The Worst Final Table Ever

No, not because I sucked out, or suffered a bad beat, but simply because the software prevented a number of players from actually playing. For the entire FT there were 4 permanent sit outs and, later on another one.

I came to the FT in good shape (makes a change) but only after I'd inflicted a bad beat of my own on JadedJ. His KK looked in good shape against my A10s but a 10 on the flop and a second one on the river doubled me up.

ANyway the FT was a major anti-climax due to the lack of players. Down the the final 3 (one sit out) Gaf and I went heads up, exchanging chips until we both hit a hand. Unfortunately for me my 77 was just worse than his 88, leaving Gaf with about 90% of the chips in play.

I then had a decision to make. Did I fold everything until the sit out went out, or, play my hands in an effort to get back in? The decision initially was easy when the dealer gave me crap cards but then I was dealt my bogey hand A9. I went for it, Gaf had little option to call as it was very few extra chips for him, and up against his 53 (I think) he hit a 3 on the flop and another on the river. I know exactly how JadedJ felt earlier.

The next hand Gaf wins the tournament against the sit out and soon after I realise that, had I finished second, I would have moved up 2 more places in the overall League table!!!

Despite that there is a very bitter taste about the software letting down what could have been an excellent FT.

More Live Action

Friday saw another home game and my best result yet. In about 6 or 7 home games I've only ever finished with less cash than I started once, but this time I finished first in 2 out of the 3 games. In the other game my pockets queens got busted by KQd when he hit a flush on the flop.

Last year saw an overall loss on my live games (negative at casino's and positive at home games) however this year is off to a good start with both showing a positive result to date. Admittedly the sample size is very small so far.

Other than that I'm only playing in the Monday night league and 5th place and 8th place finishes in the last 2 weeks have helped me move up the league to 11th. The final game is tomorrow but in order to move into the top 10 (where the bonus money starts) I need to improve on my current scores. I estimate this will take a top 15 finish and probably a final table finish in order to break into the bonus money - I have a feeling I might end up on the bubble (again)

New Year - But it's March Already

I've been away. Between November and early March I hardly played poker at all.

There are a number of reasons for this but predominantly I had fallen out of love with poker and had other things occupying my spare time. However I'm now back in love and am making a few changes.

Previously I'd be perfectly happy spending an evening on a freeroll battling past hundreds of people in an effort to win quite small amounts of money - and this was my problem. Eventually these people tire you out and you get frustrated playing against them.

So the new poker playing career begins with the fact that I will rarely play in these types of freerolls. So far I've only ventured to the Punters Lounge League matches where the fields are about 50 players but the level of play is top quality. I value a top 10 finish in these as you have to play good poker to get close to it.

I'd also like to venture into the realms of live casino poker more. Last year I played live twice, once in a rebuy tournament which I didn't enjoy as it was my first experience of rebuys and live play and thus it was all too daunting and new to appreciate. My second game was a live freeze out. I bubbled in 11th place but enjoyed it far more.

Already this month I've played a further live freeze out and finished a creditable 6th out of 48 runners.

My final aim is to move away from freerolls and play MTT's with Buy Ins. I probably won't start with very high buy in's until I'm comfortable playing at these different levels.

Last year I finished with nearly $1000 profit from playing. These records started in May and I hardly played in the last 2 months of the year so I'm very happy with that profit over basically a 6 month period.

Not so In The Mood

Just so I don't get a reputation for only posting when I do well I thought I should highlight the very next PL game I played in.

I finished 35th out of 40th.

I like to think, in the immediate aftermath, that I was just unlucky.

The first hand I played my full house ran into quad's
The second hand I played my top pair, top kicker improved on the river to make it top two pair. Unfortunately the river made his trips

I did manage to double up when I hit trip kings but later tried a semi bluff chasing the nut flush only to find my opponent holding pocket Aces.

Whilst I am dissappointed I do feel that on another night I'd be still playing and sitting with a very nice chip stack.

But hey, that's poker, and that's kinda why I love it.

In The Mood

I came home the other night and helped put the kids to bed. After that I was really in the mood for a game of poker.

So with about 5 minutes to spare I registered for the PL Sporting Odds October League game. The game started and I looked down at poket rockets first hand. A great start to a great night I thought. Only one caller to my decent raise (absolutely perfect I thought). That was until the flop came down with 2 kings. A check from my opponent gave me hope until he called my large bet. When he went all in after the river I had no choice but to fold and live to fight another day.

