Sunday, January 03, 2010
December and 2009
Contains yearly results (aka brags) so if you don't want to see it, look away now ...
I will gloss over December ; to even call my effort in the month half-hearted would be overstating the case. Oh well, I probably deserved a bit of time off. 2009 overall was a strange one. On the surface, it looks competely in line with previous years - in fact my Net $ per tournament is insanely consistent, being $179 in 2007, $182 in 2008 and, believe it or not (I wouldn't) $182 in 2009. The insanity comes in because more than half of this year's profit came in one tournament.
It wasn't the only time I went deep in a Sunday major but it was by a large margin ($131K compared to $81K) the biggest first prize on offer for an online final table, and obviously binking it made a huge difference to my final total. The six months following that were very sketchy ; mostly I'm sure I wasn't running, let's say, as good as I usually do, but even so I think my play has been a bit sub-par. I've been watching a lot of cash videos and while I've learned a lot, it has kind of screwed with my tournament game because the play is so different (especially compared to high limit cash). The bottom line was I made $253K online which was about $20K down on last year and $50K down on my target.
I broke even live results-wise, meaning that I profited by the money people gave me to play with (for some reason known only to them). If I was lucky in my biggest online final I thought I was a bit hard done by in the TV final (the one Roberto Romanello won) so maybe it does even out to an extent.
Moving onwards and upwards I'm not going to deal in targets this year, I'm just going to play as many Sundays as I can (being one of the few people in the online MTT world who is actually rolled to play them) and apart from that as and when I feel like it. Live isn't a priority ; I'll have a look at what comes up regarding UK TV tournaments, and maybe play the odd satellite online if it fits my schedule, but I'm definitely looking to tone down the sponsorship angle and just try to GIQ (for a change). I think there's no point learning online NL cash by now, that ship has sailed. Maybe PLO or Mixed Games but every time I do start on these I give up pretty quickly !
Outside of poker (this is as good a place as any I suppose) I'd like to take more care with what I eat ; I get plenty of exercise with the golf so that's no problem. And nuts to football, as I said in that blog a few weeks ago. Apart from that, just remind myself that life is good, as we all have a tendency to take things for granted after a while. I might take a few bad beats or have a few months where not much goes right but it beats heading off to work at 8-30 on a Monday morning !
I will gloss over December ; to even call my effort in the month half-hearted would be overstating the case. Oh well, I probably deserved a bit of time off. 2009 overall was a strange one. On the surface, it looks competely in line with previous years - in fact my Net $ per tournament is insanely consistent, being $179 in 2007, $182 in 2008 and, believe it or not (I wouldn't) $182 in 2009. The insanity comes in because more than half of this year's profit came in one tournament.
It wasn't the only time I went deep in a Sunday major but it was by a large margin ($131K compared to $81K) the biggest first prize on offer for an online final table, and obviously binking it made a huge difference to my final total. The six months following that were very sketchy ; mostly I'm sure I wasn't running, let's say, as good as I usually do, but even so I think my play has been a bit sub-par. I've been watching a lot of cash videos and while I've learned a lot, it has kind of screwed with my tournament game because the play is so different (especially compared to high limit cash). The bottom line was I made $253K online which was about $20K down on last year and $50K down on my target.
I broke even live results-wise, meaning that I profited by the money people gave me to play with (for some reason known only to them). If I was lucky in my biggest online final I thought I was a bit hard done by in the TV final (the one Roberto Romanello won) so maybe it does even out to an extent.
Moving onwards and upwards I'm not going to deal in targets this year, I'm just going to play as many Sundays as I can (being one of the few people in the online MTT world who is actually rolled to play them) and apart from that as and when I feel like it. Live isn't a priority ; I'll have a look at what comes up regarding UK TV tournaments, and maybe play the odd satellite online if it fits my schedule, but I'm definitely looking to tone down the sponsorship angle and just try to GIQ (for a change). I think there's no point learning online NL cash by now, that ship has sailed. Maybe PLO or Mixed Games but every time I do start on these I give up pretty quickly !
Outside of poker (this is as good a place as any I suppose) I'd like to take more care with what I eat ; I get plenty of exercise with the golf so that's no problem. And nuts to football, as I said in that blog a few weeks ago. Apart from that, just remind myself that life is good, as we all have a tendency to take things for granted after a while. I might take a few bad beats or have a few months where not much goes right but it beats heading off to work at 8-30 on a Monday morning !
