My Cash Game Adventure

It’s been a long time since I posted about poker. It was probably for the best. I got back into the game at last weeks Irish Winter Festival, an event that I was also blogging for. The hours are long enough as it is when covering these events, but when you sit into a cash table full of drunken messes and then find yourself actually losing money, the hours suddenly become much longer!

On the first night of event, I actually found myself winning money, despite taking full advantage of the PaddyPower hospitality budget and managing to spew away my first €200 buy-in by pushing on a four-flush, ace-high board with AK, no spade. The player with the 6 high flush pretty much beat my chips into the pot. Ugh! I can’t remember any showdowns later on that night because from there-on-in, I wielded the mighty Check-Raise as if it were the weapon of warriors! I got most of my profit when I led out on a paired board with a gutshot. The likes of Thomas Nolan and Nicky Power would be proud of me because despite being raised and the button calling, the lure of the gutshot was too great and I shipped the lot in. Fold Fold! Cash out!

The next two nights saw me run particularly badly. I flop the bottom end of the straight in a raised pot, holding 4h5h. I lead out for pot and I’m called. There’s the Ah on the turn, giving me the heart draw. I lead out for pot and I’m called. The river is a spade of some sort, putting three out there. I check-call his half pot bet of €128 and am shown the flush. I then flop the nut flush and get it all-in against top-pair and a redundant flush draw. He runner-runner’s a house! Sat at a table with people that I’m pretty sure all hate money, I decide to relent and perform that classic act of degeneracy by reaching into my wallet once more. One time! I sit tight and watch chips literally flying about the place. I find a pair of Jacks under the gun and raise. Some drunk English guy comes over the top of me for everything and now it’s my turn to beat someones chips into the pot! The flop comes 664. “I hit that, mate”. The turn comes an Ace “Waaaheyeeyeey, I hit that too”. He throws over the Ace-Four. Clean up on table one please! I buy-in once more and manage to recover €182 over the next few hours despite not seeing any spectacular hands.

On the final night, I sit in once again with my 200 euro. I decide to soul-read a player after about 10 hands after he straddles and then raises after the entire table calls. I decide to rep the UTG limp with AA or KK and shove for €153 more. I flop a gutshot but I’m not sick enough to hit it and by the river, my hand is back in the wallet. I soon double up (and then some) when I flop Top Pair from the Big Blind with K-J on a draw heavy board. I check and the guy to my left leads out for about the pot and by time it gets back to me, there’s been 3 callers. Top pair is the nuts, and there’s a tonne of dead money in this pot. All-in! Call! “I have the King”, “So do I” is what I hear back as the dealer sorts out all the chips as we try and dissect each others hand, defiantly choosing not to show up. “Well, I’m beating a few Kings” I murmur, “Do you have the Ace?” he inquired, “Um, No” I reply, “I’m ahead so”. “Not anymore” I state as the dealer throws up a lovely Jack on the turn. I 100% expected the board to pair on the river to counterfeit me but the case €200 then became the case €460. But I’m still stuck.

The story has to have a happy ending though.

A few minutes after, I witness €700 being open-shipped into the pot. I had already folded but could sense that my time was near. In a straddled pot, UTG raises it to 40. He’s managed to become stuck for double what I was, but has managed to do it all in about 10 minutes! He gets two callers - both chinese. I look down at TT and make it €150, which is about 33% of my stack. I get three callers! I see a flop of KK7 which is actually pretty nice for me. They all check to me and I duly ship it all-in. I was probably 70% sure I was ahead, but think checking behind is just terrible given that I don’t want to give them a free shot to hit an overcard or to hit a set. Of course, had I been snap-called, it would have been sick and I probably would have gone looking for a nice piece of rope!

Thankfully it didn’t come to that!

Finally Some Poker

I haven’t been able to play any poker over the past while because of connection problems, and it’s been driving me crazy! Firstly, I was just about to move up to $100NL online before I went on super massive monkey tilt and literally gifted the poker economy with $1500. Tilt is something I’ve always tried hard to control, yet never quite managed it and it’s the reason why instead of playing in pots of hundreds of dollars, I’m forced to play in pots for stacks of $10 in the murky depths that is $10NL! Once I get my rakeback for this month, I’ll be back up to $20NL, which I can beat quite easily as long as I can keep the tilt monkey away!

