Ace Redman

Thursday, June 17, 2010

Online - going deep

So I am going deep in online tournaments again but not having the luck to make the3 final table. I spent 2 hours lasr night examining how I am playing the end part of the tournament and noticed several leaks where I did not press or bet enough.

So I am finishing 90th out of 2000, or 55th out of 1300, or even 8th out of 90. I know my early play is ok and I am surviving nicely to give me a chance of a big win. I just need to work on my end game somewhat to maximize how I gain chips.

Funny enough, when I do get busted I am almost always ahead. I was always uite proud of this but now I am thinking it means I am playing too tight at the end. I should be calling down with 2 picture cards and playing aggressively with A-rag....even if it seems wrong. I am putting too much emphasis on survival at the end instead of chipping up.

Also I noticed in the endgame I am still betting 2.1x or 2.5x the BB whereas the guys who are winning the smaller tournaments (aka low-cost) are betting 3x or 3.5x so I may try this to see how it affects my results.

Wednesday, June 16, 2010

First poker mtt back in CA

Finally yesterday (Tues) I got back into the groove and travelled to the Hawaiian Gardens casino to play the evening tournament.

Played well but did not really get any cards. Nursed a short stack for a long while but finally got knocked out in 14th where 9 were paid. I have no real complains - it was good to play again over here and get in the groove.

I also played some NL40 but dropped a few buy-ins so gave up. I dont think I did anything too wrong but kept losing races - 3 times I had the flush draw with 2 overs on the flop and got it all in against 1 pair and lost all 3. Then I lost with AK twice and could not get any customers when I did get aces one time. I was not getting any suited connectors or similar hands that can flop big and also seemed to be not cvonnecting with many flops. In other words, it was not my day!!

World Cup

Strange as it may seem for an Englishman I wanted to be back in the USA for the World Cup Football/Soccer tournament so I could watch the games with my friends. We had a big party setup for the England v USA game.

Well I made it back just in time, flying in Thursday night and being at the first World Cup game round my South African friends house at 7am on the Friday. Then the big game on Saturday.

So how does this affect the poker. Im a big football fan and have to juggle my schedule to watch as many games as possible.

Then again, the WSOP is also on and I want to go to Vegas for some of this. I guess this will be a delicate balancing act!!

UK trip wrapup

I was hoping to pay for my UK trip with poker winnings but that just did not happen. I played a lot of poker with my brothers though and got to hang out with some cool people. The financial results are as follows:

Poker bankroll (live):

-05/11/2010 - BigSlick #10 rebuy - (#10)

-05/12/2010 - cash game LPPL - (#2)

-05/13/2010 - Duffs cash plo - (#70)--->(#82) cum

-05/14/2010 - Duffs #5 rebuy - #86-----> # 4 cum

-05/16/2010 - Duffs 15,15,15 - (#15)--->(#11)

-05/17/2010 - BigSlick 40+40 - (#80)--->(#91)

-05/18/2010 - BigSlick #10 RB - (#30)-->(#121)

-05/19/2010 - Grovesnor #20 x3 - #200--> #79

-05/23/2010 - Duffs freeroll - #105----> #184

-05/24/2010 - BigSlick 40+40 - #15-----> #199

-05/24/2010 - BigSlick cash - #70------> #269

-05/25/2010 - BigSlick cash - #70------> #339

-05/26/2010 - Duffs cash - #110--------> #449

-05/27/2010 - Duffs 25x2 - #150--------> #599

-05/27/2010 - Duffs cash - (#10)-------> #589

-05/28/2010 - Duffs $5 rebuy - (#10)---> #579

-05/28/2010 - Duffs cash - (#40)-------> #529

-05/29/2010 - BigSlick - (#200)-------> #329

-05/29/2010 - BigSlick cash - #140-----> #469

-05/30/2010 - Duffs 15,15,15 - (#15)---> #454

-05/30/2010 - Duffs cash - (#86)-------> #368

-06/01/2010 - BigSlick cash - (#100)---> #268

-06/03/2010 - Duffs 25x2 - #212--------> #480

-06/05/2010 - Duffs #5 rebuy - (#15)---> #465

-06/06/2010 - Duffs 15,15,15 - (#15)---> #450

-06/06/2010 - Duffs cash - #75---------> #525

This includes most games I can remember though I lost some on my final night there in a cash game at the casino. Still a reasonable profit considering the UK tournaments all have such a tiny field size and hence small prize pools.

Monday, May 17, 2010

mini-FTOPS and SCOOP main event

I had some time to play the mini-FTOPS main event and the SCOOP main event on Sunday evening (uk time). I played from 5pm to 4.30am so a late night....

I completely bricked the SCOOP main event losing most of my stack on an ill-timed bluff. In fact I played really badly.

