tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-61866849090246481102024-02-21T13:43:00.915+00:00From a Fish to a Shark...My personal poker journal since being seduced by the Poker Gods in 2007...QueenJhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/01445393833049567011noreply@blogger.comBlogger86125tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-6186684909024648110.post-74740505473310302832011-11-06T14:28:00.002+00:002011-11-06T16:24:00.430+00:00Its been too long...<a href="https://fbcdn-sphotos-a.akamaihd.net/hphotos-ak-ash4/s320x320/379503_10150353881647326_730077325_9009057_1645520670_n.jpg" onblur="try {parent.deselectBloggerImageGracefully();} catch(e) {}"><img style="float:right; margin:0 0 10px 10px;cursor:pointer; cursor:hand;width: 320px; height: 240px;" src="https://fbcdn-sphotos-a.akamaihd.net/hphotos-ak-ash4/s320x320/379503_10150353881647326_730077325_9009057_1645520670_n.jpg" border="0" alt="" /></a><br />Wow! I have neglected this blog a bit haven't I?<div><br /></div><div>I have been busy promoting the <a href="http://www.irishdeafpoker.com">Super Deaf Poker Event</a> which will be kicking off the night before Stephen McLean's <a href="http://www.superpokerevent.com/">Super Poker Event</a> in City West and the interest is huge! </div><div><br /></div><div>And its not for lack of winning, far from it, I've had a very profitable year since my last post June 2010. It's been my best one yet!</div><div><br /></div><div>Between winning big at Vegas Night's monthly game in the Voodoo last September 2010, DPN's new monthly Championship game in June 2011 and the prestigious Gothenburg Deaf Poker Open in May 2011. Not to add the countless small wins here and there at DPN local pub games, Bluff Card Club, D1 and shock... horror... dare I say it: I managed to win THREE of Irish Deaf Poker's monthly games in that time which is nigh on impossible! This is notoriously a fish fest with players stacking off with ATC and hitting... The 'real players' never win in here. Ever! LOL! </div><div><br /></div><div>Another first I've notched: I finally manage to cash, chop, AND win a tournament in the Fitzwilliam! On a handful on occasions... nothing beats that, after 5 years in this game if you can't get an edge over the Fitz regular players, you are better off out! I've yet to try the bigger buy-ins like the Mid-month or End of Month games with the upper echon of players... that's the next step! </div><div><br /></div><div>Cash tables are a hit and miss, up one month down the next. If I have €100 to play cash with I might as try the roulette table than the cash tables on the Dublin scene isn't soft as people say. </div><div><br /></div><div>My MTT game has changed a lot: I'm 3 betting without fear, floating flops with a wider range and changing gears constantly. Bluffing more even... in fact my bluffs actually get through way more than my big hands do(!) </div><div><br /></div><div>If only I can say the same for my online personae. I totally suck online, its not funny. My 'stats' are apparently horrendous with 15 fishbowls over my head on the HUD. I know I should invest in training but right now, I don't really have the time to put into online grinding, plus with the responsibility of a family and full-time job in uncertain times I am better off keeping poker as a hobby for now...</div><div><br /></div><div>In the meantime I'm off to win myself another one of those glass yoke thingys tonight! See you all at the tables!!!</div><div><br /></div><div><br /></div><div><br /></div><div><br /></div><div><br /></div><div> </div><div><br /></div><div><br /></div>QueenJhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/01445393833049567011noreply@blogger.com4tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-6186684909024648110.post-36346169123117172922010-06-07T21:56:00.007+01:002010-06-08T11:38:43.782+01:00London Calling<a onblur="try {parent.deselectBloggerImageGracefully();} catch(e) {}" href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEj-w3TCIIS3BLyVb_XeXvTG1wFyTPCfilWwrBeGlw73RJSD-CbGULtk-m3W_63mmcyVJ3zBvFBZugCLzSCkV0GJcwIHUom3Su33_8zCvdgWF2majD77an4JyyI-4UmRJ5ecdfQnXUaFrw/s1600/London+2010+054.JPG"><img id="BLOGGER_PHOTO_ID_5480239553167194258" style="DISPLAY: block; MARGIN: 0px auto 10px; WIDTH: 354px; CURSOR: pointer; HEIGHT: 265px; TEXT-ALIGN: center" alt="" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEj-w3TCIIS3BLyVb_XeXvTG1wFyTPCfilWwrBeGlw73RJSD-CbGULtk-m3W_63mmcyVJ3zBvFBZugCLzSCkV0GJcwIHUom3Su33_8zCvdgWF2majD77an4JyyI-4UmRJ5ecdfQnXUaFrw/s320/London+2010+054.JPG" border="0" /></a><br /><a onblur="try {parent.deselectBloggerImageGracefully();} catch(e) {}" href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEgtPBhshIafLuVdIjKkZ9OOG1CloRWPyzNGZkf0l2eViAfKL5HqUPpVibtozeL7vL5pNPjhXXs14z2iwduu2E360akoUvQtEU0J3oI5U_O8Tatt2gR2k0W7yIBO-SyWf-Sk4XeHHa3Utw/s1600/London+2010+082.JPG"><br /></a><br />After two years tripping over to London, running deep but no cash to show for my efforts, I was reluctant to go back and play again. But this year's UK Deaf Poker Series III being held in a reputable casino with dealers somehow sounded stress-free and so by March the flight was booked and my name was on the players list...<br /><br />May was a very bad month pokerwise, more down than up, couldn't get my cards to hold up against the countless villains I challenged across the felt. To be fair I didn't play as much as I usually do - couldn't afford to - my son was making his confirmation so I saved my money (and energy!) for that instead. Leaving each game without so much as a cent to show for my efforts was disheartening to say the least. I was getting very disillusioned with the game. Time to take a break, one that is long overdue to be honest. But with the London trip already booked I decided to reserve the 'break' til after this game...<br /><br />Susie was unable to fly over due to a chest infection, and only other Irish player Mark McLaughlin was flying over on the morning of the main event and planning to catch the first flight back early the next morning. My flight over was booked for Friday afternoon til Sunday night, as I had planned to make the most of the weekend. Sergio Sanchez Gil (the Deaf player who won the Madrid European Deaf Poker Championship) kindly offered to meet up with me and be my room mate for the weekend. Now, I know what you are all thinking but no... it was very platonic, sorry no scandal here for you!<br /><br />On arrival in a hot and humid London, I was horrified to discover Sergio had booked into an overpriced kip of a place and even paid for his share upfront. No amount of arguing with the desk clerk was going to get him his refund so we decided to stay that night and move elsewhere next day. Setting off walking to the pre-event meet up game in the Kensington Close Hotel about 1km away, we checked several places en route hoping to get a room for the next night but they were booked out.<br /><br />The Kensington game was a local poker circuit game that a number of London Deaf players frequent, the £20+2 buy-in self-dealt game of a higher standard than your local pub game - lots of tight players. With 4 deaf players on my table I was able to play much looser and aggressive than I normally did - great way to fool the players into thinking this was my style too! All good preparation for the game the next day! Was out before the end of the 4th level... settled into the uber-soft cash game and left £60 up for the night - my buy-in covered for the next day.<br /><br />Walking back to our 'Kip' we came across a vintage car sales room, while admiring the cars, a party was going on in a nearby house a young white girl came running out ran around the corner pulled down her hot pants and wee'ed in front of us... her boyfriend, this tall strapping black guy followed her out and started snogging her as she finished her business, pulled up her hot pants, picked her up and carried her back into the house! We were just standing there mouths all agape... I've really seen it all now(!) Popping into the local Tesco to get a cold drink and a midnight snack, the night was really humid, I was amazed that we could still buy alcohol at 1am... the amount of people drinking among the rose bushes in this affluent area was something else.<br /><br />Next day, Sergio took ages getting ready, those who know me well will know how long I usually take to get ready... but Sergio is something else! He was a whole HOUR! Deciding to bring our bags straight to the International and worry about the accommodation later, we took three tubes (had our route planned but didn't realise a certain connecting tube station was closed for repairs!) it took us longer than expected to get to Old Street where the International Club was located. The game was starting at 12 noon, we got there barely 5 minutes before the game started. The buy-in was low £50+5 for 5,000 with the option to pay £5 for 2,000 more. I brought the additional 2k reluctantly - this extra fee was another reg as far as I was concerned. £50+£10 game for 7,000 chips and 20 minute blinds for a high ranking game was not the best value in my opinion. But not buying the chips could put me at a serious disadvantage too.<br /><br />Greeting some familiar faces, I discussed these issues with one of the UK Deaf Poker Series organisers. He confessed that it was the International who defined the stack/blinds as they had their own regular game on and expected our game to be well finished by this time. Fair enough.<br /><br />I bumped into fellow Irish player, Mark McLaughlin, he looked wrecked! He had been travelling all night, bus up from Wexford to Dublin Airport, forgot to print out his flight ticket so Ryanair fined him €40, the train from Stansted to the city cost more than he expected... the poor guy hadn't a penny left and the lack of sleep was starting to affect him. He had no money left to buy food never mind the extra 2k chips. I had a membership card from the International manager John (its who you know that counts!) with complimentary points for free food/drink worth £20, I offered to share this with Mark.<br /><br />Of the 94/95 players confirmed, only 83 had turned up with 80 players opting in for the extra 2k chips.<br /><br />On my first table - I was in seat 8, Mark was to my immediate right, he started open raising, re-raising and getting his bets called by middle pairs/high aces he stunk as low as 2.5k before realising he needed to change his tactics. Chips were as easy to win as to lose, I fell as low at 3.3k at one point but worked my stack back up top 10.9k at the first break.<br /><br />Had AA twice, won with one and lost with the other. Raised one hand got two callers both folded to my post flop bet, in the losing hand: Mark raised to 3xBB, I re-raised to 9xBB, button flat called me and Mark mucked face-up accidentally showing his cards AQo. Flop comes ten high with two spades, I c-bet and button insta-called, the spade on the turn brought a flush board that we both checked. K on river, I threw out a small bet thinking he'd fold but no, button flat called to show KK.... meh!<br /><br />Folded 88 in one hand to one player (Ahmed) re-raising my 900 raise in the 150/300 level to 3k from BB position with 40% of his stack - it was his first raise, I had him pegged as a nit so I folded face up thinking AA-1010 or AK. He showed KQo - nice move sir. Later discovered this was Ahmed 4th poker game(!) Nice playing for a novice! He later cashed in an impressive 7th place...<br /><br />Moving to my 2nd table I hit trips 3 times in a row getting paid off each time to bring my stack up to 47k.<br /><br />One interesting hand against Henry McDougall (IDP's Deepstack Classic winner 2008): Blinds were 1k/500; I raised 2500 from MP with 22, action folded to Henry who was shortstacked in BB, he flattened. Flop came A45 two suits, Henry insta-bet 2,000 as the flop appeared, I didn't think he had an ace here - I felt if he did he would have re-raised me rather than called pre-flop. I put him on 67s/78s or J9-KQs draw all within his range; suspecting this may be a draw/probe bet I opted to call him and re-evaluate on the turn. As the Q appeared Henry insta-bet out 3,000 without a pause. This had me confused, if he hit the queen, the Henry I knew would have have check-raised here, still putting him on a draw plus the value was too good not to call - 3,000 for a 12,500 pot... I had a 26k+ stack and Henry had 6k approx behind when a lovely 2 appeared on the river! I re-raised Henry's 3k river bet to see him panic slightly before calling with a badly represented AQ - the last hand I would have put him on.<br /><br />Moving to a third table shortly before the next break, we were now down to two tables and I was 2nd chipleader with 47k behind Sylvain Dwek on 60k approx (the average stack at this point was 32k) the raising blinds were crucifying the short stacks. I doubled up by decimating a couple of shorties before taking down a lovely 40k+ pot with AJs; I raised from the button, BB insta called; flop came K89 with two spades. BB checked, I bet, he re-raised before insta-calling my shove with JTo(!) K on turn and J on the river brought my stack up to 102k and before we knew it we were on the final table!<br /><br />Asking for a 15 minute break as we had no dinner break and playing from 12 noon til 5:30pm without a proper food break just 2/3 10 minute breaks was a killer. I appealed to the TD but he apologised that they needed our game to be over before their 7pm tournament started, the best he was giving us was 7 minutes. I ordered food and had to eat it as I played the final table which I hate.<br /><br />The picture above shows the final table partipicants...<br /><br /><blockquote>Seat 1. 102,000 (Julianne Gillen)<br />Seat 2. 31,000 (Kabwe Kabosha)<br />Seat 3, 10,000 (Sylvain Dwek)<br />Seat 4. 73,000 (Stephen Draper)<br />Seat 5. 40,000 (Ben Simpson)<br />Seat 6. 90,000 (Mark McLaughlin)<br />Seat 7. 15,000 (Cliffod Lane)<br />Seat 8. 99,000 (Joseph Devine)<br />Seat 9. 42,000 (Ahmed Mudawi)<br />Seat 10. 75,000 (Damon Delaney)</blockquote><br />Talking to Mark, I learnt that Sylvian had a very loose image and was starting to leak chips raising/re-raising with a very wide range, he had just doubled Mark up in the last hand leaving himself barely 10k by overplaying his A rag on a AQJ board with Mark holding KTs.<br /><br />With 10 players on the final table and 9 places paid a deal was agreed to take £7 off all places to pay 10th. As action folded back to me on the button in the first hand - two shorties in SB (Kabwe) & BB (Sylvian) blinds were now 3k/6k; I knew Sylvian will call with any two, but Kabwe was nitty enough to fold and wait for another spot - it would be 50-50 against me getting Sylvian out in a HU. I raised with J6s, Kabwe jumped out of the way as Sylvian insta-threw in his stack and turned over As2s, but the flop came a sick QJ6xx and a disappointed Sylvian walked away in disgust.<br /><br />I dispatched Ahmed in 7th (A3 into his KQ) then Stephen Draper in 6th similar sick fashion. Before I exited Stephen I was tilting a little as Mark kept consistently playing into me; e.g. finding A10s in MP I raised to 30k (blinds now 4k/8k) Mark called from BB, flop came 896, giving me a gutshot plus flush draw. Mark bet out 30k which had me thinking - reraise or call. I opted to call, Q on turn gave me extra outs. But Mark's 50k bet had me thinking very hard, was he playing the same hand or a AQ/AK. I flat called but missed the river which was checked down Mark showed K9o for a pair and a huge pot. Urgh!<br /><br />Back down to 105k, I found J10s on button and opted to shove as SB (Stephen) and BB (Ben Simpson) were nits and I had them both covered, knew they would not call unless then had AA/KK/QQ/AK etc. As Stephen tanked then asked for a count - I was praying he would fold but no... after 3/4 minutes thinking he called and Ben insta-folded. Stephen tabled AKs, but the board ran out Q9xx8 and it was all over for poor Stephen! Sorry mate xxx<br /><br />Damon went next in 4th place, he shoved with barely 6BBs holding KQ from SB into my BB I saw A3 and called.<br /><br />When we were down to 3 handed - Mark kept shoving all-in into my raises/BB, I folded twice but on the 3rd time discovering A7o and after tanking for a bit I ignored my heart telling me to fold and followed my head in calling his 150k leaving myself less than 90k only to see his 33, no suck out for me this time and Mark was now chipleader leaving me as the shortest stack to Marks' 300k and Ben with just over 100k approx.<br /><br />The Blinds were now 6k/12k, Mark mini-raised me again from SB - I had K9 in BB and decided to race these and shoved back at him only to see him call with AQ. The board came xxxAQ and I was gone in 3rd place.<br /><br />Barely one hand later - it was over, Ben flat called and Mark checked to see 68T flop. Mark bet the flop and turn (3) which Ben flat called. Ben bet out on the river (7) Mark shoved to put him all in and Ben insta-called to show 87 for two pair which was no good against Mark's 9To to crown him the new UK Deaf Poker Series III Champion! A very worthy winner too! Well played Mark!<br /><a onblur="try {parent.deselectBloggerImageGracefully();} catch(e) {}" href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEgtPBhshIafLuVdIjKkZ9OOG1CloRWPyzNGZkf0l2eViAfKL5HqUPpVibtozeL7vL5pNPjhXXs14z2iwduu2E360akoUvQtEU0J3oI5U_O8Tatt2gR2k0W7yIBO-SyWf-Sk4XeHHa3Utw/s1600/London+2010+082.JPG"><img id="BLOGGER_PHOTO_ID_5480238154469407298" style="DISPLAY: block; MARGIN: 0px auto 10px; WIDTH: 200px; CURSOR: pointer; HEIGHT: 150px; TEXT-ALIGN: center" alt="" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEgtPBhshIafLuVdIjKkZ9OOG1CloRWPyzNGZkf0l2eViAfKL5HqUPpVibtozeL7vL5pNPjhXXs14z2iwduu2E360akoUvQtEU0J3oI5U_O8Tatt2gR2k0W7yIBO-SyWf-Sk4XeHHa3Utw/s200/London+2010+082.JPG" border="0" /></a><br />The standard seemed better this year compared to last year. Some impressive play by some players - still a lot of check-calling and poor bets sizes still but the raises were getting through and that's a huge improvement. The structure could be improved more: 5k stack is too low for a high ranking tournament; 20 minute blinds doesn't allow enough decent play and was a killer for some players. The loss of couple key levels (especially 75/150) was felt; so was the lack of a decent dinner break.<br /><br />Once the game was out of the way, I sorted out our accommodation for the night with the help of Freddie (another manager in the International) Sergio was cleaning up on the cash table, I joined him for a few rounds before we headed off in the torrential rain. By the time we got to Earls Court, we were too late to get the room so we headed back to Kings Cross and found a decent enough B&B instead for £25 each which served an alright breakfast too.<br /><br />After seeing Sergio off on the train to Gatwick, I spent the afternoon catching up with a friend in South London, we talked so much I nearly missed my flight home! Getting to Heathrow with 15 minutes to spare, dashing to the automatic check-in point to print my boarding pass I learnt that my flight was delayed by a further 30 mins - oh thank God for small mercies!!!!<br /><br />So... will I be taking a break from Poker? Hmmmm lets wait n see... I may be on a roll here!QueenJhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/01445393833049567011noreply@blogger.com6tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-6186684909024648110.post-3436335666412199652010-04-30T02:24:00.006+01:002010-05-06T02:23:50.451+01:00Heartbreaking MonthThank God April is so over!<br /><br />The month was so sick and depressing... not one small cash to boast of, I'd get off to a good start... running deep even, then crash. Not a bumper-bumper 'blinded out >10bb' crashes but real-time CRASH! BANG! WHALLOP! Sickening beats, and pure unlucky too... Just as well I had a decent enough bankroll to ride out the bad variance this month!<br /><br />Unlucky as in running my cards into AA no less than THREE times in one Voodoo game, holding AK, QQ and Kd10d on a flop full of diamonds but the fourth diamond on the river saw my beloved chips racing to the AdAs player who limped-called my raise pre, checked-called on the flop, then checked-called my all-in after tanking on the turn(!) Said he was "afraid" of me... Yeah, bloody right you were mister(!)<br /><br />Unlucky as in getting AA twice, QQ and KK once each in one game raising on all and drawing dead by turn/river EVERY TIME.<br /><br />Unlucky as in when a misdealt turn card gave me the nut straight, I checked-raised all-in on two players before someone not in the hand spotted the burn card was missing and called for a ruling. All bets had to STAY while TD laid down the river and re-shuffled the deck for a new burn and turn card... naturally the new turn and river card had me drawing dead for my chips that went to some donk that said 'Yeah, I'll call' BEFORE the new turn card was exposed and give him trips(!)<br /><br />But going to Madrid to be whalloped beats them all!<br /><br />Susie Woosie, Paul Ryder, Donal Desmond and myself had our flights and buy-in sorted for the 1st European Deaf Poker Championship taking place in Madrid. With the volcanic activity spewing ash into the skies grounding all the flights for the entire week beforehand - it was touch and go if any of us would get there to fly the Irish flag. But we did...<br /><br /><div style="text-align: center;"><a onblur="try {parent.deselectBloggerImageGracefully();} catch(e) {}" href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEhvVxOf7K3TimzSlch3xBZS35TYUIsIRZFWTbkaVOYaLCDmDCT7TbS6H394uw90-7qaAJjjuz-uFsB-HSiBUZ7SDAvHMBPlFec0A4yK-fwAM96gpVG0Kf5eEGxwnZmpbfdCJIBgJ5UXxg/s1600/april+2010+005.JPG"><img style="display: block; margin: 0px auto 10px; text-align: center; cursor: pointer; width: 270px; height: 201px;" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEhvVxOf7K3TimzSlch3xBZS35TYUIsIRZFWTbkaVOYaLCDmDCT7TbS6H394uw90-7qaAJjjuz-uFsB-HSiBUZ7SDAvHMBPlFec0A4yK-fwAM96gpVG0Kf5eEGxwnZmpbfdCJIBgJ5UXxg/s200/april+2010+005.JPG" alt="" id="BLOGGER_PHOTO_ID_5467957303256398082" border="0" /></a> <span style="font-style: italic;">Travelling to Madrid Deaf Club with Donal and Paul (C)</span><br /></div><br /><strong>European Deaf Poker Championship Madrid Trip Report:</strong><br /><br />The tournament which was due to start at 4pm initially, got pushed back to 6pm 3 days before, on the grounds that people wanted more time to eat(!) As the Casino was 25km outside the city centre, a free bus was organised by the Madrid Deaf Association at 4:30pm to bring the international players there with return trip back to Madrid city centre for 2am and 4am. Donal and Paul had headed out early to the Irish pub, planning to meet us at 3:15pm as we had to get two metros and 10 minute walk to Deaf Club for this bus. But the boys didn't turn up til 3:40pm leaving us in danger of missing the bloody bus! Donal had this bright idea to get Metro to the connecting station and grab a taxi from there to the club, outside this Metro was this bull-fighting arena (which we thought was church!) Donal and Paul started flagging taxis as Susie and I stood around taking pictures... a good 15 minute taxi ride later we arrived just in time for the bus.<br /><br />Meeting Amador the event organiser and the other players from Italy, Portugal, France, Romania, and Spain. The Swedish and German players had to pull out because of the ash but Amador found several Spanish players willing to take the spare seats so we still had 100 players. As the bus set off to the casino, turning the corner barely two blocks down, we came face to face with the same Bull-fighting-arena-Church-Metro square that we caught the taxi from(!) Just as well the 'scenic route' taxi fare was cheap at €2 each! LOL!<br /><br /><a onblur="try {parent.deselectBloggerImageGracefully();} catch(e) {}" href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEg9JElLT0i7H2s0O9vq3v9Sevza0GCyHDhOvBwIikPsNQM7u_TD_5Fwq0oX2pBl13AizH5L40B64q8iNsBV6sPp2dLkj_VMBnqXENBRbYtfnme7uDEubXpic5HHiPBdOYuE5l6yN3jqrw/s1600/april+2010+016.JPG"><img style="float: left; margin: 0pt 10px 10px 0pt; cursor: pointer; width: 150px; height: 200px;" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEg9JElLT0i7H2s0O9vq3v9Sevza0GCyHDhOvBwIikPsNQM7u_TD_5Fwq0oX2pBl13AizH5L40B64q8iNsBV6sPp2dLkj_VMBnqXENBRbYtfnme7uDEubXpic5HHiPBdOYuE5l6yN3jqrw/s200/april+2010+016.JPG" alt="" id="BLOGGER_PHOTO_ID_5467958067040110994" border="0" /></a>Arriving at Casino, a huge massive building in the middle of nowhere, it was 5:15pm. To our amazement we were not allowed to take pictures, security stopped several players taking picture and I was asked to check in my camera at reception. Before I did I got a sneaky picture of Susie at the entrance! The men had to wear formal dinner jackets as part of the casino's dress code; poor Donal was sweating in his suede jacket as he didn't want to fork out the money to hire a jacket. Inside the plush casino (which was much grander than the Sporting Emporium....) the organisation of the seating for 100 players decended into chaos, the TD refused to start til everyone was seated and a number of players had no seats assigned at all and had to wait til 6:45pm for their seat numbers, it was 6:55pm before the tournament finally kicked off...