Tonight I decided to go up to Blazin’ Aces card club and play their €50 Freezeout. It’s their most popular game and attracted 42 runners which is a tidy amount for a mid-week game! I got off to a good start, the first hand I raised with was KK in the second level which I found UTG+1. UTG minraised to 200. I’ve seem him calling off his stack preflop with trash before, so I was happy to isolate and made it 750 with effective stacks at around 10k. I’m called by UTG+2 and then, a competent player in LP makes it 3k and he is instantly called by the button who is a bit spewy unless he’s running well. UTG folds and I shove for my 10k. The problem is, it was an instant shove. I didn’t dwell up and made it pretty obvious that I had QQ+. The 4bettor looked in pain before folding what he said was QQ. The button also folded and I took down the pot, increasing my stack by 70% without having to see a flop! I think if I had paused for a while, I could have got QQ to call the shove, but that’s something I’ll just have to chalk down as inexperience.

The next hand that I got involved with was with QQ and yet again there was plenty of action preflop. UTG raised 4.5x the BB to 450 and I reraised to 1400. I’m called by the player to my left and it’s folded around to the SB who pushes for 5400. This is the same player who folded QQ to my shove earlier, so I think he’s strong. He probably has TT+, AQs+ almost all the time here. I simply call because if I reshoved, I’d only get called by AA or KK by the player to my left. I want him to stack off on the flop to me. The flop comes 7 high and I shove, hoping to get a call by 88-JJ. Instead, he folds. The other player has AK but I don’t need to sweat because a queen comes on the turn leaving him drawing dead.

After the break, I move table and sit down to see 6s7s in my first hand. I’m the HiJack and limp behind several other limpers. UTG leads out on a 7 high flop and I flat call. The turn is a spade which gives me a flush draw and a gutshot. It’s checked to me and I bet 2.5 into a pot of ~3.5k which is called. I hit my flush on the river and value bet 4.5k but he folds.

It goes wrong when I move table. I don’t pick up any hands and start to blind away. I lose a lot of chips with QJ, twice! First time, I’m in the SB and raise after it’s folded around to me only for the BB to push for my entire stack (which at this point is still above average). I fold. Then, a fairly standard ABC player limps UTG. I raise with QJ to isolate. Early position limps by ABC players generally mean small pocket pairs, so I raised because I know he’s going to call me to hit a set and I can bluff him off a lot of flops when I miss. The flop comes K-J-6, he looks like he’s hit the jackpot as he quickly glances at his chips before checking. I foolishly bet out and he pushes. Am I ever ahead I wonder! I decide I’m not and fold. I ask him did he have a set of sixes and he shows them. Great read I say to myself, but I know my bet on the flop was bad and I’ve tilted myself.

A few hands later and it’s all over! I have KsQs on the BB and there’s an UTG raise of 4.1k, with blinds at 500/1000. I’m playing a stack of 16k and decide to flat call and shove any flop with my reasoning that I will often fold out better hands such as small pairs and Ace-x when I shove for the pot on the flop. However, the flop comes 533, probably the worse board I could have hoped for yet I shove anyway and am called by AK which holds. Oh well!

I seem to have sorted out my internet connection, so I’m going to try get some hands in to try and get back up to respectable stakes!

My Friend Recession!

For the past three years, I’ve been employed in industries which have been fairly reliant on people having money floating about! I’ve worked in a hotel since 2005 and have slowly seen its trade deteriorate! As of the beginning of this year, I’ve joined an industry that’s been very reliant on the Celtic Tiger, the poker industry! I have seen drastic changes to both industries in a short period of time and as the country starts to tighten their belts, I’m forced to follow!

Last year I’d be lucky to go a day without a bus load of medicated Americans pulling up at the door of the hotel. I don’t use the term medicated lightly, because I swear to God they each have one suitcase for nothing but medicine! If the fat bastards exercised every once in a while then they wouldn’t need as much…. just a thought! Anyway, rant aside, this year the hotel is dead. Barmen are scratching their balls instead of pulling pints, porters do nothing but fluff pillows and receptionists invent phone calls to keep themselves occupied. Last year the average wedding size was in the 200s, now we’re lucky to see weddings of a 100 grace the premises! I think a situation last week is the best example of how bad things are getting, I was in the bar for a function of 50 people for a Wedding Anniversary. After 6 hours, the total drinks bill came to under €100. That’s an average spend of 33c per person per hour! You could argue that they weren’t heavy drinkers, but I alone would have spent €100 quid in 6 hours!

The poker industry in Ireland is something that on one hand can be said to be flourishing, but on the other can be said to be floundering. While record numbers of players are reportedly making a living from it, it’s clear that these are all established players. The amount of casual players is dwindling as they realise that it’s not just a bit of fun anymore as they lose their bollocks every week! Numbers are falling in all the major events and the recently announced IPO will be a real test of the feasibility of poker events in this country. Last year it attracted over 1000 players and with more significant marketing power behind it this year, they expect numbers to rise. Whether it will or not is the million dollar question.