Generally speaking I do not do well in the large events - maybe the players are better or I get impatient or just dont have enough luck to last out. But for the SCOOP it was most certainly me playing badly.

The mini-FTOPS main event was more of the latter - running out of luck. We started with 13000+ players and they paid just under 2000. I was chipped up nicely and playing well as we approached 2000 players remaining. I was probably about 300th position chipwise when I got it all-in against a slightly smaller stack with KK v AA - of course his aces held up. I then shoved my remaining 8000 chips with 8-8 and lost that race too. So I went out in 2018th place.

Another $500,000 in 1st place prize money (SCOOP and mini-FTOPS) that I did not win.

Sunday, May 16, 2010

UK trip week 1

UK Trip Poker Diary

-Mon - arrived

-Tues - play 10pound rebuy at Big Slick poker room. Come 7th for a min-cash.

- Weds - play LPPL league game - came 4th

- Fri - play 5pound rebuy at Duffs Card Room - came 3rd for reasonable cash

- Sat - go to the FA Cup Final........

- Sun - play 15 pound freezeout at Duffs - come 10th (bubble) with 9 paid. I thought only 5 were paid so I tried to chip up with AK v another big stack. He called with A4o and spiked the 4. Of course if I had known 9 were paid I would have just waited to race after we entered the money.

May UK Trip

My team has reached the final of the FA Cup so I am going to England to watch the game at Wembley. I will be combining poker over there with visiting friends and family.

Friday, April 9, 2010

Weekly update - April 9th

Lets see - I used the $1330 from last Thursdays win to take a shot at a bigger tournament at the weekend - the 200k prizepool $75k first place guarantee Hustler main event. I played on Day 1c and Day 1d without any success.

It was frustrating to say the least because on Day 1c in particular I chipped up nicely and played great for 5 hours or so, then went card-dead for about 2.5 more hours. Finally I got KJ and a flop giving me straight and flush draws and a short stack pushed all in so I gambled and lost. Now I was short but the very next hand I got AA and pushed all in. I was called by Q9 suited who rivered a flush.....nice one!! Game over!!

I played a mid-day tournament at The Bike on Tuesday and finished 19th out of 100 (they pay 18 but had also decided to pay the bubble boy). When the agreement was made I had plenty of chips but playing aggressively was my downfall as I finally went out with pocket 3s.

I also played Oceans11 tournament (morning and evening) on Weds but had no luck and was busto in them both.

Finally this week I played a whole bunch of cash at Hustler, Hawaiian Gardens, The Bike and Oceans 11 with mixed results. Sessions were:

Hustler 8/16 - win $400

Hustler nl50 - win $135

Hustler nr50 - win $23

Hustler 3/6 - lose $20

Hustler 8/16 - lose $320

HG nl40 - win $120

TheBike nl40 - lose $40

Oceans nl40 - lose $200

Oceans 3/6 - win $60

Oceans 4/8 - lose $200

Yes it was a brutal session at Oceans on Weds - I lost the morning tournament, played NL and lost a bunch of cash, played the evening tournament and lost again, and played some limit and apart from a small win on 3/6, lost a bunch more when that table closed and I was moved to 4/8.

So I pretty much spent all my winnings from last week but am not too disappointed as I got to take a shot at a much bigger tournament than I normally play.

Not too much else happening - I played a little online yesterday alternating between Rush Poker PLO and Limit NL for very small stakes. I win a bit, lose a bit, win a bit, lose a bit.

Friday, April 2, 2010

Name dropping

So I don't normally name drop but reading through my last post, I mentioned TIMEX and then I realised - maybe someone reading my blog has no clue who he is. So here's the names of some players I have some attachment to:

1. Timex - aka Mike McDonald - here's a young guy (prob 21 now) who I first saw play in the Aussie Millions a couple of years back. He came 2nd in a side event I came 33rd in. He looked about 14 years old and had braces. I was railing atimos (see below) who was the young guy who knocked me out of the tourney - another guy railing was called bond18 (see below) and he gave me some history on this young poker wonderkid. Supposedly this 18yr old (timex) had won a bundle in online poker and was a real star - he was now staking a bunch of other young pros. I watched him come 2nd in this event, then enter the 100k high-roller event and lose, then ON THE SAME DAY enter another event and win it banking 67k (but still a net loser on the day!!). Since then I have loosely followed timex online - he seems to do pretty good. Certainly the online community seem to love him and he staked bond18 for a while.

