redsimonpoker

After my second late night I got up late had breakfast and then back to sleep whilst OldKingcole went off to an antiques fair. Got back to the casino at 3.45 to find the 4pm £10 was starting at 4.30 so missed the chance for more sleep :-)

Dealt the table I was on again and only won one pot in the rebuy period. Moved to a new table and busted in my first hand! Got back to the hotel via the M6 due to Cole missing the exit turn, teach me to be giving him a bad beat story, distracted him.

Ate dinner and straight back for the final tourny a £25 PLHE one with a £6000 guaranteed pool. Dealers provided which meant my tiredness was more pronounced as I had less to concentrate on. 69 players meaning one table was away from the main card room. This had a negative effect as the rebuys had to literally shouted for and I managed to run TPTK into trips twice. I rebought 3 times and decided £100 plus reg was enough. Dwindled to 1200 and moved tables. Got K4 in blind on new table. Flop K83 rainbow. sb goes pot I reraise and he calls with 82! King on turn and I double up. Rebuys end and I am on 2100 out of 200000 in play. Guarantee isn't breached. I get up to 4000 with a few steals (uncalled) and move table. My new table has loads of chips on it and I soon get a nice pot with 55. I limp late position as "The Mad Turk" limps UTG. Flop A57 "Mad Turk" bets 1500 I raise to 3000 and he goes all in. I call and he shows A8 7 turn blank river and I'm back in the game. I get QQ and reraise a button raise and he lays down AT. I eventually get up to 25000, but then go really card dead and by the time we get to the final I have 5800 with 1600/800 blinds.

3rd final table hand I get AA. UTG bets pot (5600) I reraise to 5800 allin. He calls with KJ Flop QT2...I'm praying not to make trips :-) and two blanks get me up above 13000. In the bb antes 1000/2000 I get KK. SB limps I bet 4000 He reraises me . I go allin and he calls flipping over QQ. Flop comes 234 turn 5....2 on river..phew. This puts me up to 30000 and players are steadily dropping. 5th pays £240, 4th £450 3rd £800+ 2nd £1100+ £2400 first. I am on 16500 and get TT on the button. I bet 11500 (pot) and bb is allin for 5500 more I call my last 5500 and he flips over AK. Flop TJ2 he misses his Queen outs and I am on 34500. The chip leader has around 90000 2nd has 60000 3rd 50000+ and I trail with 34.5K. The chip leader proposes a deal and after some huffing and puffing I accept £750 which is a bit more than my equity. Connsidering the blinds were now 4000/2000 and I had two greeks among my foes I was glad to bank a pay day. After tips and % swaps this left me up a nice sum for the weekend.

Overall I would give Walsall 7/10. The negatives were small things like ineffective non-smoking rules, some poor dealers, starting times being a bit sloppy. Plus two times in satellites we came back to find chips had been stolen from stacks. On the plus side the structure in the main event was good. Food and drink OK and not many twats in the poker room. Generally a good atmosphere.

The big weekend at Walsall was certainly a rollercoaster ride. We (myself and OldKingCole) eventually found our Hotel the appropriately named "Village" at Junction 10 and after a shower shave and a short sleep ponied up to the Grosvenor Casino for the £5 super satellite. 149 brave souls turned up for a bingo session :-)

I eventually won a hand after 5 rebuys and built my stack up to 8000 at the break. The crazy play continued after the break and tables were breaking fast. We were on table 11 which was unfortunately next to another table which had "table 11" above it but was table 10. We played with 7 players for 2 levels as everytime a player was sent to "table 11" they went to the other one. We also were not told blinds had gone up and were still on 100/200 while everyone else was on 300/600. I had built my stack up to 20000, after getting K2 in the blind seeing a flop of 225 and two guys getting frisky with A3 each. they missed and next hand I get KK and flop K24 and get another 6000 chips. Table then broke and I gradually dwindled to 8000. Antes 600/1200. I get 10 9 suited and on a checked board of AQ8Q I bluffed into a guy with A9 and that was the end of me. I was dealing and carried on to the bitter end. There were 10 seats 600000 chips in play so with 12 left average stack was 50000. The blinds were 4000/8000 so not much room to play other than allin.

Because I went so deep in the supersat I missed the Speed Poker, so only played 5 tournies during the weekend.

Saturday saw a day out doing some business in Shrewsbury a quick nap and the 4 pm £10 supersat. I dealt this from the start and whilst not having a rebuy I didn't win a single pot during the 60 minutes rebuys. I had 2100 at the start of the freezeout and 7 seats up for grabs. I then went on a rush and won a few pots to get me up to 10000 then lost a couple and moved to a new table. Found 88 raised 1/2 my stack and ran into AA in the blind.

Bought in to the £325 main event and went back to the hotel for a nap.

I had a tough starting table with Malcolm Muskett and Jo Handman from Blondepoker.com and a couple of loose aggressive players. It seemed a bit of a rock garden to start with so I made a few "at-it" moves including a raise with 75 off suit, flop 444 I bet 400 :-) a oldish geezer puts it up to 1000 and I go allin. He passed very quickly. When I did get an hand it seemed to induce a call and a horrible flop. Example I am now on 6000 fro a 3500 start and get TT I raise to 600 and bb calls. Flop is KQ5 I check fold to a 2000 bet.

