my blog has now relocated to my new sponsors website.
ive just done an extensive update with news from galway, killarney, brighton and online play.
please follow the following link:
http://www.greenjokerpoker.com/robtaylor.html
Monday, January 21, 2008
Wednesday, January 2, 2008
2nd of Jan : more cash play
Tough day at the office, so to speak, got stuck early on, battled away and never felt like i was running well. Again found the tables nice on ipoker and building up a big database of stats on the opposition now, which i do find really helpful. In my first hours play this morning, i ran into 4 sets when i when overpairs or top pair, uggg, and at one point, i was stuck 2k, and it could of been more. However, stuck at it, and battled back slowly, doubling up late on with aces vs a guy making a move with 43. All in all played 712 hands for $794 profit. Delighted to end ahead on a tough day to be honest, and its as encouraging as yesterday , in a different way.
Also played the 12.5k gtd tourney, didnt win a hand, lol.
Year to date figures: online cash +$6,067 ; online tourneys -$109.
Heading to galway lunchtime tomorrow, should be playing live most of the weekend, but good wifi in the hotel, so might get a few hands in online also.
Also played the 12.5k gtd tourney, didnt win a hand, lol.
Year to date figures: online cash +$6,067 ; online tourneys -$109.
Heading to galway lunchtime tomorrow, should be playing live most of the weekend, but good wifi in the hotel, so might get a few hands in online also.
Jan 01 2008 - cash challenge started
With the new year started, and as per my resolutions, ive started my cash challenge, put in some decent hours playing, and am updating this yoke hopefully daily from now on.
Played 796 hands on green joker 5/10 and 3/6 yesterday, it had been a while since ive played cash here, and im very happy to report that there were plenty of fish about. The site seemed softer than i remember it to be honest, maybe thats down to more professional table selection on my part, but at least 4 or 5 people got themselves buddy listed.
I ran reasonably, with my own brand of quite laggy cash play. 6 handed i tend to see a lot more flops than most people, profile individual players , and play a lot post flop to their weaknesses. My vp$ip is very high compared to most good players, but i think i made decent post flop decisions and like getting in pots with the poorer players.
A couple of setbacks, as is to be expected over 796 hands, my 3 biggest losing hands were as follows:
i limp on button with 76 suited after 2 limpers including one very poor player. The flop comes 89T rainbow, first guy leads for 30 pot, 2nd guy flat calls, i make it 100, 2nd guy (fish playing 32/4) flat calls, turn is a blank, he check, i jam he calls for his last 270 with JQ.
2nd one, different fish limps, i make up small blind with K8 of spades, bb checks, flop comes K85 with 2 clubs, fish bets 30, i make it 110, he jams for another 300, i call, he has aces and the 5 pairs on the river.
3rd one was with kings, where a guy opens to 40, another calls, i repop to 155, 2nd guy calls, flop shows AQx, i bet 2/3rds pot, get called, and fold to his 450 river bet.
Apart from those, it was good.
Won a nice pot of $1041 with JT suited after guy min raised pre flop with aces, i called pot bet on J high flop, T on turn and we got it all in.
Won another 1k pot with ATs, where i make up small blind , 3 to the flop, flop comes K high with 2 hearts, i bet pot, 1 guy calls, another makes it 160, a very solid player, we both flat call, turn is a blank, we both check, river is a heart for the nuts, i lead out, get put in by the middle guy, who has K6 of hearts. How he didnt re pump the flop with tp and 2nd nut fd i dont know.
Anyway, all in all a great day, a confidence booster and a sweet start to 2008.
796 hands played and an overall profit of $5,273.45.
Id like to graph profits year to date etc from poker tracker and post it in here, but im not sure how to do this, so if anyone knows, let me know !
On other matters, booked the hotel for Galway, heading down around lunchtime tomorrow, to be in plenty of time for the super sat on thurs night. They expect 400 runners, and a 2k each, thats a decent prize pool. I am 80/1 for this event on paddy powers.