2. Atimos (or atimAs??) - aka Yevgeniy Timoshenko - another wonder guy. I playing on the same table as him for about 8 hours in the Aussie Millions and chatted for a while. He seemed like a nice enough guy but I had no clue who he was. I was winning a bunch of chips off him tho....until we had 51 players left and 50 got paid. Yev then went all-in about 9 of the next 14 hands and amassed loads of chips as everyone folded. He had no fear whatsoever. Eventually I took him on from the button with A-10s - he was in the BB with KK...oops! I was out in 33rd. Later I railed him on the final table - he eventually went out in 6th place but was still playing super-aggressive. I was talking to a guy called bond18 on the rail and he told me all about Yev. He told me he thought he was the best player there (even better than timex) - told me he was Atimos on pocket 5;s and a bit of an online legend already (he was only about 20 yrs old!!). Anyways I have followed his career ever since and he won over $4m in 2009....so I guess yeah...hes pretty damn good!

3. bond18 - aka Tony Dunst - I also met Tony at the Aussie millions and chatted to him on the rail of the final table. I had noticed him earlier int he day chatting to Atimos and other young players and Tony was also reasonably deep in the tourney. He stood out because he was dressed in a suit and looked quite slick - and everyone was calling him Bond so I assume he was modelling himself on James Bond. When I chatted to him he was really nice and seemed to know everyone. He told me a little about Timex and Atimos who were playing the final table. As he knew everyone and was a nice guy and also published a blug I have followed his career. It seems he was staked for a while by Timex and heavily in makeup but finally won a decent sized event to pay it back. His blog talks about dating, women, poker players and his exploits travelling the world and is both entertaining and somewhat educational (poker-wise). I've met Tony a couple of times at events around the world and he always says hi but does not really remember who I am. Of course, I know him a little better because of his blog.

4. SNG-Nick aka Rainman aka Nick Rainey - so I've never met this guy and some people on the forums think he is an egotistical a-hole. I don't agree. I've followed him online where he is VERY successful at Sit NGo tournaments and has proved beyond doubt this is no fluke. He has also published a few videos and for a while was a coach at pokerVT.com. He used to play as Stinko_Mikko on Full Tilt and currently plays as MI_Turtle on pokerstars. His website details his current results and also his training of a bunch of online players who want to be as successful as he is. His training method is pretty smart - he stakes each player for $200 and helps them grow it, then takes 50% of any profits for a period of time. I think this shows he is a smart business person as hos downside is $200 and his upside is massive. Some of his students have made $10k in 3 months..!!!!

There are more players which I will talk about in a later post.

Re other resources, I like to read certain blogs including Luke Kim, poker Dave, BonusGrinder, Hammer Players poker and also the exploits of certain pro players including Daniel Negraneus blog and Phil Helmuths Twitter videos.

Theres plenty more blogs I follow - Pokernews, Cardplayer, Bluff, Tao of Poker, Pokerati etc. I could write about these all night so I will save them for another post. I will also save the poker podcasts I listen to for another post.

Emotional control

So I just read Timex's blog where he is thinking about quitting poker. Its interesting because:

1. poker is emotional game - when you are winning you are invincible, when you are losing you feel terrible and doubt how good you are and sometimes if you should be even playing at the level you are playing.

2. the online poker grind is hard work - people who travel to work, work 8 hours then come home in crap traffic must laugh at this concept that its hard to stay home and work on the PC for 11-12 hours multi-tabling 8-12 tables of online poker, but it IS mentally exhausting. And you have to put in the volume to overcome the variance in the game.

3. the live poker grind is also hard work - if you travel for business you know its initially fun but gets old very quickly. Imagine you are doing the poker tournament circuit (WSOP, WPT, EPT etc.) travelling 9 or 10 months of the year constantly upping and moving to new hotels, living out the suitcase, arranging all your own flights and hotel bookings, dealing with large money transfers in different countries/currencies to buy in to events, not knowing if you will last 1 day or 7 days etc. Initially this is fun, but very quickly it becomes hard work....

4. poker is a loners game - especially if you are at home grinding online for 10-12 hours each day. When do you see people and chit-chat like you would in a normal job? Although you may have online friends and instant message/texting conversations most of the time you are working at home alone. Or travelling alone. Maybe you can travel with some poker friends some of the time but often you are alone in your hotel room or at home playing online. If you are not comfortable with your own company you will struggle playing poker.

5. poker is socially isolating. Although you can mix with other poker players 90% of people do not understand the game and probably see you as a degenerate gambler. They cannot really discuss it at a level where it makes sense to them. Often weekend events with friends can clash with the Sunday grind for the big online poker tournaments. Also your weekend talk becomes quite boring - "Whats new with you? Errr, just playing poker, same as last week, at home on my computer, same as last week, grinding, same as last week...." Quite boring!!

I think Timex is somewhat sensible to recognize he needs other choices in his life outside of poker. Even though you can earn crazy amounts of money playing poker, money is not everything. An old saying comes to minds - do everything in moderation. I think a lot of poker players play way too much and do not have time for other things.

