I've
never written a blog in conditions quite as absurd as this before. I'm
currently sat in a €1/2 cash game typing away in the 'notes' section of
my iPhone after busting out of the UKIPT Galway earlier on Day 2.
Guerilla journalism 101.
The game is pure madness. Everyone is limping every hand and talking in thick Irish accents that are completely indecipherable to my (slightly crappy) hearing. In one hand, I three-bet the table fool with A-A. He called in 0.1 seconds before check-raising the K-T-J flop, betting €100 on the 2 turn and then moving all-in on the 3 river for €200 more. He is such a loon that I was tempted to call but he kind of gave the game away by staring me down, then flirting with the waitress, then making jokes. Suffice to say, he showed a set when I folded.
The very next hand I got dealt A-A again and won a €600 pot. So now I'm sat on €800 in a €1/2 game when everyone else on the table has about €100 except for Looney Tunes who is playing €600. Please, please let me get him before my flight home! I'll let you know if anything exciting happens later...
Oh God, he's now just told the only woman at the table that she should be home cleaning dishes. I now know two things about him: he's shit at poker and he's a raging sexist.
Let's rewind a few days. Getting to Galway is a massive pain in the arse - flight to Shannon followed by a two-hour bus journey from the airport - but the event has been a huge success. It's crazy that the UKIPT can now draw 700 players to a remote part of Ireland. It's also really cool that you can win over €100,000 from just a €700 buy-in!
Unfortunately, my bank account won't be getting a six-figure boost this time around. However, I think I played some great poker on Day 1 after getting what was undoubtedly the toughest table in the room. On my direct left I had Rupinder Bedi, online MTT superstar Jono Crute, Andrew Teng and Max bloody Silver. Argh!
While it's obviously better if you can draw a table full of fish, there are positives to getting a Table of Doom too. I find it really helps me to raise my game and have complete focus. In the early stages of a big MTT it's sometimes difficult to find motivation and refrain from playing too many hands - that's not an issue when you know there is quality opposition all around.
The most interesting pot I played was a big bluff versus Silver. We both had around 16,000 at the 150/300 level when I opened 7c-9c to 700 from the cut-off and he called from the big blind. I bet 700 on the Jc-6d-6h flop and he check-raised to 2,000. Now, he's obviously a really aggressive player and when he does this he will often have air, so I call and have a good stack size to shove over a turn bet if I pick up equity such as a club or gutshot, and can expect him to fold a high percentage of the time.
Instead, he checked the Ts turn and I bet 3,000. He called, and his hand looks a lot like something he really wants to get to showdown with now as I'm sure he'd bet all his really strong hands 100 percent of the time on that turn. The river was an off-suit king. He checked again and I bet 5,500 into the 12,000-ish pot. He tanked for ages and finally folded. I was really happy with my line in the hand and it gave me great confidence for the end of the day.
I finished on 28,000 which was just below average and translated into 35 big blinds for Day 2. Play finished at 9pm so I then went out for a few beers in town and chatted with Crute, Rob Angood, Sam Razavi, Sam Holden, Owen Robinson and lots of others - they're all really good guys and great players too.
Despite a small hangover I was up at 9am to go to the gym and prepare for what was going to be another long day of playing. As it turned out, I only lasted one hour. I lost most of my chips when a young guy min-raised the button (he had 16 big blinds) and I jammed from the small blind with J-Q. He tanked for a while, eventually made a good call with A-8 and held up for a 36 big blind pot.
I liked his remark afterwards: "If you were 20 years older I'd have folded." I rarely play online MTTs so my knowledge of these sorts of situations isn't perfect but I asked a few magicians what they thought and everyone seemed to think we both played the hand well. Phew... Anyway, that left me with 10 big blinds which I promptly shoved when I picked up T-T, only to lose a race versus K-J.
It's always disappointing to bust out of a tournament but it's a lot easier to handle when you know you played well. I'm already itching to get home and start playing online again as I'm sure the good results are coming.
The rest of the month has been pretty good; online cash games are going okay, and I'm up around $4000 or so after a few very swingy days playing $5/10. I've also finally started beating $100NL on Black Belt Poker for a really good rate, so I'm looking forward to putting in more volume there in March.
I celebrated my 27th birthday this month too. My awesome girlfriend booked a gastro pub/hotel for us in the Cotswolds which did great food - I had octopus followed by venison - and even had Anchor Steam beer on tap! I'm a huge US craft beer freak so any establishment that sells either Sierra Nevada, Brooklyn lager, Anchor Steam or Sam Adams automatically gets five stars.
Hitting 27 is a little odd though. It's pretty old for an online poker pro these days, and I really have no idea how long I want to keep playing poker full-time for. I love it now, and am doing well and hugely improving, but it's a little scary to think of supporting a family through poker or doing this for the next 50 years. I'm just taking it one year at a time at the moment.
And as for this cash game I’m currently in? Well, I'm €32 down at the moment and it's the epitome of excitement. Actually, it's not: our sexist friend left an hour ago so there isn't really much need to be here anymore.