We are booked into the best western, its 1/3rd the price of the Radisson, we got it for 100 quid each for 4 nights inc breakfast, and apparently its only around the corner.
As usual Ken will be coming down with me, and our scottish mate, Graham Clarkson is also coming over to play, so nice to catch up with him.
Played 796 hands on green joker 5/10 and 3/6 yesterday, it had been a while since ive played cash here, and im very happy to report that there were plenty of fish about. The site seemed softer than i remember it to be honest, maybe thats down to more professional table selection on my part, but at least 4 or 5 people got themselves buddy listed.
I ran reasonably, with my own brand of quite laggy cash play. 6 handed i tend to see a lot more flops than most people, profile individual players , and play a lot post flop to their weaknesses. My vp$ip is very high compared to most good players, but i think i made decent post flop decisions and like getting in pots with the poorer players.
A couple of setbacks, as is to be expected over 796 hands, my 3 biggest losing hands were as follows:
i limp on button with 76 suited after 2 limpers including one very poor player. The flop comes 89T rainbow, first guy leads for 30 pot, 2nd guy flat calls, i make it 100, 2nd guy (fish playing 32/4) flat calls, turn is a blank, he check, i jam he calls for his last 270 with JQ.
2nd one, different fish limps, i make up small blind with K8 of spades, bb checks, flop comes K85 with 2 clubs, fish bets 30, i make it 110, he jams for another 300, i call, he has aces and the 5 pairs on the river.
3rd one was with kings, where a guy opens to 40, another calls, i repop to 155, 2nd guy calls, flop shows AQx, i bet 2/3rds pot, get called, and fold to his 450 river bet.
Apart from those, it was good.
Won a nice pot of $1041 with JT suited after guy min raised pre flop with aces, i called pot bet on J high flop, T on turn and we got it all in.
Won another 1k pot with ATs, where i make up small blind , 3 to the flop, flop comes K high with 2 hearts, i bet pot, 1 guy calls, another makes it 160, a very solid player, we both flat call, turn is a blank, we both check, river is a heart for the nuts, i lead out, get put in by the middle guy, who has K6 of hearts. How he didnt re pump the flop with tp and 2nd nut fd i dont know.
Anyway, all in all a great day, a confidence booster and a sweet start to 2008.
796 hands played and an overall profit of $5,273.45.
Id like to graph profits year to date etc from poker tracker and post it in here, but im not sure how to do this, so if anyone knows, let me know !
On other matters, booked the hotel for Galway, heading down around lunchtime tomorrow, to be in plenty of time for the super sat on thurs night. They expect 400 runners, and a 2k each, thats a decent prize pool. I am 80/1 for this event on paddy powers.
We are booked into the best western, its 1/3rd the price of the Radisson, we got it for 100 quid each for 4 nights inc breakfast, and apparently its only around the corner.
As usual Ken will be coming down with me, and our scottish mate, Graham Clarkson is also coming over to play, so nice to catch up with him.
Tuesday, January 1, 2008
some other tourneys
Since prague ive played 3 live tourneys, 500 game in drogheda where i came 12th, 100 freezeout in the sporting which i won, and 200 game i went to letterkenny for, in a bid to top the rankings, and i came a dissapointing 41st !!
Not running too well really, bar the SE game, seem to do well there.
Still not been playing a huge amount online, did run $1k up to 6k on gjp, only to tilt it all off in drogheda after being knocked out of that game.
So not a great year all in all, certainly not what i had hoped for for 2007, i will be back in 2008, with a new discipline, and im feeling confident it will be a big year indeed.
Im going to split my roll between live tourneys, live cash, online tourneys, and online cash, and will start my online challenge.
I will also be travelling a bit, plan to do a full month in Vegas WSOP time, i will be playing all events on the Grosvenor UK tour (10 tourneys), as well as all the major games in Ireland, such as the Irish Open, and starting with the big 2k game in Galway on the 3rd January.
My main goals are as follows:
To only play when fully focused, and not to tilt, get back to my A game, which ive lost somewhat lately.