<br /><br /><a onblur="try {parent.deselectBloggerImageGracefully();} catch(e) {}" href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEgJfId2Kvhnf76MNjuRKXMCst247ktTMwYEfgxTffEODCcZDh2_qQ425xoVlvXXOysJ9X8tO6bUam1CiObvFSt5Kfv9wmf38oLTwSm28UIKEIcSHzcPTf0tZMlTbYW6ZjxH6gv7ZRN0sw/s1600/april+2010+019.JPG"><img style="float: right; margin: 0pt 0pt 10px 10px; cursor: pointer; width: 201px; height: 254px;" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEgJfId2Kvhnf76MNjuRKXMCst247ktTMwYEfgxTffEODCcZDh2_qQ425xoVlvXXOysJ9X8tO6bUam1CiObvFSt5Kfv9wmf38oLTwSm28UIKEIcSHzcPTf0tZMlTbYW6ZjxH6gv7ZRN0sw/s200/april+2010+019.JPG" alt="" id="BLOGGER_PHOTO_ID_5467959199388179218" border="0" /></a><br />I didn't quibble the 5,000 starting stack because the odd blind structure posted on the Madrid Deaf Poker's web page looked fair with 10/20, 20/40 and 30/60 levels and 30 minute blinds to make up for it. To my amazement the structure on the day was not the advertised one: we had the standard 25/50, 50/100, 75/150 with antes coming in at 150/300 level (not repeated) and increasing every level after that. So the 200/400with 50 antes, 300/600 level and 75 antes and the 400/800 level had a punishing 100 antes. It was easy to see this game was going to be crapshooty as the evening wore on, we are going to need more luck of the cards to gain valuable chips than skill to win this game.<br /><br />As the game started, I realised I was playing with a lot of fish players. They had no idea of which poker hands beat what, never mind MTT strategy or poker rules. Players were grabbing for change off other players bets, string-betting and throwing in one chip, when dealer said CALL they would cry 'Noooo I RAISE' much to the dismay of the dealer who spend a lot of time trying to explain why they can't do that... this happened so many times. I was bemused to see players calling all the way to the river with King high/Queen high hands, and showing them all proudly at showdown in the miraculous hope they had won... it was cringing!<br /><br />Finding AKs in CO in the 3rd or 4th hand I put in a raise to 225, and got no less than 5 callers. No A or K on the all low rainbow flop, SB puts out 50, BB and MP called. I put in a raise to 325 hoping to display strength, but no, they all called(!) Turn was no help to me, SB bets 50, BB and MP call and I just had to throw away my cards. On showdown, SB showed A3o for a pair of 33s, BB had A8 for a pair of eights, Button showed 10 10 (didn't raise) and MP had J7o and hit his pair with the J on the river to win the pot(!) Awful.<br /><br />Finding KK two hands later I raised again pre and got 4 callers, flop comes AAK, I c-bet hoping to get a raggy ace to call but got no bitters, and was back at starting stack. This was the only pot I won.<br /><br />Just before the 2nd level started, I found A10o in SB, with 5 limpers and BB to act, I knew any raise WILL be called so elected to flat call. Flop came a lovely AdQx10x, fearing KJ I checked. A loose Portuguese player UTG threw out 1k, there was only 350 in the pot, I read him for Q10 or any A-rag and as action folded back to me I elected to call. BB called too... a lovely 10d came on the turn. I bet out 1k, BB folded and UTG shoved for 2.5k more. I insta-called to see Qd2d... tabling my house, I pointed out that I had full house and his two pair/flush draw was behind, he shook his head insisting that he was winning... then fist-pumped the air calling on his mates on the other table as a sick Q fell on river to push the chips to him leaving me with barely 1,150k. I was gutted. Two orbits later, after total card death and blinded down to 975, I find A4s and shoved into 6 limpers, Frenchman UTG insta-calls with 65s, as the rest of table folded and board reads out 23QT4 to give him a sick straight. I was gone in 92nd place 10 mins into the 2nd level(!) Meh...<br /><br />After watching Donal, Paul and Susan - I realised I didn't just have a bad table. The overall standard of play was the same, dreadful. While the set-up in the Casino was top-notch, some dealers were turning a blind eye to string bets and basic mistakes (betting out of turn, letting players take bets back if there was a raise!) treating one chip as a raise instead of call. Poor Susie was embroiled in several rows with one such dealer who kept allowing people to get away with this behaviour, she called the TD over. But TD then stated the dealer was the 'boss' and their decision was final! As a dealer myself, I was horrified at how lax the dealers were in controlling the game, allowing it to get so out of hand, at the TD who was obviously being a patronising git with his 'ahhhhh poor deaf player, its alright, its alright, let them, let them!' attitude.<br /><br />I settled down to play cash in the cash area and was delighted to see there was none of that silly nonsense exhibited in the tournament room in here, this was the poker we all know and enjoy. A number of deaf players came out to join me and got their proverbial knuckles rapped by the other players for string-betting etc. Crying that he was allowed to do it in the 'other room' one player threw his cards down in frustration and the dealer accepted it as a 'fold' which set off a HUGE ruckus leading to me mediating in international sign between him and the English speaking Cash Room manager. After this every time there was a communication issue with deaf players the Card Room manager kept asking me to 'help translate'... some players even started asking me poker advice.<br /><br /><br />Working €50 up to €180 over 4 hours then losing it all in one 'stupido pot' against a loco Spanish player who wouldn't be out of place in the Fitz as he called my 3-bet-all-in with 99 holding QJo, only to river a Q. I gave up playing poker and went back to meet up with Susie. Paul who busted out in 60-something place, with card-death and the raping ante levels doing the damage, was playing in a STT with the same atrocious Spanish players. Susie had just exited in 45th place, Donal was still in with 18 players left. I was too tired and jaded to bother staying to rail Donal and heading out to catch the 2am bus with Susie.<br /><br /><br />As I opened my bag to get my clockroom token to retrieve my camera (which by the way WAS allowed in the tournament room...) I found €15 of unused chips, rather than cash them out I put them on roulette and spun it up into €50, LOL! But Susie wasn't impressed as my detour to roulette table that caused us to miss the 2am bus(!) Sorry Susie!<br /><br /><br />Back in we went to rail Donal while waiting for the 4am bus, at 3am the organisers announced they were putting the bus back to 5am(!) Urgh! Railing the final table was hilarious - the standard wasn't any better than my first table, the constant limping in meant the best players exited in 8th, 9th and 10th place respectively. I don't mind any player getting their chips in good with ATC but calling all-in's from other players with ATC and winning by just getting lucky is another matter...<br /><br /><strong>It became painfully obvious to me that these deaf players didn't play outside the deaf club/home games scene and had developed bad habits as a result. With no access to decent training; the mere concept of position, starting hands or pot odds was lost on them... they lacked the finesse and strategy skills to carry the game. Very few have the confidence to play with hearing, so basically they just played the same way every time 'call and hope for the best'. Just hope the next time I go to Spain, the standard will have improved somehow. </strong><br /><br />Well done to our Donal who played his usual LAG game (enough said!) and scraped into an impressive 6th place finish... this will silence your critics for many moons to come Mr Desmond! Our ordeal wasn't over, discovering the 5am bus was now leaving at 6am - urrrrgh! A shattered Paul, Susie and myself gave up at 4:30am and caught a taxi back to the city... Donal insisted on staying on for the bus.<br /><br /><a onblur="try {parent.deselectBloggerImageGracefully();} catch(e) {}" href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEjGs51isjXN4fVPVCZvTh0C8JyC97FHzUSIRJaQM4HKtqKB86GPBiBnTMWndg-MiQR5ucpuQkNnLM6sHlv0BEd82K7BzjDyaYPqv7s7j-SJW0RZ2Jf_5c-0IO3Kg5ox5GM0WEp1v5hj6Q/s1600/april+2010+046.JPG"><img style="float: right; margin: 0pt 0pt 10px 10px; cursor: pointer; width: 245px; height: 326px;" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEjGs51isjXN4fVPVCZvTh0C8JyC97FHzUSIRJaQM4HKtqKB86GPBiBnTMWndg-MiQR5ucpuQkNnLM6sHlv0BEd82K7BzjDyaYPqv7s7j-SJW0RZ2Jf_5c-0IO3Kg5ox5GM0WEp1v5hj6Q/s200/april+2010+046.JPG" alt="" id="BLOGGER_PHOTO_ID_5467958588141452082" border="0" /></a><br />Heading home to Dublin next day, we had a lovely trip to Madrid, the weather was beautiful sunny much appreciated 26C. It was a city that loved it meat as poor Susie (a vegetarian) discovered, she had hard time ordering food and even had me to eat things to be sure there was NO meat in it. Even the vegetable soup had pieces of jamon (ham) in it! On our last day Susie asked our hotel receptionists for the Spanish word for vegetarian, after 5 minutes explaining that she did didn't eat chicken (cluck cluck!) or pink (big round nose) or beef (horns) that she only had vegetables, pasta, etc. "Ah! You vegetariania!" says the receptionist proudly.... LOL!<br /><br />At the airport I treated myself to a bottle of Spanish Brandy as a consolation prize! It must have worked a treat as the following week when the month was drawing to a close I popped to my local DPN game and came 2nd for €200... ending the depressing run and giving me a much needed confidence boost.<br /><br />Here's hoping the Merry Month of May brings me much better returns... the Irish Deaf Poker Open is upon us on 8th May - the numbers are very small so we are throwing the <a href="http://www.irishdeafpoker.com">game</a> open to anyone who wants to play with us.<br /><br />Hope your cards run good, see you at the tables!QueenJhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/01445393833049567011noreply@blogger.com2tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-6186684909024648110.post-77805339324755892932010-03-21T23:48:00.002+00:002010-03-23T12:19:32.172+00:00Patience wins the dayIt's been up and down few weeks for me pokerwise since Killarney. No big wins or crazy hands to report, I had acuminated a small but decent profit considering I was busto at the start and only playing very low buy-ins but by beginning of March the profit margin was slipping back... It was frustrating! I was losing all my races deep in the game to unbelievable coolers. <br /><br />One example: Playing the Voodoo's €100 game last Thursday, we are down to 12, when UTG (chipleader) raises 3xBB, UTG+1 shoves with 7BB, I'm next to act - I find KK and I've 12BB left... I move all-in. Action folds back to BB, he asks for a count and starts counting his 15/16BB stack... then shoves all-in. UTG folds. I table my cowboys, UTG+1 shows K10o sheepishly and BB tables KdJd... The board slaps out 3 diamonds and the dealer whacks my cowboys into the muck before I copped what had happened!<br /><br />After this cooler, on the back of several others, I was getting very disillusioned with poker in general. The <a href="http://www.irishpokerboards.com/forum/showthread.php?t=110">Paysafecard Ladies Poker Championships</a> was coming up and I already registered my interest to play since it was first announced... When I woke up Friday morning after the Voodoo's tournament, the day before the Ladies game - I was seriously thinking "I'm running bad... why bother?!" <br /><br />Then Susie texted me; Ciara had just called her all excited about the game the next day. Ciara was going with Ro, who already had her ticket from the Satellite. I had played with Ciara, Susie, Ro in the Satellite for the game, but ended up first out when Ro called my all-n with KJ on a 9 high flop (I had A9) and hit her K on river(!) Hmrph! These are pub players from my local game, something in me just thought: "Ha! They won't last in this game... But then its a bit rich me thinking like this if I can't put my money where my mouth is and prove it?!" So I along I went...<br /><br />Susie and JCB always moan about these 'women only' poker events, pointing out the poor standard of play and lack of respect for raises. I stopped thinking like this some time ago, if you are decent player you CAN go deep<br /><br />When we arrived I was shocked to see there was barely 30 players registered and the game was due to start in like, 5 mins... where were the 'over 110 players pre-registered' as announced?! Stephen McLean had worked very hard to get the information out there, he took a gamble on making this event a direct on the day buy-in, when usually he opts for online full paid pre-registration in his games. <br /><br />By the time the game got underway there was 37 players. There were a number of good players in the room: Collette 'Smurph' Murphy; Jane Topkin; Cat O'Neill; last year's runner-up (I later discovered her name was Rebecca McAdams - a well known poker journalist) whose play I was really impressed with in the Ladies game last year. Sitting in seat 2 on table 3 I had Smurph diagonally opposite me, there were three female dealers as well: Sharon G, Lorraine Gately and another from Northern Ireland that I didn’t know.<br /><br />I got off to a fine start in the second hand, when I completed the blind from SB holding Q7o. There was 6 limpers in the pot(!) Flop came Qc7c3c, action checked all around. Turn was 8d; I bet out 300, the players folded back to the button on my immediate left who called. Turn was Kd. I bet out 350, button raised to 600 - dealer corrected her saying that minimum raise must be 700. I ain't folding my two pair so threw out the extra 350 before she put the extra 100 in... She tabled two black aces for an over-pair(!) I threw in my two pair... nice wee pot comes back to me! <br /><br />What was noticeable very early was all these serial limpers and people playing too many hands. I punished those limpers raising big from CO/button couple of times with air. The Northern Ireland dealer, Chantelle, was doing the same, she went very short in the first level but bounced back very well just before the first break. Then fell back again after the break, before shooting back up again. While watching her I noticed that she had no respect for the position players. She re-raised with suited connectors as much as raising/calling with any ace to the river very successfully too. After tangling in a couple of pots with her, my stack drifted back under 10k. When I found AKs in CO, I made the standard 4bb raise. Button (calling-station/bluffer) called as did Chantelle in BB. Flop came Q high rainbow, Chantelle bet out a pot size bet, I felt she was just pushing us out and flat called to see what button did, button folded. Rag on turn, Chantelle being first to act bet more slightly than the pot size bet... I just knew she had nothing on the board. But I couldn'r rule out any underpair (66-99 or 1010 even for trips) I contemplated coming over the top by going all-in but her turn bet was more than 40% of my remaining stack, shoving would be -EVs for me as it wasn't enough to get her out of the pot after putting in so much... I had no option but to fold. That hand cost me a lot of valuable chips, I fell back to 6k. I got hyper-aggressive after this, raising/shoving, stealing blinds and limper's chips until my stack was back up to 9k... when this hand happened.<br /><br />Smurph was in BB, UTG, UTG+1 (both serial limpers)and UTG+2 (never raises only limps - same girl who limped in with AA in 2nd hand)joined the action... I was next to act and found 10 10; still in hyper-aggro mode I made a 6bb raise. Everyone folded back to UTG+2 who merely called as I expected, flop came AK10, as UTG+2 checked - I made a pot size bet, she then mini-raised me, I insta-shoved praying she didn't have aces or kings... I had her covered by just 4.5k. To my amazement she calls and flips over JJ, I show my 10s for a set and held my breath for the J/Q cooler that thankfully never came! I was back up over starting stack again...<br /><br />I calmed down and settled back to pace myself, until 2 orbits later when blinds 150/300, Margaret (Fitz regular) came to take the place of the AA/JJ girl I knocked out. She's not played any hands; it looked like she was short... Finding 99 UTG, I bet out 3.5BB, but one by one they all folded back to Margaret in BB who shoved her small stack over the line. Taking a look at the stack I mistakenly assumed 4k (it was closer to 6k) and insta-shoved my stack over she shows AK and the K high board doubles her up; that decimated my stack by 50%... I got too cocky over-valuing nines, meh(!) Big lesson learnt here: asking for a count and THINK before I make any calls!<br /><br />From this level right up until 500/1000 I got nothing... no more hands, just rubbish, all I could do was sit back and watch as Chantelle (the pretty dealer) and Smurph started running all over the table; bursting players left right and centre. Growing increasingly short I kept looking for key spots to shove to steal blinds etc, I was desperate - shoving with K4s, J10, 78s etc... even shoved once with crap 102o I think... thankfully I got no callers on these hands(!) One shove with A5 got called by AJ, the lovely 995xx board that ran out was a god send! That double-up just before our table broke helped me through the card-death that lasted two orbits when I got moved my next table.<br /><br />On table one was Gillian Armstrong (the Boyle Poker sponsored player); Jane Topkin (runner-up from JP's mini-WSOP game) and Margaret (a very good aggressive player from Dundalk - regular at Cue Club & Poker Ireland 100 games) I had an awful position on the latter who was the table chipleader, sitting immediately on my left. Usually I enjoy chatting with Margaret at the table but being so short, plus it was a new table, I was back to square one watching and pegging the other players; I remained stoic saying very little... Margaret must have thought I was being rude ignoring her! I shoved twice with KK and QQ but got no callers, showing both I was setting my image for future shoves... <br /><br />UTG a serial limper made an unusual min-raise the blinds; action folded back to me. Finding 99 on button, after thinking I decided I couldn't fold here with <10bbs, so all-in I went. To my horror Margaret came over the top into UTG... UTG tanked then folded (she later admitted she had AK! WTF?) Margaret tabled KJs and I felt a cold numb feeling of de va ju coming over me at the sight of them... was another tournament going to be ended for me by a poxy KJ(!)<br /><br />The dealer looked at me and mouths 'good luck', then turns the flop one card up... the top card was a King... urgh! Collective groans all around from the table ladies in sympathy. I stood up to leave as the dealer, slowly spread out the rest of the flop when a glorious nine appeared from under the king and I squealed in delight! Yaaaay!!!! But that didn't get me out of danger. I was still all-in or fold mode as the blinds were going up 1k/2k. <br /><br />That was also the beginning of the end for poor Margaret, she never won another pot after that... By this stage there were a lot of short stacks on the table, shoving spots were getting rarer. I folded 33 and 55 both times to a raise and re-raise all-in, when the initial raiser called and the board came out - I would have won both times had I called... meh(!) <br /><br />With Margaret now out of the picture, Jane Topkins who had slowly amassed a sizable stack at this stage started to put pressure on the small stacks, kept raising into all the shorties blinds or limping/raising on flop... she had me on my toes! I re-raised all-in back into her once with KQs and she insta-folded - after that she stopped playing into me. <br /><br />To my right was a novice player, who admitted she's only played hold 'em since last October, unlike the serial limpers she put it a few decent raises and made a lot of interesting moves. She was joint chipleader with Jane. Every time she was in SB to my BB and there was no other action on the table - she would look at my short-stack and fold pushing her small blind towards me saying 'here... you can have it, I fold.' Bless her - she saved me a few times by doing this! I wouldn't have been that nice if the shoe was on the other foot...<br /><br />We were down to 10, the blinds had just gone up to 1.5k/3k when Jane limped in, a tight-passive shortie in Button mini raised, I found 33 in BB and swore I was not folding it this time! As I shoved right over the top with 23k, Jane folded after a dwell and button insta-called with AJ - I had her covered. The board that came out was sick: AJ5...5...3 Ouch! And with that I had my place on the final table as the 2nd shortest stack with 35k. <br /><br />On the final table - only Margaret (Fitz regular) was shorter than me, Chantelle was next in chips, just couple odd thousand more than me. I was surprised as she was tournament chipleader at the last break? Smurph was chipleader with almost 90k, Susie wasn't far behind her with 50k, the rest of the table varied between 40-45k. Rebecca McAdams, a Westbury regular, Jane and the Novice from my previous table made up the rest of the table.<br /><br />Susie was the unlucky player out in 9th place, after shoving her AJs into Smurph's AA... Margaret was next to go... followed by the novice player. By the time we were 6 handed, I was just behind Smurph in chips having doubled up via the Westbury player with 10 10, flopped a set, turned a house then rivered poker-10s for good measure! We had a deal to take €50 from 1st and 2nd to create a 6th prize - everyone agreed, having decimated Christina (Westbury player) she was happy to push her short stack with any two half decent cards, but her raced didn't hold and she was gone in 6th. <br /><br />One orbit later I found AA UTG+2, I made my stanadard raise to 22,000 (blinds 4k/8k) Smurph insta-flattened as the others got out of the way. Flop came AK10 all hearts... we both checked. I lead out on the rag turn for 30,000. Smurph tanked before coming over the top... I insta-called showing my trips. The river bricks and poor Smurph is left with <5BB. Few hands later she's gone in 5th place for €250... she immediately sailed off for the Voodoo Festival main event, came back next day 2nd in chips but no joy with AK into 99... UL Smurph! Rebecca McAdams was the next casualty out in 4th when I reraised from SB into her BB.<br />Then there were three... After doubling Chantelle up not just once or twice but THRICE! I was back playing ultra-tight and putting pressure on Jane for a change! Jane in button was short on 45k, Chantelle was on 136k while I had 150k approx when the biggest car crash happened!<br /><br />I was in SB, Chantelle was in BB with blinds now 4k/8k. Jane was in button on 46k. As I expected she shoved. I knew she was showing with a wide range but I didn’t want to double her up, finding A9o I knew my only option was to go all-in to isolate the action. I had a bad, bad feeling about this hand... so I tanked, considered the payouts and asked for a count of other player’s chips before shoving my stack over the line... Chantelle snapped called with KK. Jane tables A9s and I knew I had lost the game...<br /><br />The kings hold, Jane is gone in 3rd place and I am down to >3BB... two shoves later and I was out 2nd for €950 after running K8s into Chantelle's 22. GG... UL... WP... etc. Pose for some photos, smile and good night!<br /><br />Over all - it wasn’t my finest game but I was happy with how I played, my game plan went askew a few times but the winning factor that saved me was patience. There was a small satisfaction knowing I also outlasted the other DPN regulars! This year's game favoured the strong players, as the final table testified to this. Chantelle was a well deserving winner having played well all day, never losing her cool once. It was a brilliant experience to play on tables with strong experienced players like Smurph, Rebecca, Margaret and Jane.<br /><br />Kudos to Stephen McLean for a great tournament, while the numbers was very disappointing, the structure was great, it was clear he had put a lot of work into organising the day. The craic was mighty all day, by the time the final table started it was clear that today was the day of the good players...