I’m a bit worried that the only two industries that I’ve been involved in, are heavily reliant on a strong economy. Considering that seems to be going to shit, I wonder is a career change in order! Perhaps I’ll become an undertaker, I hear people are just dying to use their services…

Betdaq spinup

I haven’t had much time for poker over the past few days, but I happened upon a thread on Boards.ie which had a BetDaq rep offering free money and rake races and what not. Never one to turn down free money, I created an account and for my €25 deposit, got an additional €50! How bad! And that was before I even sat at the tables!

I first sat at the .10/.20 tables and started playing it like a tournament, once I doubled up I moved up levels. I was running quite hot, getting it all in with AcTc vs AK vs Kc8c and hit my ten on the flop and got myself the nut flush draw! Talk about a flop people dream of! I was also a set magnet, hitting sets on 3 occassions and flopping quads once!

Soon enough I was playing 1/2 with €400 and bought in half stacked to two tables. I’m quite happy that the standard is terrible at 1/2 and people were calling my 3bets with suited connectors which would have been fine if I had a full stack in front of me as they would have had sufficient implied odds to try hit a sneaky two pair. Unfortunately for me, the only reason why I know they were calling my 3bets with suited connectors was because I stacked off with overpairs twice, both times after they hit a sneaky fucking two pair.

That brought my bankroll down to €200 and I’ve decided to try run over the .25/.50 tables… with 4 buyins! All I need to do is keep running good and getting my money in good and when I don’t do that… suck out! Is that too much to ask for? C’mon… ONE TIME!

Poker Blues

I wasn’t able to get much hands in over the weekend because I was too busy running around a hotel like a headless chicken looking for things to take pictures of and then I was absolutely shattered for the past two days because of all the work I did! Today saw my first venture onto the poker tables in a few days. What I needed to instil confidence in my game was a heater, God knows I’m due one!

Instead, I couldn’t help but feel that someone at Carlospoker has flicked my doomswitch in the hopes that I won’t be able to clear my deposit bonus! I had 4 hours of fun, and by fun I mean excruciating pain! A few hands of note was when I flopped top set on a 6-3-4 board and got it all in against two other players for a $75 pot which is quite considerable playing at .10/.20 blinds! Both players had overcards and were drawing dead, or so I thought. The turn brought a 2 and the river brought a 5 meaning we were chopping it up! OUCH! I then got it all in with 44 on a KK4 board versus another two players, one with 88 and the other with K8. Turn was a ten and so was the river! I nearly got sick everywhere!

Tonight there’s a $3000 Guaranteed Tournament on Bodog for all those who attended the Waterford Open during the weekend. I lodged €20 onto the site and registered, leaving $9 in spare change. I sat into a .10/.25 table with what I had left and without having to showdown a hand found myself with $26! I then doubled up when someone tried to bluff the river with a busted 4-high flush draw! Bodog seems to be stuck in time as far as the standard of play is concerned - it’s great!

So amazingly, I’m up for the day which I’m quite impressed with! I’ll play the Waterford Open Online tournament tonight and hopefully I’ll have something to brag about on here tomorrow - for once!

My Waterford Open 2008

Thursday saw me take the trip out to Tramore in what would see me put more hours in four days than I would usually put into 2 weeks! I was originally meant to be dealing for the weekend but by Saturday I had perfected the art of running around the ballroom with a chicken and cheese panini in one hand, a notepad in the other and an expensive looking camera around my neck! I was living the hectic life of a tournament blogger!

I’ll spare the details of the weekend, because they can all be seen at the Bodog Waterford Open Blog, but I will say that I was absolutely run off my feet as this whole tournament blogging scene was new to me! I can’t think of the number of times that I had taken note of a hand, taken a picture of the players and had gone to the laptop to post the story only to have to hop back up again to cover another hand!

I think I eventually got the hang of it as I just took a picture of the board and the players, went to the laptop and reconstructed the action using the pictures of the table… resourceful huh? The fact that by Day 3, there were only a handful of players left in the tournament also helped as I was no longer being summoned into the tournament areas to cries of “ALL-IN” every 15 seconds!

Having covered the whole event, it really highlighted the luck-factor in these tournaments. In looking back through the blog, I noticed that every player on the final table had two things in common 1) they were all involved in some kind of hand during the tournament where at best they were racing for all their chips and 2) they all left a trail of destruction in their wake!

So, after working for 50 hours over the 4 days, I stumbled back home with my various bits and pieces making sure that I had the most valuable things of all… the tiny orange notebook that now had the email addresses of two models that were down for the weekend? A thinly-veiled brag? I think not :p