To record a big final table, and try and win a leg of the UK tour.
To better my Vegas cash of 2006.
To put in more hours, and more hands online, and grind out a monthly profit to enable me to play live when and where i want.
To update this blog more often, and keep detailed notes of wins/losses.
(i will be moving this blog shortly, in conjunction with a sponsorship deal that i will also be discussing once its all being finalised , but its an exciting chance for me, details to follow).
Not running too well really, bar the SE game, seem to do well there.
Still not been playing a huge amount online, did run $1k up to 6k on gjp, only to tilt it all off in drogheda after being knocked out of that game.
So not a great year all in all, certainly not what i had hoped for for 2007, i will be back in 2008, with a new discipline, and im feeling confident it will be a big year indeed.
Im going to split my roll between live tourneys, live cash, online tourneys, and online cash, and will start my online challenge.
I will also be travelling a bit, plan to do a full month in Vegas WSOP time, i will be playing all events on the Grosvenor UK tour (10 tourneys), as well as all the major games in Ireland, such as the Irish Open, and starting with the big 2k game in Galway on the 3rd January.
My main goals are as follows:
To only play when fully focused, and not to tilt, get back to my A game, which ive lost somewhat lately.
To record a big final table, and try and win a leg of the UK tour.
To better my Vegas cash of 2006.
To put in more hours, and more hands online, and grind out a monthly profit to enable me to play live when and where i want.
To update this blog more often, and keep detailed notes of wins/losses.
(i will be moving this blog shortly, in conjunction with a sponsorship deal that i will also be discussing once its all being finalised , but its an exciting chance for me, details to follow).
Prague trip report
We arrived on the sunday, ended up staying in a nice hotel, but it was about 15 quid away from the hilton in a taxi, but was a really nice place, cheap, decent pool, nice rooms, restaurant, internet etc. Was rooming with kp as usual and conor broomfield was also staying in our hotel.
Nice set up in the hilton, several cash tables going at all times, the play was in local currency, kroons. Games were effectively €4/8 minimum, up to high levels, and a lot of the locals were adding a fair bit of value.
A good gang of irish over there, although , in the end, no one really did that well.
Some english i knew also, and all in all good craic.
Prague is a lovely city, tons of interesting architecture, and some good places to go, things to see.
It was nippy enough, i had to purchase a wholly hat, but nice place to walk around, we saw the clock tower in wencheslas square, and we also sampled a number of well priced and good quality restaurants.
One evening we decided instead of a taxi, to see more of the city, we would get a tram into town.
Not wanting to do anything dodgy, we made sure we got tickets at the hotel, and jumped on a tram into town, ken knew where to get off, as he was in prague years earlier and hes good when it comes to directions, unlike me. We bumped into a couple of locals coppers, who singled us out. We happily showed them our tickets, and they said we were supposed to validate them in some machine. We claimed ignorance, but at one point it looked like we might be carted off to a slammer til ken produced his passport, which helped somewhat, and we were hit with a 40 quid fine. I had heard the police were a bit corrupt over there, not a nice incident really.
i started the main event on day 1a, had a reasonable table, with no idea who i knew particularly well, but i made a nice steady start, and slowly and steadily gathered chips over the first few levels. Felt very comfortable and relaxed at the table, and was extremely confident of a decent result. Was on about 18k, when i got AA vs QQ and after this, i was in great shape, on about 27k, from 10k starting, with 90 minutes left on day 1. There were 550 runners overall in the tourney, over 2 days, there were 99 players left on day 1A when i had an incident that defined my week.
I had a decent image at the table, and was more than happy to finish in or around 30k overnight, but, with a lot of chips on my table, i knew something big might happen.
A loosish player , opens to 1200, (200/400), the button, playing the same sized stack as me, was reasonably tight and solid, he seemed focused on the hand, checking his cards, and fires out a bet of 3k. Im 90% sure he has KK or AA before i even look at my cards, im just as sure the first raiser has Ax, or KQ or similar, i look down at JJ on the big blind. I decide if i call 3k here, out of my 27k stack, and hit, i will most likely double up, and i genuinely was happy enough with my read to get away from it if i dont hit hard, so i flat call, and the original raiser flats also.
