Poker for a living

Charity Update

2012-01-25T15:44:00.002Z

Grinding most of my waking hours at the moment so don't really have time to do a detailed post, will do that once TCOOP is over. I have made 10 final tables since Friday but only managed to close out 1 win and that was in a relatively small tournament for $4021.

so, 10 finals = $500 + (5% of $4021) is $701 to be donated so far. I'm exactly halfway through the allocated time period atm so hoping to push that total past the $2k mark come the end of this Sunday!

Pab

Blog Revival (part deux)

2012-01-20T16:14:00.002Z

After a failed attempt at bringing my blog back to life last year I am going to give it another try after been inspired whilst reading probably the best poker blog out there, lil daves. If you have never read it, find the link in my blog list and enjoy :-)

2011 was a pretty mixed year for me overall, online went well and I won a SCOOP for $188k which was my biggest score online by some margin. On the flip side live poker went terrible and I bricked the whole WSOP as well as 6 bet/folding on TV deep in EPT London main event, sigh. The whole full tilt saga has left me about $50k out of pocket as well if that never comes back. Sill a good year overall tho so cant complain too much.

Not really got any goals as such for the year ahead but I'm trying to make a real effort to grind more. many of my peers put me to shame with their work ethic so its time to put that right! If I have a few decent results I become super lazy and just stop grinding for weeks at a time and do nothing constructive whatsoever, usually a mixture of going out drinking and playing COD online :-)

Grinded quite hard in January so far and looking to put in some more sustained volume over the next 10 days as its the inaugural TCOOP (Turbo championship of online poker) on stars. Even though some of the buy ins are a little smaller than I anticipated, one of the main benefits of a festival like this is a spike in traffic throughout the rest of the daily schedule producing bumper prize pools all over the place, oioi

I have done this in the past and always made me feel good about myself so will be donating money to charity based on my results over the TCOOP period (friday 20th - sunday 29th inclusive) I will donate $50 for every final table I make as well as 5% of any tournament I mange to close out and win.

I am going to use some of the money to sponsor my friend Chris Hall who seems to have lost his mind and is doing the Tough mudder challenge later this year. Chris is raising money for the national eczema society, if you like to sponsor him find all the info here : http://www.justgiving.com/chriskphall

I am going to donate to breast cancer care and maybe some other charities depending on what total I end up with, just hit 9 tables and counting so gonna end this post and concentrate on clicking buttons!

Pab

Blog revival......

2011-02-25T00:05:00.001Z

Soooooooo

My blog fell off the radar again as it often does when I don’t play any poker for a prolonged time period. I stopped playing just before Christmas and didn’t start playing again until the last week in January. Since I started playing for a living I have been to PCA and/or Aussie millions every January but 2011 would break that trend. I tried a couple of sats for the PCA to no avail but wasn’t really that bothered really. I didn’t fancy the long journey to Australia just for the Aussie millions since in previous years I had always spent some time in aus before or after the event making the trip worthwhile. Instead a few friends of mine had rented a house in Thailand on the island of koh samui for the best part of 2 months so decided to head over there for a couple of weeks and put poker to the back of my mind.

The trip to Thailand turned out to be a really good idea as I was able to relax completely and just enjoy myself for 2 weeks with good friends. The house was situated in chaweng beach on koh samui which is a really popular spot for backpackers. It was a really cool place and going out was great but the only downside was the weather as due to some freak anomaly in south east Asia, all the weather patterns were messed up and it was overcast most days but was still hot making it 10x better than UK weather in January…. The main reason I only stayed for 2 weeks instead of 6-7 weeks like the rest of my friends was the shitty timezone for grinding mtts and the start of February would see the 19^th (fml) instalment of full tilts FTOPS series.

So after catching up with family/friends at home it was time to start the 2 week FTOPS grind, which in the past hasn’t been too kind to me but it’s got to turn sometime right…. Well unfortunately this FTOPS was not to be my series either so my full tilt avatar will not be sporting a gold jersey anytime soon. I had 3 deep runs, finishing 18^th in the $100r 6m, 26^th in the $200FL rush event and 16^th in the $200 HA event. The $100r was by far the toughest to take as 1^st place paid almost $300k and I’ve had several close calls in past FTOPS series but have yet to close a mammoth score. I was doing ok overall though putting up some decent results and came close to a big score again this past Sunday when I finished 6^th in the big stars $100r for $19k losing AQ vs AJ when it was over $80k ftw, blah! Even though I bemoan my luck in FTOPS, the fields are massive so being a realist it’s no great surprise I’ve not had a big result there but will be trying again next time :-)

I’ve tried to play one session online this week since FTOPS ended but unregged pretty quickly as I had no motivation at all and still felt burnt out from the previous fortnights exploits. On Tuesday I went to the Leeds/Barnsley game at eland road and thoroughly enjoyed it despite us drawing 3-3 in a game I expected us to win. It was the first game I’ve been too in quite a while, one of the downsides of playing poker for a living and constantly travelling around. I’m also going to Leeds/Doncaster game in little over one weeks time for one of my friends birthday so hoping for a better result.

Plan on taking it easy for the next couple of weeks as far as poker goes, playing online but a much reduced schedule. Then all being well I’ll be heading to London to play the GUKPT closely followed by a trip to Vienna to play EPT snowfest and maybe try my hand at skiing…. Early April is EPT berlin then I’m going to Canada to stay with a friend of mine and we have tickets for the UFC there :-) Going to Vegas at the start of may this year for the WSOP in order to grind the pokerstars SCOOP festival there in a much more accommodating timezone. Will add a couple of photos which sum up the trip to Thailand...

Lazy as usual

2010-11-26T10:53:00.002Z

For anyone that has followed my blog over a decent period of time will be used these rediculously long periods without me posting due to the fact im a lazy git. It also has to do with the fact ive not been playing much poker over the past 6 weeks or so. After brighton I returned home for 2 weeks and was catching up with family n friends and didnt fancy grinding online. Quite a few weeks previous I had won a seat on stars to APPT cebu in the phillipines and was looking forward to this despite being so far away for a couple of reasons. Firstly the place looked abs stunning and it was a chance to escape the british weather for a few weeks and partake in one of the few actual hobbies i have besides poker, scuba diving.

A long flight to singapore and a short flight to cebu and I arrived at the shangri-la resort and the pics on the stars website didnt do it justice as the place was incredible. I had purposely gone a week early to have a holiday of sorts and do some diving. Managed to get 3 days of diving in which was great despite not seeing anything too spectacular (sharks etc..) The stars party before the main event was held on the shangri-la private beach, pretty fkin ballin tbf, and was a blast and managed to meet a few drinking buddies for the rest of the trip.

Onto the tournament and day 1 was almost a non event as we started with 20k chips and i bagged up 19650 or something at the end of the day, lol. Day 2 would be more eventful and I doubled up almost straight away 99 > 77 and then went to work chipping up without showdown and the standard was woefully low. I think over half of the players were qualifiers for the metro card club in manila providing tons of value imo. I ended day 2 on 120k with the blinds starting at 1.5k/3k on day 3 but we weren't in the money yet. On days 2/3 of big tournaments i think i open the first hand of the day like 100% of the time unless I'm mega short but this time it folds to the BB who just piles 40bbs right in my eye, nh sir.

Won a good pot with AA at the start of day 3 and then I had a pretty easy ride until 2 tables out because of 1 guy on my right. He would sometimes open fro like 3.5x and show his strong hands once everyone folded but then sometimes he would open for like 2.5x after a little think. Everytime he did this i 3b him and he snap folded. He didn't seem to cotton on what was happening and kept on with this pattern for like 6hrs with him never 4b or even calling me :-). We redraw tables with 16 left as we were playing 8 handed and my meal ticket is separated from me but I had like 419k at 4k/8k so was in pretty good shape. New table was a disaster right off the bat as I 3b some guy with AJ and then some1 found QQ cold when i was getting even money on the call and bricked. Lost another big pot soon after when a guy raises LP and I call from Bb with AT, flop is ATx one heart and I c/c 3 streets but his 93hh hit running hearts to take the pot and I was now short with 13 left. Jammed the button with 97s and lost to KJ to bust 13th for $6k, was $135k ftw, asdfghjsdfg. Received the usual tilting congratulations from the cashier and headed back to my room to geeg the mini-bar....

