Year 3

Finally got round to year 3 so here goes.

I moved back to Stockton for my final year so I could attend some lectures. It was the first year we had a fresher’s fair for Queens but that didn’t go too well. We did however host a fresher’s non drinking event where we had a turnout of 30+ people which I was told was the highest non drinking attendance for the week.

It was a £1 entrance fee but the prizes were donated from the JCR, naturally I won it and won a meal for two but I was later offered two Jimmy Carr tickets instead, SCORE!!

It was a really good year for the society and we soon had a regular cash game going which was awesome. Six/seven handed usually with mostly £250 pots obviously it was a very fishy standard but fun as hell, standard raises were 50p plus as otherwise it became a family pot.

I didn’t do a dissertation as it was optional and I chose to do 2 modules instead, BIG mistake. Although it did give me a lot more free time up till Easter.

Ipoker launched the ECCOP which was very much like the WCOOP Stars have but smaller. Carrying on from my PLO summer my 1^st target was to qualify for these, did this 1^st time for the $100r qualifying from a $10r where I was in for $20. The $250, I think, freeze out however proved more difficult. There were two stages both freeze outs, first was the $5 which usually had around 10 people with 3 seats Guaranteed, I would breeze through this with ease usually doing so 80%+ time. The next level, $30 I think, had 1/2 seats with the remainder of the money being returned tourney fees. I think it took me around 6 times to finally get a seat with me bubbling twice, although I usually did get my $33 which was a nice profit and I kept playing these even after I qualified just to build my account up a little. I also qualified for the limit hold ‘em event but no NL but in truth I didn’t try too many qualifiers for them.

Unfortunately didn’t cash in any of them, I’m still fuming to this day with one of the plo knockouts where I flopped broadway and he flopped a set then turned a flush draw where we got it all in and he made the flush in the river, that was a little way out of the money but was for a huge stack, he ended up coming 11^th and I’m sure I would have done much better with that stack. In the rebuy PLO I didn’t really play very well, maybe still a bit steaming from the previous day. I donked off half my chips within an hour and then got involved in a very amusing hand. I don’t know what Spacefreak folds on the flop but how can he fold!! LMAO just remembered something Vindla was the guy who knocked me out with the flush before, how random!!!

saw flop | saw showdown

Button Spacefreak (2730)
SB 7SamAt (3480)
BB CY27 (2040)
UTG NChristensen (2530)
UTG+1 Kiraj (2890)
MP vindla (2550)
MP Vladislava88 (8410)
MP boldie1974 (2850)
CO-1 Hero (1610)
CO XoKuhn (2910)

Preflop: Hero is in the CO-1 with 6h As 7s 7h
2 folds, vindla calls 40, 2 folds, Hero calls 40, 1 fold, Spacefreak raises to 220, 2 folds, vindla calls 180, Hero calls 180.

Flop (720) 8s 9h 3h
vindla checks, Hero bets 720, Spacefreak raises to 1440, vindla raises to 2330, Hero moves all-in for 670, 1 fold.

Turn (5880) 2c

River (5880) 3d

vindla shows Kh 7c Ah 4d
Hero shows 6h As 7s 7h

Hero wins 5880 with Two pair, Sevens and Threes with a Nine for a kicker

I actually thought I had lost the pot till it came to me, at least I got a bit of revenge on him.

I’m getting bored of writing about the past so I’ll just do some quick points.

• The week before the UPL final started I started trying to qualify for it, I shipped 3 online tourneys in one week to win 2 seats and won a 3^rd seat with a last minute organised UPL live tourney.
• I did ok at the final but came unstuck when I massive stack came to my left that messed me up.
• Cash games were a good laugh with several funny hands but I’ll just mention the one. Me and John Campbell, we love to make moves against each other, I raised pf with kh10h and the flop was paired with two hearts. Of course we got it all in on the flop for around £35 pot if I remember correctly and we ran it three times. First time I made a full house with 10 10!! Number 2 and 3 I made a flush, SICK!

Not much other online to mention, sorry there is I signed up to Stars after my exams to play the Steps and from 10 step 1’s I made it up to step 5.

I then finished uni and started playing for bad beat, and I said no more poker, I wanted to learn cash but thought I had better make a profit to start with by playing sng’s. How wrong I was, it was more running very bad then anything with lots of bubbles to throw in but I did over $100 before starting playing cash but I quit a few weeks later getting to $50 down I think. The main reason I started it was for the mentoring and getting the discipline to play everyday which I never managed to do.

Prob not as good as a read as the last too but hopefully u can all look ward to my next write up of how the Gala event in Teesside went but then again there isn’t too much excitement there either.