So about 10k in the pot already. I feel my heart race as the flop comes JTT, giving me the house, and i know im ahead. The button confidently bets the pot and now i know im a 2 outer away from a double up, and 56k stack with average 22k as we near the end of the day . Its a dream situation. I pray for a deuce, a king hits, i dont like it, but at this stage, the rest of my stack has to go in, i know as soon as he calls he has KK, and all of a sudden its a nightmare, and im in shock. Dream over.
I played a fair bit of cash over the week, was doing well, the games were soft, theres a lot to be said i think about doing the ept circuit, maybe just trying the super sat for the main event, and playing cash side games for the week. Theres money to be made. I was making 1k-1500 a night without putting in huge hours, kp was crushing the omaha , it was all good.
I also played the 500 rebuy tourney, i had a really tough table, played with some top norweigans, had rolf slotboom beside me with large stack, also had dario minieri at my table early on. However, played real solid, and got down to about 45 out of 300 , with 27 paid, when i was under average, and jammed A9s from the cut off, ran into QQ, but flop came AAx to give me a rush, and think im going to be in decent shape, til the Q hits the turn.............had some chips left as QQ guy was uber shorty, jammed with AJ, same guy calls with A9 and takes me out.
On the wednesday, the lads went to the Slavia Prague vs Sevilla champions league game, i played the 2k tourney. Totally card dead throughout, doubled up with 77, by calling scandie on all street with 3 over cards and being good. Was getting into it, but then flopped a big draw and played in like a muppet, this upset my focus and i felt tilty as i excited.
Jumped into a bigger cash game, €8/16, bought in for €2k, about 10 hands in, i flop a set, on an ultra aggressive table, and lose to a bigger set, then i go on tilt and basically do in the 6k i was up in cash games earlier on the week in about 2 hours !!!...........not so good.
Kp also had a mare on that night, so after this we write off the poker and spent the last night and a half partying and checking out the delights of prague with Marty and Conor.
All in all a fun trip, very dissapointed with the tourneys, as in the main i felt i played well, and whilst i ended up losing about 6k on the trip in total in the live games, i feel theres potential for future epts.
Nice set up in the hilton, several cash tables going at all times, the play was in local currency, kroons. Games were effectively €4/8 minimum, up to high levels, and a lot of the locals were adding a fair bit of value.
A good gang of irish over there, although , in the end, no one really did that well.
Some english i knew also, and all in all good craic.
Prague is a lovely city, tons of interesting architecture, and some good places to go, things to see.
It was nippy enough, i had to purchase a wholly hat, but nice place to walk around, we saw the clock tower in wencheslas square, and we also sampled a number of well priced and good quality restaurants.
One evening we decided instead of a taxi, to see more of the city, we would get a tram into town.
Not wanting to do anything dodgy, we made sure we got tickets at the hotel, and jumped on a tram into town, ken knew where to get off, as he was in prague years earlier and hes good when it comes to directions, unlike me. We bumped into a couple of locals coppers, who singled us out. We happily showed them our tickets, and they said we were supposed to validate them in some machine. We claimed ignorance, but at one point it looked like we might be carted off to a slammer til ken produced his passport, which helped somewhat, and we were hit with a 40 quid fine. I had heard the police were a bit corrupt over there, not a nice incident really.
i started the main event on day 1a, had a reasonable table, with no idea who i knew particularly well, but i made a nice steady start, and slowly and steadily gathered chips over the first few levels. Felt very comfortable and relaxed at the table, and was extremely confident of a decent result. Was on about 18k, when i got AA vs QQ and after this, i was in great shape, on about 27k, from 10k starting, with 90 minutes left on day 1. There were 550 runners overall in the tourney, over 2 days, there were 99 players left on day 1A when i had an incident that defined my week.