Was meant to flying to Barcelona for the EPT but after the 13th I was pretty deflated and decided to hang around Cebu for a few more days before heading back to London for GUKPT grand final. Touched down in London at 7pm Wednesday night but since I change timezones on such a regular basis I'm pretty much an expert at dodging jet lag. Hardly slept on the flight from Singapore to London and therefor crashed for a good 12hrs Wednesday night and was good to go on day1a of grand final 2pm yesterday...

I busted the GUKPT at around midnight last night after a pretty frustrating day. I was seated next to stuart rutter which was cool as stuart is one of the good guys on the tour, always a pleasure to talk to at the table and ready to instingate a night out at the drop of a hat once the poker is over and done with. During the first couple of hours I ran KK into AA and 67 into QJ on 89T flop as well as losing with KK again and TT 2x and missing every other flop.. Never got going and never won a meaningful pot and clung on as well as i could until the very last hand of 4/800 when it folded to me in the cutoff and I jammed 11.5k with A9 and found the button holding AJ and I was a gonner. Don't felt I played bad at all, just ran into shitty situations all over the place which can happen pretty easily in tournament poker. My only complaint was having to play 10 handed all day in a £2500 tournament which is something I hope they can address for next years comp. Made a swift exit from London and am currently on the train back to Doncaster after the 2 nights in my London hotel cost more than a months rent for my 3bed semi house, lol.

After my break I'm motivated to grind online again so will be trying to put in some good volume as well as playing champion of champions in Coventry next weekend and then the £1k monte carlo event at DTD later in december. Could be be tempted to throw EPT prague in as well but I'm a bit sick of travelling atm and wanna just stay at home for a few weeks including xmas. January throws up a few options with PCA, aussie millions as well as few friends of mine getting a house in thailand to grind online for a while... Need to formulate a plan as well as setting myself some goals and aspirations for 2011. Sorry for the long post, as usual ill promise to try n update more regular but the chances of me doing so are slim/none so look forward to another essay in 6 weeks time :-) Ill attach a few pics i took on my phone of shangri-la...

Catching up with everything....

2010-10-13T20:48:00.005Z

Ok, firstly ill wrap up the end of the WCOOP with Friday 24th September being another very good day for me online as I made 3 more final tables, all on FTP (burn stars lol). They were the $20 rebuy (7th) $500 Friday fight night (5th) and the $200 turbo where i managed to luckbox the win for $16564 :-) Unfortunately I was unable to muster any finals over the weekend but one of my horses managed to get 3rd place in the brawl for $54k so we had truly broken out of the slump and was back in high spirits again about poker just in time for EPT London!

As far as the charity goes the total was at $1788 so add 3 finals and 5% of the win and I finish on a grand total of: $2916 to be donated. After some suggestions from people that read this blog I have decided to split the money evenly between MIND (http://www.mind.org.uk/) and a homeless shelter in my home town of Doncaster (http://www.m25group.org.uk/) The donate link on their site isn't working at the moment so will try to contact them but if that fails ill choose another charity.

Right, a quick recap of EPT London saw lots of drinking as well as me losing a 300k pot at 1k/2k on day 2 of the main event which was pretty frustrating especially after villamoura. I had AKs and had been caught 3 betting light on 2 separate occasions where a short stack found a hand behind and I had to call and failed to hit either time. So since my rep was in tatters I had found the immortal nuts vs an aggressive player who i later discovered was Femi Fakinle who won a UKIPT earlier in the year. A short stack sandwiched between us with KK and my AKs was against Femi's QQ for a bigger side pot but not only did we not spike an A for all the gold, QQ flopped us all dead on Q33, lol gg EPT! Quick commiserations to matt perrins who busted in like 12th place which was pretty gay, but I'm sure he will bounce back soon and put up a huge result.

Played 2 side events in London and was going quite well in the £1500 freeze but eventually busted in 20th position for 80k pot at 1200/2400 when JJ
Onto the £1k main event and it was split into 2 flights starting and 12pm and 6pm. Since the night before I had welcomed in the sunrise with a full english on brigton seafront after a night on the booze it was an easy choice to play the 6pm flight. Had a pretty soft starting table and didn't get any tough spots early and then was on the right side of a cold deck to double up with AA vs AKs :-) Rest of day 1 was pretty uneventful and I finished on 55k and blinds would be 500/1000 when we returned.

Day 2 also started with a pretty soft table apart from 1 seat two my left which happened to be Flushy and he had more chips than me. He bashed me up pretty hard for most of the day and really put me in shitty situation. I wasn't getting any spots and when I did, people took them before me or if I was raise/calling vs some1, someone else would cold4 all in behind etc... Toby Lewis moved to the table later in the day and some good banter was flying around, mainly at my absolute bowl of a stack. I got really short at one point and jammed 18k otb at 1200/2400 after looking at just a J, Toby called me int he BB with K4 and things looked bleak after AKQ flop and Toby stood up with his hand in the air (fatal mistake) as a T snap rolled off on the turn to seal the lucky double up I needed. After this I started re-shoving on some of the guys to my right and managed to get all the way up to 100k with no showdowns. Despite being my friends I was glad to see Toby and James get knocked out just before the bubble as they were both on my left and 2 of the better players left in the tournament.

The stacks were really short on our table at this time but I was going ok until I lost QQ vs KQ for 160k at 4/8k leaving me with around 85k. I managed to shove the button and then the next orbit I found KK in the SB and everyone who folded to the button who jammed all in covering both of us in the blinds. I call, BB folds and I hold vs J5s to get to 200k. The J5 guy then loses another decent size all in and only has like 48k left when it folds to him on the button next orbit and he jams K8, I call with A9 and hold in order to set the 10 handed final :-)

Ok, this post is starting to go on a bit now so will try and rap up the final pretty quickly. I had position on John eames (I thought me and him were the best players on the final) as well as position on 2 other people with big stacks. I won flip early vs a guy with 10bigs and then prob the most crucial hand of the final for me took place. A guy i played with a decent amount on day 1 opens the hi-jack to 16500 (4/8k) and I make it 40k otb with AQ. Back to him and he quickly jams like 340k total. I was almost certain I had the best hand but purely from an ICM standpoint I should be folding since I would be left with 9bbs if losing. However since it wasn't the biggest tournament in the world and the relatively quick structure I decided to call and try to pretty much secure a top 3 spot if i won making this a £20k hand. He rolled over 67cc and after the flop of 9c8cx I was the underdog but as is usually the case when u have so many outs he couldn't find one on the turn or river and I hold to become the big chipleader with over 700k. I managed to get to 1m chips without showdown and things were in cruise control at the first break. The 3rd level of the day was pretty bad one for me though and didn't win a pot throughout and soon found myself back with around 700k going on dinner with 6 players left.

Regained my composure after dinner break and got a light 4b through almost immediately and the confidence came flooding back, as did the chips :-). Quick mention about how sick bad John eames ran on the final though, losing two 80/20s to the same guy and then iso'd a short stack all in with A6s only for the same guy again to find AA behind. Again was happy to see him leave as he is a v.good player but he will making many more finals and will not run so bad everytime...
After that we were 4 handed and one guy was short and bust quickly and the stacks were like me 1.1m, and the other guys had like 600 and 700k respectively. I was winning most pots 3 handed and had taken significant pots off both of them when I flopped a set vs a guy who i had been getting the better off and he jammed 2nd pair on be for a fairly large pot. This left me HU with a 4:1 chiplead, nothing silly happened and when he was down to like 12bbs i set him in with QJs and he called with QT and since I had ran golden all final it was no surprise I held again to take the title and the £46k, Boom!

Really pleased with how I played on the final, and was nice to run good and have hands hold up at the right times since tournament poker is such a fine line. Right time to stop rambling for now. Got like 2 weeks back in the mighty DN5 then its off on the road for another month again with EPT Vienna, APPT Cebu (won seat on stars so will be staying an extra week or so in Philippines to do some diving and have a much needed break from poker) the EPT Barcelona and GUKPT grand final in London......

Finally won a tournament....

2010-09-23T17:32:00.002Z

finally had a good day on Monday in what felt like forever on Monday and made 4 final tables in total as well as taking down a tournament :-) I finalled on stars the $100 1r1a turbo (4th - $8152) the $109 turbo (5th - $4394) the $50 1r1a (2nd - $7643) and won the $100 1r1a on FTP for $17758.