Running bad

Hey all,

Bad day 2day, played a couple of $11.70 double shoot outs for the million.

Didn't make the it past the 1st table but had this hand when hu:

PokerStars Game #21157352102: Tournament #113293082, $10.70+$1.00 Hold'em No Limit - Match Round I, Level V (75/150) - 2008/10/13 8:44:19 ET
Table '113293082 1' 10-max Seat #5 is the button
Seat 2: Hurricane010 (2890 in chips)
Seat 5: insagi (3110 in chips)
insagi: posts small blind 75
Hurricane010: posts big blind 150
*** HOLE CARDS ***
Dealt to Hurricane010 [Kh Ad]
insagi: raises 300 to 450
Hurricane010: raises 2440 to 2890 and is all-in
insagi: calls 2440
*** FLOP *** [7d Qh 4d]
*** TURN *** [7d Qh 4d] [8d]
*** RIVER *** [7d Qh 4d 8d] [3s]
*** SHOW DOWN ***
Hurricane010: shows [Kh Ad] (high card Ace)
insagi: shows [Td Kd] (a flush, King high)
insagi collected 5780 from pot
*** SUMMARY ***
Total pot 5780 | Rake 0
Board [7d Qh 4d 8d 3s]
Seat 2: Hurricane010 (big blind) showed [Kh Ad] and lost with high card Ace
Seat 5: insagi (button) (small blind) showed [Td Kd] and won (5780) with a flush, King high

Also went out of the other with this hand in the other sat:

Seat 1: Justkaiser (1410 in chips)
Seat 4: shar347 (2480 in chips)
Seat 8: Hurricane010 (1360 in chips)
Seat 10: O.D.B.61 (750 in chips)
Hurricane010: posts small blind 10
O.D.B.61: posts big blind 20
*** HOLE CARDS ***
Dealt to Hurricane010 [Kh Ah]
Justkaiser: folds
shar347: raises 20 to 40
Hurricane010: calls 30
O.D.B.61: calls 20
*** FLOP *** [3h Kd 6s]
Hurricane010: bets 100
O.D.B.61: calls 100
shar347: calls 100
*** TURN *** [3h Kd 6s] [Ts]
Hurricane010: bets 140
O.D.B.61: calls 140
shar347: raises 520 to 660
Hurricane010: raises 560 to 1220 and is all-in
O.D.B.61: calls 470 and is all-in
shar347: calls 560
*** RIVER *** [3h Kd 6s Ts] [Qd]
*** SHOW DOWN ***
Hurricane010: shows [Kh Ah] (a pair of Kings)
shar347: shows [Kc Ks] (three of a kind, Kings)
shar347 collected 1220 from side pot
O.D.B.61: shows [2s 2h] (a pair of Deuces)
shar347 collected 2250 from main pot
*** SUMMARY ***
Total pot 3470 Main pot 2250. Side pot 1220. | Rake 0
Board [3h Kd 6s Ts Qd]
Seat 1: Justkaiser folded before Flop (didn't bet)
Seat 4: shar347 (button) showed [Kc Ks] and won (3470) with three of a kind, Kings
Seat 8: Hurricane010 (small blind) showed [Kh Ah] and lost with a pair of Kings
Seat 10: O.D.B.61 (big blind) showed [2s 2h] and lost with a pair of Deuces

I hate how i played this, i knew the button raiser was super strong which if why i flatted pf. The guy in the middle was an obvious donk so wasn't concerned with him and when i pushed on the turn i knew it was the wrong move, i need to learn to follow my reads more.

I had a couple hundread quid left in my VC account which i've been slowly dwindling away playin various sats and cash late at night. Usually play 10c/20c but decided to go for the 25c/50c for some reason and had been a bit up and down until an agonising outdraw, this one really hurt.

Button ($52.25)
SB ($30.43)
BB Hero ($49.95)
UTG ($49.90)

Preflop: Hero is in the BB with 7h 2d 8h 5c
UTG calls 0.50, Button calls 0.50, 1 fold, Hero checks.

Flop (1.75) 6d 4s 3h
Hero bets 1, UTG calls 1, Button raises to 5.75, Hero raises to 14, 1 fold, Button raises to 44.75, Hero moves all-in for 35.45, Button calls 4.70.

Turn (108.40) Qs

River (108.40) Qc

Button shows 6s Th 8c 6h
Hero shows 7h 2d 8h 5c

Button wins 108.40 with A full house, Sixs and Queens


I know i've still not written up my 3rd year account but i was thinkin about it and i don't actually c why i've taken that line in starting my blog, but i may still write it up just to bore u lot a bit more.

