Friday, January 28, 2005
Life Imitating Art?
Made my first visit to my local cardroom since restarting the "9 to 5" grind. Finished 15th out of 91 after AQ in my small blind ran into the monster that is J9 suited in the big blind!
This isn't a "bad beat" post though.
There have been some changes at the cardroom. Now once the cards are shuffled they are now cut by the player on the button and a "cutting" card is mandatory and placed at the bottom of the deck.
These are probably basic things in most UK cardrooms, but the reason why they were introduced was a bit shocking. In fact it sounded (3rd hand from chatting last night) like a scene from Rounders!
This is what happened. The cards were dealt out in the early stages of a competition. The dealer (who was also playing), said to the first player to act "Your turn to speak". "I'll speak alright, you just dealt the Ace of diamonds off the bottom to your friend" he replied. The floor person was called, the accused player had been dealt Ace of diamonds, leading to the dealer being escorted off the premises and barred. Amazingly his co-conspirator was not banned.
Just shows you have to be vigilant even in a £20 competition. Especially in a £20 competition!
This isn't a "bad beat" post though.
There have been some changes at the cardroom. Now once the cards are shuffled they are now cut by the player on the button and a "cutting" card is mandatory and placed at the bottom of the deck.
These are probably basic things in most UK cardrooms, but the reason why they were introduced was a bit shocking. In fact it sounded (3rd hand from chatting last night) like a scene from Rounders!
This is what happened. The cards were dealt out in the early stages of a competition. The dealer (who was also playing), said to the first player to act "Your turn to speak". "I'll speak alright, you just dealt the Ace of diamonds off the bottom to your friend" he replied. The floor person was called, the accused player had been dealt Ace of diamonds, leading to the dealer being escorted off the premises and barred. Amazingly his co-conspirator was not banned.
Just shows you have to be vigilant even in a £20 competition. Especially in a £20 competition!
Sunday, January 16, 2005
Too bad to stay up?
Another defeat for Forest yesterday, 2-1 at home to Milwall.
We are on our 3rd manager this season and there is a sense around the club that he has been brought in to get us promotion next season. Unfortunately this is likely to be promotion from League One!
We are in a lot worse position than this time last year when Paul Hart was sacked and Joe Kinnear came in. We are now 7 points (plus a shocking goal difference) adrift and with away games against two sides who are around us (Brighton and Rotherham) likely to be deep in the brown stuff by the next home league game.
Poker wise, I have cleared the Empire bonus, putting me overall +$120 for 2005, wiping out the SNG losses! There is a likelihood that my on-line play will be limited to 10-15 hours per week, so my targets might be a tough challenge to meet. Tempted to play "higher" but I want to gauge my skill level/success at $30 SNGs etc before deciding where I will settle.
We are on our 3rd manager this season and there is a sense around the club that he has been brought in to get us promotion next season. Unfortunately this is likely to be promotion from League One!
We are in a lot worse position than this time last year when Paul Hart was sacked and Joe Kinnear came in. We are now 7 points (plus a shocking goal difference) adrift and with away games against two sides who are around us (Brighton and Rotherham) likely to be deep in the brown stuff by the next home league game.
Poker wise, I have cleared the Empire bonus, putting me overall +$120 for 2005, wiping out the SNG losses! There is a likelihood that my on-line play will be limited to 10-15 hours per week, so my targets might be a tough challenge to meet. Tempted to play "higher" but I want to gauge my skill level/success at $30 SNGs etc before deciding where I will settle.
Saturday, January 15, 2005
C'est La Vie
Played the Pokerstars.com "Club Poker" private tourny last night. Finished 35th out of 118 so my losing run continues. 0/2 in Tournies in 2005. Too early to be a trend, :)
The good people at PokerStars.com had guaranteed a seat in the French Open European Poker tour (EPT) for this $10 +$1 with $10 rebuy event.
I decided to not rebuy and expected a tight tourny with the guarantee only being breached if there were 141 rebuys . I was surprised as my table went rebuy crazy. After the first hour we had breached the guarantee and had $890 extra to pay down to 9th, so I took the add on.
This was a strange tourny for me. During the rebuy period I trebled my starting chips. One hand I hit the flush with JT suited and a guy with QJo put all his chips in on the river with Top Pair poor kicker. I also played KJo badly Vs AQ and got AQ to bluff off his chips on the river (to be fair me folding was the only way he could get the pot, but I sensed I was ahead).
I had KK once no AA, QQ or AK during the rebuys.
After the rebuys I had a weird start. I had TT and got in a raising war Vs....TT !
A problem I had was I was playing too tight. I only saw 18% flops and when the antes started as well as blinds I was dwindling away. As I got shorter I went all-in with QQ, 76 suited in bb called Flop 754....luckily he blanked all his outs! I then got KK, UTG raised more than my stack. I called allin, bb called for all but 90 of their stack (?!). Flop ATT...bb all-in with 44, UTG man had...TT no runner runner miracle and I'm gone.
Enjoyed it and playing puts me in a freeroll NLHE freezeout next Friday with another EPT seat guaranteed.
The good people at PokerStars.com had guaranteed a seat in the French Open European Poker tour (EPT) for this $10 +$1 with $10 rebuy event.
I decided to not rebuy and expected a tight tourny with the guarantee only being breached if there were 141 rebuys . I was surprised as my table went rebuy crazy. After the first hour we had breached the guarantee and had $890 extra to pay down to 9th, so I took the add on.
This was a strange tourny for me. During the rebuy period I trebled my starting chips. One hand I hit the flush with JT suited and a guy with QJo put all his chips in on the river with Top Pair poor kicker. I also played KJo badly Vs AQ and got AQ to bluff off his chips on the river (to be fair me folding was the only way he could get the pot, but I sensed I was ahead).
I had KK once no AA, QQ or AK during the rebuys.
After the rebuys I had a weird start. I had TT and got in a raising war Vs....TT !
A problem I had was I was playing too tight. I only saw 18% flops and when the antes started as well as blinds I was dwindling away. As I got shorter I went all-in with QQ, 76 suited in bb called Flop 754....luckily he blanked all his outs! I then got KK, UTG raised more than my stack. I called allin, bb called for all but 90 of their stack (?!). Flop ATT...bb all-in with 44, UTG man had...TT no runner runner miracle and I'm gone.
Enjoyed it and playing puts me in a freeroll NLHE freezeout next Friday with another EPT seat guaranteed.
Friday, January 14, 2005
of mice and men...
As in "the best laid plans". Started the new job and my "plans" for on-line poker have stuttered along. I have only played 3 SNG's and 1 tourny. No cashes in any. There are two reasons why I've not played more.
a. The job, travelling to and fro and being tired when I get back in.
b. Empire Poker.com and its damned bonus! $200 for 1400 raked hands but limited to 14 days to clear. I deposited Friday 7th after withdrawing $1000 from PokerStars to fund it. as of tonight I'm up $50 and cleared 1060 raked. All at 0.50/1.00 Limit Omaha Hi Lo. Seems this game can be played at low limits on "auto-pilot". Hopefully the remaining hands will clear by sunday and I can get back to finishing 4th in SNG's :)
a. The job, travelling to and fro and being tired when I get back in.
b. Empire Poker.com and its damned bonus! $200 for 1400 raked hands but limited to 14 days to clear. I deposited Friday 7th after withdrawing $1000 from PokerStars to fund it. as of tonight I'm up $50 and cleared 1060 raked. All at 0.50/1.00 Limit Omaha Hi Lo. Seems this game can be played at low limits on "auto-pilot". Hopefully the remaining hands will clear by sunday and I can get back to finishing 4th in SNG's :)