Monday, November 30, 2009
No More Hands
In case you're on the edge of your seat waiting for the other two hands, I decided they were pretty standard. Basically I flat called from about 25BB with suited broadway, flopped top pair and ended up losing to 1) a back door flush and 2) top pair better kicker. It happens. And as pointed out below, the KK hand is probably a pretty standard bet-call as well so meh.
While I'm here I can "do" November ; it's been an odd month. Despite Amsterdam I've put in some decent volume. I binked two tournaments (Party 150 and Ongame 50 rebuy) in the early part of the month when I wasn't playing particularly well, then in the second half I played much better and did my brains obv. Still up on the month in the end though. I've been watching a lot of videos on Bluefirepoker, Phil Galfond mostly, they're really good and are helping me no end in regard to hand-reading and exploiting opponents according to their tendencies.
There are also a couple of interesting threads on 2+2 that are worth checking out, one about Shaun Deeb retiring from tourneys and another being the one that pops up every three months or so asking Does any long-term MTT grinder still enjoy it ? I chip in to emphasise keeping a balance ; I think it's hugely important. There's no way anyone could keep putting in Deeb-volume indefinitely, but I still do enjoy playing 3 (max 4) nights a week and spending some time thinking about how to improve. For example I could play tonight, but I'm skipping it to just chill. The golf course was half underwater today :(, so I'll have more time to play next couple of months anyway.
Also : ZOMG, I played with this guy in a TV Sit-N-Go !
While I'm here I can "do" November ; it's been an odd month. Despite Amsterdam I've put in some decent volume. I binked two tournaments (Party 150 and Ongame 50 rebuy) in the early part of the month when I wasn't playing particularly well, then in the second half I played much better and did my brains obv. Still up on the month in the end though. I've been watching a lot of videos on Bluefirepoker, Phil Galfond mostly, they're really good and are helping me no end in regard to hand-reading and exploiting opponents according to their tendencies.
There are also a couple of interesting threads on 2+2 that are worth checking out, one about Shaun Deeb retiring from tourneys and another being the one that pops up every three months or so asking Does any long-term MTT grinder still enjoy it ? I chip in to emphasise keeping a balance ; I think it's hugely important. There's no way anyone could keep putting in Deeb-volume indefinitely, but I still do enjoy playing 3 (max 4) nights a week and spending some time thinking about how to improve. For example I could play tonight, but I'm skipping it to just chill. The golf course was half underwater today :(, so I'll have more time to play next couple of months anyway.
Also : ZOMG, I played with this guy in a TV Sit-N-Go !
Tuesday, November 24, 2009
Two Hands
I have four hands to talk about, and while they're all slightly different, they split quite nicely into two pairs and I want to bang on about them at great length so I thought I'd split it up. All four hands happened within the last two sessions, and what they all have in common is that even six months ago I would have just whacked the money in and said "ZOMG Cooler FML". But now, after playing about half a million hands in three years, I am beginning to pick up some rudimentary hand-reading skills. And I really wish that was a joke.
The first two hands are spots where a judicious turn check would have saved my "tournament life". First one's from memory as it's on Paradise. Middle stage of the tournament, I have 20K and I think it's 300-600, something like that. 3rd position open-raises, I call in the cut-off with AQ and one of the blinds calls as well. Flop comes Axx rainbow, blinds checks, raiser checks, I bet, blind folds, raiser calls. Fairly standard so far. People tend to overplay medium hands on Paradise quite badly so I like my hand here and am preparing to go to the felt with it [1]. Turn, however, is an offsuit Ten. He checks I bet he calls. River blank he checks again and something tells me I should check back, but there's only 6K behind and at least 20K in the pot (maybe I started with less than 20). I can't resist the bet, he calls with AT.
The point is that when we think a little bit deeper than "ZOMG AQ stack off" and do some hand reading, it gets more interesting. He should have quite a narrow range for check-calling the flop. Logically it should only be something like AJ-A9, KK-99, maybe a small set. There aren't many players on Paradise (or anywhere really) tricky enough to check-call AK there. Given that range, a Ten is probably the worst card to come off on the turn. It hits AT and TT obv. It should make AJ very uncomfortable (if he has AJ) because now what can I have that he beats ? What can he reasonably call a turn bet with that I'm still in front of ? AJ seems like about it. So I'm way ahead or way behind (3 outs max either way), which is usually a good pointer towards checking a street, and seeing as I had the option to check either turn or river I could have taken one of them.