I had a decent image at the table, and was more than happy to finish in or around 30k overnight, but, with a lot of chips on my table, i knew something big might happen.
A loosish player , opens to 1200, (200/400), the button, playing the same sized stack as me, was reasonably tight and solid, he seemed focused on the hand, checking his cards, and fires out a bet of 3k. Im 90% sure he has KK or AA before i even look at my cards, im just as sure the first raiser has Ax, or KQ or similar, i look down at JJ on the big blind. I decide if i call 3k here, out of my 27k stack, and hit, i will most likely double up, and i genuinely was happy enough with my read to get away from it if i dont hit hard, so i flat call, and the original raiser flats also.
So about 10k in the pot already. I feel my heart race as the flop comes JTT, giving me the house, and i know im ahead. The button confidently bets the pot and now i know im a 2 outer away from a double up, and 56k stack with average 22k as we near the end of the day . Its a dream situation. I pray for a deuce, a king hits, i dont like it, but at this stage, the rest of my stack has to go in, i know as soon as he calls he has KK, and all of a sudden its a nightmare, and im in shock. Dream over.
I played a fair bit of cash over the week, was doing well, the games were soft, theres a lot to be said i think about doing the ept circuit, maybe just trying the super sat for the main event, and playing cash side games for the week. Theres money to be made. I was making 1k-1500 a night without putting in huge hours, kp was crushing the omaha , it was all good.
I also played the 500 rebuy tourney, i had a really tough table, played with some top norweigans, had rolf slotboom beside me with large stack, also had dario minieri at my table early on. However, played real solid, and got down to about 45 out of 300 , with 27 paid, when i was under average, and jammed A9s from the cut off, ran into QQ, but flop came AAx to give me a rush, and think im going to be in decent shape, til the Q hits the turn.............had some chips left as QQ guy was uber shorty, jammed with AJ, same guy calls with A9 and takes me out.
On the wednesday, the lads went to the Slavia Prague vs Sevilla champions league game, i played the 2k tourney. Totally card dead throughout, doubled up with 77, by calling scandie on all street with 3 over cards and being good. Was getting into it, but then flopped a big draw and played in like a muppet, this upset my focus and i felt tilty as i excited.
Jumped into a bigger cash game, €8/16, bought in for €2k, about 10 hands in, i flop a set, on an ultra aggressive table, and lose to a bigger set, then i go on tilt and basically do in the 6k i was up in cash games earlier on the week in about 2 hours !!!...........not so good.
Kp also had a mare on that night, so after this we write off the poker and spent the last night and a half partying and checking out the delights of prague with Marty and Conor.
All in all a fun trip, very dissapointed with the tourneys, as in the main i felt i played well, and whilst i ended up losing about 6k on the trip in total in the live games, i feel theres potential for future epts.
Tuesday, December 4, 2007
Prague Ept
Ive decided to go play the Prague EPT. We are flying out next sunday, and staying for 1 week. Its a good schedule, as well as the 5k main event, theres a 2k, 1k and 500 side events, and im in good tourney form, so hopeful of some sort of result.
As its a big buy in, ive sold 50% of my action, i posted a thread on boards about this , and have a great response from backers, i coulda sold well over 100%. Im happy to play for 50% myself, as its such a huge prize pool, it will still be a tremendous touch. With travel costs and hotel fees, its basically a 6k buy in tourney for me, so ive sold at €600 for 10%. I feel i have an edge over the average player in this field, so it should hopefully still represent value for investors.
Anyway, never been to prague before, so it should be nice to see, although i believe its actually quite an expensive place nowadays, not like it used to be.
Nicky Power is going, he won a seat online, so is cash game player Gavin "valor" Kelly, Mike Lacey and Nicky O Donnell are going to report, and kp is coming with me to play the omaha cash games, so theres a fair gang of us going over.
Anyone wondering about my online challenge, well , i still havent started it, been too busy with all the live play, will take it easy this week id imagine, preparing myself for Prague.
