The sun is shining in London, the Beach Boys are on and, best of all, I made a final table without finishing 9th - a-woohoo! After my PKR Live nearly-ness I played in the PKR $165 Double Chance High Roller tourney a few days later, made it to the final table in about 4th place....and finished 9th. That was good for about $500 or something when first paid out around $4.5k. My good friend Rick Dacey had been railing me since the final few tables and we'd been jokling that it was my destiny to always finish 9th on final tables from now on....not amusing.
Anyway, I finally broke the damn curse (of only a fortnight) by finishing second in PKR’s Primetime Turbo last night for $1400! I’ve literally no idea how I didn’t win as my opponent was bloody awful but to be fair I played pretty crap in the heads-up too. I was intent on just min-raising every pot when I should have been happy to play post-flop with him or just jam on him instead. As it was a turbo we never really had effective stacks of more than 15BBs, although somehow the HU went on for around 45 minutes.
Still, you can never moan about getting to HU in a turbo considering the amount of coinflips and suckouts you have to achieve in order to get there in the first place. As much as I’d like to claim it is, coming runner-up in a turbo is about as much to do with skill as Andy Gray is to sexual equality.
Still, you can never moan about getting to HU in a turbo considering the amount of coinflips and suckouts you have to achieve in order to get there in the first place. As much as I’d like to claim it is, coming runner-up in a turbo is about as much to do with skill as Andy Gray is to sexual equality.
After last month’s cash game bonanza this month (all three days of it) has started off well too. I played a crazy session with Kresch at $2/$4 heads-up a few days ago. We’ve played long heads-up sessions probably three times before. The first was about nine months ago when I was only just starting to play $2/$4 and the thought of losing $400 in a hand still sent little shudders up my spine. I played poorly, he played well and beat me out of about $1,200. Then we had a rematch a few months later and I’d made lots of improvements in my HU game and beat him out of $2k – so I was pretty happy when he tweeted me saying he was absolutely wasted and wanting to play some HU. I was just about to quit for the evening as I’d been playing pretty bad and was down $2k for the day but thought if really was as drunk as he said then it was a good spot.
He was battered. Every hand he would 3-bet blind out of position and didn’t ever fold. Being a little slow on the uptake, it took me about 30 minutes to realise this but after that Kresch was just giving money away with some suicidal bluffs.
Table info:
| Posts big blind $4,00 |
| Dealer, Posts small blind $2,00 |
Dealt to MrStarch
I was pretty happy to get it all-in preflop here, as weak as KQ actually is. We’d played a hand a few minutes before where Kresch had 5-bet jammed A5 and I called with AT and won so I thought he might be tilting a bit.
Preflop: (Pot: $6)
RAISE MrStarch, to $10,00
RAISE kresch, to $32,00
RAISE MrStarch, to $88,00
CALL kresch, $64,00
RAISE kresch, to $32,00
RAISE MrStarch, to $88,00
CALL kresch, $64,00
River: (Pot: $186,00)
CHECK kresch
BET MrStarch, $108,00
RAISE kresch, to $423,40
CALL MrStarch, $315,40
Showdown:
SHOWS kresch
SHOWS MrStarch
MrStarch wins the pot of $1 045,80
It’s a pretty strong line ordinarily but there’s no way I can fold top pair here in this situation.
Kresch ended up giving me about $2k so I ended the day break-even which was nice. Anytime you want to get drunk and play again mate, just give me a call :)
Just one more hand from last night which I played – with all modesty intact – AWESOMELY.
Team PKR pro (and very good player and cool guy) Sascha ‘Locodice’ Walter, Dunder (PLO aggro mega-station) and I were all nearly 200BBs deep when this hand come up. It’s not a line I’d take especially often but I think when you are deeper there are so many more options available for creative play. I channelled my inner Muzone for this one.
Table info:
Seat 1: cevzy ($464,90)
Seat 2: r123456a ($375,66)
Seat 3: locodice ($740,70)
Seat 4: MrStarch ($803,30)
Seat 5: Dunder101 ($1 035,09)
Seat 6: BritAbroad ($572,64)
Seat 2: r123456a ($375,66)
| Dealer |
| Posts small blind $2,00 |
| Posts big blind $4,00 |
Seat 6: BritAbroad ($572,64)
Dealt to MrStarch
It’s not ideal as I’m out of position against two competent players but I think I am getting the right implied odds to set-mine here with my 88 this deep. Plus, I can win the pot sometimes on good boards even if I don’t hit an 8. So I call.
Flop: (Pot: $124,00)
CHECK MrStarch
BET Dunder101, $64,00
CALL locodice, $64,00
RAISE MrStarch, to $180,00
FOLD Dunder101
FOLD locodice
Showdown:
SHOWS MrStarch MrStarch wins the pot of $437,00
Dunder can be (and should be) c-betting his whole range here. That includes some overpairs but also a ton of hands like AQ-AK that missed, or even AJ etc (though unlikely) that will find it hard to continue versus a check-raise. Loco’s flat call could be a slow-played set but besides that there just isn’t a hand strong enough in his range that can call me either.
Check-raising two players like this just looks so strong. As Dunder was tanking I could hear him screaming out loud ‘I can’t believe he has a set of fives!’ – in the words of Tony G, ‘I played it like a set’. Locodice tanked forever and folded too, he told me that he had QQ. Go Starchy!
There have been a few cool non-poker things going off. First, we had to postpone the eagerly awaited Hawksmoor steak visit due to Hattie getting ill. That’s sad but we are booked in again for three week’s time so it’s all good. The highlight of the Bank Holiday weekend was the new incredible ice cream shop that’s opened a few minutes from our flat. Mmmmm.
We also saw a brilliant Belle & Sebastian gig in Camden at the Roundhouse. I’ve always liked B&S but live they were superb, really getting the crowd into it and performing with a ton of energy. I highly recommend. Here is one of their best songs to finish on.
Tony G - How to keep your dignity with class and sophistication in one lesson, right there.
ReplyDeleteNice post guv. Kinda like the 88 play, but there is no way on earth that you are making this play with a set, so bad play by loco if he folded qq...
ReplyDeleteAs for Tony G - I hate that man with almost an unfathomable fashion, and prey for him to go busto beyond comprehension. Those who say 'but he's a personality' Sorry, but i think we can do without personalities like his - COCK!
I used to think Tony was super funny, like in this clip, but now he's just a bit of a pathetic parody of himself on screen. Much like Hellmuth and Matusow sometimes. Sad to watch really.
ReplyDelete