My final point is poker is a hard game to play and stay in a relationship. I am lucky to have a very understanding wife but I think a LOT of poker players are single or in very flexible relationships (as in I might make the date or I might not depending on how I do in the tournament). An example - I was out last night playing a tournament and did not get home to early hours of the morning. If I did this 3 or 4 nights a week...I think the wife would get rid of me. While I was at the casino a chap was playing cash games. His girlfriend was sitting behind him - suggesting quite strongly that it was time to leave...he wanted to play just a few more hands....I see this again and again - how many of those girlfriends are going to stick around?

Weekly Updates - April 2nd, 2010

No blog update last week so I guess I will cover 2 weeks here. I did not play a huge amount of live poker but what I did play is shown below.

Weds 24th - normally I play at Oceans11 but I decided to watch soccer instead - possibly the only thing that stops me playing poker is watching my home team or country playing soccer on the TV.

Thurs 25th - played Hawaiian Gardens evening bounty tournament. Had a bad night - lost the tournament, lost a shootout 3 table sng type tournament right after, then played most of the night and lost $100 despite being up $350 at one point.

Weds 30th - again I did not play at Oceans11. Getting lazy....

Thurs 1st - played Hawaiian Gardens evening bounty tournament. Finally cracked it and won the tournament (actually 5 way chop based on chip count and I had the most chips (183k). Second place had just over 100k chips so I won $1330 for my $75 investment).

Thats it. I will try to play a bit more over the next week.

Monday, March 22, 2010

Vegas weekend trip - March 2010

So I went on a really short Vegas trip this weekend for a friends wedding but managed 2 short sessions of poker at The Orleans poker room, mainly because this is the hotel where we stayed.

I like the Orleans poker room. It is big and on Saturday had plenty of tables running although they only have a few games - $2/4 limit, $4/8 limit, $1/2 NL and $4/8 Omaha 8. They run tournaments with a good turnout twice per day but my schedule did not let me play them.

On Saturday I played $4/8 limit for about 3 hours. I bought in with $100 and worked it up to about $260 and then down to about $40 and then back up to $170. I had to stop playing at 5pm because the wedding was at 6.30pm but that was a shame because later that night the Bad Beat jackpot of $77,000 was won and everyone in the room gets a share!! Anyhow I banked my $70 profit.

On Sunday they only had a seat open at $2/4 limit and had a lot less tables running. There was one table of Omaha8, one table of $1/2 NL, one table of $2/4 limit and about two tables of $4/8 limit. So I played the $2/4 buying in for $40 and cashing out for $150 about 50 minutes later when a $4/8 seat became available. Unfortunately in the $4/8 I rarely got ahead and ended up a couple of hours later giving it all back for a $40 loss. The last $60 was pretty much a gift as the wife put me under some time pressure to leave so I tried to force some action - not a very good thing to do in this game. I got all my money in with 5-3 suited on a board containing 2 3's only to lose to a guy with A-3 suited. Serves me right for playing that junk in the first place!!!

Overall I played about 6 hours and turned a $30 profit. Not great but better than a loss.

I find limit a strange game. I seem to chip up early almost every session and end up giving some back. I am going to really focus on why this happens - I must have a big leak. You would think it is obvious I play much looser after winning a stack but I consciously try not to do this. Maybe I tighten up too much. Or maybe the other players just get a read on me and I don't mix it up enough.

This was still an enjoyable trip, albeit far too short in duration.

Friday, March 19, 2010

Maybe its bad luck, but....

So heres a typical beat for me right now:

Another day, another tournament.....

Weekly updates

So last week (up to Friday) I played live poker 3 times (twice at Hawaiian Gardens and once at Oceans 11) and had 2 cashes. Unfortunately they were mini-cashes which meant it was a losing week as I spent $290 on tournament entries and only won $200. Add to that a poor week in cash games albeit somewhat unlucky I lost another $100 there, and finally due to entering some bigger tournaments online and more cash losses I lost another $100 there, so all in all I lost about $290.

That sucks!!

This week I entered the Oceans 11 tournament on Weds and did not cash. I then proceeded to lose $120 on the cash tables after being up close to $400 at one point. I played again on Weds and did the same thing - turning an $80 profit into a $60 loss. Its fair to say poker is an emotional game and I also was having no luck online basically losing about 10 small mtts in a row (no cashes) and losing in the cash games often with good hands that just did not hold up. I was pretty depressed on Thursday wondering if the downswing would ever end. I went to Hawaiian Gardens Thursday night and played really badly in the tournament losing a buyin and a re-entrant fee. More on the tournament below. I moved to the cash tables and over a few hours managed to win $200 - a good time to quit especially after the losses over the last 14 days.

So now its Friday and I'm thinking about how I played. Was I playing bad or just running very unlucky.