<br /><br />Roll on next year!QueenJhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/01445393833049567011noreply@blogger.com4tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-6186684909024648110.post-85707199466168189782010-02-08T13:03:00.000+00:002010-02-08T21:25:15.450+00:00Poker in the Pub Grand Final - Trip Report<a onblur="try {parent.deselectBloggerImageGracefully();} catch(e) {}" href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEhMYrag6fkPGS2tCgeD0Hgw2m4uk_NdszYRABXyW4Oz_fXQirYX7IUSRkloV5yK_BE5nS6wayb6eDe7LXJ-nj4b3IY2B_Ro9NFhZMBs5mUf_v59OXyKC5zDCMq-e2bAka44k8mPyt5YXA/s1600-h/neil+kelly+PiP.jpg"><img style="display:block; margin:0px auto 10px; text-align:center;cursor:pointer; cursor:hand;width: 320px; height: 240px;" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEhMYrag6fkPGS2tCgeD0Hgw2m4uk_NdszYRABXyW4Oz_fXQirYX7IUSRkloV5yK_BE5nS6wayb6eDe7LXJ-nj4b3IY2B_Ro9NFhZMBs5mUf_v59OXyKC5zDCMq-e2bAka44k8mPyt5YXA/s320/neil+kelly+PiP.jpg" border="0" alt=""id="BLOGGER_PHOTO_ID_5435984093286850194" /></a><br /><br /><br />I came down on Thursday to deal the team event (and get valuable reads/info on the players too of course!) and worked from 7:30pm til 7:30am... crashed into bed and didn't wake up til 3:30pm. The game was starting at 5pm; as I went to register I got an unexpected surprise - there was an additional €30 registration fee due. For what!? I win a ticket and still have to pay registration??? That one’s new to me...<br /><br />Heading to the restaurant in the bar for a decent meal before we started, I met up with Willow and Eamon Connolly. Talking about the registration fee, I was informed that the organisers were already operating at a loss, due to associated outlay costs like chips, advertising, printing, staff etc. <br /><br />I barely made it to my seat before the first hand was dealt. Looking down finding AQs in the first hand, I was UTG and didn't want to raise this early – really hate getting good hands so early in the game. So I limped, two other players limped in, button re-pots to 350. I called for the extra 300, MP folds and CO-1 threw in 300 with a 1k chip underneath. Dealer checked and pointed out the chip... 'Are you re-raising Sir?' 'Erm... yeah... yeah...' the player nodded. Button called the extra 1k. I felt it might have been a mistake rather than a genuine re-raise, considering button flat called rather than re-raised, I knew I should get out of this pot but was was well stacked enough to call the extra 1k to see the flop which came J high rainbow. Urgh. I knew I was finished with this hand if either players’ put a bet out. Sure enough, CO-1 bets 1,500; Button came over the top to 4.5k. I insta-mucked. CO-1 flat called. Turn saw another 4k from each player while river was checked down. CO-1 shows AA and Button KK... Nice angleshoot with the €1k re-raise sir(!)<br /><br />I didn't see or play another decent hand til the 2nd level when I raised to 550 with 10 10; a loose player re-raised to 1200. He had been doing this a lot, raising with ace rags, suited connectors, small pairs etc. I felt I was ahead of his range and re-potted to 3,600... he folded. Two hands later I was in BB to his button. He was down to 6k approx, several limpers in the pot; I had AQs he raised to 650 on button. I re-raised to 3250, as action folded back to him he laughed then folded showing J10s. That brought me back up over starting stack for the first time since we started. I was on a table of serial-limpers who just wanted to see a flop for cheap but folded a lot to any raise. I hovered along taking couple more small pots with well placed raises, had to fold to a re-raise from BB when I attempted a raised with QJs from CO. By the first break at end of 3rd level, I was sitting on 17.5k, when I met Thomas Maguire who was sitting well on 24k having “only played 3 hands” getting well paid on them all. Didn’t see him again after this – hope you went deep mate?<br /> <br />At the break the final numbers were confirmed. Out of 800-odd players who actually qualified, 706 had turned up to play. A staggering amazing number, but when you consider the prize fund was just €65,000 plus a €10,000 WSOP Vegas package, it works out at €107 approx per player and not the €200 per player as advertised. <br />Granted most players would have won a ticket having just played 4 weeks of the league, but some people (like me) would have played 8 or 12 weeks to qualify. With an average 8 week play at €10pw, plus the €30 registration fee making a total of €120 average outlay per player for an event that actually would have cost less to enter directly was thought-provoking. There was only €4 per week per player was going into the overall prize fund, but considering that for every one person that qualified, there were at least 7-10 other players who didn’t qualify – shouldn’t there have been a lot more than €65,000 in that prize pool? Another gripe was the prizes, they were only paying out the top 18 or 2.5% of the field, which represented much less than standard 10-15% of usual games. <br /><br />After the break, I drifted down to 13/14k in BB (200/400) with card death and losing chips in one hand when I limped re-raised with AJ s UTG and was forced to fold them to a re-raise all-in from the initial limper. I tanked long enough before I folded showing the ace and mucking the J face down; he tables QQ. “AK?” he asked – I nodded – the players rapped the table. I knew I had respect. <br /><br />Then came the first pivot hand of the tournament: Next hand saw me in BB with 6s10s when UTG raises to 600, two players along with the Button called. I was getting pissed off at having my blinds raised into (I had to fold them every time since the break) had decided I would to call to see a flop with any two. <br /><br />6d10d7s flop... woooo! I checked, UTG puts out 1200, others fold. I think for minute – he could be flushing? I’m out of position for a re-raise so decided to flat call. 7c on turn ... I checked, UTG put out 2000, again I tanked then flat called. 2c on river, I opt to bet out 3250 on river as I felt he had missed and I didn’t really want to show my cards... but UTG calls showing AdKd(!) “I put you on a bluff chasing a flush draw” he says... Scooping in 8.5k I finally got my stack over the 20k mark for the first time!<br /><br />Two hands later I’m on button when I opted to raise with Q4o as BB (same player UTG from my 610s hand) calls, he’s been leaking a lot of chips... he became the table chipleader very early but was on clearly on tilt after a massive bluff and losing three pots in a row. Everyone else folded. Flop comes 949 rainbow. BB checks I bet a pot size bet. He insta-calls. Turn is 3, action went check-bet-call... on the river came a K. He checks. I felt I was ahead but, opted to check behind in case he had hit the king. “Two pair” I announce, he nodded “yeah I have two pair too... which pair you got?” tabling my Q4, he announced its good and mucks(!) OMG!<br /><br />I decided to go back into tight mode as I felt I had just shot my image with that hand... I folded for couple more orbits before getting moved to another table. In my first hand I got 99, had no read on the table but I wasn't limping with them... I made a standard 3xBB raise (blinds were 300/600 at this stage) they all folded, I showed my nines. Next hand I got 77, and opted to limp in. Three other limpers and SB completed, BB checked. Flop came AdQd8c, old man in SB bet 1200, I saw this as a probe bet, so flat called, other players folded. 10c came on turn. Old man bet out 1200... I sensed weakness and put him on a flush draw or Qx, so put in a re-raise to 2800, he folded. Phew!<br /><br />Also on this table was a Gum-type woman player - you know the one who makes HUGE crazy bets and you just can't see where she's going. She was swigging back bottles of beer and was well oiled too. As the table chipleader, she limped in pre then shoved the flop a lot, or bet out 6-10xBB pre-flop... I had to fold my AcQc to her shove on the Q high flop with 3 hearts, as I just didn’t feel I was a head and was drifting back down to 23k. The average stack at this stage was 20k, when my second pivot hand happened: she limped UTG+2, I was in CO with Ad10d and decided to made a re-raise to 3200, action folded back to her. She flat called. Flop came AhKdJd, just as the flop appeared she snapped 'ALL IN!' But I had made my mind up not to let her bully me again – so insta-called to see J10s; 10c on turn and 3d on the river just sweetened the deal... and I was up to a heady 48k. <br /><br />The structure had changed - instead of antes kicking in at the 150/300 level as advertised on the forum, it was put back to the 1000/2000 level. I wasn't too impressed with this as there was a lot of small stacks still in, blinding themselves down waiting for the good cards and shoving with 4/5/6/7BBs and doubling up to stay in the game.<br /><br />After winning a couple more pots at this table I got moved again to my 3rd (and ultimately final) table with 54k. Losing one big race with AJ into shorties AK on a A rag flop – he limped called my raise then shoved the flop. I was down to 41k approx when I pick up my first AA. UGT+1 raised to 4,500 (blinds were 500/1000) I was in MP and re-raised to 13,500. As the rest of players folded back to UTG+1 he tanked for an age then shoved, he had me well covered but it was an insta-call for me. Tabling my aces, he showed KK, no king on board and I'm up to 83k! <br /><br />The antes started to kick in, with the 1000/2000 level being repeated with 100 ante, putting pressure on a lot of small stacks to shove with marginal hands, calling a couple of players, I steadily built my stack up to 128k. I heard the announcement that the ‘tournament chipleader’ was sitting on 117k... eh?! Excuse me! I was just about to call the TD over to tell him, when I checked my big blind holding Jc10c; too many limpers in the pot to re-raise. Flop comes Qc9s3c - I bet out half the pot, it fold back to player on button (total novice player – calling all the way to river with any pair, draws and Aces) he flat calls. Turn is 7x I put out a huge pot bet and again he calls... 8c on river - I've got the flush as well as straight - I jam it to put him all in and he auto calls showing Kc4c for better flush... Urgh! Sick... I'm back down to 79k. Got paid off with another AA, and shoved into re-raise trying ti isolate the small stack holding QQ but both shortie min-raiser and the re-raiser folded. My stack went back up to 93k before we finished for the night at 1:15am. The average was 48k and there was 220 approx players remaining. <br /><br />Willow from Voodoo was still in, sitting on 45k, we agreed to swap 5% of each other and went for ONE drink to relax before hitting the sack... One drink with Willow?! LOL! It was 4 brandies later before I escaped to my bed at 3am! Waking with a slight hangover in the morning, I went down for breakfast downed a gallon of water then over to the leisure centre for a swim/sauna session to clear my head before starting back at 2pm. <br /><br />Heading in to play day 2 I noticed from the player list I was in 24th place with 92,000 (dealer error on sheet) - vowing to play tight; I made a colossal error in my first hand: spying 2 red aces, I made a standard raise UTG; UTG+1 min-re-raises - I re-potted to put him all in. He calls with JJ, as I turned over my hand to my horror I had Ah4d.... aaaaaaahhhhh! Mortification! Lost 35k in that pot - was so angry I went on min-tilt and donked away another 20k attempting raises with rubbish that I had to fold to re-raises. At the break I was down to 46k just under the average - I gave myself a mental ticking off and restarted with a better frame of mind. Was all-in or fold mode. Shoved about 6/7 times but no callers... made two bad laydowns – I genuinely could not decide if I did right thing or not.<br /><br />Finding A8s in BB I was considering a shove if there were limpers or min-raisers, when UTG+1 shoved for 21k, I was on 50-odd approx and blinds were 2000/4000 with 200 antes, average stack had increased to 58k approx. CO flat calls leaving himself with 40k approx behind; this player had just moved to our table after the break and was a serial limper – I had very little reads on him. I tanked for ages before folding. Was disgusted to see UTG+1 table A5o and CO tables QhJh... and sicker was the flop: AA8xx. Meh!<br /><br />I shoved next hand with QQ – no callers. Got the blinds, antes and one limper’s 4k to keep me going for another orbit. I had 55 UTG+2, was considering a raise/shove/fold when UTG+3 shoved all-in out of turn and the rest of the table started to insta-fold their cards. Dealer tried to stop them but saw Novice player then said ‘yeah call’ getting his chips ready. Dealer stopped him then brought the action back to me. I tanked for ages was about to have the clock put on me when I folded. Novice player calls with A7o, UTG+2 shows AQ... And you won’t believe what came on the board – not one 5 but TWO bloody 5’s(!) AQ wins with top kicker. Meh!<br /><br />A few more uncalled shoves with QQ, AK, 66, and 10 10 (I showed them all... ) got my stack back up to 65k – but I wasn’t out of danger. The blinds were now a crippling 4000/8000/500 antes and the game was in crapshoot mode with the average stack only 100k. As I found A2s UTG+1, the Novice player to my right was now table chipleader on 200+ folded, rest of table had various amounts from 50-100k I didn’t feel good about the hand but I had enough to put a lot of pressure on other players to fold and steal the blinds and antes (17k total) that I desperately needed. I shoved...<br /><br />SB woke up with JJ and snaps called leaving himself with 25/30k... Board read out 3...4...6... 10...K... and I'm gone by 5pm. Somewhere between 85-90th place... the board said 95, I thought I was 94th having just seen another player exit before me but there were good few players crashing out and they didn’t update the board properly. 10 minutes after I exited – the board read 80 players left... so I can only speculate it was in the region of 85-90. Not bad out of 706 players and for my first major tournament!<br /><br />The game was a terrific experience – I was happy with how I played on day one, but day two was so-so: I let the small things bother me, made too many rash decisions and over played some hands; I could have waited another orbit or two for a better shoving spot, considering one of the short stacks on my table managed to get to the final two tables and cashed. But if’s and and’s and all that... I have to take responsibility for my play too.<br /><br />I wasn’t due to go back on dealing duty until Sunday, after taking a small break I decided to play the €80+20 side event. Got off to a good start, but had a very good player on the table putting solid pressure on other players, finding AQs in button, he raise in MP to 5.5/6xBB I min-re-raised him only for him to tank then shove his stack in. I was stuck... kicking myself for re-raising - calling with AQ would have been fine but attempting a re-raise here is idiocy at its best, as his action was suggesting AA/KK/QQ – AK even... I folded face up. Talking to him the next day he admitted he had nothing, that I was miles ahead... LOL! Nice move mate, congrats on coming 4th in the end too. I went completely card dead after this; steals were few and far between, getting caught by the raising blinds (which was only 15 minutes not the 20mins I expected), constant shoving by other players and the unexpected antes that came in later. Finding my first ace in almost 4 orbits while UTG, ignoring the weak suited kicker, the binds were 600/1200/100 and I had only 7000 left. Needing that double up fast, I shoved to ensure I had my stack in first but ran into another player’s AJ – that’s all she wrote...<br /><br />Giving up on poker for the night, I went for a walk about talking to various players still in the main event; Willow was still in - going strong winning all her races! I was full of hopes for the 5% cash as well! But it wasn’t to be... she crashed out in 30-something place. UL, WP girl! <br /><br />The eventual main event winner – Elaine Kiernan from Laois, played a sterling game establishing herself as chipleader from 5/6 tables out, right up until the end. Watching her, I couldn’t help sensing the uncanny similarities between her game and Susie Woosie’s... Good luck to her in Las Vegas!<br /><br />The off-duty staff started rounding up numbers for a side game, I was going to say no, but hey it was only €20 and the staff games are always fun. There were two tables going. We were so rowdy the TD’s still working in the main event and side events had to tell us to pipe down. Serious bickering started out on the other table over who was to be moved to our table when two unfortunates were quickly eliminated (including Neil Kelly aka ‘shoving fish’) leading to the pot being split between the tables into two sit-n-go’s. I ended up 3 handed with one of the floor staff – James- and Paddy Winston; we remained 3 handed for 2 hours! The craic was just brilliant; I thought it would never end! We finally agreed on a crazy deal - €70 each, €10 to the dealer who stayed with us and play on for the last €20. Finally James, who kept limping in with premium hands got sucked out by moi, I ended heads up with Paddy while the stacks went up and down before I knocked him out with pocket kings. Best game of the day IMO! <br /><br />Loss making claw-back or underlay alert aside, you have to admit that the Poker in the Pub organisers are on to a very good thing here... These are players that NEVER get play the big events; these are tomorrow’s fish that we need to re-stock the dwindling traditional main events. They have done the industry a big favour. This was the ideal game to give them a taste of the ‘real thing’, to encourage them to try their game at a higher level. Several players even talked about ‘trying’ the upcoming Ladbrookes festival. The atmosphere in the place was electric, the event was well run and there was a general sense of fun, a total contrast to the air of seriousness that populated the last Ladbrookes Festival, in the same centre last November.<br /><br />Great weekend of poker, if these players keep playing then the future of poker is very secure! Chcek the gallery <a href="http://www.pokerinthepub.ie/GrandFinal/Gallery/tabid/71/Default.aspx">here</a> and see for yourself!QueenJhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/01445393833049567011noreply@blogger.com10tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-6186684909024648110.post-47951039442881004382010-02-04T17:50:00.001+00:002010-02-04T17:53:20.602+00:00Whitewash!I’ve not had time to post a few updates, there’s been too much happening in the last month, I’m amazed I managed to find time to play poker, never mind learn and play Mythical!<br /><br />‘Mythical?!’I can hear your puzzled voices already before this post has been written! You can blame Trisha Stephens for this one...<br /><br />We’ve all seen that group of 2-4 players playing with two decks of cards at the breaks and after a tournament in the Jackpot, Voodoo and other places. After throwing their money into a pot, the players are dealt 10 cards to make 2, 3 or 4 sets – a straight flush run, 3 or 4 of a kind, etc and complete it before the other players. It is similar to Kalooki, except you keep your sets in your hand and you can’t add to other sets. Mythical allows you to an imaginary ‘mythical’ card to complete the sets. The other players can then dump their sets, but are penalised with points for the game as well as any leftover cards in their hands. If the player makes his sets without the mythical card it is a ‘Bonus’ which means the game penalty point is doubled for that round. As each player hits the maximum penalty points, they are out, with the last man standing taking the pot. If the sole surviving player wins the game without getting one penalty points it’s a ‘whitewash’ which means the other players have to pay double the entry to the luckbox. After standing around watching others play Mythical for so long, I was dying to have a go but didn’t have the nerve to ask them to include me. <br /><br />On the 5th January I played my first poker game of the year €20+5 Tuesday night game in the Voodoo but no joy. Trish who was out earlier along with Joe the Show and one other player had been playing Mythical in the corner. Joe went for food, and the other player went for a smoke, I sat down to chat with Trish, gave her the lowdown on my game. Asking how she was doing in Mythical, she moaned that Joe was cleaning them up... “Do you play Mythical?” She asked me. “No, never tried it. But I think I have an idea how it’s played...” I replied <br /><br />“Wanna try play a game with me? No money, just have a go for 100 points?” Trish offered, I didn’t need to be told twice!<br /><br />Trish won the practice game, only by a few points but it was a close one, she suggested playing another game for a fiver, yeah okay... when the other players came back 20 minutes later, I was already €5 richer, and agree to join the game for €10. Coming a close second to Joe the Show, I was down €5... Joe had us all agreeing to play another game, which I took down for €40, Trish took the 3rd game then I had another glory potting the 4th game for a sweet €60 (Joe the Show talked us into upping the buy-in to €15!) We played a final game, can’t remember who won it but heading home that night I was €50-60 richer and hooked!<br /><br />I wasn’t as lucky the next night I played; I got hammered for €60 wiping out my new mini-mythical-bankroll! Meh! I think would have stopped there and then but the Voodoo decided to host a Mythical tournament the following week and it looked really good – for €30 I wanted to give it a go. Playing a few more games I managed to run up a small enough profit on the 3rd night, just enough to cover my buy-in for the Mythical Tournament at least!<br /><br />Most players know that Mythical can be pure luck, while there is an element of skill in watching and determining what to keep, knowing what to throw away. It is still down to luck... <br /><br />The Mythical Tournament started with 16 players; 4 players on each table, only 2 will get through to the next round, they will face 2 more players. Only the two players still in will reach the final 4. First round points was played to 100, in the second round we played to 150 with the final 4 playing to 200 points. I barely made it through the 1st round, I was 3rd in points and next to exit when I got a lovely bonus hand to eliminate the 2nd place player and advance myself and Eamon Connolly into the next round. In the second round I got several wins in a row to guarantee my place in the final round against Trish Stephens, Big John and another girl. I got an early Mythical within one orbit leading to a spectacular 70+ points for poor Trisha! As Trisha and the other girl later exited I went into heads up with Big John who is considered the ‘Granddaddy of Mythical’, I was on 80 points to his 176 and feeling very positive but it wasn’t to be. Big John won three grand slams in a row to elbow me out into 2nd place for €180. LOL! <br /><br />But the most memorable game has to be last week – Tuesday 26th to be exact, playing the regular Tuesday game in the Voodoo. I played a €10 Mythical game with Joe the Show at the break and got my first Whitewash! LOLOLOL! Joe had been egging me on to play for more than €10, but I insisted €10 was enough... handing me the extra €10, ever the gracious loser, Joe rubbed it in: “And to think you could have gotten more off me had you agreed to play for €20! Ha!” <br /><br />I played a few more mythical games but for every night I leave with a profit the next night I lose it all again! The Voodoo has agreed to make the Mythical tournament a regular monthly event, looking forward to the next one on 18th February...<br /><br />Don’t worry folks, I haven’t given up on poker... while I’ve not won any games outright, apart from splitting a local €40 pub game heads up for €240 each, I’ve managed a few decent runner-up cashes. Overall, since the 4th January to date, I am up just over €400 (yes I’m keeping tabs!) after buy-ins, which is not a bad start to 2010 considering how busto I was at the end of 2009! I’m sticking to good bankroll management and staying with the low buy-in games up to €40 max until I put that figure over €1000.<br /><br />But the icing on the cake has to be gaining my entry ticket to the Poker in the Pub grand final on 5th February. With a €65,000 guaranteed prize fund including a WSOP entry and trip to Vegas to play for – this is the biggest game I’ve ever played and as the entry was covered during 2009... I’m practically freerolling it! <br /><br />I’ll be re-reading my Harrington books, especially End Game, checking out all the pro-articles online, to polish up my game. I'll be formatting a serious game plan in my head before I sit down to play on Friday night... Expect a detailed write up on the game in my next blog post.