Monday, February 16, 2009

Brag and the Beat

This week has been up and down... two steps up, one step back!

Went over to the Westbury on Wednesday to try my hand at Satt'ing a ticket for their Monthly 250 FO; arrived at 9pm the place was empty (Ha! Suits me, a possible guaranteed ticket on a bye...) but by 9:40 they had 5 players and we kicked off the race. Unlike your standard Satt game this one was going very loose, very fast! By 10:20pm I was HU with a 2-1 disadvantage. 15 mins later we were almost level in chips when I got it all-in with a straight to the 9 but my opponent sucked out on the river with a straight to the Q! WP Sir...

Four players arrived late, so another Satt was suggested, everyone played (including the ticket winner who bombed out 1st) one ticket for 1st, 150 for 2nd and 50 for 3rd... I bubbled again in 4th place(!) Meh! Good luck to the winners - will be watching out on Boards for how they did! Will attempt the Satts again next month. The Westbury is a lovely club, well worth a visit. The cash games there are maniac, worse than Tallaght Poker Rooms, don't think of raising as they will ALL call you... to the river if they have to...

Playing Dunboyne on Friday I had my fastest exit ever! QQ into a 33-set-on-turn-house-by-river jobbie(!) Shoved short-stacked with AJ on a AAK flop, two clubs, called by Jc10c... Q on turn was sick... but the club on the river was sicker! 18 minutes after I drove in the gates I was driving out again!

Head into town feeling very tender... decided to visit the Jackpot, hadn't been there in months, sat down at the cash table with €70 and rode a rollercoaster cash game up to €650, down to €180, up to €450 then home! Best hand was AA, I was in MP with €180 approx, raised to pot got two callers including a LAG Asian player with a beautiful coiffured mane that would make any woman proud! Flop comes a glorious A66. I bet out 2/3 pot, the Asian LAG raised to €50... This guy had just bluffed me off a huge pot in the previous hand with air, I was going to milk this! I hummed for a minute before flat calling, turn was 9 flushing the board, I checked... Asian throws in 100, I insta-shoved, he jumps up flicks his hair and calls throwing 69 on the table. I shook my head and table my aces... very... slowly... he actually growled in disgust starts muttering to another Asian in their language. Borrowing €100 off his friend, the LAG proceeds to tilt that off in less than 4 hands, with his remaining €25 going to me... the look I got. He definitely put a curse on me, I didn't win another pot after that and trotted home with my wee €400 profit.

I was set to deal at PokerIreland's monthly Dublin 100 game. Arriving at 12:45, there was 15 players, 5 dealers, and 5 tables... By 1pm, with just 18 players registered Stephen asked if I still wanted to deal or if I fancied playing. I agreed to play... I think he was regretting that 40 minutes later when the tally had increased to 44 players! I never got going in the game, apart from being card-dead, we had the loosest LAG I ever met on our table, he put the bejaysus into all of us! I won't go as far as call him a fish... that would be insulting to the real fishes. I just won 3/4 pots hovering between 9k-12k all day. But this LLAG guy, a well-known player apparently, called every raise pre-flop just to see the flop! Only folded 3 or 4 times pre-flop in all(!) It was so hard to put him on a hand - he raised, limped, bet and called with any two... with no regard to position or hand ranking! E.g. the luck box made some lucky hero calls with A3 on a KJ3610 board against an all-in player and managed to win with a pair of 3s(!) He puts Bomber Nolan deep into the shade with his play! To cut a long story short, I became shortstacked after losing two pots, when he limped in with AQ and put me out holding QJ... Meh!

Great game, excellent structure, will definitely play it again. I went out somewhere between 34 and 30, at 4:30pm. By 5pm I was back in the room dealing cash, and eventually the final table (which ended up being split 4 ways) earning enough to cover my buy-in!

Had a wee bit of cash coaching this week - which paid off a little... but it made me realise I've still a lot of work to do to improve my game.

4 comments:

dokearney said...

Unlucky on the sat, shame you didn't make it as it's a great game to play.

QueenJ said...

Don't worry Doke - I'll try again next month. My bankroll isn't good to buy-in directly otherwise I'd skip the Satts! Looking forward to playing you there soon.... ;-D

Thomas Maguire said...

"We had the loosest LAG I ever met on our table"

Even laggier than Dave Masters?????

QueenJ said...

Worse(!) From the same school as Skinny Ken in TPR I believe...