For example, in the tournament I only played 5 hands - I lost with AK and JJ for the first buyin, and AK, AQ and 99 for the second buyin. I was very patient but could not hit anything and was facing aggressive opponents who showed a better hand than me every time. The starting stack is only 5000 chips which means you have to play fast and get lucky early on to double up, otherwise lose one pot and you are short stack very quickly. I raised AK and missed, then had to fold my cbet to an all in behind me. With JJ I raised big trying to take it down preflop and cbet when there was one overcard. This committed me to the pot and when he raised allin I had to call. In hindsight maybe I could have called preflop and folded on the flop if I did not make a set - JJ is always a tough hand to play especially in a shallow stack tournament.

I am hoping the next week goes better - I need a few profitable sessions just to cheer me up.

Sunday, March 14, 2010

Ongoing training and reading.

Training - I have been listening to podcasts from PokerRoad.com and trying to study my hand histories. Im also still trying to recruit some poker buddies who are as interested in beating this game as I am. Im still a member of pokerxfactor but not using it so much so may try some different training sites to get some different opinions.

Reading - "Secrets of short-handed no-limit holdem em" by Danny Ashman.

Reading - Fooled by randomness. This book was recommended by SNGNick in an interview called "Fooled by Randomness" which is not really about poker so much as our mental ability to understand and process random results or events. Its a tough read but is interesting and certainly applies to poker players. One really interesting point is how the book explains the difference between the probability of an event happening and expected value. it might be 90% likely but the expected value is negative, or it may it 1% likely but the expected value is huge.

Table Ninja and AHK scripts

Ive never really used Table Ninja or AHK scripts but I can only play 4 or 6 tables comfortably on my 24" monitor if I tile the tables and want to play more.

Why - because I understand the secret to making poker online is probably based on the volume of games you play. The best players (or highest earners) like MI_TURTLE, KENNL, SHARK365 etc all multi-table at least 10 tables at the same time.

So I downloaded table ninja and tried it. I also downloaded some AHK scripts and tried using them. I tried using table ninja and the AHK scripts at the same time - this seems to work ok. I practiced initially using $1 Sngs and stacking 10-12 tables then slowly moving up in stakes. I liked the AHK scripts that allowed me to move tables out the stack if there was interesting action but leave them in the stack when I folded.

Next I tried a few days of multi-tabling a large number of 90 man SnGs on Full Tilt just to see how much profit I could turn. Based on a really small sample I found this would be profitable for me but not by much. I need to do this with bigger stakes.

So I changed strategy and played a few days of multi-tabling large low-cost MTTs using the tools. I did have a few deep finishes, including a couple of final tables.

The net result - these tools are useful. I struggled with Table Ninja auto-bet sizes because they were hard to figure out. Other than that I liked the easy one key folds, calls etc and ability to move the tables around.

I think I will continue to use these tools when I want to grind a lot of tournaments.

Recent poker games at Hawaiian Gardens

So I had only played at Hawaiian Gardens once last year in a rebuy tournament - it was ok but I did not like the commute. Last week I decided to give it another go, as follows:

1. I played Hawaiian Gardens Casino Thurs evening Bounty tournament - paid $75 for 5000 chips and win $10 bounty back for everyone you knock out plus prize pool for last 18 players. I ended up 12th with 5 bounties. There were about 85 players with 125 total entries (players were allowed to re-enter during the first 3 levels of the tournament).

2. I played Hawaiian Gardens Casino Tues evening tournament - $75 for 5000 chips but no bounty. This only had about 65 entries and once again I finished 12th, just sneaking into the money. Of course this is not quite as bad as it looks - while we had 12 left (2 tables of 6) I was an average stack and moved all in with K-10 in the cutoff and was called by a short stack with AJ on the button - he won. Then 2 hands later I pushed my now short-stack with K-10 suited and lost again. The problem was the blinds were going up to 4000 and my stack was only 24k, so I wanted to steal a couple of blinds on the final table bubble. But it backfired....

3. I played Hawaiin Gardens cash tables - I played NL20 to fill in a little time just for fun and found the tables incredibly soft. In no time at all I changed my $20 into $100. The players seemed much worse in this card-room than Oceans 11.

I actually enjoyed playing all the above. And the commute is only 45 mins from home and if I avoid rush hour the traffic is not so bad. So..... I will be back for more for sure.

Tuesday, February 23, 2010

Live card room problem - when to leave

Studying leaks in my game is always very difficult. I think I probably do more things wrong than right on some days, but other days I am extremely positive and think I played great. But I still have the problem with cash games as shown in the example below:

I bought in to a low-stakes NL game for 50BB and played for about 4 hours when I was sitting on 130BBs.I thought about leaving but decided to carry on until eventually I lost it all. Of course the last hand was a cooler where I flopped the nuts and a maniac called off his whole stack chasing 3 outs and hit one of them on the river. But thats a massive swing (-130BBs) and I got up and left for my "drive of misery" home.