After the double chance period ends I have 7800 from a total of 7000 to start with. I move up to 12000 then get TT again. One caller and Flop AJx. I bet 2000 and he dwells and calls. I then check K on turn and he checks a low card on river. I decide I can ony get called by a better hand with the 6000 I have left and show TT. He shows J9 off and says I would pass if you bet again. (After calling 2000 I think maybe he was trying to tilt me). Moved tables soon after and got into rut of missed flops and was soon down to the felt. Got 68 suited in the sbb and put my last 1200 in. Flop 86x and I am up to 5600. I then have a huge dose of bad luck. I bet preflop in sb with A5 bb calls. Flop 444. Checked. Turn Q. Checked. River Q. I check he bets 2500. I thought for 5 minutes and called "playing the board". He of course turns over Q4 for the flopped nuts. Play is due to end at 3 am and at 2.45 I have 3600 with 400/800 blinds. I am on button +1 with A6. I go allin and after a long think bb calls with KT. BB hits a flush on the river and thats the end of me.

Back to the hotel for 3 am and a long restless night trying to sleep. Two more Tournies to go. Will I end my dry spell?

A big weekend coming up. Going to Walsall from Friday through to Monday morning. Itinery is:

Friday 9pm £5 (!!) rebuy satellite
Saturday2 am £20 Speed Poker freezeout

Saturday 3pm £10 Super satellite
Saturday 9pm £300 NLHE Freezeout

Sunday 4pm £10 PLHE
Sunday 9pm £25 PLHE with £6000 guaranteed pool.

Hopefully I will be in action on Sunday. Worse case scenario is I play 6 competitions. Almost a mini festival :-)

I will need the time off work to recover I think. With the dialysis delayed this might be my last trip in 2005.

Well I was booked in to go to hospital today so I palmed off my Forest ticket for tonight's game. Typical of my luck I rang the hospital this morning to find they "have no spare beds" and the op is off. So unless I want to shell out £20+ its a night in in front of the telly (Or online card room). My alternative is the £10 early start tourny locally but my chest condition won't get better if I'm in that smoky place all night.

So it looks like Walsall at the weekend (cardroom non-smoking!) for their £300 freezeout and back on the NHS wait list.

The only bright moment of the day is I'm definitely on the transplant waiting list now (average wait 3 years) so something to look forward to.

Neglected my updates so in reverse order this is whats been going on:

Last night I tried my first WCOOP money satellite. A disappointing 54th in Omaha Hi LO $31 down the drain. The odd thing about these is the buy in is $11 rebuys $10 but apart from the seat ($530) the pool is split into $22 prizes. So there were 6 seats and 18 x $22 prizes. Daft thing is most players will be in for $21 or $31 (more if you really suck) so why not change the prize structure to say $60 chunks. I liked the "old" method, managed to once finish 2nd in a $1050 WCOOP sat for $1040 in cash :-). 3rd got eff all.

My second tourny last night was one of those "bit of a waste" one. A EPT freeroll organised by talkSPORT. Only the top 2 went through to a final on Saturday lunch time. So even if I won a seat I'm watching Forest that day so wouldn't be able to play. Somehow ended up 9th. My best hands were flopping a set of 3s on a Jack high board and my foe with QQ called my allin reraise, having AK in the bb and the sb moving allin with A2!

My exit was a case of bad calls and my trying to keep the foe in backfiring. I have AA utg and bet 6000 (blinds 2000/1000 100 ante). UTG+1 calls all others pass. 15900 in pot. Flop QTJ two clubs. I bet 6000 and get insta called. Bet out on blank turn leaving me with 2825. Called again. 8 on river yuk. I bet and he reraises my last few chips. I have a sinking feeling and call to see his A9o take down the pot. So I'm out 9th. I don't think I could've played this pot any differently apart from maybe betting more preflop. But ultimately I want A9o to make a loose call here!

The week before I cashed high in the Hendon Mob Forum tourny 3rd spot for $228. Got to love added money :-) Nothing much remarkable about this tourny apart from the number of hands I passed where I'd normally lump it in. Obviously patience plays. I wasn't even going to play this but I'd overslept too late to go the Gala early evening £10 NLHE jobbie. Obviously some clouds have a silver lining.

I lasted 1 hand in the Blondepoker forum event on the same night. QQ utg I raise 4 x bb and late position min reraises. I rereraise and he goes allin. I call to see KK a low board means I'm out 93/93. Probably 99% certain to move in on low raggy flop so can't really be too hacked off.

Only a week until I am back in hospital for the operation. Hopefully I will be limping into the cardroom at walsall on the Friday for their £300 freezeout (well the satellite to be 100% accurate).

Went down to the local cardroom Friday for a £20 rebuy PLHE competition. Only 76 entries (107 the night before) and I drew a table where no one wanted to deal. Every other table had started and all the players on mine looked completely lost at what to do. So I volunteered to deal, swapped seats and got £2 off each of them (that was my first rebuy paid for!).

Started off well, raised with JJ got 2 callers Flop J85, first caller lumps it allin. I call allin and other guy passes. Lumper has QJ 5 on turn 8 on river and all chips to me....sweet!

Had a couple of funny pots. Raised with TT bb is short and lumps in a 200 reraise. I call he has 45 off suit. Flop 456 I say 7 8 coming...turn 7 he starts swearing river 5, cue him pumping his fist and chattering away in Greek. His friend, another excitable Greek then calls my bet allin on a flop of QQT with KJ I have AQ and his only outs are running Kings or a 9. Of course 9 hits, for more loud Greek celebrations. I got to the end of the rebuys without rebuying and with 3100 chips froma 1000 chip start. The table was very loose and i took the add on. the table broke soon after and I eventually got busted with 77 vs 88 Flop QQ4 turn 7...river 8. At least I wasn't dealing that hand!

Saturday saw Forest lose yet again against a very ordinary Brentford who are supposedly the best side in the League. The worst thing about our current plight is the league is so crap yet we are 1 point off the relegation spot. Scary!

Health wise I have been given a date for the ligation op to clear up my "leak". 20th September will see me back in hospital, hopefully I will be fit enough to play the £300 freezeout at Walsall on the 24th September. A nice smoke free cardroom will make a pleasant change.