and floated a 4xBB raise hand from the BB with 63 of spades. The flop brought 934 with one spade and I decided to continue to float it versus a pot bet and call. The turn brought the 2 of spades so I was now drawing to the flush and gutshot. Checked it and two players bet pot and called......trap sprung perfect.....pot is the right size, board is low ,players have just enough in front of them and they are both fairly TAG so in I go with a 2k raise. Obligatory stare down from the pre-flop raising DONK who has obviously now got an overpair. minute or so go by and I start thinking "look Dude, your not calling now. For god sake let it go you only got a poxy pair". Sure enough a bit more acting from him and he releases it as does the other guy and I pick up a nice little 2.5k pot.
Not a true float all the way as I was semi-bluffing on the end, but I was very pleased with myself. It is much easier to find a spot in bigger games like this but you still need the balls to pull it off and I would have been very crippled if called and if re-raised would have been committed with my 12 to 15 outs.
I then get my chip stack upto 9k with some nice play and hands before the superb buffet, worth the reg fee alone!
I then tinker through the next level, before this hand:~ On the button I get AJ, decide to push against a raise from a tight guy I have played before and the old guy on the SB wakes up and tanks for about 3 minutes. I know he has AQ, what else could he have here??? and in hindsight I should have said something along the lines of " I ain't got a pair , can promise you that" giving him the impression of AK. But I didn't , I stayed quiet and he made a great call. Original raiser says "I can't call , only got AJ" LOL. He folds and I then tell the old Geezer he has AQ, which he is quite impressed with and duly turns it over. The cruel flop comes AQJ (double LOL) and I miss my only out and am down to a single 50 chip with BB about to go to 600 (triple LOL). Somehow I manage to get my stack upto 1450, and then miss a flop for what would have put me right back in it.
Anyway, that is that for the game report.
Basic premise is I won't bother with another single day GUKPT game as 30 min and the stack doesn't allow enough play. Might play the B'pool £150 GUKPT 2 dayer in Nov, that has 6k chips and 45 min clock with a couple of extra levels, just about worth it.
The monthly B'pool game is by far the best value in terms of playability and will stick with that for now. Talking of which there are two coming up on Sat 2nd and Mon 4th May, anyone fancy coming down for it?

Didn't get the local tour info up but will try to on next entry. Stay Lucky guys

At Last

Well a busy time for me on the live Poker tables this w/end with me playing almost as much this w/end as in total so far all year !

Basics are ~
FRI night local £30 pub tourney, too fast structure but had already doubled my stack slowly before being crippled when I got called by an underpair to my top pair and he sucked out with one of his two outs. Then played cash with a total LAG who was great value for money, got stacked twice before getting it all back for a level day with a great hand where I had Trips with A kicker v. Straight Flush draw on the turn.
SUN night £20 home game around a friends house which are always good fun and the only time I play drinking. Yet despite the red wine I still ran well enough to chop both games we had heads-up for a smallish profit.
MON day & night Played the B'pool 'G' £100 Deepstack game and had a great time despite turning up an hour+ late due to M6 nightmare. So many hands to talk about but not enough space and ended up playing almost an hour for the final table bubble. Once it had burst we ended up not playing any more as it was 3am and we did a chop where 7 got £1000 and top 3 big stacks shared the rest.
You can see the official payout from this NUTZ tv shot and I thought at the time it was a good deal, but looking back probably did myself out of a couple hundred quid according to a chip stack chop and I had a playable stack and could have waited longer to deal really. However when you have been playing 12 hours it is knackering and I really don't know how the WSOP guys do it for 14hoursx7days straight!!

So at last I get a bit of results that I feel my play has deserved in recent live games and gaurantees a decent profit for April. I might even have a shot at a GUKPT Manchester event this next week.

To top it off Barrow Rugby won both games this w/end against Whitehaven and Leigh who are 2 of the top 4 so a great all round performance.

Catch everyone later where I hope to put up some of my plans for a local live Poker Tour.

March Accounts

Accounts for March
PokerPlex : down $120
PokerStars: down $70
Playing live: up $120
In total for playing down $70

Bonus this month of only $90 and pokerplex rakeback of $70

So +$90 for the month.

and +$650 for the year.


All in all a very quiet month. Played alittle on PokerPlex and had some good runs in the SCOOP games on Stars and the Sunday $1/4Million's, but no cash to write home about.

Question that the last few months has brought up is due to my losing the last 3 months at Plex is ~ Can I hold my own in the Plex games by enough too make it worthwhile with the rakeback and bonus?
At the Virgin Festival I heard that Plex had withdrawn the deal I am getting from most players, so if they stick with me I will stick with them and make the most of it while it is still here.

Right enough for now, off to watch Barrow Rugby this afternoon in the local derby against Whitehaven which is going to be a BIG game this year and will put us top if we win !
Then local £30 pub game this evening followed by a Home game Sunday (if I can make it?) which is always fun and then finishing with the £100 deepstack at the G in Blackpool on Easter Monday. Lets hope in the next entry I have lots of success to report on.