The second hand is in the Party $150 last night. I have 2600 and it's 30-60. I pick up KK in the cut-off, standard 3x raise, big blind calls. Flop T75 rainbow, check bet call, all pretty straightforward so far. Turn is an 8 (making a 2-flush). Now he checks, I bet, he raises all in, I sigh-call and can't bink against 87. Same again, let's do some hand-reading when he calls my flop bet. Reasonable hands that I'm still well in front of : AT-JT is about it, even AT might have checkraised or led flop. Reasonable hands that now have a pair+draw : T9, 99, 98, 97, 86, 76, 66, 65. Hands that now lead : T8, 88, 87, J9, 96, 64 (the three straights being less likely) [2]. The rest aren't so likely, maybe A7, KQ/KJ/QJ, stuff like that, plus a few hands that were already in front, sets mostly. He was playing 40/7 so he could easily turn up with any of those hands pre-flop. As in the previous hand, the turn has helped about as much of his range as it could possibly have done. The temptation on the turn for me is to think "ZOMG must protect against T9", but you always have to balance protecting your hand against the possibility that you're just shovelling money in from behind [3].
In the event, he has so many semi-bluffing hands that I don't think calling the check-raise is too bad. I'm at least 55% against the range if he check-raises all his pair+draws. The point is that checking the turn allows me to pick up a ton of information on the river. What card comes off obv, and then what he does. If it comes something scary like a J, 9, 6 or 4 I can fold to a big bet for two reasons. One, the line check-call flop, check-check turn, bet large river is very often an attempted turn check-raise that now wants to make up for the lost value on the turn. Two, when these cards hit, he either got there or he has showdown value, and if he has showdown value he's very unlikely to make a big bet. Again, at this level of tournaments, there are very few players sharp enough to turn something like A7 into a bluff on the river. Neither will they balance their range by betting something like JT that rivers two pair. To summarize my river action : scare card, check behind, bemoan life and probably call a small bet, fold to a big one ; non-scare card, bet if checked to, probably fold to check-raise, call a small bet, bemoan life and probably call a big bet. It's not perfect but it's probably better than just whacking it in at 55%/forcing a lot of losing hands out on the turn.
[1] People like me by the looks of it ...
[2] Notice how many extra hands come in here because of the 5 on the flop. T72 would have been quite a bit different.
[3] Notice on TV that no one ever says "Well [hero] should bet to protect his hand" in the particular case where villain has a set.
The first two hands are spots where a judicious turn check would have saved my "tournament life". First one's from memory as it's on Paradise. Middle stage of the tournament, I have 20K and I think it's 300-600, something like that. 3rd position open-raises, I call in the cut-off with AQ and one of the blinds calls as well. Flop comes Axx rainbow, blinds checks, raiser checks, I bet, blind folds, raiser calls. Fairly standard so far. People tend to overplay medium hands on Paradise quite badly so I like my hand here and am preparing to go to the felt with it [1]. Turn, however, is an offsuit Ten. He checks I bet he calls. River blank he checks again and something tells me I should check back, but there's only 6K behind and at least 20K in the pot (maybe I started with less than 20). I can't resist the bet, he calls with AT.
The point is that when we think a little bit deeper than "ZOMG AQ stack off" and do some hand reading, it gets more interesting. He should have quite a narrow range for check-calling the flop. Logically it should only be something like AJ-A9, KK-99, maybe a small set. There aren't many players on Paradise (or anywhere really) tricky enough to check-call AK there. Given that range, a Ten is probably the worst card to come off on the turn. It hits AT and TT obv. It should make AJ very uncomfortable (if he has AJ) because now what can I have that he beats ? What can he reasonably call a turn bet with that I'm still in front of ? AJ seems like about it. So I'm way ahead or way behind (3 outs max either way), which is usually a good pointer towards checking a street, and seeing as I had the option to check either turn or river I could have taken one of them.
