Live dive

So after the Omaha I had the APAT main event on Friday and The B'pool monthly £100er on Saturday. No good in either as far as cashing goes, but some good hands and I do feel I am becoming a better player at the moment, I can actually feel my NLHE live game changing and becoming more LAG and positional.
The APAT game had a mixed starting table with a very good young Irish lad that was raising in position 80% of the time and continuation betting almosty 100%. The table to his left were weak/tight and just folding him a big chip lead. He did venture out of position a couple of times to take me on and we had a few clashes including one where I 4-bet him all-in with just an overpair of JJ on a 3,6,10 board. I would never do that against anyone else when we are playing so deep and was very pleased with myself. Had to endure a 3 minute stare down though !
But the game was never going to be mine and I had my chips in on pre-flops all-ins 4 times and didn't win one of them. I lost with AK v A8, AQ v 99, AQ v J5 and also QQ v 77 when the flop came down 977 for quads. Still I had played fairly well and wasn't too unhappy.
Next day I drive up to Blackpool and arrive a few minutes later to find KK in my first hand. I limp in from mid-pos, it gets raised by guy to my left to 200 and 2 others call. For some reason I decide not to raise it up as I feel it still needs a bit of pot control here. Anyway the flop comes down A high and when the SB bets I can get away, which is just as well as it goes raise, re-raise , re-raise , all-in , call !!!! guy on my left had AA and SB had AK !! I had got away with KK v AK v AA on my first hand and only lost 200 chips..........Phil Helmuth or Phil Iver would have lost a lot more there me thinks. I was well chuffed with myself and then played nicely and got my stack upto 30k and thought I was in for a good run as the table was fairly weak, but a couple of mis-timed raises and then card dead for hours meant I left in about 50th/195, when I pushed in a BB v SB battle with KQ and he called with A4.
So my live casino record is now blank for 9 games and over £600 of entries. It also means I am probably going to have to post a loss for August as online has been a bit downhill the last 10 days or so.

Good news though is that I have qualified for the second of my 3 target games on Pokerstars WCOOP and that is the $320 PLO Hi/Lo, so just the $109 8-game to qualify for now. Looking forward to these.


Also was impressed with a packed DTD last week so Sneaks and I now considering going for the monthly £300 deepstack in October, should be good!

Stay Lucky Punks, I haven't been.

Omaha is a game for Luckboxes

Played the APAT Omaha champs last night at DTD and as you can probably tell from the title I didn't win. Quite enjoyed myself though, here are some of the highlights and my ultimate demise.

Arrived almost 2 hours late due to a delay in Barrow that I could do little about. Stack had whittled down to 8600 from the starting 10k, so not too much damage. I then get KK45 in mid position with 2 limpers, I elect to limp and we get 7 see the flop of 29K...BINGO, I bet the pot and some guy in late position says "where did he come from". I gave it the "got to get my chips" back line hoping he had a smaller set and would call, but they all folded and I was back to level after 1 hand. LOL

Cruise along to the break without much action, but I have clocked the Holdem players and tight players at the table. Then first hand after the break I get A J 10 10 (with the Ace suited in clubs and see an all club flop, giving me the nut straight. guy bets and I elect to call in position as does the SB, pot wasn't big enough to warrant repopping it and I wanted to stear clear of the FH arriving on the turn or river this early. Turn is a blank and same guy comes out betting 2100 so I choose to take the poyt down here and repop it putting me all-in, SB dwells and elects to call for value as he is short stacked, he has trips and blanks the river so I am up to 19k and looking good against what I consider a fairly poor table.

I am now calling in position against raisers as they are all raising with big hands only and I'm looking to take them down, I don't hit anything else but do push a number of players off pots, some are real weak and playing Omaha without a clue really. I'm feeling comfortable, but then run trips into a guy who slowplayed the top set very well and also one hand where i bet the Nut flush draw on the flop only to get re-raised by a short stack that has me priced in to call and I blank out the turn/river leaving me back to my original 10k stack size.
So two hours of picking my spots, people folding way too much to pre-flop raises and although I don't connect with any flops I am holding steady. However when the blinds go to 600-1200 I have to start making a move and yo-yo a bit but never get above 16k. Then with 11k behind this hand comes up where I sense a moment to steal from a limper and he was a nice guy ( ended up 3rd too ) and said I am putting you all-in just hoping to get lucky. I replied "I raised hoping to get lucky", but when he turned them over I could see I was in good shape.



The flop brought him an 8 but also me a Q so it looked real good with me over 80% favourite.



The turn was a blank and left me in great shape now, just got to dodge a J or an 8.



You know what happened next, I can't post it cause it is sick (and hendon mob calc won't let me put up the river). Yep BOOM 8 of hearts, groans and sighs all round "unlucky", "well played mate" etc. But instead of sitting there with above average in a field I really fancied playing against I was on my toes and going home.

Oh well today brings the NLHE main event, so lets hop I am back Sunday for the final. Probably popping to Blackpool for the monthly £100er on Saturday too....MAD FOR IT !!

By the way Barrow Rugby playing at home on Sunday just a point needed to secure the title , hope they have the trophy up ready. 15 years going to almost every home game and we are now going to win something.