Why can't I leave with a win. This seems to be a recurring theme., I chip up nicely and maybe I start playing bad, or maybe the other players figure me out but more often I seem to lose my whole stack when I get AA or KK and get it all in pre-flop against some lower pair who gets a set or flush or straight on the river. I have tried to keep the pot small when I am deep stacked but the other guy always wants to push all-in with his QQ or JJ so I have to call with AA or KK. Sometimes I flop the nuts and then get my stack in just to get drawn out on. Most of the times when I lose my whole stack I have got all the chips in when I am ahead.

Maybe I should be glad these idiots are drawing so thin and I should stay longer and buy back in knowing I can win it back again if I play longer. But I do not do this. Losing my big stack seems to happen to me after I have already considered leaving so its easier for me to get up and leave right away. ie. at 5pm I think I am winning $250 so I should leave but I will just play for a little bit longer. At 5.50pm I lose my whole stack and think damn, Im going home. I was going to leave anyhow so why put more money in - just play again another day.

So why can't I leave when Im ahead. Is it an ego thing - I am winning and can win more so I will play just a little bit longer. Is it "addiction"?

I think I have to set some limits and see if it helps. Maybe have a set time to stop playing whether I am winning or losing. Or maybe quit if I lose 50% of my stack or as soon as I double up. Or maybe I should hit and run. I know Daniel Negraneu says the latter 2 options are one of the biggest mistakes players make - leaving a winning table when the hit a target amount or playing a hit and run. He says if you are winning and running over the table you must stay until thats not the case. But maybe I cannot see when it changes.

So figuring out when to leave a table and leaving with some profit is definitely something I need to work on.

Big Sunday but no luck

This Sunday was the FTOPS main event worth $2.5million AND the pokerstars 40Billion hand special Sunday million event worth $4million. I entered both tournaments (via satellites) but had no luck. I also played a slew of other tournaments with mixed results. Mainly losses :-)

Heres how the 2 big events went:

- Pokerstars $4million - I wanted to play smallball poker at the start but this failed miserably when I got KK and was raised by an idiot with A-10 offsuit. I called and the flop came 9-9-8. I bet and he raised so I called. I was worried about the pair of 9s so wanted to keep it cheap. The turn was a J and I checked, he bet and I called. The river was the Q and goodbye to 70% of my chips. A short while later after chipping back up a little bit I got them all in pre-flop with AA and lost to JJ that flopped a set.

- FTOPS main event - this went a lot better and I played small ball and contantly chipped up getting to about 30bbs (18,000 chips) when the blinds were 300/600. When we got to 400/800 I played a couple of marginal hands where I open raised in late position was 3bet all in so I had to fold. Then I played a pot where I lost the hand on the river (surpise!). I was down to 11,000 chips when the blinds were 500/1000 and picled up KQ in late position. Now I was the short stack at the table and looking to make a move. A played in mid position who had been quite aggressive open raised the pot and I decided to 3bet all-in with the KQ. I was hoping for the fold but praying if he called it would be a marginal hand and I could double up so I had some chips to play with again. He called with AK and that was the end of that!!

In hindsight I should have waited for a hand where I opened the betting - I could have waited for a pair or AK/AQs as I still had over 11bbs. The table was very LAG with most pots open raised and 3bets so it was not really easy to pick a good spot. But I could have waited.......

Of course the flip side is what if I had won that flip. Then I would have 22,000 chips and been able to make some plays. I had basically chipped down from 20bbs (16,000 chips) to 11bbs (11,000 chips) waiting for a hand that I could re-raise all in or that I could open with and not fold to a 3bet. But I was very card-dead and probably getting frustrated. So when I saw the KQ and I was in late position I just went for it. No regrets......except I did regret it when I lost :-)

Thats my Big Sunday story........

Finally got rakeback on Full Tilt

I have played on Full Tilt since I started my poker journey in 2007 (see blog history) but I created an account before they offered rakeback. When they started offering rakeback it was only to new customers and existing users were somewhat screwed (good customer policy that). Eventually the complaints were heard and existing customers were told to apply to rakebackpros.com and they would be added to a list for consideration.

I applied in early 2009 and was told I would be added to a list and contacted. I never was (more good customer service).

Finally last month I emailed support at Full Tilt and Rakebackpros again and told them how long I had been waiting. I told them I really really wanted to continue playing on Full Tilt with rakeback but if it was not forthcoming I would move to other sites.

I guess I got the right person in support. Within a week they had approved me for rakeback and the rakebackpros guys had contacted me with instructions.

So now finally I get back 27% rakeback on all of my play. It seems rakebackpros.com are the only official site that Full Tilt will deal with for existing customers. They have worked quite well so far, transferring my rakeback amount into my account each Friday. On their site they have a graph showing how much rakeback you have made for the current week.