This is also a good boost for the charity pool which was looking pretty bleak after 2 weeks of WCOOP! 4 finals is $400 added and then 5% of $17758 is $888. Not decide what I'm going to donate too yet and I am open to suggestions if any one who reads this has any...

Current total - $1788

Got 3 more full days of playing so hopefully can rack up a few more finals and another big win!

Feels like its never gonna end

2010-09-18T12:14:00.002Z

Probably in the middle of my worst ever downswing online and truth be told its starting to get to me. Played a full session of tournaments yesterday and was flying in the WCOOP $200r from a long way out and was near the top of the leaderboard from around 400 ppl out. I was playing great and not making any mistakes but as so often has been the story in the past few months as soon as we got to the last 40 ppl I snap lost 2 big all ins 77 < AQ and then AJ < KQ. I never fully recovered from these hits and was surviving with between 15-20bbs until I busted in 27th with AK < TT.

Unfortunately no more final tables to add $$ to the charity pool and it feels as though id actually have more chance of shagging Jessica Alba than actually winning a poker tournament.... There is one more week of WCOOP left which despite this soul destroying run I feel obliged to play followed up straight after by EPT London. I won a seat on stars to APPT Cebu in the Philippines in November so will use that to have a holiday of some sorts and much needed time away from the tables....

Really Struggling

2010-09-14T15:56:00.002Z

So frustrated with poker at the moment and even the smallest things going wrong seem to send me off in a rage at the computer screen. Played on Sunday and had a few deep runs but fell short of any final tables which was pretty meh. Did have one big sweat though when one of my horses was on the last 2 tables of the $215 WCOOP event which had a $300k first prize. After playing for close to 16hrs he got all in with 88 vs 77 for a 7.5m chip pot at 70/140k blinds only for a 7 to peel off on the river. It was horrible to watch and at the time we had around 10 ppl in a skype conversation railing but after that river hit everyone just went silent and was utterly speechless. Really felt for the guy as he has been playing great and had some ridiculous bad luck deep in big tournaments and hopefully he will get what he deserves soon enough..

I'm gonna be playing a lighter schedule for the next few days then taking thurs/friday and possibly Saturday off to try and stabilise my mental state. I think Ive been in this position only once before where every time I lose a big all in I'm raging at the computer and feel like the world is about to end. This mentality is no way gonna be good for some1 grinding online mtt's for a living so its pretty clear I need a few days off even though the WCOOP is ongoing. I do plan to take and extended break in November but for now a few days will have to do...

sat 12th september

2010-09-12T12:29:00.003Z

Played a pretty full session on saturday and ran so so bad agaain but managed to final table the $215 six max comp on stars. Got in a really awkawrd spot with AT on the final and made a bad call on the river i think to leave me with 20 bbs. Soon after I ran QQ into KK (fml) and couldnt hit a Q so was on the rail in 5th place. Really frustrating how I am running at the moment, especially deep in tournaments but not a lot i can do about that, anyway another $100 in the charity pool on onto another mega wcoop sunday today.......

current charity total $500

wed/thurs wcoop

2010-09-10T14:22:00.002Z

I didnt play any wcoop events on wednesday but was going to play the late tournaments anyway since there are several good high stakes events. However in my first tournament after about 2 mins i had KQ on AJT flop and some guy got his QQ in for 4000 chips at 15/30 and proceeded to make a full house. Was so tilted str8 away I unregged my schedule and just had a few beers and played fifa with my housemate.

PLayed a pretty full schedule on thursday and made one final table in the FTP $50 f/o but could only manage 3rd place for $4400 after AA went down to QJ. Finished 10th and 12th in two good size tournaments on stars which was pretty frustrating. Despite been on of the worst runs of my career im starting to a fw signs of turning it round and am hopeful of putting up some bigger results over the next few weeks..

1 final so another $100 in the kitty

running charity total - $400

wcoop day 3

2010-09-08T18:06:00.002Z

managed to make 2 finals, $100 turbo stars and UB $50r but only finished 4th and 9th respectively. Had several other deep runs and hoping that a bi result is just around the corner....

Charity total - $300

2 days of wcoop in the books

2010-09-07T14:47:00.002Z

No early sucess for me in the WCOOP and only one final table to boast for 2 full sessions. I final tabled the $500 high roller on Ipoker last night and took 2nd for $8800. Would have been nice to get the win and my first 5 figure score online since 6th may but gotta wait a little longer to get that monkey off my back.. Managed to chip up really easy in this tournaemnt around the bubble and this showed by the fact that 3 people were under 10 big blinds when the final table started. One guy basically won every all in and when we got to HU he outchipped me massibvely and I jammed A3 from the button with 11bb's and ran into his 77 and lost, sigh. So the first final means the charity pool is up and running with $100. As far as updating getting the blog up to date regarding the wsop etc, that will probably have to wait until friday as that will be only day off from the WCOOP grind....

Running charity total - $100

Charity time again

2010-09-05T01:01:00.002Z

Obv still need to update loads of stuff from world series and the time inbetween and will aiming to complete that before the week is out....

WCOOP starts again tomorrow and ill be putting in redic volume so planning to use karma and get some run good in the bank by donating to charity again. I will use the same system I used last year which was $100 for every final table I make and 5% of first place for any tournament I manage to take down. Over the same period last year this resulted in me donating around $6500 to charity.

Thats about all for now and will do doing my best to get this blig up to date asap but will be keeping track of the charity donations in the meantime as well. Just a quick congratulations to Toby Lewis and Jake Cody who both won big live events over hte past few days. Toby shipped EPT Vilamoura and Jake won the first ever WPT in London, 2 sickos who both deserve the success imo

WSOP 2010 part 1

2010-07-20T23:45:00.002Z

Ok, since I was super lazy with updating as I went during this WSOP, now that it’s over I’m going to try and recap as best I can how this year went for me. Firstly I would like to explain why I travel to Las Vegas every year to play the World Series of poker. For me I’m just taking a shot to make a crazy amount of money as there is no other time when so many big money tournaments are packed together over such a short period of time. I am not backed and am far from bankrolled to play these events on a regular basis so when it goes badly it’s very disappointing. The way I look at is that I’m grinding online all year round with a moderate amount of live events thrown making a pretty good living. Then when the WSOP rolls around I take a $50k shot at playing around 20 tournaments hoping to hit a big 6 figure score and set myself up financially well into the future. For anyone that has read my blog previously you will know I completely bricked out at last year’s WSOP which proved to be an expensive and confidence draining experience. Heading into this year’s series I was keen to make amends for 2009 and make some deep runs, a final table and with a slice of good fortune a gold bracelet.

For the third year running I would be renting a house with a few good friends of mine, David ‘geeforce1’ gent, Chris ‘moorman1’ moorman and Stevie ‘allinstevie’ devlin. This year we also had stain ‘johnnybelow’ stabell and Marius ‘danksaman’ olsvik sharing the same house. I know all these guys pretty well and know they are good people to have around you when things inevitably get tough as the series progresses. Our house was located around 10 mins from the Rio and provided a safe haven from the chaos of the Las Vegas strip. On the first weekend in Vegas we had tickets for the UFC which featured the main event of rampage Jackson vs rashad evans. The event was incredible and the night out that followed would provide a blueprint that most other nights out would follow. Dinner out, nightclub with bottle service (gg $3k) craps (gg $1k) then a taxi home as the sun rises stopping off for McDonalds breakfast on the way :-)

OK that’s about all for now will be posting another part shortly where we get into the poker and business of winning bracelets......

So so lazy

2010-07-05T21:09:00.002Z

Apologies for no updates during the wsop, just kept putting it off after the first week or so then seemed too much to catch up on so just gave up... I will do a post giving a full wsop trip report with some pictures pretty soon. Playing day 1B of the main event tomorrow and will be hoping to cash for the first time in 5 attempts, fml....

WSOP 2010

2010-05-31T08:32:00.002Z

Well, its finally that time again to play day after day of live tournaments in the elusive quest for a bracelet and a place in the history books. Ill be trying to update pretty regular throughout the series with mini-tournament reports as well as using twitter for real-time tournament progress. As Ive mentioned in some of my previous posts I'm looking to put a dreadful wsop 2009 behind me and make some deep runs... Arrived in Vegas last Tuesday and will be putting up some pics of our house as well as UFC 114 which we went to watch on Saturday night :-) That's all Ive got time for now, need to sleep in preparation for tomorrows event, run good plzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzz

Back on the Horse....