Fate then teased me by giving me decent, but not exceptional cards such as A9 (my bogey hand), A7, KQ & 55, in the next four hands. Fortunately I wasn't even close to getting frustrated from hand 1 so I managed to steer clear of any serious play with any of these hands. After that a run of pathetic cards meant I had a quiet 30 minutes or so.

To be honest I don't remember many of the hands that took me from nearly last to being chip leader. For a while I had twice as many chips as the second place person so I must have had some good cards and played well, but none of the hands stand out.

The game had started with 64 players and we were down to the last 3 tables. I was chip leader and in a late position. The table folded round to me and I had KQs. I put in a larger than normal bet as I didn't really want any callers. The table continued to fold to Lou Saban in the BB. She called.

The flop only showed one spade and also an Ace so, I was pretty confident of being behind and was preparing to fold my hand to her raise. Raise she did, but not by enough. Now I admit I know the principles of pot odds but I don't fully understand the mathematics. What I did understand was that, whilst I was fishing, i had the chips to fish. There was runner, runner, flush and straight draws out there.

The turn came down with another spade and again I would have folded to a large bet but again the bet was 'callable' because of the chip stack size. The river shows another spade and I do feel sorry for Lou as my king high flush hits and I win the pot.

The other strange thing from the evening is that I remember more the hands I folded than the hands I played. I've felt this before when I've done well in tournaments. When I've had to make a decision pre flop with a good hand and folded it, it turns out often to be the right decision. That's not always the case. An example from the final table - Pocket Lady pushes all in in early position with a decent size chip stack and I'm holding 77. After a long think I fold, as does the rest of the table. She shows pocket 5's and I'm left to contemplate what could have been.

The story of the game has to been Valiant's return from the dead on the final table. Having seen him go all in and get called with the famous 72o hand and win it we should have known what was going to happen. But when, as the last 'Westie' standing he had less than 1000 chips it only a matter of hands before he left the 4 'Easties' to it.

But no, it seemed like he won 5 all in hands in a row (including a few where we checked it down so there were more people in the final show) and he went from nearly out to chip leader.

The final table had taken a long time to get down to the last 5 Philossfy, The Croc, Valiant, Pocket Lady and myself, but we went from 5 down to 2 in a matter of hands. I felt sorry for the croc as I was sat to his right. Every time it was his BB I seemed to have a decent hand. He must really think I was just out blind stealing.

Anyway the heads up ended up between Valiant and I, although I started with the larger chip stack.

It didn't last as long as I expected. We traded a few chips over the first 10 hands or so and then a jack high flop came down. I was holding QJ, Valiant was holding J7. After the all in no further cards came down to help either of us and the game ended.

This has been said so many times before but the spirt and quality of Punters Lounge games far exceed any poker compettion I've ever played before. And to win a PL league game is a far greater achievement in my eyes than other competition victories I've had where I've won more cash or beaten more people.

Thanks for the game guys.

On the downside - having won the first league game in a set of 4, I now cannot watch next week's England game in the pub as I have to be playing in the league again!! However after seeing England's performance at the weekend that might not be such down side.

Records

Since May this year I've been keeping a record of everything spent and won on poker so that I know exactly how much I'm winning or losing. The record as of today stands as this:

	profit by month
Jan		$0.00
Feb		$0.00
Mar		$0.00
Apr		$0.00
May		$335.39
Jun		$70.04
Jul		$325.49
Aug		$97.08
Sep		($30.89)
Oct		$17.70
Nov		$0.00
Dec		$0.00
Annual		$814.81

I originally set myself the target of $100 per month profit so the initial signs are positive as I'm exceeding that (on average).

The majority of May's profit came from my second place in the Virgin V Points game as in my last post. The majority of July's profit came from 2 final table finishes on the Virgin V Points game.

In August and September I deliberately cut down the amount of poker I was playing to try and give myslef a break from the game, and in October to date I'm not really in the mood for playing much poker, except.......

100,000 V-Points Freeroll (14/05/2006)

Always important to start these things on a high and a good result.

Mine was in the 100,000 V-Points freeroll where I finished 2nd out of 270 with a prize of 20,000. Unfortunately my dreams of return flights to New York were cut short as I discovered I did not have enough to even get me there, not a mind the family and returns.

The highlight of the tournament had to be the hand I won with 72o, winning over 4000 chips when the blinds were very low.