November Poker News

November 29th, 2006

The past week I've been chilling out at home and playing a handful of online tournaments. One tournament in particular has been treating me very well, I've made the final table 7 out of the last 9 times, winning it twice. I'm purposely being vague as I don't want the competition to improve. At the moment the overall standard of play is so poor, it's virtually free money!

In a few weeks time, I may go to Paris for the Euro Finals of Poker, depending on if I'm in the 'venture' mood. The main event is 3,000 buy-in, which hopefully will not attract most the experienced European players.

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November 25th, 2006

I've returned home from the Midlands Masters in Walsall. The main event starts on Saturday, as I've been playing without discipline and basically throwing money away, I've made the smart decision not to play.

I entered the £500 freezeout last night and played wildly, getting knocked out after 20 minutes. It's a bad trait that's continued since returning from this years WSOP. Having played at that level, with multi-million $ prize pools it's been difficult to readjust my mindset in order to get fully motivated to play in these small tournaments.

November 23rd, 2006

I'm in Walsall playing the Midlands Masters. Yesterday it was a £300+25 double chance tournament. I may write a full tournament report as it was an enjoyable and eventful night. In brief, I was by some distance the best player at table (more - they were bad, than I was good) and got off to a great start by slow playing a flopped boat to the river and letting the 'wannabe pro' drown himself.

I built up the 3,500 starting chips to about 9,000, and was in great shape until the final hand of the double chance period. A bad Welsh player who I'd been floating all night made an atrocious play and took all my chips. Blinds 50/100, 3 limpers to me in the cut off, I raise with JJ to 600 and about 7,500 chips. Only the Welshman calls. The flop came 367 with 2 clubs. Check, I bet 1,200. He covers and quickly moves all-in. I can't remember excatly what he said but he revealed the weakness of his hand. I called and he flipped over K6 off! Turn - King. Haha, there goes 2 hours of outplaying everybody.

Returning from the break, a little intoxicated, and extremely naucious of the tiny stack in front of me, I cranked up Iron Lion ZIon on my I-pod and got busy. Quick double up with Ace King versus an ultra-tight lady's AQ of spades after check-raising the A37 flop. Mix in some blind defense and stealing and I was back up to 8,000.

Then, the Welsh man struck again... albeit with the inducement of my misplay. Blinds were 2/400, I limped under the gun with 66. New lady to the table limps in mid-position, Welshman calls in the small blind. Big blind, who kept complimenting me on my play, checked. The flop produced 2c 3s 5c. Welshman leads for 1,500. I take a glance at the lady in mid-position, she's giving me the evil eye and looks interested in the pot. Being 'piggy in the middle' is one of the worst situations in tournament poker, I guess that's one of the pitfalls of limping with 66. I was having flash backs of my 2005 EPT Barcelona exit hand, where I moved over the top of Jan Boubli's raise only to run in to quad 9's of the guy who'd checked to Boubli. This time, I opted to call and see where the lady stood. She mucked, yuck. To the turn, he said, "I don't like it, you just calling" Foolishly, I said "Last time I had a boat, I don't have a boat yet." Turn came the 10 of spades. He once again, pushes all-in. I was getting roughly 6,000 to win 10,000 and knew he had a 5, and had to decide if he was genuinely protecting a weak 2 pair. I asked him if he had 2 pair and he gave the game away, "Let's see." I call and he flips over J5 of spades, backdoor flush and another 5 outs. Still, I'm better than 3/1 favourite. River - Ace of spades. KO'd just before the first Ashes test between England and Australia started, a blessing in disguise as England got a pasting!

November 21st, 2006 - I've been a complete degenerate this week, done absolutely nothing except go to Blackpool casino and play blackjack. Needless to say, it's been disastrous, but what can you do when you're stuck in the middle of Degenerateville and everything is closed? (LEAVE!) Ahh, why didn't that cross my mind a few days ago.

Thankfully, I'm leaving for Walsall tomorrow, to play in some of the Midland Masters tournaments. I pre-registered today in Blackpool, because I'm sick of turning up to events and being told they've reached full capacity. That's the best thing about U.S. casinos, they always have room, are always willing to accomodate and provide a sterling service. The ginger-haired cash game manager / chip runner / everybodies bitch, refused to allow me to sit in a £5-10 Pot Limit Omaha cash game because his reserve list was choc-a-bloc, not surprising because it dated back to 1997! "But there's guys in satellites who on the reserve list." Me, "I know, but I'll sit-in until their satellites have finished." "But..." Fuck it! A game of 21 it is then.

November 14th, 2006 - The standard of play at yesterday's £150 rebuy tournament in Blackpool was comparable to a $5 online MTT. One lady called 2/3 of her stack pre-flop, then folded to a bet on the flop. "It's the only near decent hand I've had all night." She said, after showing 10 7 of spades face up.

I built a decent stack before the rebuy period finished, only to have a man with 'nanobot' on the back of his shirt put me all-in with open ended straight draw and hit on the river. It was a ugly beat but I can't be bothered to divulge further.

Miserably, I went back to the hotel and played the FTOPS $200 Limit Hold'em tournament on Full Tilt Poker. Had a great time playing kamikaze style poker, raising more than 50% of hands pre-flop. Managed to reach the money before being unable to lay down a pair of Aces with weak kicker.

Skip to today, the £300 Pot Limit Hold'em tournament at Blackpool was sold out, substituted for the FTOPS $200 shorthanded event. I played some of the best poker in a long time. After 2 hours, I got away with an audacious bluff but got too pumped up and went on a bluffing spree. No discipline.

Tomorrow I'm going to relax in Manchester, then back to Blackpool for the £500 double chance tournament on Thursday.

November 12th, 2006 -  I'm hotel-hopping for the next few weeks. Currently in Blackpool, preparing for a week-long marathon of live poker tournaments. After that, it's Walsall for the Midland Masters. Then, who knows? Vegas?!

Here's the nearly finished tournament report from last week's double chance tournament in Sheffield. Let me know if you find it entertaining, think I should just stick to playing poker, or stop playing poker and writing all together!

November 5th, 2006 - I finished 15th out of 77 players in the £500 double chance tournament in Sheffield. After 8 hours of gruelling play amidst dirty cigarette smoke and depressing music, I didn't even cash. 10th place was the cut off. Check back in a few days for the tournament report.

November 2nd, 2006 - I'm shaken up after being involved in a horrific car accident on the M42 Motorway. One guy may have died, I don't know for sure but he was critically injured after smashing his head against the windscreen. It was a gruesome scene, blood everywhere, nothing like I've witnessed before.

Apart from a saw neck and a small cut on my hand I'm perfectly fine, my car is wrecked though. I had stopped due to congestion, when the silver van pictured below was hit by a white van, that impact caused the damage and turned the van 180 degrees. It's actually facing South instead of the correct direction North. The Silver van smashed in to the back of me. All my rear windows smashed in to pieces of glass came through the front seats like a wave. I had glass stuck in my hand, shoes and back of my head. The driver of the White van, probably unconscious at this time, scraped the side of my car then hit the car in front eventually smashing in to the barrier. The whole front of his Van was crushed and it took 2 hours for the Fire men to release him. The guy in the silver van was also taken on stretcher to an ambulance. What a crazy day.