Tuesday, October 13, 2009

Getting there... getting there!

I've been consistently going deep in practially all my games over in past few weeks, right to the final table even, but apart from a few small cashes, best being a 4th place €170 win, it's getting disheartening...

I did have one 2nd place win: at Dublin Poker Night's €40 10-player SnG Satt for the Cavan Open. David (Afex on Boards) won the €220 ticket while I crashed into second place for €165 after starting HU as chipleader with 3-1 lead! I actually busted out in the second hand of the game with AK, AK3 on board and Ollie shoved over my 4-bet on flop with trip 3s and rivered a house just to rub my nose in it... Thankfully as first out I was allowed to re-buy. And carefully fought my way to chipleader and remained there until HU. Ah sure €85 up is better than being €80 down!

Was advised to check out the €30FO deepstack game in Fitzpatricks on Tuesday nights. Venturing in last week they had 46 players with 5 places paid out; got to final table with average stack in danger of getting blinded out when I min-raised with A8s, Marie called me from SB then Tom (TM on Boards) shoved All-In from the BB. I had him covered but Marie (older woman, Fitz regular) was chipleader - I shoved over the top of Tom to isolate, and Marie folds. Tom shows AQo I hit my straight on the flop but got piped by his Ace for runner-runner flush to leave me with <3BB. Next hand finding K8s UTG+1, I shoved, action folded back to IDP player Frank Grace in BB, he called with the monster 94o: 9 on flop, 4 on river and I was gone in 6th place... Our Frank went on to split it HU with Marie. WP mate! Was back in Fitzpatrick's this week and exited 9th... first hand of the final table(!)

Played the €50+5 FO in the Sporting last Sunday, I choose the SE because I knew there was a €1,500 guarantee plus with 2-3 tables it wouldn't go on all night. Ha! Little did I know what would happen... With a nice overlay to aim for, there was 3 tables with 37 players. I was happy with how I played, picked up AA no less than three times in the first 2 levels but didn't get paid much with them but it sorted my image for the rest of the game and allowed me to bluff in a couple key hands! Til I lost big holding KK to LAG's raggy ace that rived an 'Ace from Space' and enduring total card death before getting to final table as the shortest stack. Picked my spots well and won enough chips to survive, grabbed the chiplead briefly when we got down to five handed. But the previous owner took them back once the bubble busted. It took almost 2 hours from start of FT til the bubble was busted! had I known that I wouldn't have played there! Tiredness started kicking in, as well as being over-conscious of the time (it was way past 1am at this stage) made me play a little looser. Losing 60% of my stack overvaluing AJs against AKs in a raise-reraise-shove-blind-on-blind action... I then shoved next hand with my remaining 6-7BBs from SB with A4 into BB's 77, the sevens hold and I'm gone in 4th for €170... Kinda glad I left when I did, heard the game continued for another hour or so! Any later and I would not have got up for work next morning! I still think I would have easily won this but for the lateness of the game...

The Voodoo Card Club has become my new base! Apart from the nearest club to my home, the staff are so friendly, the food is good and the tournaments are excellent value... the Ladies League on Thursday nights are great craic! I keep reaching final tables in 3 out of 4 games that I've played here too, but truth be told I've only cashed ONCE! Meh! Next time, I'm going to do a 'Paul Fox' and fold into the money on FT before I play a bloody hand...

Cash action was sick... I swear I find the worse of the on bingo tables on offer, I do! Was dealing in Killarney (the worse job to date IMO, but I digress) and got signed off early one night, missed the bus back to the hotel, got bored waiting around so went into the cash room. Spun €60 into €300-odd with the nut flush, was about to leave when I decided to play my BB the very next hand, a Drunk in CO had raised to 10, button and SB called, finding 99 naturally I call too. Flop comes 962 (wheeeeee!) I bet out on all streets as drunk calls, until 6 hits the river and the drunk shoves. I called to see him table 66(!) Urgh... lost €165 in that hand. WP Sir. Later after grinding my cash back up to €235, when this hand happened: Drunk was still on table, player to his left had been replaced by a new player who was calling every hand, EVERY raise with ATC and hitting. I limped in with Ad3d in MP for a family pot of €20 to see a flop: Jd2d3h - action checks to drunk who does his usual slow act, while he was waffling, Mad Player throws in €30. Drunk loses it: “HEY! f*#@ing bloody cheek of ya, it was MY go! I bet ya got nuthin’! I’m ALL-IN... lets see if ya call now!” Mad player replies ‘yeah... I call’. Next player goes all-in... I was stunned. Facing a huge pot with the nut-flush-draw getting 3 to 1 for my money plus I had them all covered apart from the drunk by €20 odd, didn't stop me from shoving my stack over... praying one time please! But the board bricks, CO shows 5d4d, mad player has J6o while other player shows AsQs; the mad player's pair of Jack holds for a cool €1k pot while I accept the small side-pot. I just gave up and left... This beat has really put me off playing cash.

Online I'm up/down - played one of the Irish Poker Rankings Online game and came 4th, missed it the following two weeks when I couldn't register due to a cake software issue; played again a couple weeks later and was gone before first level with QQ-v-AA... went on uber-tilt two weeks ago and cleaned my online accounts out playing total shite. So couldn't play the last game. But last I saw I was hanging on 5th or 6th in the overall list.... WP to Doke for topping the list - there's no stopping this guy!

Have decided if I don't get a decent live touch soon - I'm going to take a break for a while as I genuinely can't afford to keep playing... with the 2nd November as my cut-off point.

The Irish Deaf Poker 2nd Annual Deepstack Classic Festival is almost up on us, since Ciaran's departure I've been pulling out the stops to get the game off the ground and drum up the players to play it. With 17 days left and only 31 players registered, and 10 of them are non-Irish! At our recent IDP 'Super Satt' night in the Deaf club - 4 of the 6 ticket winners demanded cash instead of the ticket(!) We have until 26th October to get 50 deaf players, the committee have decided if IDP don't get this minimum number then we will open the game to hearing players. Me thinks they'll play just fine among us deafies - I'll film our Frank signing the table signs for them to learn and throw in an ISL version of 'Bing Bang Blaow' to be sure! LOL - now that will be fun to do!

See you at the tables!

5 comments:

dokearney said...

Wow, you've been busy!

Must give the run down on Killarney some time. Did you get that transcript yet?

susiewoosie said...

Its karma... it'll happen... eventually

QueenJ said...

No Doke - still waiting on that transcript... :( Killarney was brutal IMO. Will we see you at the IPO?

Thanks Susie - I've a feeling them lotto numbers will be coming up first! ;-D

Thomas Maguire said...

Was worried that hand when you isolated but delighted, obv, when you turned over your cards.

Not so delighted when you turned your straight but I had the flush redraw & hit.

Was impressed with Frank's overall play; he's a very agressive LAG and he got well paid off with his big hands. He caught a lot of cards but he played very well & was tough to have to my left at the FT.

He eventually busted me in 5th when blind-on-blind I shoved KQ into his BB and he found JJ.

Lukes Tuesday night 10k deepstack is a great game; even better on Friday with the larger buyin.

QueenJ said...

I agree Tom, Frank is an excellent player. He excels at cash more than tournament so there's an element of that in his tournament play... he just got lucky that night, LOL! He's brilliant at heads-up, I've seen him turn a 10-1 deficit into a win.

Will check out Friday some time - not usually free on Fridays...