The second hand is in the Party $150 last night. I have 2600 and it's 30-60. I pick up KK in the cut-off, standard 3x raise, big blind calls. Flop T75 rainbow, check bet call, all pretty straightforward so far. Turn is an 8 (making a 2-flush). Now he checks, I bet, he raises all in, I sigh-call and can't bink against 87. Same again, let's do some hand-reading when he calls my flop bet. Reasonable hands that I'm still well in front of : AT-JT is about it, even AT might have checkraised or led flop. Reasonable hands that now have a pair+draw : T9, 99, 98, 97, 86, 76, 66, 65. Hands that now lead : T8, 88, 87, J9, 96, 64 (the three straights being less likely) [2]. The rest aren't so likely, maybe A7, KQ/KJ/QJ, stuff like that, plus a few hands that were already in front, sets mostly. He was playing 40/7 so he could easily turn up with any of those hands pre-flop. As in the previous hand, the turn has helped about as much of his range as it could possibly have done. The temptation on the turn for me is to think "ZOMG must protect against T9", but you always have to balance protecting your hand against the possibility that you're just shovelling money in from behind [3].
In the event, he has so many semi-bluffing hands that I don't think calling the check-raise is too bad. I'm at least 55% against the range if he check-raises all his pair+draws. The point is that checking the turn allows me to pick up a ton of information on the river. What card comes off obv, and then what he does. If it comes something scary like a J, 9, 6 or 4 I can fold to a big bet for two reasons. One, the line check-call flop, check-check turn, bet large river is very often an attempted turn check-raise that now wants to make up for the lost value on the turn. Two, when these cards hit, he either got there or he has showdown value, and if he has showdown value he's very unlikely to make a big bet. Again, at this level of tournaments, there are very few players sharp enough to turn something like A7 into a bluff on the river. Neither will they balance their range by betting something like JT that rivers two pair. To summarize my river action : scare card, check behind, bemoan life and probably call a small bet, fold to a big one ; non-scare card, bet if checked to, probably fold to check-raise, call a small bet, bemoan life and probably call a big bet. It's not perfect but it's probably better than just whacking it in at 55%/forcing a lot of losing hands out on the turn.
[1] People like me by the looks of it ...
[2] Notice how many extra hands come in here because of the 5 on the flop. T72 would have been quite a bit different.
[3] Notice on TV that no one ever says "Well [hero] should bet to protect his hand" in the particular case where villain has a set.
Monday, November 02, 2009
October Wrap / Amsterdam
Nicked $5K last month and another $3500 yesterday with a 3rd in the Tilt $69 6-max. That is a great tournament by the way, people spew horrendously just because it's 6-max, or for whatever reason, anyway they do. I have decided that I need to change my outlook a little bit ; for three years I've always looked forward to playing, but now not quite so much. Nonetheless, if playing online keeps me on the golf course the rest of the time instead of in an office then that's what I need to do, and I need to approach it more professionally. It's still fun going deep in a tournament, but the rest of the time I need to play well and not be too gung-ho about "double or bust" even if it's slightly dull at times. It's still 100x less dull than a real job so I need to just suck it up.
Apart from that, finally saw my WPO heat today, or Part 1 anyway. I liked the way it came out generally, the changes Matchroom have made have really improved the show. Slightly disappointed that my flop 3-bet against Schaffer with the nut low (alright a straight draw) missed the cut, whereas all my donk calls were front and centre, but Phil Laak wasn't too hard on me so I can live with it. Woteva. Speaking of woteva, I thought Luke Schwartz made a couple of odd plays that made him look not quite so good when you can see the cards, but woteva.
Off to Amsterdam next week with Withnails Poker School. Check out the site if you haven't seen it, there's a 3-minute interview with me looking like a pumpkin head thanks to Tristan's cheapo camera work. It has occurred to me that in the last three live tournaments I played I have re-shipped the standard 20BBs only to get called by KQ, KJ and KQ again (I was actually in front of the KJ because I had KQ aka the nuts). If that's the way it's going, I need to be a bit more patient live in those spots. I can always wait to the jam stage, especially with high live antes.
Apart from that, finally saw my WPO heat today, or Part 1 anyway. I liked the way it came out generally, the changes Matchroom have made have really improved the show. Slightly disappointed that my flop 3-bet against Schaffer with the nut low (alright a straight draw) missed the cut, whereas all my donk calls were front and centre, but Phil Laak wasn't too hard on me so I can live with it. Woteva. Speaking of woteva, I thought Luke Schwartz made a couple of odd plays that made him look not quite so good when you can see the cards, but woteva.
Off to Amsterdam next week with Withnails Poker School. Check out the site if you haven't seen it, there's a 3-minute interview with me looking like a pumpkin head thanks to Tristan's cheapo camera work. It has occurred to me that in the last three live tournaments I played I have re-shipped the standard 20BBs only to get called by KQ, KJ and KQ again (I was actually in front of the KJ because I had KQ aka the nuts). If that's the way it's going, I need to be a bit more patient live in those spots. I can always wait to the jam stage, especially with high live antes.