Stay Lucky dudes

Great Weekend ~ Poker n Rugby vibes

Just had a great weekend with the Virgin Festival at Newcastle Saturday and then a day at the Rugby watching the mighty Wigan struggle ( a lot) to beat the Barrow "super" Braves !

The Virgin Festival was one I qualified for almost 6 months ago and after struggling to find my way to Aspers I stopped the car on double yellows, wound down the window to ask some local the way. He said " get out, I'll show you". Thinking it must be just round the corner, I left the car unlocked and followed him around the corner. And sure enough he led me straight to the Casino, but only after we had walked about half a mile and taken god knows how many turns. I was running latish so pooped in, picked up my security tag and then thought I'd better go and sort the car out. Got back outside and thought " Jesus which way is it"......somehow I managed to find it almost straight away, but by total luck more than judgement.
Anyway into the tournament and I pick up J,10 of clubs in early position and limp for 50, it goes round to the small blind who pops it up to 300. I planned to get busy early on so as I had position thought I would gamble and called ~ flop came with the 8&Q of clubs. He bet 600, thought about re-raising but just called. The turn brought an Ace and I could just tell that was good for him and sure enough he bet 2000. Didn't want to get this deep this early, but I had so many outs and the pot was getting big. River brought a beautiful K which did put a 3rd diamond on the board so when he bet 5000 I snap called. He indeed have AA and in hindsight I knew that and should have put him in for the rest and given him the first out bounty. Still I was upto 18k after 20 minutes....very nice.
The rest of the tournament was probably my worst ever card dead period.....I never got better than 99 and only got one AK and one AQ in 8 hours play. I did hit a few flops though and pinched a few unwanted pots post flop. Hit my AQ with a AQQ flop but no one bit at my little utg pot builder and somehow James Browning got away from my 64 on a 357 flop, when I min check raised him on the turn (Ace) and made some flippant comment " I'm giving you a way out". Couldn't put him on a hand at all to be honest, so he was probably firing a second bluff bullet anyway.
I made a move when a tight player (SWAMPY online) raised and i decided there was value in pushing with my QJ clubs. Stacks were just right and pot enough, my image had been fairly tight ( as I hadn't had a hand LOL) so still think the move was right and considering he took over a minute to call when holding AK seemed to vindicate my read on him. I got lucky as the board filled with 4 clubs and it sent him over the edge, don't think he thought it was good play from me, but I was happy with the move, albeit I had him on a lesser hand.
Then on the BB with almost 20k left (ave = 25k by now) and Mr. Big Stack limps from mid position !! mmmmm smelt fishy straight away as he had raised 10 hands in the last hour! I had K3 so liked the K57 flop, but was still very cautious and we all checked. The turn brought a 3....BINGO. I put in a half pot bet, sure I was ahead now and Mr Big Stack seemed to reluctantly call. Then a Q hit the river and again I was sure I was leading , but decided the value was to let him bet any AK or AA holding he had, and sure enough he put in a little bet and I immediately pushed back over the top. Not enough for him to fold his top pair or overpair though. He thought about it for half a minute so when he called I thought "Nice one" and was stunned when he flipped QQ for trips and I was gone. I played it well I thought and at the end of the day he hit a two outer on the end. Shame as it would have had me up on 45k and I felt comfortable at the table where I thought there were a few weak spots.

Apart from being ridiculously cramped and breaking any kind of fire regulations they must have there the atmosphere was great and I met a fair few online characters including some Punters Lounge guys and was sat again next to James Browning (sat next to and final tabled a GUKPT side event at Walsall2008). He has just got himself a 6 month sponsorship with William Hills and I hope it goes well for him as he was again very pleasant company at the table. Also sat in seat one was a prolific cash game player called "The Mole", a Scottish guy with classic milk bottle glasses and a LAGGY style to him who seemed to be very entertaining and I was dissapointed when he got shifted tables early doors to sit next to the lovely Kara Scott and knock her out with a "got to make this stupid call for the Bounty" play.
The Barrow contingent were all out early so had some chat with them at the breaks and before heading home.

A few hours sleep and was upto greet the kids back from Grannys before heading out for a few beers and a chance to witness the Rugby League upset of the millenium. However it was not to be as Wigan edged home through a few classy wingers tries in the first half , but Barrow gave them a real scare and it was a great day with the best part of 7,000 crammed in enjoying the Sun and a tremendously proud home team perfromance. Well Done Lads! looking forward to Fridays game against now our seriously big rivals Whitehaven on Friday afternoon.

Even went fairly deep in the 30,000 entry Stars $1/4 million on Sunday Evening although couldn't get into that top 200 odd where the real cash is.
Accounts for March up next time, pretty boring though as hardly played.