<br /><br /><span style="font-weight:bold;">Woo! Hoo! Bring it on! <br /><br /><br /></span>QueenJhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/01445393833049567011noreply@blogger.com1tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-6186684909024648110.post-92054438279568643282010-01-05T01:55:00.002+00:002010-01-05T02:20:22.823+00:00Finally!What do ya think of my new skin?! <br /><br />Played omaha on iPoker tonight, I'm barely finding my feet on this so started with 1c/2c 6max game and pwned it big time! $5 into $14 in 1 hour then got up and left.<br /><br />Back to work today, after the Christmas break (what break?! I need another holiday to recover!) got LOADS done... but still behind, meh! Two more days to deadline...<br /><br />Will work on the blog list again soonQueenJhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/01445393833049567011noreply@blogger.com8tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-6186684909024648110.post-18146253284917269692010-01-04T02:46:00.005+00:002010-01-04T03:45:01.367+00:00Please bear with me...<a onblur="try {parent.deselectBloggerImageGracefully();} catch(e) {}" href="http://www.belegit.com/images/000_Animation111.gif"><img style="float:right; margin:0 0 10px 10px;cursor:pointer; cursor:hand;width: 296px; height: 262px;" src="http://www.belegit.com/images/000_Animation111.gif" border="0" alt="" /></a><br />Reading through my past posts I've been feeling a bit sorry for this blog - I've really abandoned it of late. I've fallen into that trap when blogging about poker becomes 'a chore', or as the traffic increases or I'm playing with certain people - I'm getting wary of what I'm writing about. It never used to be that way... *sigh*<br /><br />Some players take to it well, some don't. Others start fishing for information: <span style="font-style:italic;">"Who's xxx on yer blog? Ah c'mon, ya gotta tell me!"</span> <br /><br />Deciding to change my blog page design. I never really like it to be honest. Should have kept the 'Luscious Lips' design but the amount of ghey comments I got over it was just...grrrrrr! I went fishing for a new one, trying on several when I realised I had to be elsewhere and just left it. Today I said: <span style="font-style:italic;"><span style="font-weight:bold;"> 'Hey! It's a new year, fresh start, good excuse as any for a new skin...' </span></span><br /><br />That was 5 hours ago... and I'm still NOT happy with this page!<br /><br />There are LOADS of wonderful sassy <a href="http://thirdworldgeek.com/20-free-poker-blog-wordpress-templates/">poker blog-skin designs</a> out there, but only for Wordpress or MySpace or Bebo(!) I've gone through many a poker blog, usually one get bored start clicking on your mates blog 'links' and just head off clicking, browsing, surfing... yes I've ended up going deep into blogs of total complete random strangers, non-poker blogs even. But not one on Worldpress... nor MySpace... or Bebo(!) Who the f@#k design these while leaving us poor Blogspots in the shade?!<br /><br />Anyone know how to convert these into XML for Blogger? Please, please contact me! Anyway I'm currently experimenting with several skins so please excuse the various changes, mad colours/schemes/designs appearing here over the next few days... <br /><br />I must apologise for the loss of my links too - especially if you are one of those total random strangers 'just passing through' shocked to discover an actual dead-end - I must stress this is a <span style="font-style:italic;">happy </span>dead-end, just need to clarify that as the only other dead-end-blogs you find out there are those written by people 'contemplating suicide'. Seriously... I am not! No matter how bad my poker is - I do have better things in life that I excel at, well things <span style="font-style:italic;"><span style="font-weight:bold;"> I </span></span> think I excel at!<br /><br />In the meantime I'm seeing spots, swirls and sprinkles... I've tried pink, red and sabre-green... And it's 5 long hours and I'm still NOT happy... I'm all googled out now. <br /><br /><br />On a positive note - I've not played poker at all tonight... LOL! Good night! <a onblur="try {parent.deselectBloggerImageGracefully();} catch(e) {}" href="http://lh4.ggpht.com/_NqzSkDrcgRs/ScoxecFcLaI/AAAAAAAAE_E/IgWjTKaM_E0/j0439423%20Kopie%5B16%5D.png?imgmax=800"><img style="float:left; margin:0 10px 10px 0;cursor:pointer; cursor:hand;width: 231px; height: 243px;" src="http://lh4.ggpht.com/_NqzSkDrcgRs/ScoxecFcLaI/AAAAAAAAE_E/IgWjTKaM_E0/j0439423%20Kopie%5B16%5D.png?imgmax=800" border="0" alt="" /></a>QueenJhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/01445393833049567011noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-6186684909024648110.post-38670792124687953372010-01-01T14:19:00.004+00:002010-01-01T15:32:34.831+00:002009 Review : My Annus Horribilis<span style="font-weight:bold;">2009 has been both my best and worse year poker-wise since I started playing poker... </span><br /><br />I'm not going into detail of the games I played or a month by month analysis - basically in a nutshell: its been awful! I'm starting 2010 totally busto. <br /><br />I lost far more than I have won, I even lost the wee <a href="http://fromafishtoashark.blogspot.com/2009/01/looking-back-at-2008-looking-ahead-into.html">bankroll</a> I started this year on which had been accumulated over the previous 2 years. For the first time in almost 3 years of playing I finished a year 'deep in the minus' category. Despite cashing well in the final 6 weeks where I won an €1,475 approx in various live MTT's in Voodoo, local pub games and Fitzwilliam - but it still wasn't enough to get me out of the red...My saving grace as to be all the various dealing jobs that I have done in festivals around the country this year, without these I would have been in serious debt. <br /><br />Looking at my first <a href="http://fromafishtoashark.blogspot.com/2009/01/looking-back-at-2008-looking-ahead-into.html">post</a> of 2008, I had some resolutions:<br /><br /><span style="font-style:italic;">1. Stay away from the cash tables till I get some coaching.</span> LOL! I tried, lord I tried... <br /><span style="font-style:italic;">2. Play all the IDP events, the UK Deaf Poker Open and two of the Swedish Deaf Poker tournaments.</span> Yes, Yes and No... :( The Swedish Events clashed with other commitments. I became Chairperson of IDP in a difficult year, as with the mainstream poker, we have seen a drop in numbers.<br /><span style="font-style:italic;">3. Play at least two of the big tournaments on the Irish Poker scene</span> LOL! Had the IPO in mind but got asked to work at it (wasn't flush enough to buy-in either, aimed to get a ticket for 'Poker in The Pub' league game and failed by a measy 1 point(!)<br /><span style="font-style:italic;">4. To show an 100% increase on my current poker profit for 2009</span> LOL!<br /><span style="font-style:italic;">5. Improve my tournament game more </span> This, I am proud to report, was my one success in 2009. <br /><br />My learning curve rose very sharp in 2009. I getting better reads on players and making far more hero calls and re-raises than I used to... I'm bluffing more and getting away with it 90% of the time. I am making better use of position, pot-odds, M factors and percentages to determine if my hands are worth shoving for. And best of all: I no longer lose it when some ass slowplays me or calls my pre-flop raise with spanners and hits good... I just laugh! <br /><br /><span style="font-weight:bold;"><br />For 2010... I've just three 'small' resolutions:<br /><br />1 - End on a Profit... <span style="font-style:italic;">even a €100 will be an improvement on this year!</span><br />2 - Stay away from cash games... <span style="font-style:italic;">and stop playing prop bets in Mythical</span> <br />3 - Keep that learning curve growing... <span style="font-style:italic;">Keep telling myself: Every fish will get her day! </span></span> <br /><br /><br /><br />Happy New Year everyone... see you at the tables!QueenJhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/01445393833049567011noreply@blogger.com2tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-6186684909024648110.post-7533023021936190342009-12-02T16:38:00.005+00:002009-12-07T02:15:34.129+00:00Dreary NovemberNovember was a strange month... at first I announced I was taking a break but it barely last 3 weeks(!)<br /><br />I had emptied all my online accounts in a fit of 'I'm serious about this break!' so no online games for me til I discovered I had a lot of FPP on Stars and used them to qualify for everything going: - Sunday Millions, Sunday 250k, Joe Cada 100k, I got a ticket into them all! But got nothing to show for my valiant efforts, not even a deep run... Meh!<br /><br />I had a run in with a rude and gormless player. You know the type that shows their mates the cards and mucks them so no one else can see them, or the one that acts out of turn and tells you to "F.. OFF I can do what I bleedin loike!" when you try to mediate the game; or the one that throws his chip into the pot and takes his change back, often helping himself to another 100/500 and plays dumb when challenged on it; or the one that eggs players on to call "ah ye have to call now, you can't fold dere!" or criticises other players "How can you call with THAT? I don't care if you were in the bleedin' blinds FOLD THEM!" You get the picture...<br /><br />I have zero tolerance for such behaviour which happens quite a LOT in pub games... usually I ignore it, unless my chips are in the pot of course! But this particular night I had just been knocked out (I had shoved for 9BBs with 66, one Fish was egged on by his Mouthy friend to call me leaving himself <2bbs, he tables K10s and hits a 10 on River) I was still sitting at the table as I was hemmed in (I didn't mind initially as I had just brought a drink...) when the action in the next hand lead our Fish to show his cards to Mouthy they guffawed about the hand and the dealer in me auto-said "Show one show all..." "Eh?! No I f..in' don't have to show! You are not in this game so don't be tellin me whata do! Cheek of ye!" I calmly pointed out it wasn't me but the other players who lose out on that information. "Its nowth to do with you! WE DO NOT HAVE TO SHOW!" Mouthy roared at me. I called TD over as once Mouthy gets started he gets worse and worse... TD confirmed that the I was correct if a player shows one player he must show the rest of the table. Mouth didn't like been shown up and went on roaring about me still at the table when I was out of the game - I pointed out that I was hemmed in to the wall and "waiting for someone to stand up and let me out!" As the TD asked me to leave the table the players got up and made room for me to leave with Mouthy still roaring away "Yeah, tell her to get the f... out and go home!" I left, didn't get to finish my drink(!) In fairness I was more annoyed about not finishing my drink than Mouthy roaring at me! <br /><br />That's pub players for ya! LOL! I usually don't get involved with bad players like these, but being a dealer I usually spout rules on auto-pilot - gotta try to button it at times too...<br /><br /><br />I went back into Voodoo for the Wednesday night Ladbroke game last week and ran hot on the final table chipleader all the way to HU... then hit a wall! I went from having the chiplead 4-1 advantage to 1-2 underdog against Skinny John (Jackpot regular now living in the Voodoo); I had good hands but John kept hitting straights, flushes, two pairs and chipped away at my stack til he was ahead - then out of the blue John offered to split for €275 each(!) <span style="font-style:italic;">Oh yes please, thank you very much!</span> I was so disappointed not to have the spot prize (poker chip set in wheelie case) to play for on this night, or to have Roy the Boy's scalp to steal either...<br /><br />The following week I played the Wednesday game again and came 3rd, started final table 2nd in chips and won a few key pots playing a mixed loose-tight style. One well known bluffer (Daire) raised on button into my BB, I called with 82s, Board came 453 (two hearts), player bet out and I called, the turn (Q) went check-check, I bet out I hit my straight on river(6) and got called by AJ! The player kept going on and on and on about that hand all night. Between Daire and another player (Chipleader)I started getting dogged big time, I had to fold to 4bets and re-raises. When the game got down to 3 hand, I found A9s in SB, made the raise into the CL's BB. He flat called, flop came 773 (2 suits), summarising that he had shoved to my previous raises post-flop I opted to shove and he insta-called with A7o to put me out of the game, meh!<br /><br /><br />I got my Cochlear Implant switched on this week and the sound is just <span style="font-weight:bold;">urgh!!!</span> I have a constant buzz and I'm petrified crossing the road its like something big coming at you from all angles... I keep looking around me expecting to see a rugby scrum coming my way! Playing at the table is just overwhelming, as a result I'm off-form so please do call my raises(!)QueenJhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/01445393833049567011noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-6186684909024648110.post-61152281171534115612009-11-09T23:12:00.004+00:002009-11-11T16:06:42.978+00:00IDP Deepstack Classic Festival ReportAfter weeks of preparation, drumming for the festival, organising Satts, dealing with emails, texts, unavailable committee members... I was shattered when the Irish Deaf Poker’s Annual Deepstack Classic festival weekend finally descended upon me!<br /><br />To address some of my critics first: I accept that hosting this event at Halloween was a bad idea – the event clashed with other Deaf Community events; Swedish and UK bank holiday weekend (which resulted in less players attending from abroad) and a lot of our ‘playing daddies’ assigned to Halloween Trick n Treating duties that they were forbidden to dodge by their Missus... Anyway I’ve promised IDP players that next year we will either push the festival back to early October or out to mid-November. The cost was another issue – at €70+5 the amount of complaints over the ‘high price’ was unreal! Deaf poker players are spoilt with all the low games on offer, IDP will always host one ‘big buy-in game’ to generate a huge pot worth playing for – and I am not going to change this. Swedish players turned up their noses at our Irish Deaf Open €40 game - they want to see the buy-in raised! Nowhere else will we get a professional dealer dealt game with food at the break for a low €5 registration that Denise and the wonderful crew in the Fitzwilliam Casino put on for us - we owe the poker team in the Fitzwilliam a huge thank you for the great service they gave IDP last weekend. <br /><br />There was a total of 54 names registered to play the main event, but on the day 43 players turned up; the online list never exceeded 41 at any stage - several names dropped in/out while others would only agree to confirm at last minute. This was a disappointing reduction from the majestic high of 75 players we had last year. I wanted to open this competition to the general public i.e. non-deaf/non-signing players but the committee refused to allow me the opportunity to advertise... probably wouldn’t have gotten much more players with the tremendous Halloween parties/games on offer in Voodoo/Westbury/Poker Room anyway, but the €3,000 prize pool was well appreciated in the end. Another disappointment was the lack of female players – we have no less than 12 female IDP poker players on our member list. But I was the only one who showed up to play, along with Sweden’s Linda Hurtig – two females in a field of 41 men! <br /><br />The festival started for me on Thursday night - some of the Swedish players were looking for a NL cash game. The Voodoo happily accomodated their request and we all sat down to a juicy €1/2 NL cash game with the pot hitting €200 nearly every hand. One of the Swedish players (Stefan) had €2750k at one point... I had AA in SB sitting on €250; one raiser in MP makes it €10, Another Swedish player (Christer)on button with €400 odd re-raises to €20. I re-raised to €100. MP folds and Christer insta-calls. Flop came 345 rainbow, I bet €100 Christer calls without hestition. Ace on turn look good for me, shiping my remaining €50 he insta-calls - I table my aces and he groans showing 77 then a horrible 6 comes on the river to gives him a poxy straight for €500 pot(!) Meh! I called it a night there and then...<br /><br />Friday night started with a brilliant Team event in the IDP Card Room in the Deaf Club, which I was TD’ing – the structure was simple: Four tables were set up to host 10 players playing Sit-n-Go, with 4.5k starting stack and 20 minute blinds. Team points were awarded to each player’s exit place from their respective table. E.g. 1st player out got one team point, 3rd got 3, while the winner got 10 points. Paying €10 for each table prize and €10 to the team pot – all the players had two chances to win. We had 9 teams (the 10th team dropped out at last minute ) vying for the €260 team pot that eventually got taken down by the Swedish PTG Team lead by Richard Johansson. The Wexford Vikings team lead by Mark McLaughlin with Billy Dickens, Brian Griffin and Paul Waldron came a very close respectable second for €100. Total rocks they all were! As the laggiest players limped and called with horrendous hands, PTG and Wexford Vikings teams played skillfully inching their way silently into the final ¾ then woke up to dominated their respective tables. Excellent game plan boys! The Dublin lot should be taking notes from youse!<br /><br />Sadly the Deepstack Main Event with 15k starting stack and 20 minute blinds (<i>In my defence - the IDP committee refused to allow me increase this, next year I want the blinds increased to 30 minutes – no excuses please!</i>) did not favour the rock players as we had hoped. It was the day of the LAGs.<br /><br />Glen da Fish... LOL! He must have signed a pact with the devil; he did not miss the board ONCE playing on my first table! I give you an example: Glen was in BB. MP was a total Rock who was dangerously short, raised pre with AKs to 4.5xBB, CO calls with A10s. Glen has been calling ALL the raises if he is in SB/BB with any two. Flop comes AQ10, Glen checks, MP raises, CO re-raises all-in (he barely has Glen covered) and Glen CALLS with ... wait for this.... Q7o then hits another Q on the turn with to eliminate two players and make him chipleader before the end of level two (!) Glen da Fish played like this all day and ended up coming 3<sup>rd</sup> while one of the tightest uber-rock deaf player Michael Kelliher crashes out in the very first level to scoop the ‘Stefan Weitman Wooden Spoon Award’... WTF!? Poker gods have a sick sense of humour haven’t they?!<br /><br />I had Albert Kenny dealing on my table for most of the day, laughing all the way to the river watching the play! He told me off for folding a couple of times when I mentioned what I had ‘<i>That would have been an instant shove for me’ </i>but then agreed that shoving wouldn’t have stopped these players who clearly hit better hands with the board. E.g. I was down to 16BB at one point and raised 4xBB in CO with 88, two limpers behind including old Andy Smith and Patrick from Limerick. Glen calls (quell surprise he was SB anyway...) Patrick calls and then Andy looks coolly around for a moment then announces ‘All-In!’ Urgh! I just knew I was miles behind, Andy is a dangerous player known for limp-re-raising with monster hands, I folded... Glen flat calls with A2o and Patrick folds (telling us afterwards he had J2), Andy tables QQ and hits his trips on flop of J8Q. <br /><br />Next hand I get AA, raising to 4xBB with intention on pushing to a re-raise or after flop, I get two callers. Nicholas Dowling (SB) and Christy Parson (BB) – both decent players; flop comes Q high all clubs, both check and I just thought that’s it – I don’t have flush case Ace but hey, I’m down <9bb. style=""> Nico stares me down before folding but to my horror Christy insta-calls leaving himself with less than 3BB with KcQx for top pair flush draw... and thankfully the board bricks and I’m back in the game. I had AA no less than four times that day... a record for me and this was the only time my aces held... the other 3 times: they got cracked sickeningly. Raising with AA twice more, I got called by Glen da Fish holding K3o in MP once and another time with Patrick (one half of the mad Limerick Twins) on 105o (‘<i>I had the button’ </i>was his excuse...) and both hit two pair with the board that appeared. Meh!<br /><br />Continuing to struggle, I barely held on with Glen da Fish and the Limerick Twins on my table calling all my raises with ATC all day. The final two tables had been playing for an age - I was playing short-stack-ninja for two hours before my eventual defeat. I shoved a lot with marginal holdings that I was willing to gamble with but got no callers just took down the blinds to keep me going for another orbit. <br /><br />Apart from the cracked aces I played one hand really badly against Glen da Fish holding Ad10d for a nut-flush/straight draw on a KdQd9x 8x 2x board and praying for a miracle diamond or any jack to come. Glen check-called my flop bet then check-raised my bet on the turn which I called only to fold to his all-in river bet. He flashed K8. Should have folded to the re-raise... meh! That pot cost me a lot of valuable chips that I had just won in a sweet triple up 2 hands previous. Managing to outlast the Limerick twins, I went out in 13<sup>th</sup> place (<i>wholly appropriate for a Halloween Game don’t ya think! LOL!</i>) Shoving UTG with QJ (<5bb) style=""> Oh, Glen da Fish boasted afterwards how he would have ‘won’ that pot had he called... LOL!<br /><br />After my exit, both tables played 5/6 handed for an age... then all at once there was three all-ins on one table AND an all-in and a call on the other tables simultaneously! So the final table started with 7 players. With payout favouring the top 5 players it was agreed among the final seven to take money from 1<sup>st</sup>, 2<sup>nd</sup> and 3<sup>rd</sup> place to create a 6<sup>th</sup> and 7<sup>th</sup> place €100 payout each. Starting the final table was Ivan Gryzlov (Lithuania) chipleader on 159k; Glen da Fish coming close 2<sup>nd</sup> with 124k; Justin Smith (Irish Deaf Open Winner) on 113k; Frank Grace on 80k approx; a very short Geoff Foy with 20k; Colm O’Connor playing with 26k and Wayne Reid on 60k. Wayne and Colm didn’t last too long with Frank and Ivan chipping away at them, while Justin accepted 5<sup>th</sup> place prize of €250 gracefully, conceding his flush to a two pair turned house.<br /><br /><br />My money was on Ivan Gryzlov to take it down – for a novice player who only started playing poker this year; it is obvious that he has worked hard on improving his game studying the various aspects of poker. It was a treat to watch him play solid-aggro all day ending up on the final table as chipleader before losing a huge pot to Frank Grace then bowing out in 4<sup>th</sup> for €325 with a set-over-set hand involving the biggest pot of the tournament to give Geoff Foy 70% of total chips in play... <br /><br /><br />Glen started leaking chips when his winning spree suddenly grounded to a screeching halt on the final table and only barely folded his way into 3<sup>rd</sup> place. Poor Glen, who was swelling with pride all day at his ‘successful game play’ all day, started to look pathetic towards the end when his game bottomed out on him. The €425 should console him big time.<br /><br /><br />Frank is one of the best LAG Deaf players capable of using position and stack control to manipulate the table successfully, he is well known and respected on the Tallaght poker scene. Frank played the final table in our first Deepstack Classic last year and came 2<sup>nd</sup> – he got to the final table 4<sup>th</sup> in chips, almost grabbed the chiplead during headsup only to be narrowly beaten into 2<sup>nd</sup> place for €700 again! UL mate – your big win is coming...<br /><br /><br />Geoff Foy was a well deserving winner for €1100, for a solid rock player to emerge as winner on a final table after starting with the shortest stack and outlast four LAGs plus two solid chipleaders is no mean feat! His cheeky all-in out of character bluff with J4o to push Frank off a huge pot holding flush draw or middle pair when down 5 handed was legendary stuff! I think this was the first time Geoff ever won an IDP game! Geoff and his brother Stuart play all the IDP games swapping % of each other – it is usually Stuart that cashes more than Geoff so happy days for Stuart to get a decent win back off Geoff for a change! WP Sir!