I'm off to my bed to dream of home - and winning the next UKIPT.
The game is pure madness. Everyone is limping every hand and talking in thick Irish accents that are completely indecipherable to my (slightly crappy) hearing. In one hand, I three-bet the table fool with A-A. He called in 0.1 seconds before check-raising the K-T-J flop, betting €100 on the 2 turn and then moving all-in on the 3 river for €200 more. He is such a loon that I was tempted to call but he kind of gave the game away by staring me down, then flirting with the waitress, then making jokes. Suffice to say, he showed a set when I folded.
The very next hand I got dealt A-A again and won a €600 pot. So now I'm sat on €800 in a €1/2 game when everyone else on the table has about €100 except for Looney Tunes who is playing €600. Please, please let me get him before my flight home! I'll let you know if anything exciting happens later...
Oh God, he's now just told the only woman at the table that she should be home cleaning dishes. I now know two things about him: he's shit at poker and he's a raging sexist.
Let's rewind a few days. Getting to Galway is a massive pain in the arse - flight to Shannon followed by a two-hour bus journey from the airport - but the event has been a huge success. It's crazy that the UKIPT can now draw 700 players to a remote part of Ireland. It's also really cool that you can win over €100,000 from just a €700 buy-in!
Unfortunately, my bank account won't be getting a six-figure boost this time around. However, I think I played some great poker on Day 1 after getting what was undoubtedly the toughest table in the room. On my direct left I had Rupinder Bedi, online MTT superstar Jono Crute, Andrew Teng and Max bloody Silver. Argh!
While it's obviously better if you can draw a table full of fish, there are positives to getting a Table of Doom too. I find it really helps me to raise my game and have complete focus. In the early stages of a big MTT it's sometimes difficult to find motivation and refrain from playing too many hands - that's not an issue when you know there is quality opposition all around.
The most interesting pot I played was a big bluff versus Silver. We both had around 16,000 at the 150/300 level when I opened 7c-9c to 700 from the cut-off and he called from the big blind. I bet 700 on the Jc-6d-6h flop and he check-raised to 2,000. Now, he's obviously a really aggressive player and when he does this he will often have air, so I call and have a good stack size to shove over a turn bet if I pick up equity such as a club or gutshot, and can expect him to fold a high percentage of the time.
Instead, he checked the Ts turn and I bet 3,000. He called, and his hand looks a lot like something he really wants to get to showdown with now as I'm sure he'd bet all his really strong hands 100 percent of the time on that turn. The river was an off-suit king. He checked again and I bet 5,500 into the 12,000-ish pot. He tanked for ages and finally folded. I was really happy with my line in the hand and it gave me great confidence for the end of the day.
I finished on 28,000 which was just below average and translated into 35 big blinds for Day 2. Play finished at 9pm so I then went out for a few beers in town and chatted with Crute, Rob Angood, Sam Razavi, Sam Holden, Owen Robinson and lots of others - they're all really good guys and great players too.
Despite a small hangover I was up at 9am to go to the gym and prepare for what was going to be another long day of playing. As it turned out, I only lasted one hour. I lost most of my chips when a young guy min-raised the button (he had 16 big blinds) and I jammed from the small blind with J-Q. He tanked for a while, eventually made a good call with A-8 and held up for a 36 big blind pot.
I liked his remark afterwards: "If you were 20 years older I'd have folded." I rarely play online MTTs so my knowledge of these sorts of situations isn't perfect but I asked a few magicians what they thought and everyone seemed to think we both played the hand well. Phew... Anyway, that left me with 10 big blinds which I promptly shoved when I picked up T-T, only to lose a race versus K-J.
It's always disappointing to bust out of a tournament but it's a lot easier to handle when you know you played well. I'm already itching to get home and start playing online again as I'm sure the good results are coming.
The rest of the month has been pretty good; online cash games are going okay, and I'm up around $4000 or so after a few very swingy days playing $5/10. I've also finally started beating $100NL on Black Belt Poker for a really good rate, so I'm looking forward to putting in more volume there in March.
I celebrated my 27th birthday this month too. My awesome girlfriend booked a gastro pub/hotel for us in the Cotswolds which did great food - I had octopus followed by venison - and even had Anchor Steam beer on tap! I'm a huge US craft beer freak so any establishment that sells either Sierra Nevada, Brooklyn lager, Anchor Steam or Sam Adams automatically gets five stars.
Hitting 27 is a little odd though. It's pretty old for an online poker pro these days, and I really have no idea how long I want to keep playing poker full-time for. I love it now, and am doing well and hugely improving, but it's a little scary to think of supporting a family through poker or doing this for the next 50 years. I'm just taking it one year at a time at the moment.
And as for this cash game I’m currently in? Well, I'm €32 down at the moment and it's the epitome of excitement. Actually, it's not: our sexist friend left an hour ago so there isn't really much need to be here anymore.
I'm off to my bed to dream of home - and winning the next UKIPT.
No comments:
Post a Comment