One of the aims of this blog is get myself to play a bit more reguarly while i've not got a job so i'll be setting myself targets each week. This week's is to play 10-15 of the double shootouts and if i can qualify in 2 i'll play it this w'end.

Cheerio

Gutted, Lesson learnt......

Don't' fall asleep in the middle of a tourney!!!!

Just a quick vent for now, not played any tourney's in ages but thought i better get some practise in. With around 200 runners i accumulated a big stack in the first two levels and kept building on that and took the chip lead with 60 left which i kept till the bubble burst.

I was playing really well, my post flop play in particular, and was winning most pots i entered. The bubble didn't last very long and at this point i was chip leader, 18 left, with a very deep stack.

Now i cant tell u how long i kept the chip lead as i fell asleep and blinded out to 7th place. Most annoying thing is not the money but the fact that i really enjoy this period of a tournament.

Till next time,

Nick

The almost year

Sorry about the delay, this is why I’ve never started a blog as I know what I’m like but also I couldn’t blog for the past few days as mine got locked as they thought I was a spammer!!!

One thing I forgot to mention in my previous post was the Inter-poker student championship. There were daily qualifiers for the weekly final which got u to the live final, I entered several of these and must have got to half a dozen weekly finals but unfortuantly never made the final. After the qualifiers I was offered a place on the reserve list but no one dropped outL, anyway this just ties in with the little so thought I would quickly mention it.

Anyway 2^nd year I moved to Durham and began coming to the Durham Poker Society regularly. I hadn’t read any books up to know so I learnt a lot of strategies here such as the squeeze play and stop and go. The exec organised the Durham Poker Invitational and were running weekly sats to it, I entered one and this was very educational for me and I don’t think I’ve ever learnt so much in one game. I ended up hu against Keys with a 4:1 chip deficit, he told me he was crap at heads up so I thought I may have a chance as I consider myself a good hu player but within a few hands it was over.

I was meant to be working the day of the DPI but the day before it I swapped my shift and bought myself in on the day. This was my first tourney in a casino and I was quite nervous to say the least. It started at around 1pm if my memory is correct and within 5mins I found myself all in on the river of the 1^st hand!!! I had raised pf after one limper and the bb and limper called. The board came out q 10 5 and the limper cr me which I called, queen on the turn I called his bet and river paired the 5 which we went ai on he showed q9 which got me steaming. Anyway over 12 hours later I found myself with Ptevey, another Durham player, on the final table. Five handed was a nightmare with Ptevey on my right stealing my bb EVERY round!!! I don’t think I saw a face card for a good 30mins and finally found q10 to call him with but he somehow found ak but I outdrew him and quickly departed soon after cashing for £400/500 I think.

Living in Durham was a nightmare for studies and on top of this I also had other issues to deal with so my attendance record was awful, there was one module whose seminar I never managed to make!!! In Feb I was told it would be best for me to leave and return in Jan as they thought I couldn’t do my coursework and pass the exams, I declined this offer and said I would try my best. I managed to pass the year somehow, I have to also say thx to Mav for this if u r reading I couldn’t have passed CFR without you, but I scraped through in 3 modules which dragged down 2 very good results including a joint highest exam mark, which proved that if you start your revision early enough you can sail through most these exams, and ended up with a 2:2 for the year.

VC then launched a great set of value guaranteed tourneys which were designed to always give you added value, the 1^st being a $10 fo which I think was over 100% value. I started on a table with two fellow Stockton players one of whom stacked two people in the first two hands. I made the FT for a very good payout but this was the last of this tourney as I think they figured out it was too good value. The other three which ran for months were the $1r, $3r and $5r all of which were terrific value, are house mainly played the $1 as we all had a good laugh playing it. We regularly made the FT with an average of 70/80 players, Lees actually made the FT 4days in a row. By the summer there were 100+ players and we stopped playing it as it didn’t seem worth it.

VC also held a student championship this year, I qualified for the semi final by winning a 120man freeroll. The semi final again had around 120 players with the top 18 going through, now they changed their software 2 days before the semi final and I couldn’t log myself on!! With some frantic phone calls I finally got myself sorted and I was in, the software however was awful. I still got off to a very good start and found myself 5 in chips. On the table I had a very good fellow Stockton player and a very well known student player, so well known I can’t remember his name!! I recognised his user name and would remember it if I saw it but I’m pretty sure he was from Warick. With regards to the software it was very hard to raise to the amount u wanted as whenever u typed the amount it kept missing out the first number. I was not the only player complaining as there was a lot of groans in the chat box. The Warick player had been very active raising a lot of pots, I had aq on the button and he raised from ep which didn’t concern me. I wanted to 3bet him but was about to time out so I went for a flat call, flop come out q high with 2 clubs. He bet out and again I wanted to 3bet him but couldn’t manage it so I went for the min raise this time and he pushed ai, I was steaming at this point as I shouldn’t have been in this situation if it weren’t for the software. I ended up calling and he showed 5c6c and hit his flush, he was the only player who had me covered so I was out. I win that and I’m in the final, we were so deep it was ridiculous how we got all in but his push was huge.