<br /><br />I heard great reports from several Deaf players who ventured to the cash tables afterwards and turned a sweet profit... Nice one! Congratulations to all who cashed! <br /><br /><br />I wasn't so successful - popping into the Voodoo afterwards got sucked-out really badly... I had AA (my 4<sup>th </sup>in 8 hours – what are the odds?!) raising to pot UTG+1 I get 4 callers – BB & UTG checked, I lead for a pot-bet post-flop on a K42 board with two suits and face 3 all-ins I insta-called for a monster €400+ pot (I had 45% of my money in that pot already!) one chasing flush draw, another for a gutshot and the BB holding a poxy 42o takes it down... Really sucks playing AA in pot-limit! I got up from the table totally disenchanted and angry with poker. Looking back through my blog for this year - I’ve been playing a consistent losing streak – even with all the self evaluations, re-evaluations, pullbacks and the odd small cashes: I’m down big time and starting to lose faith in my game.<br /><br />Time for a good few weeks break methinks!QueenJhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/01445393833049567011noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-6186684909024648110.post-41015008483019648702009-10-28T20:30:00.001+00:002009-11-02T17:40:14.818+00:00Calling with 8 high!I was in a foul and aggressive mood - lots of things were just going wrong. The IDP committee members were totally getting on my whick doing feck all as I'm running around lumped with organising the Deepstack Classic Festival and handling all the emails, texts, updating website and dealing with last minute player change... Grrrr!<br /><br />Susie Woosie texted me to say she was on her way to DPN's Hartstown €50+10 FO, which was also doubling up as a tribute night in Mark Troy's honour (he won a €40 Satt to the IPO via DPN and finished 3rd in for a nice €33k payday!). With the added €100 bounty on Mark's head and finger food provided at the break the game promises to be big. I decided to give it a spin.<br /><br />Arriving at the venue, I was disappointed that only 23 players turned up. This game regularly attracts 30-36 players on average but recently numbers have been down around 25 mark. Sign of the times for poker really?<br /><br />Sitting down to play, I was delighted to find Mark on my table. But I was finding it hard to get a hold on chips with Gav going all-in on the flop in every 2nd or 3rd hand. In one hand I raised from MP with AK, newbie player (very short, playing every hand), Mark (in CO & button) and Gav (SB) call to see the flop A85. Gav shoves and I fold after a dwell. Mark insta-mucks when newbie called with A5, Gav has A8, turn was a king - meh! <br /><br />Down to 5k from the 8.5k starting stack I just sat back and folded into the action, just waiting for a decent hand to present itself. Finding 99 I limp UTG-call a raise, then checkraised the 9 high flop, player folded scowling and muttering at me. That put me back up to 11k as our table got broken, I was with Mark and Gav on the 2nd table with 16 players left. Finding JJ in CO I raise 4xBB; Gav calls from BB and the Chipleader (on 40k) to my right, who limped in , completes. Blinds are 300-600 at this stage and I have 11k approx, Gave had just lost 10k in a big pot 2 hands previously but had me covered by 3/4k. Flop comes J high, and Gav shoves. Chipleader mucks as I push my chips into the middle. Gav shows AJ and my set holds to bring my stack up to 24k!<br /><br />Few hands later I'm in BB with 83 (blinds now 400/800), action folds around to Chipleader in SB who completes. It is blind-on-blind as flop comes AKK... check-check... A on turn... again check-check. The river is 7; as Chipleader throws out 1200. I just didn't put him on anything there bar a 7; which I knew I would beat with my 8. I only had 3 cards to beat and just had a gut-feeling feeling that he was aiming to steal so I called... As he tables 65s and I show my 8 then the 3 - there is an uproar! <br /><br /><span style="font-style: italic;">- What a call!!!?</span><br /><span style="font-style: italic;">- You got balls calling with 8 high on THAT flop!</span><br /><span style="font-style: italic;">- Haw! Haw! And here's me thinkin' you were a player Julianne(!)</span><br /><br />Mark comes to my defence - pointing out that the bet wasn't big enough to make me fold, he would have called too. That shut them up sharpish! I was delighted my soulread worked!<br /><br />By the time we get to final table I am on 33k, the 8 high call had them all folding to my raises/re-raises! Chipleader is still on 40k approx, two to my left and Mark is on 30-odd-K two to my right with Robbie the taxi man between us just under 30k and the rest all shorties.<br /><br />Sitting tight, I got blessed with a couple of good hands and knock out one of the shorties who shoved to my raise. Mark loses a big pot leaving himself very short on the button; action folds around to Mark with Robbie and myself in blinds. As Mark shoves his 3.5xBB remaining stack out, Robbie and I insta call! Holding QJs, we checked down all the streets on a AKxxx board to see Mark holding 65o, I table my Queen high and Robbie mucks! Yayyy! That €100 bounty is mine!!!<br /><br />After that I started running amok - open raising every hand and grabbed the chiplead as we were reduced down to 4 players. Chipleader then exits the other 3 players to retain his chip-lead as we enter heads-up. Checking the prizes - €500 for 1st and €350 for 2nd I decided both were equally good to take... and open shoved with air a few times, limped in with decent hands but had to fold to CL's pot-size bets after I hit nothing. Showing a couple of bluffs I vowed not to fold the next decent hand. Reducing the chiplead to a 60-40 margin in my favour, I limp in on button with KdQd, chipleader shoves and I insta-call to see him table 52o. My king-high holds to give me victory! GG, WP, Good night etc.<br /><br />At last a 1st place win too! <br /><br />This week we have the Irish Deaf Poker's Deepstack Classic II festival with 40 registered players, including 8 Swedish players and 1 UK player joining us. The Swedish will arrive on Thursday and want to meet up for a 1/2 NL cash game(!) So this win is very much appreciated!<br /><br />Hero-calling with high cards sure pay off well! ;-DQueenJhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/01445393833049567011noreply@blogger.com2tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-6186684909024648110.post-68578628567950094292009-10-22T21:59:00.002+01:002009-10-23T00:58:30.701+01:00At last a win to report!<span class="blsp-spelling-error" id="SPELLING_ERROR_0">LOL</span>! Here's the best news: I finally broke the Voodoo Final Table curse I've been carrying on me! Nowt big to boast about mind but a 2<span class="blsp-spelling-error" id="SPELLING_ERROR_1">nd</span> place finish for €205 in the Voodoo <span class="blsp-spelling-error" id="SPELLING_ERROR_2">Ladbroke's</span> €15+15 game is not to be sneezed at consider my <span class="blsp-spelling-corrected" id="SPELLING_ERROR_3">dismal</span> run in the last few months...<br /><br />For those of you coming to this blog late, I've reached the final table in 90% of the <span class="blsp-spelling-error" id="SPELLING_ERROR_4">MTT</span> tournaments I've played in the Voodoo over the past two months ... and only cashed once - winning my buy-in back(!) I would have given up on the place but Derek, Adam, Nick and the crew are so nice, you won't find any place more friendly or welcoming in Dublin. Plus its full of fish attracted to the low buy-in games (as well as some good friends too!) the banter is brilliant and the cafe rivals the Fitz with the great selection (and value) of food on offer.<br /><br />I had no plans to play the Wednesday <span class="blsp-spelling-error" id="SPELLING_ERROR_5">Ladbookes</span> sponsored game as Irish Deaf Poker had arranged a last minute <span class="blsp-spelling-error" id="SPELLING_ERROR_6">satt</span> game that the Voodoo agreed to host for us. I had an ulterior motive that I'll go into in a moment... We had with one free ticket added (thanks to a generous Susie <span class="blsp-spelling-error" id="SPELLING_ERROR_7">Woosie</span> who donated her ahem, winnings from the Ladies League the previous Thursday) I had aimed this <span class="blsp-spelling-error" id="SPELLING_ERROR_8">Satt</span> at the girls, but with only two of them interested/available, I had no option but throw it open to all <span class="blsp-spelling-error" id="SPELLING_ERROR_9">IDP</span> players.<br /><br />The €10+5<span class="blsp-spelling-error" id="SPELLING_ERROR_10">FO</span> was only advertised to the players on Tuesday night, I had 8 replies. Ah well - one table is good enough to go ahead... I informed Nick of the numbers and the fact I would be late (I teach a basic computer class to Deaf adults in the Irish Deaf Society every Wednesday night - with a babysitter already booked for the night I tend to take <span class="blsp-spelling-corrected" id="SPELLING_ERROR_11">advantage</span> of a live game afterwards...) I was delighted walking in to find 13 players already playing with several short/big stacks already; we were €10 short of a 3rd ticket so I suggested the first person knocked out be allowed to re-buy for €10... all agreed!<br /><br />Already blinded down by almost 25% of my stack I had a struggle getting back to a even keel on a horrible table with Frank G (brilliant aggro-LAG) two to my left and Glen <span class="blsp-spelling-error" id="SPELLING_ERROR_12">da</span> Fish (think of an Eddie the Eagle type who just won't fold his bottom pair...) in button to my BB calling every raise going both running over the table! If one wasn't in the pot by river, the other was(!) I barely held up til we were down to the final 8...<br /><br />Still nursing the shortest stack and getting <span class="blsp-spelling-corrected" id="SPELLING_ERROR_13">irritate</span> by the shoddy standard the game was heading going by the early exit of good players by the hands of Frank/Glen's rubbish holdings. I started eyeing up the <span class="blsp-spelling-error" id="SPELLING_ERROR_14">Ladbrokes</span> Tournament wishfully, where some of the exited <span class="blsp-spelling-error" id="SPELLING_ERROR_15">IDP</span> players had drifted into... talking it over with Trish who was just out of the game, with only 5 minutes to the break/the end of the buy-in period. Whether it was worth joining at this stage getting 6k chips while blinds were 100/200 and let my stack get blinded down til I went in. She said yes, but I hummed hawed...<br /><br />The 47 registered players made it such a juicy pot I so wanted IN; making a decision to shove with the next 'best' hand - if I win, I stay on this table and take home a ticket to the <span class="blsp-spelling-error" id="SPELLING_ERROR_16">deepstack</span>; if I lose - well, I take a shot at the other tournament. Couple hands later I raised <span class="blsp-spelling-error" id="SPELLING_ERROR_17">pre</span> from CO-1 with <span class="blsp-spelling-error" id="SPELLING_ERROR_18">Kh</span>4h (I blame Cat O'Neill for this one!) for 60% of my stack... Frank G using his massive stack as usual threw-in a huge handful of 500 chip's then gave a start in horror when he realised I was in the pot... sensing a weakness, I knew it would be a <span class="blsp-spelling-corrected" id="SPELLING_ERROR_19">coin flip</span> so all-in I went. Frank tables A10o, flop comes two low hearts, turn was 10c but no heart or king on the river to save me... I duly skipped off to join the <span class="blsp-spelling-error" id="SPELLING_ERROR_20">Ladbookes</span> <span class="blsp-spelling-corrected" id="SPELLING_ERROR_21">tournament</span>.<br /><br />Within 25 minutes I was down to a miserable 1,600, shoved on button with muck two <span class="blsp-spelling-error" id="SPELLING_ERROR_22">limpers</span> and blinds all folded(!) 2,300 going into BB 150/300(!) Had a player dogging me big time in two pots, snapping off my raises or calling then hitting... <span class="blsp-spelling-error" id="SPELLING_ERROR_23">Urgh</span>! Finding <span class="blsp-spelling-error" id="SPELLING_ERROR_24">Kh</span>10h in BB, <span class="blsp-spelling-error" id="SPELLING_ERROR_25">UGT</span> made a min-raise to 600, with no less than 4 callers by the time it came back to me. With 5 players in the pot - I elected to call, rather than shove.... Flop came 9h8h4x... I had <span class="blsp-spelling-error" id="SPELLING_ERROR_26">pre</span>-checked dark, <span class="blsp-spelling-error" id="SPELLING_ERROR_27">UTG</span> made a continuation bet of €500, 2 other callers before it came back to me. I called, vowing to shove the turn - which was a 10... <span class="blsp-spelling-error" id="SPELLING_ERROR_28">UTG</span> and MP (<span class="blsp-spelling-error" id="SPELLING_ERROR_29">IDP's</span> Mark McLaughlin) called. <span class="blsp-spelling-error" id="SPELLING_ERROR_30">Declan</span> who was on Button then shoved all-in, <span class="blsp-spelling-error" id="SPELLING_ERROR_31">Urgh</span>! <span class="blsp-spelling-error" id="SPELLING_ERROR_32">UTG</span> called and Mark <span class="blsp-spelling-corrected" id="SPELLING_ERROR_33">reluctantly</span> folded. Both <span class="blsp-spelling-error" id="SPELLING_ERROR_34">Declan</span> and <span class="blsp-spelling-error" id="SPELLING_ERROR_35">UTG</span> showed 76o for straight but the beautiful Ah fell on river to keep me alive and over starting stack for the first time since the game started.<br /><br />It was all upward from here... I was joint 2<span class="blsp-spelling-error" id="SPELLING_ERROR_36">nd</span> <span class="blsp-spelling-error" id="SPELLING_ERROR_37">chipleader</span> starting out with 21,500, the average player was on 18k; <span class="blsp-spelling-error" id="SPELLING_ERROR_38">chipleader</span> was on circa. 32k. After exiting some shorties including <a href="http://thomasmaguire.blogspot.com/">Tom <span class="blsp-spelling-error" id="SPELLING_ERROR_39">Maguire</span></a> who shoved with K10 into my A10. Limping in with As8s hoping to get action, 4 players and flop comes A high with 2 clubs and possible straight. Roy <span class="blsp-spelling-error" id="SPELLING_ERROR_40">Keating</span> (<span class="blsp-spelling-error" id="SPELLING_ERROR_41">IDP</span> Player is in BB and shoves, BB (<span class="blsp-spelling-error" id="SPELLING_ERROR_42">uber</span> tight player) <span class="blsp-spelling-error" id="SPELLING_ERROR_43">insta</span>-calls for 40% of his stack, he looked like he was going to raise <span class="blsp-spelling-error" id="SPELLING_ERROR_44">pre</span>- but checked instead. Other player folds after a dwell, smelling a rat I folded <span class="blsp-spelling-corrected" id="SPELLING_ERROR_45">reluctantly</span> - my only option would have to push which would have put me under 20k if he calls and wins. There was still 7 players left with 4 getting paid. Roy tables <span class="blsp-spelling-error" id="SPELLING_ERROR_46">Jc</span>4c for one pair/flush draw, and BB tables <span class="blsp-spelling-error" id="SPELLING_ERROR_47">Qc</span>9c. No club comes on turn or river but the 9 on River seals the pot for BB. <span class="blsp-spelling-error" id="SPELLING_ERROR_48">Urgh</span>! Bad fold me!<br /><br />I was getting <span class="blsp-spelling-error" id="SPELLING_ERROR_49">feck</span> all action to my raises, which was fine when I was bluffing but in fact I had AA, <span class="blsp-spelling-error" id="SPELLING_ERROR_50">KK</span>, <span class="blsp-spelling-error" id="SPELLING_ERROR_51">QQ</span>... I was basically stealing blinds and not getting paid good, limping in and mini-raising pot was causing them to <span class="blsp-spelling-error" id="SPELLING_ERROR_52">insta</span> fold(!) Limping with a bluff hand (96s) from MP with one caller behind and <span class="blsp-spelling-error" id="SPELLING_ERROR_53">shortie</span> goes all-in on button for 3<span class="blsp-spelling-error" id="SPELLING_ERROR_54">xBB</span>; BB and caller folds, I'm looking at getting 3-to-1 for my money here playing a <span class="blsp-spelling-corrected" id="SPELLING_ERROR_55">coin flip</span> that Frank Grace would not <span class="blsp-spelling-corrected" id="SPELLING_ERROR_56">hesitate</span> to play and thus elected to call. <span class="blsp-spelling-error" id="SPELLING_ERROR_57">Shortie</span> wins of course but I get a lot of grief for my call(!) After that I get a lot of action and quickly became <span class="blsp-spelling-error" id="SPELLING_ERROR_58">chipleader</span> on 70k when we get down to 4 handed.<br /><br />I lose two key races and was sitting on a 2-1 <span class="blsp-spelling-corrected" id="SPELLING_ERROR_59">deficit</span> by the time I got to <span class="blsp-spelling-error" id="SPELLING_ERROR_60">HU</span> with the players who started FT with 32k, but remained very quietly under the radar. In <span class="blsp-spelling-error" id="SPELLING_ERROR_61">HU</span> he min-raised every pot... I went totally card dead! Getting 73, 94, 82 etc I had no choice but lay down my hands to the raises, any raises I called, I was missing the flop and facing a huge bet... in 15 minutes the <span class="blsp-spelling-corrected" id="SPELLING_ERROR_62">deficit</span> had grown a sick 8-1(!) Clawing it back 5-1 with a couple of all-ins I checked to see a flop <span class="blsp-spelling-error" id="SPELLING_ERROR_63">KQ</span>5, holding 95s and two suits on the board I shoved. CL <span class="blsp-spelling-error" id="SPELLING_ERROR_64">insta</span>-called with <span class="blsp-spelling-error" id="SPELLING_ERROR_65">KQ</span>... board bricks and I'm out in 2<span class="blsp-spelling-error" id="SPELLING_ERROR_66">nd</span> place. WP Sir... a couple of players watching the match pointed out that my <span class="blsp-spelling-error" id="SPELLING_ERROR_67">HU</span> play was very weak - I should have shoved in a lot of spots, but with hardly any read on the CL plus card death I was at a disadvantage for shoving.<br /><br />I won't complain about 'only' winning €204 while CL got €350-odd - I'm so grateful to get some confidence in my play back! Need to put some much needed work into my end game <span class="blsp-spelling-corrected" id="SPELLING_ERROR_68">strategy</span> - especially <span class="blsp-spelling-error" id="SPELLING_ERROR_69">HU</span> before the <span class="blsp-spelling-error" id="SPELLING_ERROR_70">Deepstack</span> next week. Couple of nights with Dan Harrington me thinks.<br /><br />Putting €50 on cash table I rolled it up to €175 before the tiredness kicked in and had to call it a night. A €300 profit after buy-ins, tips, and wee blackjack flutter is good enough for me!<br /><br />On the poker front I was working at the <span class="blsp-spelling-error" id="SPELLING_ERROR_71">IPO</span> last weekend - which marked my 2<span class="blsp-spelling-error" id="SPELLING_ERROR_72">nd</span> anniversary of dealing, my third <span class="blsp-spelling-error" id="SPELLING_ERROR_73">IPO</span> too. Every year I promise I will play it 'next year' but when the time comes I'm always asked to work - and it's hard to say no, especially if you aren't bankrolled for this! Its a top notch festival and I really enjoyed working it - took me a few days to recover naturally! Finishing early on Sunday just before the FT started - I rushed home to follow the live streaming supporting two players: <a href="http://oneillcat.blogspot.com/">Cat O'Neill</a> one of the familiar female faces on the scene that I deal a lot to (and regard as personal hero) played an incredible game considering the wild field of 1400-odd players she had to wade through, as a female bounty player no less, this made her an attractive target for all the mad <span class="blsp-spelling-error" id="SPELLING_ERROR_74">LAGs</span>! The closer she got to the FT, I had her pegged to take it down but the <span class="blsp-spelling-error" id="SPELLING_ERROR_75">pokah</span> gods are cruel with their hands. Still exiting in a respectable 4<span class="blsp-spelling-error" id="SPELLING_ERROR_76">th</span> place is still impressive, I was so thrilled for her! Bravo Cat! One local player that I play on the pub circuit with - Mark Troy, who won his buy-in via a <span class="blsp-spelling-error" id="SPELLING_ERROR_77">DPN</span> €40 <span class="blsp-spelling-error" id="SPELLING_ERROR_78">satt</span> came an impressive 3rd for a cool €33k payday... WP Sir! Goes to show even the decent small-time players can do well sometime! Hope for me yet... <span class="blsp-spelling-error" id="SPELLING_ERROR_79">LOL</span>!<br /><br />There's less than 8 days left to <span class="blsp-spelling-error" id="SPELLING_ERROR_80">IDP's</span> <a href="http://deepstackii.weebly.com/"><span class="blsp-spelling-error" id="SPELLING_ERROR_81">Deepstack</span> Classic Festival</a>... my first festival as chairperson of <span class="blsp-spelling-error" id="SPELLING_ERROR_82">IDP</span>. We have 41 players registered, a tad small compared to the record breaking 75 players we had last year... but we do have a recession so I'm not going to get worked up about it. Bring it on, boys!QueenJhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/01445393833049567011noreply@blogger.com3tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-6186684909024648110.post-76009040655494409282009-10-13T23:23:00.001+01:002009-10-14T02:19:49.344+01:00Getting there... getting there!<div style="font-family:georgia;"><span style="font-size:100%;">I've been consistently going deep in practially all my games over </span><span style="font-size:100%;">in past few weeks</span><span style="font-size:100%;">, right to the final table even, but apart from a few small cashes, best being a 4th place €170 win, it's getting disheartening...<br /></span></div><span style="font-size:100%;"><br /></span><div style="font-family:georgia;"><span style="font-size:100%;">I did have one 2nd place win: at Dublin Poker Night's €40 10-player SnG Satt for the <a href="http://www.boards.ie/vbulletin/showthread.php?t=2055688387">Cavan Open. </a> 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!<br /><br /></span><span style="font-size:100%;">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(!)<br /><br />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 <span style="font-style: italic;">not </span>have got up for work next morning! I still think I would have easily won this but for the lateness of the game...<br /><br />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...<br /></span></div><div style="font-family: georgia;"><div> </div><span style="font-size:100%;"><br /></span><span style="font-size:100%;">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: “<span style="font-style: italic;">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!</span>” Mad player replies ‘yeah... I call’.</span><span style="font-size:100%;"> 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 <span style="font-style: italic;">one time please!</span> 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.</span><br /><span style="font-size:100%;"><br />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! <br /><br />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.<br /><br /></span><div><span style="font-size:100%;">The <a href="http://deepstackii.weebly.com/">Irish Deaf Poker 2nd Annual Deepstack Classic Festival </a>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.</span><span style="font-size:100%;"> 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 <strong>'<em>Bing Bang Blaow</em></strong>' to be sure!</span> LOL - now that will be fun to do!<br /><br />See you at the tables!<br /></div><span style="font-size:100%;"></span><div> </div><span style="font-size:100%;"><br /></span><div> </div></div>QueenJhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/01445393833049567011noreply@blogger.com5tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-6186684909024648110.post-65311687665645907112009-09-17T19:35:00.001+01:002009-09-17T20:01:04.045+01:00Bubble... Bubble... Toil and Trouble!It's been an up and down summer... more downs than ups... more bad beats and sticky situs than I care to remember! I'm getting to the point that I'm playing a consistently losing game, going deep but bubbling within a few yards of the cash - the bad variance is constant. I'm growing deep into a minus profit figure and it's bugging me: "I'm losing my touch here... what the hell is happening?!!"<br /><br />Taking a valuable stepback I recently noticed a few key factors attributing to the constant downswing:<br /><br />1 - I'm not paying sufficient attention to hands any more, especially post-game, as I used to. I'm letting them go without going over the action in my head, analysing them, putting them through pokerstove and recalculating the M, questioning myself how I should have played it differently, was it the correct move for me? I've been switching off to the extent that I can't remember the details the next day! A bad omen. The main reason I've been switching off is to stop myself from losing the rag with moronic people calling me with atrocious holdings and hitting them and/or putting myself into tilt and throwing my chips away.