I will however be taking in the 10k gtd, €300 freezeout in the Jackpot on friday, in a bid to get the few ranking points i need to go top of the standings.
Also, the boards poll for offline player of the year should be out tomorrow, ive been nominated for that, and its always nice to do well in such things, so get your voting hats on !!
Finally, a big thank you to all of you who have supported me in my Prague mission, and hopefully i will have a nice result to bring home next week. Updates for this event will be found on most of the leading update sites, such as blondepoker and cardplayer.
As its a big buy in, ive sold 50% of my action, i posted a thread on boards about this , and have a great response from backers, i coulda sold well over 100%. Im happy to play for 50% myself, as its such a huge prize pool, it will still be a tremendous touch. With travel costs and hotel fees, its basically a 6k buy in tourney for me, so ive sold at €600 for 10%. I feel i have an edge over the average player in this field, so it should hopefully still represent value for investors.
Anyway, never been to prague before, so it should be nice to see, although i believe its actually quite an expensive place nowadays, not like it used to be.
Nicky Power is going, he won a seat online, so is cash game player Gavin "valor" Kelly, Mike Lacey and Nicky O Donnell are going to report, and kp is coming with me to play the omaha cash games, so theres a fair gang of us going over.
Anyone wondering about my online challenge, well , i still havent started it, been too busy with all the live play, will take it easy this week id imagine, preparing myself for Prague.
I will however be taking in the 10k gtd, €300 freezeout in the Jackpot on friday, in a bid to get the few ranking points i need to go top of the standings.
Also, the boards poll for offline player of the year should be out tomorrow, ive been nominated for that, and its always nice to do well in such things, so get your voting hats on !!
Finally, a big thank you to all of you who have supported me in my Prague mission, and hopefully i will have a nice result to bring home next week. Updates for this event will be found on most of the leading update sites, such as blondepoker and cardplayer.
the betfair cork open
Took wednesday off and headed down to cork on the train with kp on thurday. We got there mid afternoon, checked into the lovely Clarion, then went for a swim, jacuzzi, ordered a nice meal into the room, and a nap. Its a quality hotel, except for their internet policy, which basically, whilst they advertise free access via wireless in all rooms, they block you from most sites you would be vaguely interested in surfing, including all poker sites. Apparently this is "to save the reputation of the hotel", although, what we do in our own room on our own laptop, is our business in my opinion. Anyway, we were aware of this policy, which basically stops us from working, as its our profession, from the last time we stayed there, and with no intent to play online at the moment, we went there again anyway.
Headed over to the Macau, which is 5 mins walk away, a lovely club, with a nice design, nice tables, good dealers, and they even do decent food, its also well ran by Ken Corkery in my opinion, however, its fecking roasting in there, probably on a par with the albeit slightly below temperature sauna we briefly also tried a few hours earlier.
The super sat scheduled for 7pm had just started, bang on time and with 165 runners and a full house, this generated 17 seats for the main event. I played ok to be honest, and with 34 left, and me just below average, but needing one more sizeable pot to secure a ticket, i got all in with KK vs someones QQ and got spiked out on on the turn, meh. Played some cash after this and won 310, to finish 200 up on the night.
Friday came around and the main event started at 7. 128 runners i think there was, and with 75 minute clock, and 15k stack, i was ready to settle in for another long night. I had a nice starting table, apart from vivian hayden on my right and nicky power on my left, there were also 2 huge and 1 large fish at the table. I never really got going though, and still had more or less starting stack when this got broken about about 3 hours, which was fine. My new table including John from the SE, Bill o Keeffe, and the guy who runs the celtic poker tour, along with several randomers. Table was playing looser than the previous one. About 5 hours in, im on 13k, not seeing anything, and struggling to get going, but, still fine as average is about 16500, when someone raises to 600, i have position and look down at AK suited, i re raise and he calls. (hes only playing about 6500-7k). Flop comes KKQ and i we manage to get all in , he has QQ and i lose. Im down to about 6k, and not too happy, when a donk min raises my big blind, i have 53 of spades, im thinking he may be strong here, and have a big pair , anyway, i decide to call the extra 300 to flop big and try and bust him and get back to near starting stack. Flop comes an interesting looking 235, he leads, we get all in , he has A4 off, and im out, not good.