When WSOP satellites came up I decided to try and qualify for it, firstly with Betfair which I made a profit from by bubbling the 2/3 stage a couple of times. I then moved to PokerRoom where I entered a couple of $1 sats and then I qualified from a $7 sat and won the $50 sat with 10’s Vs ak when an ace flopped and a 10 saved me on the river, my housemate at the time was over the road at his gf’s and he said he heard me scream!! I then came 4^th in the final stage with 2 packages available ironically calling an all in with ak coming up against 10’s which held up, we both had around 8BB and the other two had quite big stacks but I still wonder if I can fold there.

PKR were also offering a lot of free super sats to the smaller events and I decided to go for the hu event, to qualify for it I need to gain 150pts with 3pts for a win and 1pt for a loss. I had to do this at $5 and all over one weekend as my exams covered most of the qualifying period. This was the most depressing period of my poker life, I think I ended up just over $10 in profit after a major tilt period which kicked off with me open pushing 2’s on the 1^st hand and getting called by a10, next game 2’s again 2st hand which I pushed over a raise which called with jq!!! I think I lost 9/10 games in this period just trying to get as many games out of my way as quickly as possible.

I did end up doing it and I think there were around 60 runners with only the one package on offer. I came 5^th in the end for another near miss and was absolutely gutted as I knew that was my last chance for the year.

In the summer I started playing PLO and loved it, I began playing 6handed sng’s on VC and I found myself cashing in 70%+ of the time and I think it was 50% wins!! This rocketed my ROI to around 70% but this was only over around 40 games and over the next few months it obviously came down but I think it was more that the players were becoming better.

After my PLO stint I decided to read my first book, Super systems, I then went back to playing hold em and felt I was playing a lot better but without the results. After busting out of a MTT on Betfair after a horrible badbeat I saw a satellite to the $50k weekly starting I 1mins for $40, I never usually play for more than $20 but thought sod it. There were 11 players who registered with 2 packages available, after a long slog 3 handed I was relieved when the other two players got it ai with almost identical stacks.

In the tourney on Sunday I was delighted to see we started with 5k with long blind levels, I think there were around 120 runners. I got off to a very good start and was in the top 10 chips for the next couple of hours. I then had qq on the button and raised it up and got it ai on a low flop with the other guy holding 10’s but he spiked a 10 on the turn to cripple me. Two hands later I pushed with around 9bb’s with k9 and ran into qq fortuantly it was my turn to outdraw the ladies when I flopped trip 9’s.

With the top 18 paid and 25 left I was around 12^th in the chips, this was a big cash for me and I hate to say it but I tightened up a bit too early. After around 30mins we were down to around 20 and I was getting a little too close to comfort, I then stole a couple of pots for the first time in that 30mins which gave me a little buffer. Come the bubble we had all the time wasters which I wasn’t too bothered about but it was very annoying, I remember one buy in the bb folded jj with half a less than half a bb behind and then cashed when someone busted on the next hand when he was ai in the sb.

As a short stack myself now I decided I would stick to being patient before sticking it in but soon found we were quickly down to 11 players and saw the next pay jump. I managed to hold on again making the final table as the short stack, I then got busy as I was not interesting in moving up a couple of brackets anymore. With about 7 left I found my groove and started playing more aggressively, the game had come down to pf raise and take it or resteal and take it. At this point I was 5^th in chips and I had raised with 10’s only to be reraised ai, this player was very tight and I made a very hard fold but I thought at best it was a coinflip which I felt I didn’t need to take.

With 5 players left I was 4^th in chips, I then took out the short stack and then another player to find myself with even chips with the chip leader. I then took out 3^rd place and acquired the chip lead goin into hu, but first we had a 10mins break!!! Very frustrating, a quick look at the prize board and we’re playing for $5k hu. I tried to ignore this and concentrated on the fact of playing my normal game. When we kicked off I got aggressive straight away and raised 4/5 of the first hands, I then found 8’s on the button and he rr me ai and my 8’s held up against his a7.

I really felt I dissevered this not just for how I played but after all the lows of the year this really was a good way to end it.

Wow that’s a long post!!! For every1 who got through it congrats and hope u enjoyed it, I’ll try and write up my third year in the next few days so I can start concentrating on recent activates.

Cya