<br /><br />2 - I've widened my range waaaay too much! I blame all the bad beats for this one honest! When you see some donk win with 69o in MP calling your raises holding K10s on button: pre-, post-flop and all-in on the turn with a board that reads 7710 K only to spike an 8 on the river to complete his gutshot and wallop you out of the game. Only natural that I see them bloody 69 a couple of games later and decide to hop along and bluff with them, but hit zilch! Of course I DID get lucky a few times with similar equally atrocious holdings: the most memorable being 7d4d shoving on turn to an all diamond board, and getting called by trips Kings and a straight... to treble me up to glares and tuts, BUT my raise holding AA a few hands later in the same game didn't garner any respect from the table and put me back into short stack nijia mode... Back to ABC poker for me!<br /><br />3 - Playing online while doing other stuff - not paying proper attention to the game. I prefer playing SnG/MTTs rather than cash - I don't have the nous for playing cash online. This hard-hitting well-written post on <a href="http://www.boards.ie/vbulletin/showpost.php?p=61984402&postcount=3">Boards</a> was a reality smack in the face, as I read down the list I was guilty of <em>all</em> these errors! Urgh! So now the TV stays off, no website open, etc. AND When the table is on a break I get up and take a break too. <strong><em>Aside: </em></strong>The preservance paid off with a 4th place finish in the new Irish Poker Online Rankings game on 9th September, even if I was a tad loose on the final table taking advantage of position more than anything else and annoying the hell out of one of the players (and taking 65% of his stack in the process) The same player then started dogging me, shoving into all my raises and berating me in the chat box, once the bubble burst after a long play 5-handed I was happy to call his shove with 88 only to see his 104s river a flush and I was out 4th... the other players then ganged up to push him out in 3rd.<br /><br />4 - I've stopped reading HHH Theory sections in poker forums, poker books and other online sources. I used to devour these! Anything new I read I would put into practice, more than often with good results. This could be a key point why my game is in a rut. I'm not switching gears as often I should, I'm not respecting the images of the other players and 'quiting while I'm still ahead', I'm not picking my spots as well as I should. I've three poker books on loan from friends - I need to take some time out from poker, brush up on my theory and read them!<br /><br />5 - There's a lot of personal crap going on elsewhere in my life: I had a serious life-threatening illness in July that put me in hospital for 10 days, thankfully I have recovered well from it (and no, it wasn't Swine Flu! LOL!) I am due to have a <a href="http://bionicera.blogspot.com/">cochlear implant</a> this November a very scary and emotional for me. I've had a lot of courtroom-tussles with my Ex; this has been ongoing for past 3.5 years but he stepped up the pressure BIG time this year; thankfully, it seems like Justice is prevailing for me at last! My work is busier than usual, the amount of people who use our service have increased sharply and we are already feeling the strain in an unforgiving economic climate. How can I reason and fight for a client who got full ISL interpreting for 30-hour week education course last year now can only get a maximum of 80 hours for ONE year?! It's very hard to sit down at a table and play with all these stress-factors on top of you...<br /><br />Last night I was in a mood for a game - posting a request for recommendations on Facebook; I got some great suggestions: New AK Club opening night in Maynooth (sounds great but not going into a club I've never been before on my ownio!) Voodoo Ladbrookes €15+15 night with Roy the Boy in attendance; Fitzwilliam with €25r/b game (I don't have a lot of tournament luck in the Fitz plus the huge size of the field always means a late finish - impractical for working gal like me); Freeroll plus 2nd Irish Poker Rankings Online game on BrucePoker; JJP's €2k 'guaranteed' game. Considering I had a 4th place to defend in the IPR game and a $700 freeroll sounds good... I choose that.<br /><br />Rushing home I logged on to register, saw both listings beside each other, a quick look on the IPR game showed 5 players registered including Doke and Smurph. I clicked on the freeroll, registered for that - saw the other freeroll for a ticket to Bruce game on Sunday in Carlow (I'm in Limerick this Sunday - detour on the way home maybe??) reg'ed for that too... came back to the listings and ... the green highlighted IPR game was gone? Impossible! I searched everywhere, nothing. Noticed that no MTTs were showing from 8:35pm to 00:00am - urgh? Another blip on Cake? Contacted Smurph, it was still showing on her PC. Logged off, restarted and tried again - still not showing. Contacted support - 'Try uninstalling the software and reinstalling it..." FFS! I gave up - switched off the laptop got in my car and drove to Voodoo; was there in 15 minutes!<br /><br />Voodoo club is lovely, nice set up and a great pub (Ryans) to the back of it. After a warm welcome from Paul and Adam I was assigned to Roy the Boy's table, the game had already 10 mins gone on the clock when I sat down to BB. Second hand I had 77 in SB button; BB was dead stack, UTG raised to 250, Roy was UTG+1 and re-raised to 750. Action folded to me I flatted putting Roy on a aggro-move with any two (well.... I did read his book you know! LOL!) UTG shoved, Roy insta-called and I insta-mucked! UTG showed AA and Roy had KK and sucked out with a K on the river. Facing a re-buy UTG was €5 short of necessary funds, Roy instantly jumped up and opened his wallet and put the €5 on the table 'pffft'ing off UTG's offer to 'pay him back later'. Really decent of Roy IMO. <br /><br />One orbit later, blinds 75-150 I had Ks10s on button LAG in MP raised 350, three callers, I called for value. BB comes along for ride. Flop comes 8sQs3x, actions checks to me. Betting out 700, leaving 1100 behind, initial raiser calls as others folded. As comes on turn, raiser checks I insta-shove, he calls after a dwell announcing trips tabling 33, I show my flush. But the board pairs and I'm looking for my 2nd chance 2k chips. Playing tight, I get to final table having grinded my stack up to 3,900 with small pots here/there; paying out 3 places. I get blinded down to 2,850 when I find AQs in SB. Shortie in CO shoves 66, I have him covered and shove. I was stunned when BB with 4.8k calls with A9s leaving himself with less than 2k(!) A9 on board and I'm toast in 6th or 7th place. Meh! Voodoo is an Aquarium waiting to be tapped! Well worth a visit, definitely a 2nd... or more!<br /><br />To summarise: if my actions to get out this rut works then my big win is just around the corner! If it doesn't happen... I'll copy Susie and take a long break from Poker!QueenJhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/01445393833049567011noreply@blogger.com2tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-6186684909024648110.post-32179272380891502402009-09-10T17:40:00.003+01:002009-09-10T17:56:43.708+01:00Wonderful News!!!! (I Love Spam)MANAGING PARTNER ROGER FLETCHER BAKER SOLICITORS & Co<br />326-328 Old Street London,<br />EC1V 9DR<br />England<br /><br />ATTENTION:<br /><br />I am Roger Baker, an attorney at law. A deceased client of mine, that shares the same last name as yours, died as a result of a heart-related condition on March 12th 2005. His heart condition was due to the death of all the members of his family in the tsunami disaster on the 26th December 2004 in Sumatra Indonesia.<br /><br /><a href="http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/2004_Indian_Ocean_earthquake">http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/2004_Indian_Ocean_earthquake</a><br /><br />I am contacting you to seek your consent to present you as the next of kin to my late client. He has a deposit of Seventeen Million Five hundred Thousand Dollars (US$17,500,000) left behind.<br />This will be executed under a legitimate arrangement that will protect you from any breach of the law. If this business proposition offends your moral values, do accept my apology.<br /><br />I can be reached on :rfbchambers11@gmail.com<br /><br />Sincerely Yours,<br />Barrister Roger Baker.<br />Attorney at Law<br /><br />Email : <a href="mailto:rfbchambers11@gmail.com">rfbchambers11@gmail.com</a><br />Tel : +447599873786<br /><br /><br />******************<br /><strong>WOW!</strong><br /><br /><strong>Looks like I'll be playing in all the big buy-ins now, plus a few of the WSOP events, anyone have the contact details for the EPT organisers? </strong><br /><strong></strong><strong></strong><br /><strong>Must draft up my letter of resignation for my Boss! </strong><br /><strong></strong><br /><strong>Wait... </strong><strong> do you guys think I'd be better off asking for a career break after all it is only $17.5m (€11m) ... I just fear it might be gone in two years... I could spend a million a month at the tables very easily, so I might be glad to have the auld job to fall back on?</strong><br /><strong></strong><br /><strong>Just thought it was fair to give you pros some advance warning before I'm set loose with the cash...</strong><br /><strong></strong><br /><strong>I'm rich!!!!</strong><br /><strong></strong>QueenJhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/01445393833049567011noreply@blogger.com6tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-6186684909024648110.post-89050113165298497842009-08-28T12:32:00.004+01:002009-08-28T15:29:10.896+01:00Falling flat on my face....<strong>I had the biggest 'Urgh!!!' night of the year last night...</strong><br /><br />The Fitzwilliam End of Month game was on last night, decided to try a Satt myself a ticket; joined a €60, 10 player Satt for 2 tickets, was in MP when I found Ad10d in the 4th/5th hand dealt. I hadn't played any hands at this stage. One limper plus the blinds (25/50) I raised to 200. Player next to me (old guy - plays very wide range) calls, Phil (PGodkin on Boards.ie) re-raises to 800. I've played Philip before, he often re-raises if he has position with any ace/pairs, as action folded back to me I felt my holding was good and I flat called leaving myself with 700 behind. Flop comes QdJd8h; I had a nice clean inside straight draw, flush draw and straight flush draw - with 17 outs, I shipped! Phil insta-called with AcKs... then groaned when he saw my hand... But no diamond, never mind a king or nine, to save me and Phil is fist-pumping as his better kicker holds to put me first out of the Satt(!) <strong>Urgh!!!</strong><br /><br />Denise offers me another Satt but I declined - instead I asked to join the list for a cash table... Playing 1/2 PLHE cash, I raised to €10 UTG+2 with two black 7s, MP, CO and Button calls to see a flop of 8s9s10s. I checked along with MP, CO bets 50, Button ships for 180 approx... I'm in a spot. I WANT to call the Button, an awful LAG, who I had pegged as chasing a A high flush draw with one pair on the board but CO's raise just scared me more as a good hand. All I had was 2 outs to beat him... my instincts were screaming at me to call! Showing my cards to the players on either side of me, I folded after a dwell. CO insta-calls the all in, as the dealer deals the SICKEST card on the turn: 6s(!) <strong></strong>Button shows As9x as I predicted, and takes the pot, while CO had trips... <strong>Urgh!!! </strong><br /><br />But wait... there's more...<br /><br />Irish Poker Radio asked me for a brief interview to talk about IDP, I agreed until I saw the questions! It was more about ME than IDP... eek! The interview was being recorded in the Fitzwilliam in the corner where the €50 Blackjack table is... I nearly chickened out, but demurred and spent the whole afternoon preparing my answers etc. But when I arrived my mind went blank and all my well prepared answers went out the window! I just hope I don't sound like an idiot! Nicky O'D and Iain were lovely, putting me at ease, reassuring me it was grand etc. It'll be a while before they show the interview, they will have a hard task editing out all my 'ummms' and 'errrs' making sense out of my speech, LOL! Nicky has kindly promised me a few transcripts from the show so that deaf/hard of hearing poker lovers can follow what was said. I'll put them up on IDP website when I get them...<br /><br />Just as I said my goodbyes - I turned swiftly around to go back to the tables, slipped on the tiles and fell spectacularly flat on my face...<br /><br /><strong>Urgh!!!!</strong>QueenJhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/01445393833049567011noreply@blogger.com10tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-6186684909024648110.post-49110240424179128662009-08-11T01:25:00.001+01:002009-08-28T14:50:41.274+01:00Ciarán Moloney Tribute Night (photos now on IrishDeafPoker.com!)For years, Cee had been dreaming about taking time off work and travelling the world. Getting a team place on the Irish Squad for Taipei Deaflympics was the <a href="http://www.eaglesneedapush.com/">Push </a>he needed to achieve that dream... Going travelling means he has to step down from the IDP, so muggins here has been nominated to take over from him (pending official approval from the members of course!) My first job was to organise a good send off for him.<br /><br />Finding a suitable date to suit everyone was almost impossible but August 8th was the one and only date that no one had an excuse for! After asking around, checking Boards to ensure our event didn't clash with anyone else's, confirming it with the Jackpot etc., I posted the event up, bombarded people and spammed everyone I knew about the event. Then the proposed Joan Vickers' Fundraiser in the new Voodoo club on the same night, was announced a mere few days later. I was disappointed, as I would have loved to attended that Joan was always big at supporting women playing poker; the Fundraiser raised almost €2,000 for the family - kudos to those who organised it. I notice the Fitz have a Memorial game for her later on this year - will definitely be attending that.<br /><br />As I arrived in the Jackpot on Saturday evening, there were very few people around, I had a list of 28/29 pre-reg names but 7/8 players texted me with excuses at the last minute, disappointing but what can you do? I notice the Jackpot staff were telling drop-ins that the event was a 'private-game for deaf players only' I stepped in quickly and informed them that it was open to all players not just IDP. Cee plays far more with hearing players than deaf, we were not closing the ranks for them if they wanted to come along and wish him well while having a go at tackling his bounty... Plus the more money in the pot the happier the IDP players will be!<br /><br />The game finally kicked off at 8:30 with 18 players, Cee was fashionably late as per usual. Three more latecomers joined us after the 1st level, with a final entry in the 2nd level to bring us to a total of 23 players.<br /><br />My game started with the two luckboxes running over my table basically calling pre-flop raises with any two cards and hitting the board sickeningly-goot! E.g. my AsQs were no good against K4o on a AKsx4sx board(!) I was down to less than half the starting stack by the 2nd level...<br /><br />On Cee's table the action was flying, no doubt punctuated by the added treat of the bounty on his head! Cee was playing more TAG'ish rather than the LAG game he's usually known for in the IDP, but no one was paying attention! With all his raises getting snapped off left right and centre! The Bounty Hand came sooner than anticipated and the entire room stopped playing to watch the race to Cee's table...<br /><br />Tim Grace was in BB with 12k approx, blinds 75/150, Andy Smith had 10k and opened with a standard raise from UTG+2. Finding AAs Cee shoved for 3k (approx) from CO-1 Tim insta-flattened as did Andy. Flop came J10x. Tim checked, Andy shoved and Tim called. Andy showed AK for straight draw and Tim tabled a horrendous KJo! But much to Cee's disgust the turn brought the suited Jack, to give Andy more outs for flush/straight-flush draw as well as trips for Tim... Cee started roaring for the remaining Ace but no... The sickest card of all came on the turn - Jack - giving luckbox Tim runner-runner quads, the €100 bounty and the added privilege of knocking Cee FIRST out of the game!<br /><br />I felt sorry for Cee, especially as it's his 'night', Cee's mate Declan suggested that Cee be allowed to rebuy. I agreed, announcing to the players that Cee and Andy (couldn't exclude Andy as he was knocked out same time as Cee) would be allowed to re-buy because of the Bounty hand; but no one else can re-buy. It also boosted the prize pool to a nice €750 - not too bad for a €33 buy-in!<br /><br />At the break the IDP made a presentation to Cee, amid thunderous applause and cheers, we had a fun card using various indiscriminating photographs, a special framed appreciation in honour his work to IDP over the past 3 years, plus €100 toward a buy-in to poker game of his choice. After a brief speech from Cee thanking people for coming, telling us how he set up IDP, its growth from strength to strength, with approx 30 'regular' IDP players (maximum ever was 37 but we have 47 listed IDP members to date) and the honour of our biggest event with 70 deaf players last November including those from Sweden, UK and Finland.<br /><br />Cee will be a hard act for me to follow in IDP!<br /><br />Unfortunately I didn't get to the final table, after a much needed triple up with AK against same K4o fish holding A3 on a AK3xx board, I went on downward spiral finally eliminated by Mark McLaughlin on Button to my BB. As action had folded around to him, he raised to 2,100 (blinds 200/400), Lorraine was in SB (playing ultra-tight) insta-folded. Putting him on a steal, Mark had been bullying the table with his huge 30k+ stack, I found A10o with had barely 11.5xBBs left, I decided to shoved. It was 'Ugh!' seeing his AK! No help from the board and Mark's AK holds.<br /><br />One of the IDP regs looked at me as the chips were pushed toward Mark and signed to his mate "Watch, this is where QueenJ gets angry! Right?" I looked over at him and laughed - "Angry? Why would I be angry? I got beaten by a superior hand not a mickey mouse crap that YOU usually call me with! Well played Mark..." Mark went on to exit in 5th place.<br /><br />Cee made it to the final table too only to crash in 8th place courtesy of David Bowers. Bowers must have been in cahoots with dealer as she kept dealing him AA (twice!), KK, AK and the nutz in EVERY single hand! There were 5 places being paid out (€350, €190, €100, €50, €50 in that order...) but Bowers refused to negotiate any deals, refused to allow money off top to pay out 6th place, or increase 4th place etc. Karma has a way of working on people like that. The dealer was changed when it went down to 3 handed and the Bowers-winning-streak was halted. Geoff Foy exited in 3rd place, leaving Bowers and David 'Muffman' Mulligan to play heads-up, Muffman went from a 3-1 underdog to a worthy winner shoving Bowers into the shade!<br /><br />I went over to join the 50c/1€ side cash table, but the IDP bog standard of play continued here. Putting €50, I barely made it up to €60 after 2 tough orbits, when I called a MP's €2 min-raise with 4s5s from BB along with 6 others. Flop came Js,4,5; I raised to pot €14; Andy Smith who was UTG to my left, flat called as did MP raiser. Turn 8s giving me flush draw, I shoved for my remaining €43/44, Andy insta-called and other player tanked for a while before folding. The river was non-spade 6, and Andy tables 77 for sick runner-runner straight... Meh! The initial raiser announced that he had "10,10"... Welcome to IDP(!)<br /><br />Too lazy to go to the ATM, I borrowed €50 from JamesR, and whacked that up to €125 thanks to Cee mainly, raising and re-raising with my 109s to his 107o on a 10,10,8,J,x board (sorry Cee!) before the table broke. Gave JamesR back his €50 then wandered over to the €1/€2 cash table and ran my €75 up to €325 in 1.5 hours before calling it a night at 5am. Should have done that in the first place... LOL!<br /><br />Profit aside, I had a good night, it was great game for everyone...<br /><br />Just hope Cee had fun too! Now, go and enjoy your travels mate, and be sure to do us proud in Taipei (as the Goalie with the Irish Squad) just keep your eyes off the local girls and <strong>don't let the big balls in!!!</strong> Please make sure you come home in one piece too, Cee!<br /><br />On behalf of IDP: Big ups to Paul and all his crew in the Jackpot for their fantastic support! The staff did a sterling job making great effort signing throughout the game, it was noted. We got very positive feedback from the IDP players, they asked me to thank the dealers, the TD, the serving girls for all the drinks and the lovely spread at the break. Last but not least: a heartfelt 'thank you' to all the players that came along for Cee...<br /><br />Next week is the <a href="http://www.boards.ie/vbulletin/showthread.php?t=2055644288">Annual Vera Duffy Classic </a>in the Sporting Emporium, I have great memories of playing in this last year - will be donating again for sure!<br /><br />See you all at the tables!QueenJhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/01445393833049567011noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-6186684909024648110.post-41252239529332735592009-07-28T00:43:00.005+01:002009-07-28T03:39:22.320+01:00Horrid July so far... and I'm not talking about the weather!July has been horrible, apart from the recession doom and gloom I had the worse month since February, poker-wise. I took ill suddenly at work and was blue-lighted to hospital. After a day or two I was fine, but they fcuked up on some tests, so I ended up being kept in much longer, 8 days longer, than I should have with the meds spacing me out. I was so bored on sick leave I played far more poker than usual - nothing to show for it...<br /><br />Went to the Fitz for the Sunday freeze-out games - never really got going in either. Jackpot re-buy had just started so Susie and I went to check it out. With only two tables - I played solidly. Tracksuit Tommy came in when this hand happened: I was UTG+2, UTG and UTG+1 limped in, I was sitting on 15/16k Ah4h and called to see the flop. Two other limper and the blinds came for the ride, blinds were 300/600 and we were down to one table at this stage. Flop comes 6 high two hearts plus gut-show straight for me. UTG checks, UTG+1 (one of the Jackpot reg) throws in 3.5k, more than 2/3 the pot... I elected to flat call, the other player folded. Turn brings the heart I need to complete my flush. UTG+1 checks, I fire out 5k, he starts muttering angrily then makes the call. River is another heart UTG bets out 3k, I shove for 6k, he had me covered by 3/4k. Turning over my hand he insta-mucks then attacks my play, "How can you call my 3.5k bet with that shite?!" I pointed out that he had limped in, which allowed me to see the flop for cheap, there was this HUGE discussion on whether he made the 'right call' on the turn/river with all the Jackpot regs agreeing in his favour bar one who consiprationally whispered to me that the particular reg was 'a sore looser' who HATED being put in his place by a 'woman poker player'. Tracksuit Tommy jumped on the bandwagon and started criticising both Susie's and my standard of play, obviously thinking he was taking advantage of our deafness. But Susie was able to hear <span style="font-weight:bold;">every word </span>and of course relayed it to me. Needless to say that tosser lost my respect big time. As the Sore Loser lost the rest of his chips and stormed over the cash table - he kept going on, and on, and on about his poor Kings(!) But the incident didn't do us much favours - as we went down to the last 5 players, the game went very slow over 2-3 hours. I exited in 5th place, after losing my chips to a slow-played trips and Susie got raped into 3rd place by the blinds; with just two cash prizes (€210 & €410) we tried in vain to make a deal but the Regs were having none of it. It was really agonising for Susie to bubble like that... We don't play that often in the Jackpot, but a wee bit of consideration would have went a long way in ensuring we go back to play there a more. Between the Sore Loser and the Faithful Regs we declined the cash table and called it a night.