Wednesday, October 28, 2009
World Poker Open V Tonight
Part 1 (of 2) of my heat is on Five tonight at 00:10. This has taken me by surprise ; I would have missed it if Kevmath hadn't posted it on 2+2. Normally they send out DVDs to players before airing but I haven't received one for woteva reason, so I haven't seen it. To remind you, the heat features Timoshenko, Akenhead and Schwartz and should be more worth watching than previous programmes of this type.
Update : Funnily enough, Matchroom alerted me to this just now, and I should get a DVD in the week - but you'll see it before I do if you watch tonight !
Update : Funnily enough, Matchroom alerted me to this just now, and I should get a DVD in the week - but you'll see it before I do if you watch tonight !
Tuesday, October 13, 2009
What Do I Want To Be When I Grow Up
I had to give myself a talking to and a slap yesterday. Hey, I could pay someone to do that. Anyway, I was a bit down after the WPO heat but on reflection the fact that there were 3 better players in the heat wasn't the problem so much as a lack of mental effort all round, particularly when in hands against the other players. Make a note and move on.
Without bragging (I've done far too much of that already), even three years ago I wouldn't have thought I could come as far as I have, never mind 5, when I was working 9-5 and not really winning much playing live, or 15 years ago when I had a shit job and no money. But what of the future ? Where, or who, do I want to be 15 years from now ? Someone on 2+2 today suggested that 25 years from now most MTTc-ers would probably look like Devilfish. Now that's a chilling thought. As much as I rag on Devilfish at times he does command a lot of respect in the poker world, and can play extremely well when he wants to. Nonetheless, I do not want to be Devilfish 15 years from now. I'd much rather be Freddie Carle.
Now, the first thing most of you are going to say is WTF is Freddie Carle. Well, that's kind of the point. This guy gets the absolute lot in the Vic. The cake. I'm not saying I want to take up residence in the Vic 24/7 but the point is he gets the lot in his chosen field, and no one's ever heard of him. According to legend he has never even been to Vegas. Now that's getting it quietly. And that seems to be a much more dignified way of life when one reaches the sunset years. Or even now. So from now on, keep doing what I do, take the odd shot live but don't take it too seriously, and cut down on the bragging, definitely. That's probably going to be hardest of all ...
Without bragging (I've done far too much of that already), even three years ago I wouldn't have thought I could come as far as I have, never mind 5, when I was working 9-5 and not really winning much playing live, or 15 years ago when I had a shit job and no money. But what of the future ? Where, or who, do I want to be 15 years from now ? Someone on 2+2 today suggested that 25 years from now most MTTc-ers would probably look like Devilfish. Now that's a chilling thought. As much as I rag on Devilfish at times he does command a lot of respect in the poker world, and can play extremely well when he wants to. Nonetheless, I do not want to be Devilfish 15 years from now. I'd much rather be Freddie Carle.
Now, the first thing most of you are going to say is WTF is Freddie Carle. Well, that's kind of the point. This guy gets the absolute lot in the Vic. The cake. I'm not saying I want to take up residence in the Vic 24/7 but the point is he gets the lot in his chosen field, and no one's ever heard of him. According to legend he has never even been to Vegas. Now that's getting it quietly. And that seems to be a much more dignified way of life when one reaches the sunset years. Or even now. So from now on, keep doing what I do, take the odd shot live but don't take it too seriously, and cut down on the bragging, definitely. That's probably going to be hardest of all ...
Saturday, October 10, 2009
World Poker Open V (Contains Spoilers)
I'm playing in the first heat of the WPO V tomorrow (Sunday) at the Palm Beach. Anyone's welcome to come along and rail, if you really haven't got anything better to do :-). Having said that, it's a relatively strong line-up. More to the point, my heat sounds tougher than any TV table I've played before. I'm up against James Akenhead, Luke Schwartz and Yevgeny Timoshenko ; these guys are not just excellent all-round players, they also know the fundamentals as well as I do. James and Yevgeny are running hotter than the sun right now, mbn [1]. Ian Frazer's in the mix too, and I expect online qualifiers to be stronger than usual as they came through $700 satellites. Mind you, on Party. But I know Rob Sherwood, who's a very good player, has qualified online (he's not in my heat) and I'd expect a few more. Luckily I know how to do what so many people have failed to do against me in these ; suck it up and gamble against better players in the right spots.