2010-05-13T23:42:00.003Z

OK, apologies for the lack of updates but since this is a blog about playing poker it didn't seem relevant to post about my daily life during my break. I had intentionally planned for a month away from the virtual felt starting with the APPT event in manila followed by 3 weeks of scuba diving around the Philippines. This was all going to plan until the ash cloud erupted a few days before my flight home, forcing me to reschedule and not being able to get on a flight until 1st may. I was on a standby list for an earlier flight but that never materialised so I spent a boring 10 days or so stranded in manila.

So finally I returned home on Sunday 2nd may and that also was day 1 of the SCOOP festival so I had no time at all to settle in or get re-adjusted before it was time to grind. As far as the SCOOP events go themselves I have pretty much bricked the whole thing apart from a min cash in the $1k freezeout. Ive had some pretty sick beats and set ups in the high buy in events including this 1 outer in the $2500 KO event :

http://www.pokerhand.org/?5434245

Then in the $1k rebuy last night I was going pretty well before this redic cooler :

http://www.pokerhand.org/?5434249

Despite my lack of success in the SCOOP events I did manage to win a WSOP package on stars as well as a few decent results on FTP. I got 2nd place in the $1k Monday for $56k, won the $100r for $20k, 2nd in a $75 f/o for $11.5k and 2nd in the $117 superturbo for $7k. I was glad to get some results under my belt pretty soon after coming back since I was on a terrible run in feb/march and half of April.

Will be playing the rest of the SCOOP events on fri/sat/sun and then its a little over a week until I head to Vegas :-) We have got tickets for UFC events 114 (rampage/evans) and 116 (Lesnar/carwin) both should be sick and really looking forward to those... As I have mentioned in previous posts I am looking forward to the WSOP and putting the nightmare of last year behind me (0 cashes) and with a bit of luck making a run at a bracelet......

Still on break

2010-04-04T09:40:00.002Z

Still on my break from mtt's and the last time I played a online tournament (except the odd superturbo) was the 7th march so 4 weeks today. Not been playing any poker at all really, just enjoying the time off and relaxing without getting stressed out at poker everyday. Got a few diving trips planned around the phillipines the next couple of weeks so wont be getting back into the mtt grind just yet but will probably play a little bit of cash on the side when I get a chance. Im going be back home in time for GUKPT manchester so ill be playing that but probably gonna skip EPT san remo and monte carlo with the WSOP being so close. Once im home ill be diving straight back in the deep end online as ftops starts pretty much the day I land and that runs straight into the start of the SCOOP series, lol. So expect more posts about how much I hate poker/tournaments/life again...

Pab

super tilted

2010-03-23T08:50:00.002Z

just bust manila main event about 90th with 52 spots paying. Bust in 170k pot at 1k/2k with KQss on AK4ss flop, all in vs TJ off, seriously fml at the moment. Gonna destroy the mini bar and pass out and try to forget that exit hand actually happened.

Whats going on

2010-03-21T09:36:00.002Z

Firstly id like to thank the people for the kind comments on my last post :-) Its pretty hard to articulate a blog post when things are going bad without sounding too much like a moaning bastard but think I did an OK job lol. Been off donkaments and poker altogether since that post which has been a welcome break. I am currently in manila, Philippines and will be playing the APPT event tomorrow after winning a seat so hopefully Ive recharged my run good account.... Manila seems like a cool place although not done a lot of exploring yet, will save that for when I'm out of the main event. Planning to do a little travelling around the Philippines as Ive heard its a stunning place once you get out to the islands etc.. and should be able to squeeze in some scuba diving which is always a bonus. I intend to keep off the tournaments until I get back to the UK in mid-April apart from an odd Sunday session if I'm feeling in the mood.

Ill be playing GUKPT Manchester once I get back home and then EPT Monte Carlo (seat bink permitting) before doing my bollocks on the SCOOP. Will be posting twitter updates from the APPT,

Pab

Struggling

2010-03-05T00:50:00.004Z

The heading on my blog says about dealing with the trials and tribulations of playing poker for a living. Its easy to post when all is well and you are winning tournaments and since a lot of people don't write blogs or talk about it when things are going tits up a lot of people are left with the impression that playing poker for a living is a piece of piss. Around this time last year I was on a pretty big downswing that ran into the SCOOP festival causing me to miss some of the higher buy in events because my confidence was so low. It was off to to the WSOP after that where things didn't improve and I bricked the whole trip and I was seriously doubting my ability and continuation of playing poker. All it took was a few decent scores online and my confidence came flooding back, as did the big results on a consistent basis.

At the moment I'm on another pretty big downswing that has started to affect my confidence and my ability as a poker player. Since I won the $1k on full tilt back in mid January I have had almost no scores of note and given the fact I have been playing a lot higher volume than normal due to the FTOPS then it all adds up to a pretty bleak period. I said the other day that after this week I wasn't gonna play any more tournaments apart from Sundays until the SCOOP starts again in may. I'm pretty sure this comment was just born out of frustration and time will tell if I'm able to stick to it since despite getting shit on every day in tournaments I still love them......

I'm a little worried that if I keep playing high volume and keep running bad then a similar thing will happen as last year when it just keeps snowballing and my confidence is super low heading into the SCOOP/WSOP which is far from ideal. By taking a step back now for an extended period I'm hoping that I can come back for the SCOOP feeling confident again since I wont have been playing and losing for weeks on end.

That's probably about enough of me feeling sorry for myself and moaning about poker so ill wrap it up there. Just to confirm that me and Chris donated $9500 to the American red cross as a result of the FTOPS bet and Chris is gonna donate another $500 to a charity he chose personally. We were able to pick on the website that our donation be used for international disaster relief so it should go towards helping the people of Haiti as well as those in Chile after another devastating earthquake.

GG FTOPS....

2010-02-23T04:25:00.000Z

And another ftops comes to a close and once again I’ve drawn a big old blank without even a sniff of a gold jersey. I had a really negative attitude heading into the ftops since I’ve never managed to do anything in the past 15 series or however many there has been. I think this probably had a detrimental effect to my play over the last 2 weeks and my results showed. Not really sure how to change this for the next one apart from trying to remain more positive and not get as easily frustrated when things are not going my way on the tables.

I am planning to stay in Australia with my friends for about another month so that should be good. I will be playing my normal weekly schedule instead of the ridiculous 14hr sessions every single day that ftops demanded. Looking forward to playing again without the burden of ftops hanging over me and getting back to winning ways, but that will be once I’ve had a lengthy break .......

The one good thing out of ftops was the charity bet I devised with Chris (moorman). Over the last couple of days I busted 2 of Chris’ horses and I busted to two of them. Chris also managed to knock me out of a tournament himself (sucked out obv) to force another $1k on to my total, sigh. I will be sorting out the donations later this week but we will be giving $10’000USD between us which is a pretty good result,

Me - $5’500 (£3543)

Chris $4500 (£2899)

As far as I’m aware the best charity to donate to in order to help the people of Haiti is the American red cross but if anyone knows otherwise please leave me a comment in the next few days, thanks

Pab

Quick friday update

2010-02-20T08:25:00.003Z

Just finished another full schedule and looks like i might be coming into form at the right time as I took down the $50 rebuy on stars for $16k and change. Blanked out in the ftops again but made some deep runs elsewhere that eventaully came to nothing. Tomorrow is a huge day with the $2500 buy in event so fingers crossed for some run good...

also, I bust one of moormans horses and one of them bust me during the session so we are set to donate $3500 each heading into the last 2 days....

Finally Won a tournament..

2010-02-19T06:42:00.002Z

Today is my first day off since ftops started over a week ago and I finally managed to get a winning day under my belt on Tuesday. The Sunday and Monday tournaments were a complete waste of time and money and left me frustrated at the end of both days. On Tuesday though I managed to final table the early $163 on full tilt and eventually came 3rd for around $11k. I had several deep runs on the day coming 12th in tilt $100r as well as stone cold bubbling 2 other tournaments. At the end of my session I had good stacks in two tournaments, the $30 rebuy on tilt and the UB $120 deepstack. I came 11th in the 30 rebuy but made the final table of the deepstack with the chiplead. After a shaky start i got heads up with johnnybelow who is currently living it the same house with us in Melbourne so that was pretty fun. We started HU very even in chips but I was able to get a 680k to 320k lead when I flopped 2 pair and johnny flopped a flush and I held for the win :-) 1st place was $6400 so not the greatest win of my career but it rounded off a pretty good day and hopefully a sign that my fortunes are changing for the rest of the ftops period.