<br /><br />Vegas Night had a €35+5 game in Clonee with a 2k guarantee prize fund. It was my first time attending, I've dealt for Nick a couple of times, he runs a brilliant game. I was very happy with how I played it had a great image on the tables and had garnered a LOT of respect, until we reached the last three tables. At that stage I had a 58k stack (average stack 32k), the game had turned into a crapshoot. On reflection I should have settled-in and tightened up at this stage, as the majority of the players were in 'all-in or fold' mode. As it was I lost with three hands AIPF: AQs v A3 that caught a straight on the flop, AK into JJ turned trips and 77 into 10,10. Great game though... I'll be back to play it tomorrow, knowing what to expect but with a better game plan that hopefully will work!<br /><br />I had to go home to Roscommon at the weekend, between grave cleaning and turning the turf (oh my back!) I managed to find time to check out a couple of local games, plus the 2009 Roscommon Championship. The pub game was a strange one - the game was the traditional NLHE but the betting structure was similar to 7-Card Stud. Confused? Yes I was too and missed several key points trying to get my head around it! The player to the left dealer (in SB) puts out the 'blind' (which doubles every 15 mins! 5-10-20-40-80-160-320 etc) and the Blind is the <span style="font-weight:bold;">first</span> to act! He/She opens for a minimum of 5, other players who want to play must call or raise this amount. If the Blind checks then all the players will see a flop for free and can win the blinds money(!) If there is a re-raise pre-flop, then the action starts with the raiser post-flop. Aside from the confusion it was an enjoyable game, the standard was awful, lots of limping and giant stacks going to war with all-ins on J4 and K6... and hitting of course! The most embarrassing thing was: I knew everyone sitting on that table - among the 10 were two ex-boyfriends, one teenage crush object and two 'not-wee-any-more' boys that I actually used to babysit(!) LOL! Cue free drinks for moi all night...<br /><br />After the pub game ended, I joined my mother in another pub before walking home together. She was playing 5 card draw for 50c. One player had to leave early so Mum took his place and his cards ordering me to take her hand for the 'last hand' of the night. Picking up the cards I got 6-7-7-9-9, I was informed that "6s and 3s were wild and we needed 3s or better to open".... "Sure, I can open..." the remaining players all started at me. "You have 3s or better?" I nodded, as they discarded/collected cards, I declined any cards. Cue more hard looks, then one player points out that I was to 'open the bet or check' seeing €7.50 already on the table I picked up €2 from my mum's stack of coins. She frowned crossly at me, I replaced it, picked up €1, she shook her head took it off me. "50c bets only!" "Oh... Okay I bet 50c..." one by one they all called with their various explanations: <br />"No offence, don't think you have anything there... Call"<br />"She's making mistakes, doesn't know what she's doing... I'll call"<br />"Tut-tut, I shall call her bluff too... "<br />Mum folded of course, she was looking nervous at this stage... As I lay my house on the table - one by one they all folded, you could have cut the air with a knife as the €9 pot gets slided over to me! Not one 'Well Played' or 'Nice Hand' did I get(!) LOL - reminds me why I left the bloody town in the first place!<br /><br />The Roscommon Championship game was in Boyle, 18 miles away over treacherous roads that two school friends met their deaths on, I had spent the morning cleaning my dad's grave for the annual cemetery mass that afternoon so by the time I found the place I was feeling very melancholy. On my first table the standard was pretty average with couple decent players and one eejit calling to see every flop without checking his cards! Going down to 8k from the 11k starting stack, I built my stack back up to 13.5k and had earned a lot of respect when I got moved to the Table of Death. Here there was 5 players, 3 monster stacks, I learnt that 4 players had been dispatched already from this table! Plus the standard was far worse than my previous table!<br /><br />After raising pre- with two key hands, winning one/losing the other, I was on 15k in going into my 2nd orbit when I got A8s UTG. Limping (blinds 100/200) in to see the 8 high flop (2 spades) with 4 other players, I opted to check to see what would happen. Action checks around to Button who fires out 800, more than 2/3 the pot. I made a bad play, instead of re-raising as I would have done, given the standard I had decided to 'play safe' and flat call. Turn was 9c checking back to button who fires 2k, smelling a rat, I flat called. River was 10d, he fires out 4k I should thrown my cards away and declared myself finished with this hand but no, I made a brain-fart donkey call to see 9s10s. WP sir. <br /><br />Next hand I'm in BB with AhKc, UTG a loose lag limps in, CO(previous Button villain in above hand) raises to 600, button & SB folds as I re-raise to 2200. UTG calls as does CO. Flop comes J high all hearts, I bet out 2,900 and UTG insta-shoves all-in for 5,600 more, CO folds. I've 5150 behind and tanked. My mind was racing - 12k plus in the pot, with half my money already in I was almost committed. I had no fold equity here had I? Calculating my outs, I had 15 with my nut-flush draw plus two over cards; I had a low opinion of the villain's standard at this point, I knew he played a very wide range. Putting him on a J-7 to JQ, two hearts, low pair 22-55, Plus still tilting from previous hand I felt I couldn't fold. Calling to see villain's J10off I was disgusted! I was more sick when the turn and river bricked on me, not one Out did I hit(!)<br /><br />After watching the game for another hour, I walked over to the cash table. Here the standard was way worse than the ME! Losing couple of raises when I missed the flop, I With just €48 left, I raised UTG pre- holding QQ and got 6 callers. Flop came 985, rainbow. As blinds checked I shoved with my remaining €40 got two callers, A9o and 97s(!) The latter hit his gut-shot with 6 on river... LOL I had enough of bad beats for one day and drove home feeling worse than I arrived.<br /><br />Well Done to Stephen (AKA Carfax) who was to my left on the 'Table of Death'; he struggled with a below average stack all day but "luckboxed" (his words not mine - but as it was, only a luckbox would have gotten as far in this game! LOL!) his way to heads-up and split 1st/2nd prize 50-50. WP!<br /><br />On 8th August IDP are hosting a Tribute game to Ciarán Moloney (AKA Get In There) who is off to Deaflympics and then on his travels at end of August. Cee, as he is affectionately known, is on a strict training regime so alcohol and partying are out! The Jackpot has kindly agreed to allow us have the game there, the buy-in has been kept low to allow the deaf players to come as well as Cee's hearing friends. To make it fun we have a bounty on Cee's head. So far there's 21-23 players confirmed I think we can get 40 players approx. If you are interested in playing, please add your name on <a href="http://www.facebook.com/home.php#/event.php?eid=112418216366">facebook </a>or <a href="http://www.boards.ie/vbulletin/showthread.php?t=2055630419">Boards Poker Forum</a> we need to arrange food/dealers.<br /><br />In the meantime there's 3 days of July left and one game to play. If I bomb out of that... I'll blame the July blues... meh!QueenJhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/01445393833049567011noreply@blogger.com2tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-6186684909024648110.post-16565341391324263702009-06-29T13:26:00.003+01:002009-06-29T18:35:45.914+01:00"All-In with J5!"<blockquote><em><strong>I'm Giving You On Count Of Three<br />To Show Your Stuff Or Let It Be...<br />I'm Telling You Just Watch Your Mouth<br />I Know Your Game What You're About!<br /><br />Well They Say The Sky's The Limit<br />And To Me That's Really True<br />But My Friend You Have Seen Nothing<br />Just Wait 'Til I Get Through...<br /><br />Because I'm Bad...</strong></em></blockquote> Michael Jackson 'Bad'<br /><br />Everyone will remember where they were, what they were doing, who they were with etc, the moment they heard MJ died. I was at a poker table in the Bell pub! <br /><br />I just lost a big pot betting hard with with 77 into a loose lag who wasn't folding A2 on a 2,8,J,6,A board. As I checked-folded the river, he showed his cards proudly. I had just settled back to 'calm down', check my phone before playing another hand, as a message came in from SusieWoosie simply saying '<em>F@#k... Michael Jackson is dead</em>'. When I announced the news to the table, they cracked up laughing, they didn't believe me(!) Hearing the banter, the barman switched the TV from horse racing to Sky news and there it was...<br /><br />I grew up with MJ, he was always 'there', that distinctive high voice. I would recognise him instantly when he came on the radio, wouldn't have a clue which song it was for a few minutes but I recognise him instantly, most deaf people do. I used to be able to do the Thriller dance (don't ask me now - I've forgotten most of it!) and I can still moonwalk, even in my heels! As he got more and more detached from reality, I just switched off but deep down he was a born entertainer who lit up the screen with his amazing dancing! I felt a hint of sadness when he passed away, it was end of an era, another link to my childhood gone. <br /><br />At the regular IDP night last Saturday, Cee opened the game with a gem of advice: "Hey! In honour of MJ, if you get J5 go allllll-in!" cue laughter! As it was J5 was the nutz! Everyone that played J5 won... I shoved with J5, no callers... shortie goes all-in, I find another J5 and I'm well stacked but passed it, BB called with K7, shortie shows A2 - bad move as it was the flop came 44542! Shortie goes on to win the damn game(!) <br /><br />€75 down and I decide to hit the Jackpot with Susie for a bit of cash action at 12 midnight, thinking it will be good for usual drunken fish! As we sat down, we notice the cash league final was on, ahhhh there'll be feck all fish playing tonight! Vowing to limit myself to one buy-in, I played solidly and cautiously til 2am, when three drunks joined our table. Left at 4am with €360, not a bad profit for me. <br /><br />Some notable hands: I just lost a big pot in the previous hand before last betting from the button into a slowplayed monster; when I found A5s in CO-1, limped in, SB raised to €12. BB, MP called. I called as did CO and Button! Flop comes 245, SB (loose lag) bets €30, BB & MP fold, I think for a minute and something just popped into my brian: I just <em>knew </em>he hadn't hit that! I had €79 left, I shoved. CO & Button insta-fold... SB is agonising "Huh?! What the... there's no way you hit that! No... I'm ahead, F#@k, I gonna have to call her... she's got nothing!" He calls, turn shows K and river 8. Just as I think I'm beaten he asks what I have, I table the 5, "and the other card!" he demands. Showing the ace he mucks angrily. Asking him what he mucked "A10" he replied. So kind of him to call me, wasn't it?<br /><br />Building my stack up to €225, I was in SB with AKs, UTG was an ultra-loose lag open raising several pots. So far I had kept out of hands with him; He opened for €5, 3 callers, by the time it came back to me. I raised to pot - €30, UTG called as did one other player. Flop comes 6 high, no suits, possible straight with 74; I bet out €60. UTG re-raised to €200, practically putting me all-in... I knew I was probably ahead, but knowing how loose he was, he could have over pair, hit his straight, 2 pair or was holding trips at best guess. I folded, perhaps I should have checked, perhaps I should have called the €5 pre- to see the flop rather than play out of position? That one hand bothered me all night. <br /><br />One orbit later, I find AJ in SB and call UTG's raise along with 4 others, flop comes AJJ! Thinking how to make the most of this, I led out for half the pot, UTG insta-reraised... I flattened... led on on turn and he re-raised to put me all in. I insta-called for a nice little double up against AQ.<br /><br /><br />Next hand I've KhQh in BB, Button raises to pot, SB re-raises to 30, I call as does button. Flop comes K high, 2 hearts, SB checks, I bet out €50, Button shoves for €80, SB folds as I call to see K6o, I'm miles ahead with the 9h on turn, button is up and gone before the river card is exposed.<br /><br />I was about to leave when dealer said last hand before breaking the table... I found J5s winking at me, LOL! Gotta play this! 5 on flop, checked all around, J on river, check, check, bet, re-raise, fold, call, two pair beats AJ and pot pushed to me... I'm up to €360, €5 to dealer and I'm heading home! <br /><br />GG, GN, WP Michael J... Thank you for the memories!<br /><br /><blockquote><strong><em>So Listen Up Don't Make A Fight,<br />Your Talk Is Cheap You're Not A Man,<br />You're Throwin' Stones To Hide Your Hands!<br /><br />But They Say The Sky's The Limit<br />And To Me That's Really True And My Friends You Have<br />Seen Nothin' Just Wait 'Til I Get Through...<br /><br />Because I'm Bad!</em></strong></blockquote>QueenJhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/01445393833049567011noreply@blogger.com2tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-6186684909024648110.post-27828948453347874522009-06-20T00:10:00.002+01:002009-06-20T01:00:52.842+01:00MIAI haven't been playing much lately... The two times I've been playing: I've played well but just got unlucky or crashed just before the final table/cash. Cash game ran goot but then lost the majority in couple of weak spots and donked the rest 'on tilt' mode. <br /><br />In one game I was away with the family in Fermanagh, ended up visiting Damo72's club in Monaghan town. He has a nice set up, there was no games set for the night I was there but couple of €20 FOs with winner take all, I was fortunate to take down the 2nd game after an epic 1.5hrs long HU with Damo himself (great player) culminating in a sick suck out! Final hand saw me all-in with 66 (after wrestling the chiplead from him by in previous hand) he limped called with AA, flop came 345... A... 7... Ouch! GG! LOL! <br /><br />Another night I was in mood for a game, DPN had a €35 FO in Bell, I arrived as Robbie was leaving. Not enough players and he had no choice but to cancel the event. I ended up in the Fitz €20+3 FO with 82 runners, I crashed in 40-odd place with 10-10 into SB's min-raised AA. I played damn well that night... just lost my final race to a chipleader with his 3rd or 4th set of aces(!)<br /><br />I've been avoiding DPN big time since an unpleasant incident with two rude players 5-6 weeks ago; where they reduced me to tears at the end of the night. I've a cheat-dar in my head when it comes to poker, I'm clued-up when I see any evidence that a player is cheating... but when I tried to deal with an issue on this particular night, it got nasty. I haven't been back. I like the DPN, Robbie puts on a good game, the majority of the regs are basic playas with weird notions of the game - it's so easy to cash at least once or twice a month. Had I had the same success in Fitz or Jackpot as I do in the DPN games, I be a legend!!!! <br /><br />But that's not the reason I stopped playing. Life got in the way! <br /><br />I celebrated my birthday; I took the family way for a week long break up North, I had my son's second level 2010 entry applications to prepare (yes, already!!!); a new Director of Services at work = more work and responsibilities for muggins here who was too bloody timid to say 'No!'; And the washing machine blew up on me, destroying the wooden floors in the process, thank God for insurance you say 'but my bloody insurance are demanding a list of 20 reports and 100 photographs, before they release a cent!' Grrrr! <br /><br />I also discovered I was on the wrong tax/PRSI bracket for the past 3 years so a nice payback on the way if only I can find the necessary paperwork among all the clutter to put my claim in! It'll be put straight into my savings account so that Christmas is already taken care of!<br /><br />There's also another big reason: Over the past year, I've been painful aware of my close friends drifting away, barely seeing them as much as I use to. Because of poker. When my birthday came around recently - I got unexpected visits, lots of beautiful flowers, whiskey and beautiful gifts... I felt so guilty. I really enjoyed catching up with them all! <br /><br />By fluke I only recently discovered I have a Hendon Mob Page!!! Small win, 4th place in LEPO side event, but hey, <span style="font-style:italic;"><span style="font-weight:bold;">I'm </span></span>bloody impressed myself! This means I've achieved one of my poker goals for the year already! I immediately upped that goal to have a second listing before the end of the year... Eyeing up several events already, but most of them already clash with other non-poker events that I've compromised myself to with my friends. <br /><br />Gotta be realistic here... cut back on the poker, put it back on the 'just a occasional hobby' shelf, and live my life more. Gonna get a wee bit more selective too with my limited playing time availability too.<br /><br /><br />To a couple of poker mates playing in Vegas for the WSOP - Best of luck guys, bring the bracelets home! Another two poker mates who go together almost 2 years ago have just announce wonderful news of their wee bump, I was delighted for them! <br /><br />To the rest of you... have a good Summer! I'll try to update after the IDP EGM!QueenJhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/01445393833049567011noreply@blogger.com6tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-6186684909024648110.post-86680635837960038892009-05-25T15:08:00.003+01:002009-05-25T18:02:07.057+01:00Grounded frimly to the groundNo heady highs to report since my last post, apart from a small profit from the cash table one night that just about helped to balance the book and basically undo all the losses I accumulated this month. I'm still 'down' overall for 2009.<br /><br />It was a sick month from start to finish... a mixture of usual bad beats, atrocious play (or 'brain farts' Smurph calls them) and bad calls. <br /><br />One positive highlight: I finally made it to the famed Sporting Emporium! What a palace, this is definitely the plushest card room in the whole of Dublin! The SE Membership fee of €25 was an unexpected shock, was thinking of asking if we can host a IDP tournament there but I doubt if our Deaf playas will pay that €25! Now that I'm a member will be checking it out more...<br /><br />Everyone has been asking for my report on the recent IODPC (Irish Open Deaf Poker Championship) which took place in the Jackpot on 16th May. We had 43 players, I was so sure we would bust last year's record for 46 players but at the last minute we had 4 drop-outs. We have a great representation of players from Northern Ireland, England and Wales; as well as some of our regular players. Cee turns up, announced that he wasn't playing, he was going to play some cash then head at 7pm to catch a flight to London(!) WTF!? As it was Cee did better on the cash table in 3 hours than the 2nd place finisher (Michael Kellegher who nearly didn't want to play!!!)<br /><br />Cards went in the air at 2:25pm, I was in a horrible seat (7) on very tough table (2) draw. Rob Archer was to my immediate left, Brian Griffin (weak-passive player, mini-bets only, never raises but calls you down with the nutz!) to my right, and Justin Smith 2 to my right. Also at my table was Susie Woosie and Terry Spurgeon (UK Player). Getting any chips on this table was not going to be easy.<br /><br />I got off to a good start with pocket 10s, raised to 250, two callers including Brian and Justin (on button) flop comes 9 high, I bet out 625. Brian insta-folded, Justin thinks for a moment then folds AKs face up. Next hand I get QQ... 3 limpers and I raised to 250, got no less than 4 callers but I'm last to act. Flop comes Q high, BINGO! Action checks to Rob, he bets out 500, I re-raise to 1750, he insta-folds. I mucked my hand. Few hands later I'm in SB (blinds just increased 50/100)finding AQs, 4 limpers including Rob Archer on the button, I re-pot to 1250. Flop comes 773, I checked, Rob checks behind, Q on turn I fire out 1800, Rob flat calls. A on river, I bet 2150, Rob raises to 4500. I think for a moment then realised I couldn't fold a 10k pot with 2.3k left to call... I flat called to see him table 107off for trips. You donk!<br /><br />Down to 3.5k I was playing a short-stacked game as Rob started welding his massive stack around the table pushing people off pots left, right and centre. Finding 77 I called one of Rob's raise as did Brian Griffin, facing a JK8 board, Rob bet out but calling would have meant I was pot committed, I had to fold them and watched as Brian called. Action went check-check on turn and river, Rob shows 72s (You Donk!) and Brian tables 66 to win(!) Shoved a couple of times and got my stack back up to 5k; then went card dead for several orbits, checked my blind holding 57 to a flop of 245, check called a bet from Rob, 3 on turn and Rob raises half the pot calling would put me all-in mode, instead I put him on a raggy A or 6 and opted to fold my 5 face up to see his 92off smile at me! (You Donk!) I was in danger of getting blinded out with less than 6BBs when I discovered AcKc UTG and shoved. Rob called with QQ, they hold and I'm out in 30th place. <br /><br />Rob's lucky streak and constant bluffing finally caught up with him and he loses the bulk of his chips in 4 way all-in holding the worse hand to give Justin Smith (holding 22 for trips) the much needed chips to go all the way! UL Rob - but well played! Susie played a great solid game but kept saying she wasn't staying all day and was leaving to watch a show in UCD later that night... Guess the pokagods got fed up hearing that and took the last chip and chair from underneath her in 25th place. Justin Smith went on to take this down. WP! Congratulations! It was all over by 10pm.<br /><br />Several players got free bets from Jackpot for signing up but hadn't a clue how to play Blackjack or Roulette, so gave me their chips instead! Spun it up to €50, add another €50 and put it on the cash table, built it up then crashed all in on turn with K10 v J10 on a 10 high flop, 2 on river gave me flush draw but sick J on river and the Villain was whoopin and hollerin something wild(!) Should have known better, Pokagods were not my friend that day so called it a day and went home.<br /><br />The Jackpot put on a great service as always, big thanks to Paul, Sarah, the hostess, and all the dealers who did a terrific job! The dealers really put a lot of effort into using the signs (which they only learnt that morning!) and dealing with deaf players pulling all kinds of stunts! The Jackpot sponsored the beautiful glass trophy that was presented to the winner. Thanks you all so much!<br /><br />Next day after a long lie-in I made my way to Tallaght Poker Room for the cash league final. First league I ever qualified for! Before anyone quibbles at the 101 hours I achieved since last November, 90% of these were double cash hours! Starting with 10,100 stack I had my work cut out with three monster stacks holding well over 40k each; over 50 players qualified by 43-44 turned up. Ross had a book open for the various players, there was 25/1 odds on me; not bad considering I was the best odds bar one other player, for those with less than 20k! LOL! Managed to dogged one of the chipleaders big time - holding K4s (in my defence he was constantly rasisng into my BB and showing marginal/mickey mouse hands!) I called to see K4x and shoved, he called with AK (ooops... LOL!!!!); two hands later he got his own back and knocked me out with QQs which held up against my Ah6h all-in on a 6c5h2h flop; no heart, 6 or ace and I was out in 28th winning €50 for my troubles.<br /><br />Put the €50 on the cash table and lost it to Justin Smith who came down hoping to play the tournament but had to settle for cash. Put another 50 on the table, went down to €20, moved to another table and spun it up into €335, threw the dealer €10 and left at 12 midnight. After 3 days of poker (had a pre-IODPC night in the IDP Card Room with almost 30 players) - I was shattered.<br /><br />Rumour has it that the Tallaght Poker Room is taking over the ground floor of Atari Expo (the acarade that one walks through to get to TPR upstairs) and planning to renovate it into a "...new swanky poker room to rival the SE". The work has started... lets hope it includes better toilet facilities than they currently have!