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 2nd 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 1st 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 1st 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 4th 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 1st 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 5th 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 12th 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 5th 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 4th 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 3rd 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.
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