As i said I'm taking the day off today and then back on it for full schedules fri/sat/sun for a titanic weekend of poker. The ftops has the $2500 buy in event as well as the $500 main event and stars has a $4m gtd tournament with at least $1m for 1st place.......

On the charity front I have busted 2 of moormans horses in the last couple of days and then got busted by one yesterday so the current running totals to be donated are

Me - $3000
Moorman - $3000

Hopefully I can bust a few more this weekend or the hero himself to push it up towards the $5k mark :-)

Also if anyone is a UFC fan don't miss UFC110 this weekend, looks like the sickest card in quite o long time, lets go bisping! (got a $1k bet with allinstevie)

Super frustrated

2010-02-14T06:28:00.002Z

Since the half schedule on the first day I have played 3 full schedules (6pm-2am UK time) and have not even managed a final table yet. I have run insanely bad and got screwed deep time and time again leaving me wondering what I need to do to win... I have been really frustrated and if the ftops wasn't running there would be no way I would be carrying on playing all day everyday but needs and musts so ill be soldiering on.

After the flurry of bounty action with moorman on day 1 its been pretty quiet since then with me just busting one of his horses in a FTP $75 freezeout. Moorman did manage to bust me in the stars $109 6 max though calling my 28bb re-shove with AJ claiming he had a live read we were racing since we were sat across the table from each other. In reality he sat going 'wtf; for about 30 seconds then said fuck it, bink for charity.... I had 99 and he had AJ which as predicted, binked for charity, $1k in my eye.

The last 2 days have drawn blanks on the charity front so the current standings are

Me - $2000

Moorman - $2000

As i said there is no let up in the schedule so ill be back on the grind for the sunday tournaments tomorrow hopefully running good.... Time to sleep

pab

Day 1 over

2010-02-11T09:43:00.003Z

So today was the first day of ftops with event number 1 being a $200 freezeout that had a crazy amount of runners and had a first prize of $193k. I never got going and eventually lost a race with AK vs 88 a few levels after the antes came in. All of the other daily tournaments had inflated prize pools as a knock on effect of the FTOPS been on but i was unable to register any significant scores today.

It was a pretty eventful start to the charity bet between me and moorman though with me busting the UB $50 rebuy to one of horses. A little later in the session I busted the $117 super turbo to another one of his horses so my side of the best was up to $1k. Before today started, me and Chris agreed that is was $500 bounty's and then double if either of us knocked the other one out. Well as luck would have it we were drawn against each other in the hyper-turbo heads up on stars late at night. For those unfamiliar with this tournament you start HU with 10bb's each and running antes so not a lot of room to move... I got lucky and knocked him out meaning he now had to stump up $1k for charity. Very late on in the session I managed to knock another one of his horses out of the $30 rebuy on full tilt for another $500 to charity, Boom! Despite being very deep in the tournament I couldn't manage better than a very frustrating 14th place finish when it was $16k ftw!

So after the first day, which was only a half session really we have to donate the following amounts

Pab - $1000

Moorman - $1500

If this pace was to be sustained I'm sure we would both hit the $10k cap pretty quickly! Gonna be playing a full schedule again tomorrow so hopefully will get a decent score under my belt

Ftops for charity

2010-02-10T22:10:00.003Z

Over the course of the ftops schedule which starts in a few hours and runs through until 21st February, myself and moorman have agreed to raise some money for charity and make it fun in the process. Moorman backs quite a lot of high stakes regulars who will be grinding like hell over ftops as will I. Over this period if I bust one of moormans horses in any tournament he has to give $500 to charity and if one of his horses busts me, I have to give $500 to charity. Should be a good laugh with lots of banter and help raise some money for those less fortunate than us. I will be updating after every session I play and can hopefully share some of the hands that go down. Both me and Chris are liable for up to $10k each on this proposal. We will combine the money at the end and likely donate it to the American red cross to help the people of Haiti. That's about all for now, please anti-rail the moorman horses in pots vs me, :-)

Aussie Millions....

2010-02-05T06:59:00.004Z

Played the Aussie millions main event last week but unfortunately I busted several hours into day 2. I had a really soft table on day 1 and was able to accumulate chips at will once the antes came in. I didn't really have any big confrontations until the last level on the day when TT lost to KJ for a sizable pot ending the day with around 60k. Coming into day 2 the blinds were 500/100 so i still had a lot of room to manoeuvre. My table was stronger than day 1 but still relatively weak for a big buy in event. I got to around 100k during the 600/1200 and then bluffed off a little to have about 80k when my exit hand happened. I was opening a lot of pots and didn't have a very good reputation so was pretty hopeful of action when I raised QQ to 3k. It folds to the small blind who makes the call and then the big stack in the BB who is relatively new to the table squeezes to 15k. I shoved for 80k instead of just 4 betting to try and make my hand look weaker than it was. The small blind folds quickly and the big blind doesn't snap so I'm pretty happy and he tanks for around 45 seconds and eventually makes the call with KK! I was pretty steamed at the slowroll and when no justice Q arrived I exited sharply. It was really annoying as I was starting to feel really good on day2 and was confident of a deep run. Pretty gross cooler in the end but made 10x worse by the slowroll, fk live poker!!!

I am going to be living in Melbourne for the next 6 weeks or so with moorman/geeforce/allinstevie and I intend to be grinding online for the most part. Played online a bit since busting the Aussie millions and its gone OK but could have gone a hell of a lot better. Made deep runs in lots of big tournaments been have been running really bad about 2 tables out so not posted any big scores yet.. I have won a couple of smaller tournaments though this week, one on cake and one on UB so I am on course for a pocketfives triple crown that i hope to close out before next Monday.

FTOPS starts on full tilt next Wednesday so it will be full schedules every day chasing the elusive gold jersey, but I envisage more full tilt heartbreak really. Going to be donating some money to charity as well over this period and have managed to get moorman involved for some fun. I will post the full details next week but basically over the ftops series, whenever I bust one of moormans horses or him, he is donating $500 to charity and when one of his horses busts me i have to donate $500 to charity. I will be updating daily on how its going and all mones will probably be going to help the people of haiti.

PCA trip report & online binkage

2010-01-20T05:12:00.004Z

Really enjoyed the PCA, met loads of people who before now were just a screename I played against on a daily basis. The first night I arrived it was around 3am and while checking in I spotted moorman and a few others grinding the sundays in the lobby, lol. The next day we went for lunch and then got straight on the beer, that ran into the stars party with a free bar and then onto another bar on the resort. I was absoloutely blasted and somehow managed to run into a pole resulting in me going to hospital for a few stitches, sigh. Woke up the next day with a bandage on one side of my face, pretty good shiner, stonking hangover and 90 mins late for day 1 of the main event.....

Despite the less than stellar preperation I was going along comfortably in the main without a lot of incident and then all of a sudden I was out. Pretty standard exit really, guy opens in LP to 900 at 150/300 -25 and the button flats, I make it 3k from the SB with AK playing about 32k total. Both guys call and the flop is KT4 two clubs, i check as does original raiser and now the button bets 8k and I jam for my 30k. Original raiser passes and button now tanks for about 1 min before calling with KQ clubs, turn club, gg PCA.

If anyone was in doubt about how good moorman runs then look no further as his horse, ty reiman (puffinmypurp/gimmeda1time), finished 2nd in the main event for a cheeky $1.7m with moorman getting half.... Celebrations followed for the next few days and I manged to stay out of hospital which was a bonus. The weather was pretty shitty really and inbetween hospital/drinking/poker only managed one afternoon on the water slides so that was a little disapoointing.