This is still good value for me to play but without the Boyle sponsorship (and the lucky patch of course) it would be marginal. On top of that, I think this might be the "last hurrah" for TV 6-maxes, at least at the level below Poker Million and so on. Paradoxically, as fields become tougher, it makes for worse TV. When three guys in every heat, and five in every semi, realise that there are three basic stages :
1) Fold
2) Reshove
3) Shove
then it's not going to make for exciting TV. I think Matchroom realise this, and I fully understand why they're trying to branch out into Heads Up and stuff like that. This one is "triple stack" but all that means is two more levels of stage 1 on the front. We'll see how it goes. I'm glad I'm playing this as my contribution to the poker world coming to London - it's way the best value in terms of exposure and sponsorship for me. But after this I'm probably going into lockdown during the winter, and just cracking on online, brief trips (freebies in fact yay) to Dublin and Amsterdam excepted.
While I'm here, great interview with Neil here on the 2+2 Pokercast. He's very candid about his ups and downs and, of course, amusing as ever in his anecdotes. It starts about half an hour in I think, somewhere like that.
[1] Which of course gives them no inherent advantage but they'll both be super confident and free of doubt when it comes to their game.
Results : Well I'm here flicking my plums and trying to get out of it in the Sunday donkaments while the heat's still going on, which is result enough. Playing deep stacked against people who are better than me certainly wasn't as much fun as torturing donks with re-shoves starting at level 2. I could have saved a hero call or two but even with 50K more I'd still have 4-bet jammed AQs on Timoshenko's open and a qualifier's 3-bet with the same result (qualifier calls with 99 and I unaccountably miss). And now I've just passed AQ to a re-shove and a call in the Warm-Up to find they both have 88. Sometimes it's just not your day.
Apart from that I won't spoil too much, although there was one amusing hand where Timoshenko and Akenhead got it in on a coinflip. Even when the universe didn't explode as a result of this immovable object vs irresistible force of rungood, it somehow didn't come out as a split pot. They both hit the flop though obv.
This is still good value for me to play but without the Boyle sponsorship (and the lucky patch of course) it would be marginal. On top of that, I think this might be the "last hurrah" for TV 6-maxes, at least at the level below Poker Million and so on. Paradoxically, as fields become tougher, it makes for worse TV. When three guys in every heat, and five in every semi, realise that there are three basic stages :
1) Fold
2) Reshove
3) Shove
then it's not going to make for exciting TV. I think Matchroom realise this, and I fully understand why they're trying to branch out into Heads Up and stuff like that. This one is "triple stack" but all that means is two more levels of stage 1 on the front. We'll see how it goes. I'm glad I'm playing this as my contribution to the poker world coming to London - it's way the best value in terms of exposure and sponsorship for me. But after this I'm probably going into lockdown during the winter, and just cracking on online, brief trips (freebies in fact yay) to Dublin and Amsterdam excepted.
While I'm here, great interview with Neil here on the 2+2 Pokercast. He's very candid about his ups and downs and, of course, amusing as ever in his anecdotes. It starts about half an hour in I think, somewhere like that.
[1] Which of course gives them no inherent advantage but they'll both be super confident and free of doubt when it comes to their game.
Results : Well I'm here flicking my plums and trying to get out of it in the Sunday donkaments while the heat's still going on, which is result enough. Playing deep stacked against people who are better than me certainly wasn't as much fun as torturing donks with re-shoves starting at level 2. I could have saved a hero call or two but even with 50K more I'd still have 4-bet jammed AQs on Timoshenko's open and a qualifier's 3-bet with the same result (qualifier calls with 99 and I unaccountably miss). And now I've just passed AQ to a re-shove and a call in the Warm-Up to find they both have 88. Sometimes it's just not your day.
Apart from that I won't spoil too much, although there was one amusing hand where Timoshenko and Akenhead got it in on a coinflip. Even when the universe didn't explode as a result of this immovable object vs irresistible force of rungood, it somehow didn't come out as a split pot. They both hit the flop though obv.
Wednesday, September 30, 2009
Another Late Turnaround
John Fox said something about how the best time to play was 3am on the last Friday of the month, and that playing just that hour every month wouldn't necessarily be what you wanted to do .. but it would still be profitable ! Well, if I only played the last Sunday of every month I'd have a hell of an ROI that's for sure. This time I saved my bacon (mmm bacon) in the Stars $100 rebuy, finishing 4th for $30K+change. Yes, 4th for $30K, it's a massive rebuy donkfest ! On top of a win in the Paradise E50 rebuy last Wednesday (that has to be my favourite tournament right now), that put me nicely ahead for the month, with a total buyin of $25K in 54 hours play which was a slightly better effort.