<br /><br />Last Wednesday I ventured into the SE for the €50+5 double chance; there were 4 tables with a lot of familiar faces. Had Vera to my immediate left on the first table and managed to antagonise her at one point with blind on blind action, I called she checked to see a flop A9X (2 diamonds) I raised with Kd9d and Vera shoved. I voiced an opinion that she wouldn't have checked an ace, maybe she's flushing etc got a swift lash of her sharp tongue... boy! I folded face up and stayed well out of her way after that! I was happy with my game playing really solid, picking my spots well and made it to final 18 with above average stack. Limped in with KJs Button calls and SB shoves for <8BB BB and button folds, as I call, had him on a wide range - he tables the 'monster' 63 off ... first card on board is a 6, last is a 3(!) LOL-Luckbox! That was the start of the 'leak'...<br /><br />I raise UTG AJs few hands later and face a re-raise from a rock who has me totally covered, I fold. Next hand I'm in BB, 4 limpers, I look down and see QQ, I have 16bb left, 2 of these limpers have me well covered. Slowly shove my stack over the line and UTG (Biggest Shark Chipleader) insta-shoves, I knew instantly I was in trouble he had a monster as that was the first time I saw him limp in, should have copped it, sure enough he tables AA. They hold and its Uh-oh, UL, GG, GN, WP... <br /><br />Wandered over to the cash table where several regs sitting nursing huge stacks, including Tony (Flushdraw), Sherman, Danny (TylerDuran) and two other LAGs I recognise from Fitz. I retreated to the blackjack table with Trishakids, sure have better odds winning here! Put the free €25 chips I got, spun it up to €60 then hovered up and down over 2 hours then out... Meh!<br /><br />Just reading several other blogs, seems a lot of the regs are experiencing massive downswings, so breaking even for the month (I didn't play much this month) is good going. Was planning to play the Satt for the Westbury 270 game tonight but looks like I won't be available to play tomorrow's 270 game so not worth my while playing the Satt. Staying local tonight me thinks!<br /><br />After tonight - I'll be offline for a week. Taking a much needed break with the family, going to Monaghan and Fermanagh, really looking forward to it! No PC, no laptop, no poker!QueenJhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/01445393833049567011noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-6186684909024648110.post-26794842934364546932009-05-11T13:51:00.003+01:002009-05-11T15:11:51.773+01:00Rebuy MadnessGrrrr! Remind me again why I don't do re-buys.<br /><br />Free to enter, first hand I get AKs in CO-1, button re-raises, Gerry Grehan is in BB and does his head bobbling act (signifying he has nothing but 'fancies his chances') calls. I shove... Button shoves... Gerry's head bobbles like mad "why the f@#k not..." and tosses his chips into the pot. AK and button's AK meets Gerry's Q10 off suit and we see a board of xxx...Q... 10(!)<br /><br />Not to worry it's only €5 to re-buy.<br /><br />Facing a table of limpers, I shove with AhJh on the button, David Bower's in BB he has me covered twice over... he scratches his head and rubs the felt, "she's got something good... damn... damn... ah f#@k it!" and flat calls, all the time acting very nervous and sighing in relief as each player folds. Tabling my cards, David shows two black aces(!) <br /><br />Ah, another €5 for chips please.<br /><br />Facing one raiser in MP, I find Ad9d, gonna have to race these to get a much needed double up... Chris McGovern starts rubbing his mouth and stratching his half grown tuffy beard (trying to copy Andy Black me thinks!), he's short I've barely 150 on him, but not as short as MP. Looks at me then shoves, MP folds. Chris takes KdQd, I table my pair... two diamonds on flop and Chris has his €5 out already... sick King on turn no ace or diamond on the river. Nice one Chris. Down to 150 I shove with 34s; 3 callers, 4 on flop, another 4 on turn and I'm safe. Next hand find Q10s and shove for 650, David Bowers stands up shakes my hand says good luck and SHOVES his monster stack in, tables AK with a flourish; no magic board for me.<br /><br />Not to worry it's only €5.<br /><br />Shoved with Pocket Kings feeling very confident about this one. Mark McLaughlin (The Wexford Supremo) smiles at me sadly, sighs and whispers "sorry, I gotta call..." and tables pocket aces. Ace on the flop... meh! <br /><br />Ah sure... I'll chance another re-buy. <br /><br />Paul Ryder shoves, I find 66 and I'm still reeling from the kings... so yeah, I call. Paul has QQ and my 66 gets crushed. Bad call me.<br /><br />Another €5 worth of chips please...<br /><br />Few hands later my AQs smile and wink at me, I fall in love and shove... everyone has me covered, they all call. Board comes queen high, all clubs, Chris rubs his mouth, scratches his beard then bets out, making me worried. I should be, he has J10for the flush. Grrrr!<br /><br />Realising I only brought €25 with me (how confident was I?!) Brian gives me €5 for the chips... I sit on this til the break, get my top up thanks to another mate. Now the re-buy madness is over, we are down to 14 players, 7 tickets generated and €40 for 8th place. My luck has got to change, right? Right???!!!<br /><br />But no...<br /><br />Limping in CO into a family pot with 33; I was delighted to see a 943 board. Mark bets out 4xBB from SB. Action folds around to me, it's now or never - he has me covered by 3k. I shove; he sighs and smiles sadly at me, whispers "...I gotta call" eeek... He tables 94off for two pair, sighing in relief I annouce I got trips and table my pair for bottom set. Instead a sneaky sick 4 appears on the river and I'm out in 14th place... WTF!???<br /><br />No more re-buys for me! Meh!QueenJhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/01445393833049567011noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-6186684909024648110.post-7526229940503094502009-05-08T13:26:00.008+01:002009-05-08T17:28:55.235+01:00Caught between a rock and a tight piece...Except the 6'3" 'rock' was actively raising into me with ATC and the 'piece' was a smug fecker who fancied himself as a tough guy (with the cut off shirt and over tattooed arms to match) kept getting lucky when his marginal hands were hitting the flop goot or over-valuing his 2nd/3rd best pair to my ace high... If one wasn't in the hand the other was. When both were in the hand everyone folded. I was happy to get up and run with a €10 profit(!) With the day I had so far - I was lucky not to be crushed!<br /><br />After dealing for 12 hours the day before, I opted to play the €100+15 game in the Plaza on Monday. Never really got going, all my raises got called by hands that hit the flop better than I. As I raised UTG with QQ I got called by a LAG to my immediate left; board comes king high-all hearts and I opted to check; he immediately checks behind. K on river gives me two pair, betting out 1100 into a 1300 pot. I get flat called; didn't put him on a king, I assumed he had J or 9 for lesser pair with ace kicker; the turn brings a 4th heart, I knew I should check here but felt it would show weakness so bet out 1500... he called showing 9s 10h for a cheeky flush. Meh!<br /><br />Lucinda was on my table, the button to my BB, kept limping in a lot with AA, KK, AQ, AK; limping in once is fine but not all the time Luc! She limped in with AK (blinds 100/200) I checked with A8. Flop comes AKx with two suits, I checked to see what she would bet and she fired out 600 (pot) big bet, thinking she had king for 2nd best pair or flushing. I flat called, we both checked the 3rd suit on turn, I bet out 2/3 pot on the river... she hesitated before flat calling to show AK. Meh!<br /><br />Raised pre with AK, had to fold them post-flop as two LAGs went to war locking horns on a dry board high card versus high card, with the weakest hand pairing his low kicker on the river(!) LOL-donkaments! Shoved with AK and no callers... still less than 10bb and the blinds coming around again. Found lovely 22 UTG+2, debated with myself for an age before folding them reluctantly, was sickened to to see board come 2xx2x! Grrrrr! Oh why oh why!? Two hands later found 33 UTG and thought: now or never... shoved, called by BB with KK and I'm gone. <br /><br />Went straight to the cash table into an awful seat - had Kayroo raising in button and CO (very passive player betweeen us) into my blinds and a smug tattooed guy 2 to the left activily re-raising me in several pots. I had mickey mouse hands every time I had position to them - attempted a raise with one but had Kayroo, Tattooed guy and our Tony limping in, all on ace rags and checking down to me on an AKKxx board(!) I wasn't betting guys, no way!!! Tony was playing uber-cautiously much to Kayroo's frustration, he was dying to trap Tony into a big pot but the sly fox kept one step ahead of him! LOL! <br /><br />At 8:15pm the Dublin 15 players on the cashtable all left to head to Hartstown for DPN €60FO; 20 mins into the game I'm going really good with AA and 88 raising my 8k starting stack up to 10.5k when the lights went(!) 30 minutes later realising the powercut is wide spread in the area, sitting under the glare of the emergency lighting Ciara, Lucinda and Tony talked me into going to the Padlocks in Clonee to a 'JJP Poker Navan' (not to be confused with JP Poker from Tallaght) run game... <br /><br />€55 entry, double chance, we joined at the 100/200 level with a 3400 starting stack(!) 5k re-buy or 6k top-up. Turbo bingo poker at its best(?!) Discovered that only €40 is going into the prize fund, WHAT!!!? €15 reg fee?! One player pointed out that we can't 'quibble' as its fully dealer dealt with food (pizza and chips) served at the break. Hmmmm?<br /><br />First hand I have Jc10c and hit flush battling against a lower flush held by Paul Jr. Two hands later I limp in 7h6h and Paul Jr raises from SB, BB calls, MP calls - I'm last to act, of course I'm calling! Lovely flop - 4h5hx action checks around to me - I bet out half pot, Paul Jr flat calls and other players folded. 3c on turn Paul shoves I call; Paul tables Ah8h no heart on river to save him and he's calling for his double chance chips. Finding AQ couple hands later, Paul Jr is short in BB again, as I raise and he mutters then says 'ah feck it... ' shoves. I call to see him table QQ but an Ace on the flop put an end to his game and our table breaks up.<br /><br />Finding myself on soft table I quickly amass a 90k lead. A four way all-in with 3 short-stacks see me calling with K9s along with the 2nd chipleader the flop which gives me a gut-shot to the king. I shoved all in and other chip-leader calls with A6o(!) Questioning him, he pointed out that there was two suits on flop and he had the case ace, "possible chance" to beat me with a 'runner-runner'(!) LOL! He wins with high card as we both miss while one of the shorties trebles up and I'm down to 55k. The blinds are going up rapidly lots of all-ins left right and centre - I ducked down and waited for my spot. Finding AK I called and lost on a AK9 to a slowplayed set of 9s from same A6o player. On final table I was fronting 35k with several 50k+ stacks - was mainly card dead but held on to 4th place for €150, this was given in form €100 cash plus €50 ticket for entry into their 'big game' on Sunday 31st May when I asked for an alternative explaining that I was away that weekend 'JJP' suggested I sell it on or "hold on to it til nearer time" - if he makes his '€2,000 guarantee' he will "buy it back from me..." Hmmmm I hope so or I'll be kicking one hell of a fuss! <br /><br />The <a href="http://iodpc.weebly.com/">Irish Open Deaf Poker Championships</a> take place on 16th May in Jackpot, we have fewer players registered due to clashes with Deaf weddings, holidays and the fact some of the players are saving to go to the <a href="http://english.2009deaflympics.org/bin/home.php">Deaf Olympics</a> taking place in Taipei this September. Or maybe they are just holding on for the DDA freeroll event taking place next Sunday 10th May? Whatever - if you are thinking of playing the IODPC - hurry up and register ASAP!!!!QueenJhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/01445393833049567011noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-6186684909024648110.post-25429798613881948822009-04-28T01:12:00.009+01:002009-04-28T20:34:43.239+01:00Clonsilla Inn 100+15FO<a onblur="try {parent.deselectBloggerImageGracefully();} catch(e) {}" href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEjZhPcyOqE1IM3EVBSyuWujXnOaUNDNQ9vDG7m9ordP543V5dfFdrnvrofI31Xls6Rzuuo4G2oQI43EAE9WzzJ4oQmJtwZw_fBJq9Vm2v8ZAsYx3rhHjLnXJsDc0nvtQxPlJOKN4hVvRA/s1600-h/DPN+100FO+3.JPG"><img style="float:right; margin:0 0 10px 10px;cursor:pointer; cursor:hand;width: 320px; height: 213px;" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEjZhPcyOqE1IM3EVBSyuWujXnOaUNDNQ9vDG7m9ordP543V5dfFdrnvrofI31Xls6Rzuuo4G2oQI43EAE9WzzJ4oQmJtwZw_fBJq9Vm2v8ZAsYx3rhHjLnXJsDc0nvtQxPlJOKN4hVvRA/s320/DPN+100FO+3.JPG" border="0" alt=""id="BLOGGER_PHOTO_ID_5329826288523211154" /></a>As most of you already know I play Dublin Poker Nights local pub games; each week the final 9 players would generate league points, with the top 5 league point holders creating a team to play against each other in the bi-annual team events. This year Robbie decided to do a different format: the top 5 get free entry into a €100 FO game, with a €2k guaranteed prize fund, and a limo ride from their house to the venue!<br /><br />Meh! I wasn't one of the lucky league winners, as the league stopped just as I started to win some games! But I went along anyway to donate. <br /><br />I nearly didn't go, as I had lost big this week getting slowplayed something awful; my online game was going from bad to worse - I was feeling on totally tilt. About 60 minutes before KO, I had a domestic calamity to sort out. my little girl fell and split her lip. We had blood, scrapes, drama and screaming demands: 'I need a plaster!!!' spent 40 minutes cleaning her up, trying to calm her down explain that we can't put a plaster inside her mouth! Then the Ice cream man comes, the brat jumps down like a shot, grabs the €2 her granny gave her and <span style="font-style:italic;">ran</span> was out the door before you can ask 'where are you going...' came back with her cone, tears and blood forgotten and asked if she can go to her friend's house to play. Ha! I might as well go too... No guilt here!<br /><br />Arrived 30 minutes late, 4 tables set up with 5-6 players on each table... I was placed on a 5 handed table with Gum to my immediate left, Benny on my right, Eamon and Phil were also with us. Starting stack was 15k,almost immediately I was tangling with Gum in one pot holding JJ (Q high flop) which I folded to her raise, she showed 2 pair... WP. And Benny in another, played into his trip 2s against my pocket 10s ...ah! I must be mad! It's too early for this! Down to 11k and it wasn't even end of the 2nd level. Finding AKs in SB; Eamon (rock player) raised 3xBB in MP, Gum called (standard for Gum) and I fired off a triple barrelled bet. Eamon called, Gum folded. Flop came 55x, knowing Eamon's range, I popped off a c-bed. He flat called. River brought another 5. I checked, Eamon checked. K on river and I fired out half the pot. Eamon insta-called to reveal AK for a split pot, phew!<br /><br />Finding KK some hands later, my raise got two callers, hitting my trips on the flop, I bet out and got two callers, seeing a straight draw and flush draw possibilities I shoved the turn. They both folded... I was back up to 14k. Checking my BB a few hands later I flopped a nice straight and increased my stack up to 18k as Robbie came to break up our table.<br /><br />On the 2nd table, I went card dead. Couple of missed opportunities. At one stage I called a pre-flop raise with pocket 6s and folded to huge flop bet on a J high flop, another player calls, 6 comes on the turn... and at showdown, I'm looking at A high hands(!) FFS! Called one raise from BB for value (there were 4 other callers!) and check called with middle pair King kicker, initial raiser shoves on turn and I fold as my pair becomes a set on river, meh! Went down to 10,375 approx at the break.<br /><br />After the break, the play tightened up considerable. I hovered along for the next few levels, made a few raises but no callers just got binds/min-raises. Falling back again, after wrangling in a stupid spot with Paul S the slowplayer extraordinaire! Thankfully the damage was minor as he had a very small stack. He gloated afterwards how he 'loves taking my chips'... I just laughed at him.<br /><br />Got my first break with KK in SB; MP raised to 2.5xBB several callers on deep stacks, I shoved for 8/9k, action slowly folded back to button who thought for a moment then elected to call with Qc9c. Two clubs on flop had me worried but my kings held and I doubled through. Shoved again with AK on a A high flop called by shortie on lower pair, to bring my stack up to 20k (approx 20bb) for the first time. I wasn't out of danger yet, the blinds were increasing every 25 mins and we had a monster stack LAG luckbox on our table with 60-70k knocking people out! He called raises from SB/BB/EP and bet out big if he got a pair or better... forcing people to fold or shove. Couple of run-ins with him saw my stack decreasing back to 14/15BB, it shoving time again.<br /><br />We were down to two tables, I saw several good players way ahead of me at the first break, falling like flies, busted out with sick beats and slowplayed nuts. UL guys... I know how you feel.<br /><br />A nice run of cards saw me treble up: the first AK, tangled with AQ. Increased my stack to 26k Then 2/3 hands later I got QQ and shoved with a raise and re-raise on the table, called by Benny who re-raised with JJ, Q on flop and I was up to 45k approx. Then I shoved with AJs on button a raiser and two callers all less than 20k - folded. I was just under 60k when this hand happened.<br /><br />Horsebox1 was to my left, very good solid rock player, UTG is a LAG who raises in certain positions (UTG, UTG+1 if UTG had folded, CO and Button) with a lot of marginal hands and small pairs. The blinds were 500/1k at this stage; UTG made a raise of 3.5k, slightly more than the standard raise of 2.5-3k for the table. Finding 66, I flat called, he looked at me and frowned. Horsebox1 insta-shoved all in for 12.5k. As the action folded back to UTG, he tanked for a moment deciding whether to call or not... He kept looking over at my stack, counting out his stack then counted out the difference between Horsebox's raise and his bet comparing it to his remaining stack then called leaving 7.5-8k behind...<br /><br />Sensing a weakness here. I put him on a marginal hand: A4-A10, J9-KQ combos, small pairs 22-55. Plus earlier he had flat called a shortie's all-in with 910s and hit the 9 to win. I felt my pockets were ahead of his range, knowing Horsebox wasn't shoving light KK-QQ and AK possibilities, but against the LAG I had an option to oust a dangerous opponent and just lose 6-7k in the process. So shoved my 60k stack over the line...<br /><br />The look of terror in the LAGs face confirmed my suspicions and he didn't take long to fold. I couldn't believe that he folded with 70% of his stack already in. Horsebox tabled AA, I tabled my 66, flop and turn 2458 gave me an up and down gutshot. I was praying not to hit... The AA stood and Horsebox started breathing again. The LAG started telling everyone he would have had trips, that he folded 88s. But I personally doubt that, he would have shoved with 88 to push me out of the frame, not called as he did...<br /><br />It was a risky move I made, but had the LAG folded I would have folded too. In his read, a fold here would have looked really weak for him. People would not respect any his raises after this, and raise them thinking that they can get him off if they shove. After this he stopped raising in EP sticking to limping in instead, and raising only in LP.<br /><br />Couple orbits later I was card dead when I got A2s, getting bored I fancied my chances with them so limped in, BB checked and the flop came A2x. Niiiiiice. Action checked around, I opted to check to see if any aces in the frame. 10 on turn, I bet out after the blinds checked. BB called, others folded. River was a low card. BB shoved, thinking I was ahead with 2 pair, plus I had him well covered I called to see A10. Meh! NH sir... <br /><br /><a onblur="try {parent.deselectBloggerImageGracefully();} catch(e) {}" href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEhM2L61XV1vIaGxaqFCzHe3gSsuEfm_c5-xkTt6A7shXs3nbBR5J1dSUoW5m_r16i4nlPl2YbU_Nf9O8xoqV-9k_Hn143C2Iv7HGMldCIVI8LZPdfXQ8D8vDsu_mFWO6Ieebz7Chjzapw/s1600-h/DPN+100FO+2.JPG"><img style="display:block; margin:0px auto 10px; text-align:center;cursor:pointer; cursor:hand;width: 320px; height: 213px;" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEhM2L61XV1vIaGxaqFCzHe3gSsuEfm_c5-xkTt6A7shXs3nbBR5J1dSUoW5m_r16i4nlPl2YbU_Nf9O8xoqV-9k_Hn143C2Iv7HGMldCIVI8LZPdfXQ8D8vDsu_mFWO6Ieebz7Chjzapw/s320/DPN+100FO+2.JPG" border="0" alt=""id="BLOGGER_PHOTO_ID_5329825831023313490" /></a><br />Down to 20k, when the final table started, Paul S was still in on 21k, telling all and sundry that he was planning to outlast me(!) Muha-ha-ha(!) <br /><br />There was three giant stacks. Tony on 160k; Eamon on 80k-odd and the luckbox from the 2nd table on 90k. Then came various stacks from 50-20k... with me on the lowest. As Robbie announced the prize structures, paying out the top 5, a deal was suggested to take money from the 5 places to create €100 money back for 6th-9th place - great deal, no one objected. I had my money back, and a good day playing for just €15 I was happy! <br /><br />I was in an 'all-in or fold' mode vowing to play very tight. First hand, I was in CO, one of the bigger stacks raised. Finding 33, I decided to fold, regretting it when 3 came on the flop. Tony called in BB, and won with A3(!) Two hands later I got my third KK and shoved. Two callers, who checked to the end with A high, and I trebled up to 60k. <br /><br />As the 9 slowly became 8, 7 and then 6, LAG (folder from the 66 hand above) down to about 20k shoved UTG. Finding 10 10, I shoved my 60k stack over the line, knowing none of the chipleaders would risk doubling me up. LAG tabled KJ and I showed my 10s; J on river and he was back in the game. Booo! <br /><br />But with the blinds going up, my chips were going down, as I was card dead for almost two orbits, then shoved with 20k with AK. 4 callers(!) Hilariously they checked down on all streets on an odd 9 high board with no flush or pair in sight... as the last player checked. I threw in my AK expecting someone to table a low pair... not one, they all mucked! Phew! I was back in with 80k!<br /><br />Shortly after this a furry of battles among the chipleaders saw 2 of them exiting in spectacular fashion, including Tony the chipleader at the start of the final table. He got dogged big time - UL Tony.<br /><br />Down to 4: Paul S, Eamon (now chipleader) myself and the LAG... Paul S was shortstack, with less than 2-3BB for the past 4 orbits, and winning every time he was in BB! The luckbox! But it wasn't going to be 4th time lucky, and he exited in 4th place. But not without a parting shot. Coming around to my end of the table, the sly old fox rapped the table "May the best MAN win!" I just laughed... <br /><br />The lAG just kept raising every hand, I didn't have anything worth shoving, kept folding. Finding AK in SB shortly afterwards, Eamon was on button as he threw in a raise, I shoved. LAG folded and Eamon tanked for a moment before calling with A7... 7 on the turn and I was out in 3rd place.<br /><br />I was happy to get this far, considering I hadn't played my best game made some bad moves, until the final table of course. I would have been happy to exit in 9-6th with my money back... Any more than this was a bonus! My money was on Eamon to take this down as he played a sterling game from the start. Eamon and the LAG fought a lengthily HU game, with the LAG grabbing the chiplead, before they eventually split 60-40... WP!<br /><br />GG! Well done to Rob and all in DPN for putting on a great game and a well run show! <br /><a onblur="try {parent.deselectBloggerImageGracefully();} catch(e) {}" href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEhD45hl4if4uDK6QkYwPz-6nDh6Rv3OTGDLr8LOnTWdEG5so9AQUIi3f5PlkbppUN4TMWvRacbW1_8sYGOrG5myt3anajJG643CQxoyIFnQr8Pf3dwcZTbktBz5hpzT-tKG95_OZUfKxg/s1600-h/DPN+100FO.JPG"><img style="float:left; margin:0 10px 10px 0;cursor:pointer; cursor:hand;width: 320px; height: 213px;" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEhD45hl4if4uDK6QkYwPz-6nDh6Rv3OTGDLr8LOnTWdEG5so9AQUIi3f5PlkbppUN4TMWvRacbW1_8sYGOrG5myt3anajJG643CQxoyIFnQr8Pf3dwcZTbktBz5hpzT-tKG95_OZUfKxg/s320/DPN+100FO.JPG" border="0" alt=""id="BLOGGER_PHOTO_ID_5329825510271274786" /></a><br /><br /><span style="font-style:italic;">Photos from the final table</span> <span style="font-style:italic;">Eamon (2nd place) is to my right, Tony (5th place) two to my left. LAG (Winner) to Eamon's right. Paul S (4th place) is diagonally opposite, two places to left of dealer (DPN's Victoria) </span>QueenJhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/01445393833049567011noreply@blogger.com0