I managed to ship the Full tilt $1k monday yesterday for my biggest online score, :-). The tournament panned out really well for me with a lot of strong players busting 50th-18th leaving the final two tables pretty weak. I won a decent size flip with AQ vs TT and then bust mr menlo with AK > AQ to get a stack and then chipped up really easy when it was short handed before the final. The final was really smooth, I hardly got 3bet, all my light 3bets got through and both 4bets were met with swift folds so near enough coasted to Heads up. At the start of heads up it was pretty even and not a lot happened, I had a feeling that the first time I 3bet his button open he would 4 bet me and that is exactly what went down. I responded by 5bet jamming my J4 clubs and running into TT, J on the turn soon sorts that out though, lol. After that hand I had a commanding chip lead and we got all in again on a AK9 flop with me holding A2 and him AT, bit of a cold deck HU when he is short but nothing a 2 on the turn wouldn't solve bink!

I am playing the Aussie millions main event next week so hoping the online run good transitions to live.... After that I am going to be living in Melbourne for a couple of months, enjoying the weather and grinding online with moorman/geeforce/allinsteve. Btw if you haven't tried rushpoker on full tilt yet do it, great fun!

GUKPT, EPT, DTD and looking ahead to 2010 - Long Post....

2009-12-26T23:42:00.002Z

So I have been really lazy over the last few weeks when it has come to updating my blog, for anyone that has followed me for a while this is pretty much routine.... After the ftops concluded at the back end of November I have pretty much not played online at all which has been a nice break but not great for my pocketfives ranking as I hit a peak of 8^th but have slid down again now due to not putting up any results. Hopefully when I start playing regular again in the New Year I can get back into my groove and start moving up again.

At the end of November I went to London in order to play the £3k GUKPT main event which I managed to luckbox last year (sick brag) I arrived in time to play the £1k side event which only managed to attract 60 something runners but still worth playing with about £20k going to the winner. I never had a stack the whole tournament and from when the antes kicked in I was grinding between a 10-15bb stack. I managed to double just before the final and then take a few pots uncontested until we formed a final table of 9. I had about 40bb’s and was in decent shape and one of the micro stacks busted so we had 8 ppl left with 7 places paying. I had raise/folded twice on the final when I picked up AKhh and raised again finding a guy with 50bb’s just jamming (lol) I get it in for almost chip lead stack and can’t get there vs JJ after a hh flop, sigh. Not the greatest start to the week, ha

Just got drunk for the rest of the week donking around in some low limit cash and doing chunks on blackjack, sigh. On to the main event and I had a mixed starting table as I knew 3 players, sunny chatta, pyrian de mel and Matt perrins. I don’t know that much about their games but guessed they were all solid and were not going to be spewing chips about. After playing for a while though it came apparent there were some good spots on the table so would be looking to capitalise on them to chip up. I made one really bad call against sunny when my set was almost never good on the river but paid off his straight like a mug. Was winning enough pots though in order to keep around average stack though before the table broke. On my new table I managed to get a stack going when I won a race vs Roberto romanello at 300/600-75 level. The penultimate level of the day was a terrible one for me when I cold 4 bet from the BB only to find the original raiser snap 5 bet shoving, sigh. After that I also butchered 77 and donked ¾ of my stack off leaving me with around 12k going into the last level 500/1k. I did manage to double up with AK vs 88 and then found AA when some1 else had JJ and ended up with 55k to end the day and the dream of back2back titles was still alive.

My starting table on day 2 had Stuart rutter and Julian thew both on my direct left so wasn’t planning to get out of line really. However Julian had a brutal run of hands/situations and was sent to the rail early in the level. I had a really good start to the day when I got a somewhat fortunate double up. We had some crazy Italian guy who ended up finalling that would limp 90% of hands and almost never fold post flop if he caught a piece. Anyway the Italian guy limps for 1200 and I make it 4000 with JJ and every1 folds back to him who peels. Flop is T73 rainbow, he checks and I bet around 5500 and he basically sets me in for 50k, I call and he shows T7 off but the turn and river is 6,6 ship!

My next big confrontation would come vs Stuart rutter when I made it 4200 blind on blind at 800/1600 and he shipped in around 40k, I called with AQ but lost the rave vs his TT I think. I was grinding for the rest of the day and was picking some good spots to 3 bet to keep my stack intact but no hands of note or big confrontations meant that I was treading water. Then mid-way through the 1500/3000 I opened AK to 7500 and a guy re-ships a 55k stack on me with KQ, flop comes JxxTA, wonderful. This left me with around 10 bb’s and I bust shortly after absolutely gutted :-( Tilted off around £2k playing blackjack with Jeff kimber while knocking back JD n coke before heading to a club with JP Kelly, and a couple of others to drink myself into oblivion and forget poker existed!!!

After the drinking exploits of Saturday I sacked off online tournaments on Sunday as I was in no state to be playing and then headed to Prague for the EPT on Monday. I had managed to win a seat on stars for this so that was a nice bonus and I was playing my first EPT since they Improved the structure to a 30k start stack and longer clock. I had a pretty soft starting table and I was winning a decent amount of pots without risking a lot. I had slowly chipped up all day without any bog confrontations or memorable hands and the last level of the day we would be playing was 300/600 -50 and I had 60k stack at the start of this level so was very comfortable with my position. This is when disaster struck when I managed to bust in the very first hand of this level. I 3 bet and oldish guy with 57 suited, he peeled and the flop came j53 rainbow. He check/raised me on that redic dry flop and I just couldn’t really put him on a hand that he could call my jam with and imo he was the type of player that would check/raise KJ there to ‘find out where he was’ and then pass to my 4bet jam on the flop. I thought for a little while and shipped in my 60k stack, he had me slightly covered and snapped me off with JJ for top set, lolololol gg Prague. I have spoken to a few people about the hand as I was pretty pissed off myself for donking out, but others reassured me my move was ok. The only debate we were having was despite my move being good, albeit very risky, is there any need when the field is pretty weak with lots of easy chips on offer. Looking back I don’t really need to make plays like this at this stage of the tournament but it did free up my time to enjoy drinking in Prague, :-)

After this I came home for a few days before heading to DTD in Nottingham for the £1k ‘monte carlo’ event that boasted an EPT structure as well as a £250k guarantee that they easily surpassed with a turnout of 300 and a £93k 1^st prize. This is the first time I’ve been to DTD and was very impressed with the facilities and all the dealers etc as well as how efficiently the tournament was run. My day 1 was going quite well picking off bluffs at the right time and chipping up nicely especially once the antes kicked in. I then got involved in a monster pot at 300/600-50. I raised 89 suited utg to 1500 and got called in the next seat, on the button and by the big blind. The flop came 963, big blind checked and I bet 3600 and was called by utg+1 and the other guys folded. I wasn’t happy at all with my hand at this point and would be giving up on most turns, but the turn was an 8 but brought out 2 flush draws. I now bet pretty big, 9000 and the guy jammed on me for about 30k total, I called and was in pretty good shape vs his JJ, not good enough though as the river paired the 3, sdfghjdfghjdfghj. That pot would have taken me to around a 95k stack at 300/600 and loving life. The rest of the day was pretty uneventful with me grinding a short stack and eventually won a pot towards the end of the day after busting rivermanl when he shoved the button with A3 and I found AQ and held. Came back for day2 with 38k at 800/1600 so quite short but a stack I’m very comfortable playing and not likely to make many mistakes with. I didn’t get anything going in the first level so I was playing around 30k a 1k/2k when my exit hand occurred. The button opens to 5k and I jam from the BB with AT and he calls with KQ and turns a K, gg. No complaints really, things just didn’t go my way. Ended up going out on Saturday night in Nottingham with about 12 others doing all types of shots as well as witnessing 3 fights in 20 mins in walkabout, lol.

OK, looking back on the year I am really happy with how it has gone online but pretty disappointed with my live performances. The most annoying thing was playing most of the NLH holdem events at the WSOP and not even managing one cash, fml! Looking forward to 2010 I plan on putting in a much improved performance at the WSOP. I am playing the PCA and aussie millions in January so plan A is to bink one of those and take the rest of the year off but if for some reason that doesn’t happen I’ll be grinding online until EPT grand final in Monte Carlo. Shortly after that it will be time to make the annual pilgrimage to Vegas!

Think I’ve rambled enough now, so hope everyone had a great Christmas and have a good new year, good luck in 2010. Also ive decided to moderate all comments as the amount of spam is tilting me....

Pab

Been Busy

2009-12-02T06:11:00.002Z

I will do a combined gukpt (sigh) and prague trip report this weekend once i get back home, hoping to fit in ukip galway as well b4 christamas but need to get some other stuff organised first,

Pab

FTOPS over, Children in Need!