Next day i play the 300 side game, 84 runners, and i play well in the main, easily getting down to the 2nd last table , with one of the bigger stacks. At this stage, the blinds are huge, and it becomes a complete crapshoot, twice i run into raises after opening in position and having to fold, and then, with 5 bbs, which was still more or less average, i have to close my eyes and push the button and cut off a few times to survive to the final table. i finish on 47k, with average 67k, but 4 other people actually shorter than me, and Donal the TD promises to roll the blinds back a few levels for the next day, to give us some play, so im hopefully of a result. Its quite top heavy with 10k for the winner.
Ive calculated i need 4th or better to go top of the irish rankings, so thats another goal for sunday afternoon. 3rd hand in, i make it 10k to go in the cut off with AJs (blinds 2-4k now), and the sb calls, flop comes 345 and he jams, so i have to fold (he claims 77). I make a few steals etc and im back to 68k, with 7 level, and back in the game, when the following hand happens. Its my big blinds, blinds are now 3k-6k with a 500 ante, so about 12k in the middle dead, the cut off, has 30k, so hes playing only 5bbs and is under pressure, he jams on my bb, i look down at AhTh.
I decide he prolly has to push any pair, or any ace with his stack, so make the call of another 26k, even though its a lot of my stack, thinking i could be ahead, and with the structure in play, you cant dodge races especially with the price im getting. He has 88, i flop a 10, turn 2 hearts and still lose to his non heart 8. Now im very short, and when folded to my SB, i auto shove KQ into Shermans AJ on the bb, i lose that one also, and im out in 7th for €700.
A couple of hours break, and im back in the 200 freezeout, 70 odd runners this time, and im playing well, destroying the 2nd last table, and on 90k with average 38k and 11 left, when i have my first accident. The 2 guys to my left were incredibly tight, and both were playing 20-25k. I was having their blinds at will, and had seen them fold the likes of 77 or AJ to my raises.
I tried again with Q6s and make it 12k to go, std raise, this time the SB wakes up and james for 20k, obv i call, and he has 99. I flop a Q, and im sailing towards almost 120k, with 2nd in the tourney on about 60k and the final table looming, when he rivers a damn 9. Then, on the next lap i get A8s and the bb does the same move with AK i lose that, on my next BB, the button raises, hes now got a big stack, and is not a tighty, i re jam with an ace, he has J6, and i find i cant win a showdown. Finally, i get AT on clubs, this time, im down to 24k so i jam, tight sb wakes up with KK, nightmare, from cruising and smashing the table to out on the FT bubble, grrr. In hindsight, i shoulda slowed down a bit, and just got to the 10 handed FT with the lead, coulda locked up a 5th or 6th place finish to take me top of the rankings at least.
Oh well, on tilt a bit, i then donked off a few quid playing cash, and after hotel expenses etc, the whole weekend away cost me close to 2k. Kp did well at his cash games and made a nice few quid. We got the train home on monday afternoon.
Headed over to the Macau, which is 5 mins walk away, a lovely club, with a nice design, nice tables, good dealers, and they even do decent food, its also well ran by Ken Corkery in my opinion, however, its fecking roasting in there, probably on a par with the albeit slightly below temperature sauna we briefly also tried a few hours earlier.
The super sat scheduled for 7pm had just started, bang on time and with 165 runners and a full house, this generated 17 seats for the main event. I played ok to be honest, and with 34 left, and me just below average, but needing one more sizeable pot to secure a ticket, i got all in with KK vs someones QQ and got spiked out on on the turn, meh. Played some cash after this and won 310, to finish 200 up on the night.