So I am very happy to finally have rakeback!!

Tuesday, January 26, 2010

Rush Poker on Full Tilt

I have tried playing the new format Rush poker on Full Tilt. So far so good - I have yet to have a losing session. The basic premise is as soon as you fold you are moved to a new table to play your next hand. And you can quick-fold (fold out of turn) and also move on.

This means you can play a very large number of hands and be VERY tight-aggressive playing good cards in position and dropping out if the flop looks bad.

I think as this format takes off it will become harder to win money but in the early days it appears to be very ATM like!!

Vegas visit

Another trip to Las Vegas. I played 7 tournaments and won 1, bubbling 2 of the others including the Venetian which would have been a decent payday. I bubbled with AA v KK al-in preflop and the flop bringing a K. The shame was is was approx 40BBs in the pot and I would have had enough to make a good run at the final table.

I lost 2 buyins in a cash game in a similar manner. In one I had Jd-10d and the flop came Qh-9d-8d giving me the nut straight and a redraw to a straight flush. I managed to get all the money in on the flop with a guy calling me with 1.8-1 odds to chase his ace high flush draw....and hitting on the turn!! The next showdown a dew hands later was KK v JJ all-in on a low-card flop and my opponent rivering a set.

In fact I lost with KK 5 times in 2 days.

Overall the trip was a success. I clawed back my buyins playing low-limit stakes at Monte Carlo and Osheas. I was in Vegas for 4 days to play poker and 4 days to play in a soccer tournament.

I still love it. I cannot wait for my next visit!!

Friday, December 11, 2009

Game selection

I keep changing games, as follows:

as a kid: - I played 7 card stud and 5 card draw

2007 - I studied no limit holdem and tournaments

2008 - I got into limit holdem - the small stakes no foldem holdem type

2008 - then I got into Omaha 8 hi/lo

2009 - now Ive been playing and reading about PLO and HU poker (NL and PLO)

So what am I any good at. I know I have reasonable NL skills in tournaments because I have won some local tournaments, won some in England, and won a bunch online.

I seem to be terrible at NL cash games. I win a bit, lose a bit, win a bit, lose a bit. I can play a game for 3-4 hours slowly chipping up and then losing it all with KK or AA in one hand at then end. I would guess I am a net loser at NL cash games.

Thats why I started playing limit. I would probably lose less money!! In fact after playing a bit and reading a few books I seem to win more often than I lose at limit.

Playing limit omaha 8 was a natural extension because when the limit tables were full at Oceans, there was a spot at an o8 table. I had watched this game for a bit and thought why not give it a go. Then i played at the Venetian and had a big win. I read some books and now play occasionally but I find I can win online and lose when I play live.

I started experimenting with numbers of players - playing NL and limit 6 handed instead of 9 or 10 handed and this seemed to be quite successful for me. Then I was watching an online player (atimus aka jovialGent aka bballer88) play and noticed he posted massive profits playing heads up almost exclusively. So I started reading up on and playing heads up poker a fair bit.

Recently there has been lots of action on Full Tilt high stakes mostly PLO. Also to improve my o8 game I was reading a book called Fahra on Omaha but he talks about all forms of Omaha including PLO. I started playing HU PLO and the players seemed quite bad. So then I started playing 6 handed PLO and have won several buyins.

So that brings me to the title of this post. I sat down at my computer today to play poker, and thought to myself. what the heck do I want to play?

NL tournaments - need 6-8 hours

NL mtt sngs - can play 90 mans in 2.5 hrs and 45 mans in 1.5 hrs

NL stt sng - sometimes I enjoy a session of these as they are quick

turbo mtts - I have played a few of these recently and made nice profits

NL cash - 9 handed, 6 handed, HU

Limit

o8 9 handed, 6handed

PLO HU or 6 handed

PLO tournaments - not played many of these but cashed in 33% so far!

The answer is: I dunno!! Guess I will just update the blog instead.

California poker

So I got back to California towards the end of November and felt a bit flat. First of all in England playing poker was quite social - often with one or both of my brothers at the local pub or club. The pub or club was a 10-15 minute walk or drive away. I would often drink some beer or eat some take-away with our poker playing mates. After the pub game we would sometimes go to the local cardroom until 1 or 2 in the morning playing cheap tournaments or just hanging out. Or we would just chat about how we played.