2009-11-19T18:15:00.006Z

So, the ftops finally came to an end this past Sunday and it was a relief that this intense period of playing was over. Been shackled to the computer for 12+hrs a day for 2 weeks straight is not fun even when you are winning so when you are losing/breaking even its an absolute nightmare. The $2500 on Saturday was a shambles, I played pretty awful and was out very quickly, sigh. I made a semi deep run in the $100 rebuy omaha event but lost 2 big pots right after the bubble burst so ended up with not much more than a min cash. On to Sunday, pretty shitty day again, made a few deep runs early, notably 42nd in stars early $100r when it was $80k+ ftw and 20th in UB $100r when it was $24k ftw. Things were looking bleak as the session was winding down and then I got a stack in the $200 rebuy on stars and the UB $120 deepstack. I was mentally exhausted from the last 2 weeks poker and wasn't playing my A game by any stretch of the imagination and finished 9th in both, fml.

These last 2 final tables add another $200 the charity fund so no that its all done I will be donating $2534 to Children in Need. Obviously it is a little disappointing to get nowhere near as much as last time but I ran so golden last time, lol. I haven't played poker since Sunday, been catching up with friends and drinking. Also I got the new call of duty game, pretty awesome, xbox live ftw! I am heading down to London on Saturday for the gukpt grand final festival to defend my title, :-) Then straight from London I'm going to Prague for the EPT. Will probably take it easy after that up until Christmas and then the travelling starts again in the new year!

Frustrating so far.......

2009-11-13T23:29:00.006Z

Been too lazy to update on my progress for a couple of reasons, firstly poker hasn't been going that great since this started and Ive been playing long hours due to ftops and been exhausted every day once Ive done playing. I have had one deep run the FTOPS which was the $1k 6 max event but I managed to lose 4 all ins in 30 mins to finish a soul destroying 14th for $11k when first place paid $300k sdfghjksdfghjksdfghjkdfghj. I did manage to win a EPT Prague seat last Saturday so that was good but apart from that not much else has been going right. Have just unregistered for the later tournaments on Friday and am going to get drunk instead before the final 2 days of ftops with the $2500 buy in tomorrow and the $500 main event on Sunday. As far as the charity goes i have decided to donate to Children in need. Here are the standings so far

Final tables - 12 - $1200

Wins - 3 ( $100r stars for $13222, $50r UB for $4809, $77 turbo stars for $4649) 5% of these is $1134

Total so far is $2334

Hopefully I can add to this over the next 2 days with a couple of big wins......

Team PLB bet and Charity drive (1st-15th Nov)

2009-10-31T17:13:00.002Z

OK, not really played that much poker since getting back to the UK since i had some family commitments as well as catching up with friends etc.. Did manage to play last Sunday and was looking at a pretty dismal session until the $200 rebuy came to the rescue and i earned $27k for finishing 2nd. This result was enough to see me jump above moorman for the UK number 1 spot on pocketfives, :-) The lead however is uber small and we will both be putting in a ton of volume until the ftops is over so whoever runs best in that period will have the spot for a while. A team PLB bet has been organised on pocketfives for 1st-11th of November and features a lot of high stakes regulars and should be a lot of fun. You can read more about it here:

http://www.pocketfives.com/online-poker-scene/pocketfives-plb-competition-kicks-off-november-1st-4828683

After donating a % of my winnings to charity over the wcoop period it made me feel really good about myself so have decided to do it again for the ftops period. I will work it the same as last time, $100 for every final table appearance and 5% of the payout for any tournament i manage to take down. Last time i ran super hot and ended up with a healthy total of $6600 going to charity so topping that might be hard but ill give it a go and see what happens. I will decide what charities and how to split the money at a later date...

Once this intense period of online play is over I plan to cram in quite a few live events before christmas including EPT's in Portugal and Prague, the GUKPT grand final, Stars UK tour event in galway and possibly the DTD monte carlo £1k event. After new year the plan is to play PCA in bahamas followed by the long journey to australia for the aussie millions then after that who knows............

Sunday Shippage

2009-10-12T04:52:00.002Z

Only played on monday last week as it was my friends birthday. Still manged to turn out for the sunday touraments but only registered for the 7pm-9pm uk tournaments, (7am -9am NZ) as Its my last night so heading out for food and drinks with friends. Had a deep run in the warm up and the $100 rebuy but fell short on both before making a run in the tilt $150 f/o. Structure was pretty shallow at the business end but my run good came through to secure the win, :-) The heater continues....

Post wcoop laziness

2009-09-30T20:40:00.002Z

Since the wcoop wrapped up I've been pretty lazy to be honest. I took the full week off not playing any poker whatsoever. I planned to play a full schedule on Sunday just gone but overlaid and only started at 7pm UK time instead of the targeted 5pm. It was turning into a very frustrating session with a few stacks materialising in big tournaments but any chance been scuppered moments later. Heading into the last couple of tournaments I had registered for, the outlook was bleak with only 2 min cashes to my name. Things started to go well in the $200 rebuy on stars and the $30 rebuy on ftp. Somehow I managed to final both tournaments at the same time but was really focused on the $200 rebuy and was kind of neglecting the $30 rebuy. I got heads up in the $200 rebuy with my friend and fellow UK player Gregior but i ran better heads up and ended up taking it down :-) I was mentally exhausted after the win but was 3 handed in the $30r but didn't last long eventually busting in 3rd for a bonus $4k. I didnt play Monday, and bricked out everything on Tuesday which wasn't fun at all. Don't think I'm playing today, might be back playing Saturday but if not it will be Sunday again, gl

Pab

WCOOP final day!!!!!!!!

2009-09-21T04:42:00.006Z

Well, woke up pretty tired and hungover this morning and wasn't really feeling in the mood. Took me a few hours to snap out of that and was OK then and on the grind of a full schedule including the $5k buy in WCOOP main event. My only really sweat from the early tournaments was the UB 500 but I ended up losing a 100k pot at 400/800 shortly after getting in the money, sigh. I went deep in the full tilt 9pm $69 tournament and came 3rd for $6100, ran pretty bad 3 handed tbh. Got nothing going in the later tournaments and was finally left in the wcoop main event and the $1k 2nd chance event. Unfortunately they both ended pretty quickly, I squeezed KJdd into QQ with 24BB's and bricked a 78Tdd flop to bust the 1k. Not long after I opened K4hh in the main event and got 3 bet on the button by a super aggro guy, I 4 bet jammed for 34k at 300/700 and he tank called with JJ (nice nitroll). Board ran out AA5hh Q 6 :-( gg WCOOP 2009. Was a real shame not to make any runs in the WCOOP events but ran very well overall so no real complaints. Going to post my OPR stats for the wcoop period from the 3 main sites:

Stars :

Game *	Prizes	Profit	ROI	ABI	AFS	R/A	ITM	ITM
Hold'em NL	$72,398	$16,333	29%	$301	950	54%	30/186	16%
Hold'em L/PL	$0	<$0	-100%	$215	1800	0%	0/1	0%
Omaha	$575	$36	7%	$180	1172	0%	1/3	33%
Omaha Hi Lo	$0	$0	0%	$0	0	0%	0/0	0%
Other	$633	<$0	-71%	$271	1032	13%	1/8	13%
	$73,606	$14,617	25%	$298	961	52%	32/198	16%

Tilt:

Game *	Prizes	Profit	ROI	ABI	AFS	R/A	ITM	ITM
Hold'em NL	$68,005	$39,405	138%	$155	668	33%	27/184	15%
Hold'em L/PL	$0	$0	0%	$0	0	0%	0/0	0%
Omaha	$0	<$0	-100%	$216	228	0%	0/2	0%
Omaha Hi Lo	$0	$0	0%	$0	0	0%	0/0	0%
Other	$0	<$0	-100%	$136	936	0%	0/2	0%
	$68,005	$38,702	132%	$156	666	32%	27/188	14%

UB: Cant Find any OPR stats for UB but i had two good wins on there for $21k and $7.1k as well. Makes for a pretty good ROI etc.. as most days I only play 2 tournaments on there, couple more at the weekend.

So with just the final table for today the grand total to be donated to charity is:

$6663!!!!!!!

