February Poker News

24th of February, 2006 - I arrived back home yesterday after a 10 hour flight from Los Angeles. It's a mere pit-stop though, as the Midlands Medley beckons tomorrow. The Medley is a £1,500 No Limit Hold'em tournament in Walsall near Birmingham. Last time I played poker in Walsall it was the Midlands Masters tournament, the field was around 100 players then, hopefully it will increase to around 150 to bolster the prize pool.

21st of February, 2006 - At the last minute I backed out of playing the $10,000 World Poker Tour event in Los Angeles. It dawned on me, after I asked the tournament cashier how many players had registered and being told over 600, that I was out of my depth. My discipline is questionable at the best of times, frankly I couldn't envisage successfully battling for 6 consecutive days to make the final table.

The cash games at Commerce Casino are incredible, every table I've played has had at least one rich fish. Illustrated by this hand I played a few days ago at 10-20 NL Hold'em. Stacks were $2,000 and I raised out of the big blind to $120 after 3 limpers, only the button called. I had Red Jacks. To mix it up and try to bamboozle my opponent I bet $300 blind, a tactic that has been very successful this week (one guy was tilted for life after I went all-in blind on the flop and hit a runner runner flush against his pocket Queens in a tournament.) The flop produced three Hearts, Ace, 8 and 4. The button seemed reluctant to call but did. The Jack of Clubs came on the turn and I pushed out two stacks of white chips, $700. Once more, he seemed reluctant but called. I made a Full House on the river and pushed all-in, he quickly called with J9!?! Considering I had only been at the table for 1 orbit it was a preposterous call, perhaps he picked up an unconscious fake tell (probably not). I will write more detailed trip reports when I return to the UK in a few days. Highlights include playing with Chip Reese and David 'The Dragon' Pham, also watching a $2000-4000 game with Doyle Brunson & Co.

13th of February, 2006 - I finished 9th out of 410 entries in the $500 NL Shootout at the LA Poker Classic yesterday. It was a peculiar tournament, as only the first table was played in a shootout style, the remainder was the normal multi-table tournament structure. At my first table I was hit by the deck, my first three hands of the day were pocket Queens, Tens and then Queens again. They didn't yield any big pots but I doubled up when I flopped a set of deuces was raised all-in by an aggressive player with a gut-shot straight flush draw. After that it was an easy table to dispatch due to the passive nature of most of the players. After a 3 hour break play resumed with 41 players remaining. First hand, I picked up Jacks in the small blind and raised to T75. The Asian lady who hadn't stopped talking since we sat down made it T300 more to go. All the money went in pre-flop and my Jacks held up against Ace King unsuited.

I entered the final table with T7000 after losing a few coin-flips versus short stacks two tables out. An Tran had a monster chip lead with approximately T24,000. Hung La was the first casualty as his Ace King lost to Chris Bigler's pocket Queens by virtue of a diamond flush. The original raiser in the hand, a blonde haired guy laid down Ace King of Diamonds and would have flopped the nuts. Blinds went up to 300/600 with a T50 ante. Under the gun, a young Chinese guy went all-in for about T2,800. I had Ace King of hearts and pushed all-in on the button to get the showdown heads up. He flipped over Ace King off-suit and called for clubs to hit the board. The dealer obliged and placed four clubs on the board! I was now the short stack with approximately T3,600. The next hand I picked up King Queen of Spades in an unopened pot and as mandatory pushed all-in only to run in to the small blinds Ace Queen of hearts. No bad beat and my tournament came to whimpering end. It was a Pamela Anderson prize structure with $67,000 going to the winner, 9th paid only $3,190 plus a 'LA Poker Classic Final table' leather jacket (which I ashamedly think is pretty cool).

This was the second tournament I've played in Los Angeles due to major cash shortages. Thankfully after hours on the phone to my bank, they sent some emergency cash after pretending my damaged debit card had been lost. Now that I'm not going to starve, I can hit up the Commerce cash games which are supposedly very juicy and win my buy-in for the World Poker Tour event that starts on the 16th.

3rd of February, 2006 - I took a break from poker this past week. Without a shadow of doubt this is the biggest improvement in my game since I became a professional poker player. Recharging the batteries now and again has improved my consistency greatly. Hopefully the 11 hour flight to Los Angeles from London doesn't drain my freshness and I'll be able to play to my full potential during the LA Poker Classic. Photos coming soon!