I've changed tack on what I'm listening to while playing, it's quite interesting. After trying a couple of brainwave entrainment samples that promised the world and didn't really deliver, I tried Mind Stereo which I really like (and Neuroprogrammer from the same people but that doesn't really apply to poker). Mind Stereo allows you to play music (whether from your own playlist or an internet radio station) and apply pulse modulations that are supposed to help you relax or (more appropriately for poker) concentrate/study better. To start with I was playing this sort of techno (I don't know what it is exactly, trance maybe) for the first half of the session, and then ambient for the second. On Sunday I switched to ambient all the way through, which seemed to work, being result oriented :-). Seriously it's hard to tell whether it's listening to background music with which I'm not familiar or the actual pulse modulation but I do seem to focus better and for longer. It could even be a placebo (not the band Placebo they suck), but what the hell, if a placebo helps me make $30K then bring it on. It turns out both the stations I was listening to are part of Soma FM FWIW. The Drone Zone is my favourite. I should throw them a bone really, 1% or something.
Anyway that's it for me this month. You'll notice no liveaments, screw them. Well I might play the £500 8-Game next week, but seeing as I couldn't be bothered to show up for the £2K, don't count on it. And gg ul to the Camel who busted 11th in the WSOP-E. Could have been worse, how tilting would it have been if Sheringham had won it ?
I've changed tack on what I'm listening to while playing, it's quite interesting. After trying a couple of brainwave entrainment samples that promised the world and didn't really deliver, I tried Mind Stereo which I really like (and Neuroprogrammer from the same people but that doesn't really apply to poker). Mind Stereo allows you to play music (whether from your own playlist or an internet radio station) and apply pulse modulations that are supposed to help you relax or (more appropriately for poker) concentrate/study better. To start with I was playing this sort of techno (I don't know what it is exactly, trance maybe) for the first half of the session, and then ambient for the second. On Sunday I switched to ambient all the way through, which seemed to work, being result oriented :-). Seriously it's hard to tell whether it's listening to background music with which I'm not familiar or the actual pulse modulation but I do seem to focus better and for longer. It could even be a placebo (not the band Placebo they suck), but what the hell, if a placebo helps me make $30K then bring it on. It turns out both the stations I was listening to are part of Soma FM FWIW. The Drone Zone is my favourite. I should throw them a bone really, 1% or something.
Anyway that's it for me this month. You'll notice no liveaments, screw them. Well I might play the £500 8-Game next week, but seeing as I couldn't be bothered to show up for the £2K, don't count on it. And gg ul to the Camel who busted 11th in the WSOP-E. Could have been worse, how tilting would it have been if Sheringham had won it ?
Wednesday, September 09, 2009
The Best Of British ?
I'm quite enjoying this series of The Poker Show, but if Jesse makes one more comment about how it's a "disgrace" that there are no UK players in the Caesars Cup team then I'll have to phone up and give him some GBH to the earhole.
Let me clarify to start with that I don't give a monkeys about the Caesars Cup, it's yet another gimmick dreamt up so that Daniel Negreanu & Co can grab some more TV time without having to do anything inconvenient like be better at poker than other people to do it. But Jesse is putting me on super life tilt with this. The European team, with Annette as captain, is as follows : Elky, Dario, Peter Eastgate, Patrik Antonious and Zigmund. If anyone thinks it's a "disgrace" that there are no UK players in it, then it couldn't be simpler. Tell me who should be out and which UK player should be in instead. There are a few you could make a case for being close, but if you're totally objective then you can still make a better case for those already in and a few more (mostly Scandis) besides. There's definitely no one who's such a glaring omission that it's a "disgrace".
At times Jesse appears to imply that there should be a UK player because it's being held here - but then he talks about the selection being "political", and what would be more political than sticking someone in who's not good enough just because they're from a particular country ? A lot of our "great players" have made their reputation on the live UK circuit, or on TV tournaments, which means fuck all because the standard in both of those is dog poop. Tell me which UK player inspires fear when he sits down at the table. That's right, no one.