Friday came around and the main event started at 7. 128 runners i think there was, and with 75 minute clock, and 15k stack, i was ready to settle in for another long night. I had a nice starting table, apart from vivian hayden on my right and nicky power on my left, there were also 2 huge and 1 large fish at the table. I never really got going though, and still had more or less starting stack when this got broken about about 3 hours, which was fine. My new table including John from the SE, Bill o Keeffe, and the guy who runs the celtic poker tour, along with several randomers. Table was playing looser than the previous one. About 5 hours in, im on 13k, not seeing anything, and struggling to get going, but, still fine as average is about 16500, when someone raises to 600, i have position and look down at AK suited, i re raise and he calls. (hes only playing about 6500-7k). Flop comes KKQ and i we manage to get all in , he has QQ and i lose. Im down to about 6k, and not too happy, when a donk min raises my big blind, i have 53 of spades, im thinking he may be strong here, and have a big pair , anyway, i decide to call the extra 300 to flop big and try and bust him and get back to near starting stack. Flop comes an interesting looking 235, he leads, we get all in , he has A4 off, and im out, not good.
Next day i play the 300 side game, 84 runners, and i play well in the main, easily getting down to the 2nd last table , with one of the bigger stacks. At this stage, the blinds are huge, and it becomes a complete crapshoot, twice i run into raises after opening in position and having to fold, and then, with 5 bbs, which was still more or less average, i have to close my eyes and push the button and cut off a few times to survive to the final table. i finish on 47k, with average 67k, but 4 other people actually shorter than me, and Donal the TD promises to roll the blinds back a few levels for the next day, to give us some play, so im hopefully of a result. Its quite top heavy with 10k for the winner.
Ive calculated i need 4th or better to go top of the irish rankings, so thats another goal for sunday afternoon. 3rd hand in, i make it 10k to go in the cut off with AJs (blinds 2-4k now), and the sb calls, flop comes 345 and he jams, so i have to fold (he claims 77). I make a few steals etc and im back to 68k, with 7 level, and back in the game, when the following hand happens. Its my big blinds, blinds are now 3k-6k with a 500 ante, so about 12k in the middle dead, the cut off, has 30k, so hes playing only 5bbs and is under pressure, he jams on my bb, i look down at AhTh.
I decide he prolly has to push any pair, or any ace with his stack, so make the call of another 26k, even though its a lot of my stack, thinking i could be ahead, and with the structure in play, you cant dodge races especially with the price im getting. He has 88, i flop a 10, turn 2 hearts and still lose to his non heart 8. Now im very short, and when folded to my SB, i auto shove KQ into Shermans AJ on the bb, i lose that one also, and im out in 7th for €700.
A couple of hours break, and im back in the 200 freezeout, 70 odd runners this time, and im playing well, destroying the 2nd last table, and on 90k with average 38k and 11 left, when i have my first accident. The 2 guys to my left were incredibly tight, and both were playing 20-25k. I was having their blinds at will, and had seen them fold the likes of 77 or AJ to my raises.
I tried again with Q6s and make it 12k to go, std raise, this time the SB wakes up and james for 20k, obv i call, and he has 99. I flop a Q, and im sailing towards almost 120k, with 2nd in the tourney on about 60k and the final table looming, when he rivers a damn 9. Then, on the next lap i get A8s and the bb does the same move with AK i lose that, on my next BB, the button raises, hes now got a big stack, and is not a tighty, i re jam with an ace, he has J6, and i find i cant win a showdown. Finally, i get AT on clubs, this time, im down to 24k so i jam, tight sb wakes up with KK, nightmare, from cruising and smashing the table to out on the FT bubble, grrr. In hindsight, i shoulda slowed down a bit, and just got to the 10 handed FT with the lead, coulda locked up a 5th or 6th place finish to take me top of the rankings at least.
Oh well, on tilt a bit, i then donked off a few quid playing cash, and after hotel expenses etc, the whole weekend away cost me close to 2k. Kp did well at his cash games and made a nice few quid. We got the train home on monday afternoon.
Subscribe to:
Posts (Atom)