WCOOP, GUKPT and APAT

Full of acronyms and all poker !!

First of have noticed that Pokerstars have their annual World Championship of Online Poker (WCOOP) coming up and has 45 events in total all at highish buy-ins.
Well the main event is a bit out of my price range @ $5200 with a $10 MILLION g'tee ! However there are 3 events that I like the look of. The $109 8-game (event 5), the $320 PLO Hi/Lo (event35) and the $215 NLO Hi/Lo (event40).
Well I played a couple of satellites today. One was an impulsive mad $2 rebuy to the $215 RAZZ event and bloody bubbled, but then went and played a $39 sat to the NLO8 game and BINGO



so in one of them now, will try a few more at the other two. Fingers crossed.

Also Blue Square now have a betting market up for the APAT World champs @ DTD on bank hol w/end and I have been priced at 150-1, and although I feel I am probably way above average in this field, there are going to be 300+ runners so not great value, but feel free to have a punt here if you like.

Now GUKPT have added a late mini-date to their schedule and it is at there new Coventry casino and has just a £300 entry. It is on the Saturday after APAT and I might get tempted down to that, it will all hang on if they are using their main event schedule or something similar. I am not getting temoted into a crapshoot like the Manchester £100er.

So updating like mad and giving all you readers some great value the last couple of weeks. The general grind has been a general grind. Gone about 10 tourneys without a cash until the sat win and the cash graph has done all the usual yo-yo stuff as I burn my way to Supernova. No hands saved to pick on, will try and find a juicy one or two for next time.

Stay Lucky.

Had to change....another MTT in the bag

Just finished a 204 runner MTT as top dog again, no deals this time just straight take down.


It is a strange one as it is $5 entry and rebuy (1k chips)and then $25 for an add-on (5k chips). I had entry and add-on for $30 so $680 profit and always nice to actually win them. I knew I was due one and feel there is more to come !

Not much else to report, apart from Barrow rugby's marvellous win against Widnes last night, live on SKY too. Puts them top of the table now with 3 games left. C'mon the Raiders !! Sad I Know , but do love watching it.

Stay lucky like me guys.

Hand replayer trial

Ok Robo sent me this link to replay hands , so posting up a hand (very boring hand at that) just to see if it works.

here goes




Oh that is beautiful !!!!

get ready for death by PLO8 hand analysis.

Tourney downswing

Poker is such a game of variance. I have done OK in tourneys this year and played a fair few online and live. However the last few weeks I have been getting deepish but just not cashing deep, either just falling short of the bubble or busting out early into the cash places, not cashed in a live (local or casino game for last 14 times!). In basics this post is just a moan at 'my bad luck' that I seem to be getting in tourneys at the moment. I say 'bad luck' because I do think that I am running bad in the later stages of tourneys and it isn't just poor play/strategy from me. I feel as though I am playing well but just not getting the rub of the green, a big one is due !!

Anyway enough of the whinging, onto when I am going to get another nice score. I have a few things lined up including getting a seat for the PLO at the APAT festival at the end of the month at DTD. I was in for the main event on the Friday 28th and now have got a seat in the PLO on the Thursday, thru just catching a guy selling his seat on Blonde at the right time. He also has a HORSE seat available for the Sunday which I would love to play too, but not sure if I can blag time off for that one as well.

Playing a lot of cash at Pokerstars, trying to get those points for Supernova status. About 7,000 to go now and also taking advantage of a rare Pokerstars bonus of $300. Most games have been Omaha Hi/Lo but mainly No Limit as opposed to my usual Pot Limit stuff. This is the normal game spread at Stars these days and I think is the only site that really does it, but it does mean there is a lot of chance to push on boards where you think you can 3/4 someone. I have been using the Hendon Mob calculator to work out and annalyse these situations afterwards and thin I have a bit of work to do there, but potentially a very profitable game if I can get my head round it properly as I'm sure many players are making -EV calls or folds when faced with such a big bet relative to the pot. I will try and get some examples up for next time.

Could do with someway to display hands well in this blog. Ideally be able to put the Pokerstars replayer or similar into the post, but no idea how. If anyone has some good suggestions how to display hands more visually please get in touch or leave a comment down below.

Stay Lucky Folks

July accounts

Accounts for July
PokerPlex : up $320
PokerStars: up $850
Full Tilt : up $80
Playing live: down $330 (although this was saved big style by my mates 5% for $410)
In total for playing up $920
Bonus this month of $40 and pokerplex rakeback of $50
So +$1010 for the month.

and +$5170 for the year.


In short ~ a very good month online coupled with a disaster live (not one cash at all in 5 casino and 5 local events, plus a heavy drop on a dealers choice cash game).

Hoping to make August a month when I really hammer it online, would really like to get Supernova status and they have just brought in a bonus special this month to give me that little encouragement.

As for live I have registered for the APAT PLO game on the 27th, but unsure if I will be able to make that and similarly for the Blackpool £100 monthly. Hope to get a few other casino games in while I am off work though.
Also there are a few of us that have comitted to play the IPO in Dublin during October which is the biggest tourney in the world outside the USA. Flights , Hotels and Entry already booked, anyone want to come along as well look here for details.

Till next time, stay lucky !