Update : The more I think about this, the more I can take another angle, which is that it's super disrespectful to Annette and the players on the team. Team poker is super ghey but, having said that, I can't remember a stronger team ever being assembled. It's also the least "political". We all know that people have "played for England" on the grounds of bunging the captain a few quid and giving him a lift to the game. If you pick any UK tournament player, Elky is better. Any cash player, Zigmund is better. Any heads up player, Dario is better. Any champion of this or that, Eastgate is the current World Champ. And any all round player, Antonious is better. And when I say better I mean by a street. This is a super strong team and so, given the super retarded format of what they're playing, they're at least 20-21 favourites.
Further Update : I like saying "super", deal with it ; and maybe there is one better heads up player than Dario.
Poker Show : I've just been on The Poker Show talking about this and straight afterwards Eddie Hearn pointed out that if I thought it was a gimmick event, then why be so outspoken about having the best players in it, which is 100% fair, and it's why I was a bit reticent about even making the post. But there you go. It was just a rant, and after making it, it seemed only fair to let them interview me about it when they asked.
Let me clarify to start with that I don't give a monkeys about the Caesars Cup, it's yet another gimmick dreamt up so that Daniel Negreanu & Co can grab some more TV time without having to do anything inconvenient like be better at poker than other people to do it. But Jesse is putting me on super life tilt with this. The European team, with Annette as captain, is as follows : Elky, Dario, Peter Eastgate, Patrik Antonious and Zigmund. If anyone thinks it's a "disgrace" that there are no UK players in it, then it couldn't be simpler. Tell me who should be out and which UK player should be in instead. There are a few you could make a case for being close, but if you're totally objective then you can still make a better case for those already in and a few more (mostly Scandis) besides. There's definitely no one who's such a glaring omission that it's a "disgrace".
At times Jesse appears to imply that there should be a UK player because it's being held here - but then he talks about the selection being "political", and what would be more political than sticking someone in who's not good enough just because they're from a particular country ? A lot of our "great players" have made their reputation on the live UK circuit, or on TV tournaments, which means fuck all because the standard in both of those is dog poop. Tell me which UK player inspires fear when he sits down at the table. That's right, no one.
Update : The more I think about this, the more I can take another angle, which is that it's super disrespectful to Annette and the players on the team. Team poker is super ghey but, having said that, I can't remember a stronger team ever being assembled. It's also the least "political". We all know that people have "played for England" on the grounds of bunging the captain a few quid and giving him a lift to the game. If you pick any UK tournament player, Elky is better. Any cash player, Zigmund is better. Any heads up player, Dario is better. Any champion of this or that, Eastgate is the current World Champ. And any all round player, Antonious is better. And when I say better I mean by a street. This is a super strong team and so, given the super retarded format of what they're playing, they're at least 20-21 favourites.
Further Update : I like saying "super", deal with it ; and maybe there is one better heads up player than Dario.
Poker Show : I've just been on The Poker Show talking about this and straight afterwards Eddie Hearn pointed out that if I thought it was a gimmick event, then why be so outspoken about having the best players in it, which is 100% fair, and it's why I was a bit reticent about even making the post. But there you go. It was just a rant, and after making it, it seemed only fair to let them interview me about it when they asked.
Sunday, September 06, 2009
Public Service Announcement
I had Betfair open this evening as I was keeping an eye on their WSOP-E satellite. With $500 buy-in and a $200K guarantee, 5 minutes before kick-off it looked like there was a decent overlay in prospect, with about 200 players registered. Then, next time I looked at it, which must have been about 10 seconds later, there were 300. Still only 200 players in the list, but 300 in the count. The discrepancy remained until the tournament actually kicked off, when the player list jumped up to match the count at 314.
I don't know whether this was down to bad software or shenanigans on Betfair's part but just watch out for this. I asked on 2+2 whether it was just me and one person confirmed, FWIW. There was still an overlay but anyone who registered 7 minutes before because of the apparent double overlay would have cause to be annoyed. I didn't play myself as I was still umm-ing and ah-ing when this started to happen.
Update : (Completely unsubstantiated) story about this here.
I don't know whether this was down to bad software or shenanigans on Betfair's part but just watch out for this. I asked on 2+2 whether it was just me and one person confirmed, FWIW. There was still an overlay but anyone who registered 7 minutes before because of the apparent double overlay would have cause to be annoyed. I didn't play myself as I was still umm-ing and ah-ing when this started to happen.
Update : (Completely unsubstantiated) story about this here.