Here is California I do not have a local poker buddy who is committed to the game like I am. It is quite a solitary life, playing poker out here. If I want to play a live game I have to travel 40 minutes down to Oceanside to my small local casino (cheaper tournaments, good food, nice people and dealers) or brave the LA traffic and drive 1 hour north to high-crime areas to play in the Commerce, Bike, Hoolywood Park, Hustler or Hawaiin Gardens card rooms. Alternatively I can drive east inland about 45-55 minutes to an Indian casino to play in their poker room. The traffic in LA is a nightmare - more like a parking lot. And that is when they are not doing roadworks and closing the freeway, redirecting you into gang-infested south-central LA side streets on a detour at 3am in the morning. And travelling alone I cannot use the carpool lanes so I cannot even share this nightmare. There are occassional newspaper reports of people winning large amounts of cash in the casinos in LA and then being followed home and robbed at gunpoint. At rush housr the 1 hour jounrey to LA becomes a 2-3 hour ride home. Likewise the Oceanside travel goes from 45 mins to 1.5 hours and the Indian casino journey similar.

My final gripe is when you do get to a casino for a big event, sometimes the event was sold out the day before and you join a long line of 500-600 people to buy in as an alterate where you sit down as people get knocked out. Last time at Commerce I sat down starting with 10 big blinds about 5 hours after the tourney started. What a nightmare!!!!

It is almost more tempting for drive to las Vegas (4-5 hours) and stay in a cheap casino to play out there and avoid the hell that is LA traffic.

The final option is playing online. Of course - this is my preference. I realised in England I did not play online so much because it was just as convenient to go to the local pub or cardroom to play. Over here the plain fact is if you live in Orange County (possibly the best place to live in California) then it is not convenient to go to the poker room.

I can play online from the comfort of my house. No travelling involved. Arguably its a little harder to make money than playing live. I still like to play live occasionally. Hence after my flat period I have resumed my once per week travel to Oceans 11 in Oceanside. And I will still play a couple of tournies at Commerce or the Bike when I see something I fancy. But for the most part, my focus will be online poker. Just because I live in California.....

Now the positive stuff - the pros. Arguably unless you live in Las Vegas I have more card rooms available within an hour of me than anywhere in the USA. And the daily tournaments are much bigger than in the UK (100 or so at Oceans, 200+ at the Bike). Also the "special" or large tournaments are far mroe regular with The Bike, Commerve, Oceans 11 and other casinos regularly running tournament series with buyins from 100-500 and big cash prizes. So compared to a lot of people in the USA I am in a great location for poker.

I just hate driving in LA..................

The UK poker revolutuion

My trip home was great because I got to hang out with friends and family while also playing plenty of poker. The poker scene in England has evolved roughly as follows:

2000 - Portsmouth has 4-5 casinos, 1 casino has a once weekly poker game, Thats it!!!

2006 - Now 1 casino has 3-4 times a week poker game, and the local snooker club has started throwing a game.

2007 - Some pub leagues have started up in a few pubs in the area

2008 - 3 or 4 snooker clubs are running occasional games, the pub games are getting popular, the casinos are starting to run tournaments regularly - our local poker casino now runs small tournaments each night.

2009 - 2 dedicated poker clubs have opened locally running small nightly tournaments, the snooker clubs now run a league with regular mid-sized cash mtts, the pub leagues are very popular with a choice of games each night, all local casinos are running poker tournaments and some cash games.

It is an interesting revolution. Poker winnings are NOT taxed in England so you can now make a good living just playing poker. The card rooms are still new and nowhere near as professional (or busy) as in California but I am sure they will grow over the coming years. The owner of Duffs is a nice guy and looks like he is committed to making it work but its tough work. He has to get players in the door to play but they wont come unless there are already players or big guarantees. if you offer big guarantees players will start to come but you will lose money over the first 6-12mths until you have enough regulars. I am convinced long-term the clubs will be amazingly busy and successful.

The skill level is lower locally but nationally I am sure it is on a par with America and may eventually overtake them. Poker is just so available - a lot of young players are going to play over there. In America its still somewhat exclusive to those who live near a casino or card-room. I think first-time players are somewhat intimidated in America when they enter a poker room but not so much in England. Especially if they play pub poker.

Pub poker is interesting. Initially it seems boring as you cannot win any money, but then you realise you can have a night out for a fairly low cost, playing a game you love and enjoying a social night with friends who also love the game. The competitive element is still there (both driven by the pub "league" and you ego on any individual night as you want to be known as the best or at least a good poker player). Often the league game is followed by a small (cheap) single table cash game which if you win it means you have had a night out for no cost. What could be better!!

I did not play any larger events out there but hope to next time. I am lucky my brothers both enjoy playing poker with me so there is plenty of opportunity. They have APAT events costing $100-$200 and GUKPT events costing $300-$1000 and the the EPT and WSOP Europe events costing several thousand pounds. So the opportunity is there to play at many price points not to mention travelling through Europe.

In fact when I got back to California I felt quite flat. For a good week or so I played very little poker as I will explain in my next post.

UK totals - live tournaments

So the UK trip ended, and when all was tallied I made a small profit on the live tournaments I played. Nothing to write home about - but any profit is better than the alternative. The details are shown below.