Pretty pleased with that effort, shame i didn't Bink a wcoop and really shoot that number up but there is always next time. I received 4 suggestions for possible charities so have just decided to split the money equally between the 4 of them. The charities are:

Myelin Repair foundation - http://www.myelinrepair.org/

Macmillan Cancer support - http://www.macmillan.org.uk/Home.aspx

Teenage cancer trust - https://www.teenagecancertrust.org/

Bolton Hospice - http://www.boltonhospice.org.uk/

I will donate $1665.75 to each of the charities which comes to £1028 using xe.com. I like to thank everyone for their comments throughout the wcoop and support on the rails, much appreciated. I am moving house tomorrow to live with some friends from home so have no idea when ill be playing poker again, planning to have an extended break. Took a few screenshots to show i actually made the donations, :-) One last thing, A friend of mine Nicky evans has just started a blog (link on right hand side) He seems really enthusiastic about it so should be a good read and worth checking out imo. Thats about all for now, looking forward to a long sleep and forgetting about online poker tournaments for a while, gl at the tables.

Pab

Quick update and triple crown

2009-09-20T00:34:00.002Z

Very quick update of whats been happening this week. I played on Monday/Tuesday took Wednesday off and played Thursday/Friday. I am not playing today as i am just heading out the door for an afternoon drinking session and watch the mayweather fight. Since Monday i have made 6 final tables winning 2 of those tournaments. The wins came in the UB $120 deepstack and Stars $30r 6 max completing a triple crown on pocketfives :-). The wins were worth $7113.60 and $3704.26 so coupled with the 6 final table appearances its has kept the charity find ticking over. Will be playing a full schedule tomorrow including the main event of the WCOOP and then after that ill be taking a well earned rest from online tournaments. Heading into the final day of WCOOP the current total I will be donating to charity is:

$6563

Sunday bricks and monday roundup

2009-09-15T04:52:00.003Z

Just finished playing all the Monday tournaments after another full schedule. I bricked out everything on Sunday, no final tables, no deep runs in anything big and just generally a super annoying/frustrating day! I tilted off my last couple of tournaments which was a bit stupid on my part but never mind. Today i have made deep runs in lots of stuff but only managed 1 final table but busted 2-3 tables out in at least 5 others maybe more. I final tabled the $50 1r1a on FTP and ended up winning the whole thing for $7527. The final wasn't very strong and the other 3 were desperate to do a deal when we were 4 handed. Gradually wore them down and sealed the victory and a boost for the charity fund. Congrats to moorman who has been on a terrible run since we got to NZ who shipped the late $100r on stars for $52k ish. Still planning to play full schedules from now until wcoop is over so hopefully i don't get burnt out!

Current charity total - $5422

Saturday Review

2009-09-13T06:26:00.003Z

Played a full schedule today, registering from 6pm UK time until 2am.... I managed to final table 2 tournaments, the Stars $300 and the FTP $30 rebuy. I came 4th in stars $300 getting set over set for a huge pot right at the start of the final then eventually busting with AK vs 99 for a 400k pot at 3k/6k. The $30 rebuy went better though, I came into the final in decent chip position and got some nice hands that held up. I had a good seat with position on the other big stack who i busted in 4th place winning a coin flip. I had so many chips when we got 3 handed it was just a matter of time and eventually took the whole thing down for $6500. So 2 finals is $200 and $325 from the win means the current charity total is $4946.25....

About to crash now to get ready for a gruelling Sunday schedule, hope it goes better than last week

Quick Update

2009-09-12T07:47:00.003Z

I took the day off on Monday after 4 full days playing as I felt pretty tired and drained. Came back and played on Tuesday making 2 final tables in the FTP $100r and the $77 turbo on stars so +$200 towards the charity fund. Even more good news was that I managed to win the FTP $100r for a nice $22800, so another $1140 towards charity. I have had several suggestions on here for potential charities as well as a few via pm on forums/facebook. After a few wins it looks like I will be donating a decent amount so will more than likely spread it around a few different charities. I will sort it all out once the wcoop is over next Sunday and i have a final total. Since Tuesday i just played the late tournaments on Wednesday and just a handful today (got tilted) with no joy. I plan on playing full schedules everyday from now until the wcoop ends so hopefully will hit lots of finals and Bink a few wins!!

Current total for charity - $4421.75

WCOOP sunday

2009-09-07T18:06:00.002Z

I was really looking forward to the Sundays with so many big events going on it was ridiculous. 3 big wcoop nl holdem events, all with 2nd chance events as well. Party poker had their monthly million as well as all the other regular Sunday majors having bloated prize pools due to wcoop. Unfortunately I bricked everything apart from a few min cashes, no final tables and not even close to a win, sigh. Not gonna complain given how I'm running at the moment, just hard when there are so many opportunities for a massive score on one day and you don't get a sniff at all, sigh. Had some stacks and good chances in a few of the later tournaments, the $100r and $200r on stars, as well as the $69 f/o on full tilt, but nothing materialised. Having the day off today as 4 full schedules on the bounce has taken it out of me, will be back on the grind tomorrow. I will leave you with the highlight of my day from yesterday when i played this hand vs shaundeeb in the $10k hi roller, :-)

PokerStars Game #32533609962: Tournament #200909010, $10000+$300 USD Hold'em No Limit - Level IX (200/400) - 2009/09/07 0:21:29 WET [2009/09/06 19:21:29 ET]
Table '200909010 15' 9-max Seat #9 is the button
Seat 1: TheTakeover (21653 in chips)
Seat 2: frtzer (9074 in chips)
Seat 3: Danny98765 (33925 in chips)
Seat 4: FrinkX (107915 in chips)
Seat 5: Paolo69 (21706 in chips)
Seat 6: shaundeeb (54242 in chips)
Seat 7: BreakRibs (46113 in chips)
Seat 8: #1PEN (23714 in chips)
Seat 9: nofingclue11 (5420 in chips)
TheTakeover: posts the ante 50
frtzer: posts the ante 50
Danny98765: posts the ante 50
FrinkX: posts the ante 50
Paolo69: posts the ante 50
shaundeeb: posts the ante 50
BreakRibs: posts the ante 50
#1PEN: posts the ante 50
nofingclue11: posts the ante 50
TheTakeover: posts small blind 200
frtzer: posts big blind 400
*** HOLE CARDS ***
Danny98765: folds
FrinkX said, "dont u dare tell me nh"
FrinkX: folds
Paolo69: raises 625 to 1025
shaundeeb: raises 1450 to 2475
BreakRibs: folds
#1PEN: folds
nofingclue11: folds
TheTakeover: folds
frtzer: folds
Paolo69: calls 1450
*** FLOP *** [3s 2d 7d]
Paolo69: checks
shaundeeb: bets 3253
Paolo69: calls 3253
*** TURN *** [3s 2d 7d] [Kh]
Paolo69: checks
shaundeeb: checks
*** RIVER *** [3s 2d 7d Kh] [2c]
Paolo69: checks
shaundeeb: bets 48464 and is all-in
Paolo69: calls 15928 and is all-in
Uncalled bet (32536) returned to shaundeeb
*** SHOW DOWN ***
shaundeeb: shows [8h 6h] (a pair of Deuces)
Paolo69: shows [Qc Ac] (a pair of Deuces - Ace kicker)
Paolo69 collected 44362 from pot
*** SUMMARY ***
Total pot 44362 | Rake 0
Board [3s 2d 7d Kh 2c]
Seat 1: TheTakeover (small blind) folded before Flop
Seat 2: frtzer (big blind) folded before Flop
Seat 3: Danny98765 folded before Flop (didn't bet)
Seat 4: FrinkX folded before Flop (didn't bet)
Seat 5: Paolo69 showed [Qc Ac] and won (44362) with a pair of Deuces
Seat 6: shaundeeb showed [8h 6h] and lost with a pair of Deuces
Seat 7: BreakRibs folded before Flop (didn't bet)
Seat 8: #1PEN folded before Flop (didn't bet)
Seat 9: nofingclue11 (button) folded before Flop (didn't bet)

WCOOP days 2 & 3 review

2009-09-06T07:21:00.002Z

Day 2 of wcoop events was pretty much a washout, I had a semi deep run in the $200 PLO, finishing 150th ish from a 2400 field. For some reason I played the NL 2-7 single draw event as well but was way out of my depth. There was also a $109 8 game event that started OK but i never got going properly and the structure was very fast and i bust quite early on. For the whole session I final tabled 2 tournaments, the $100r on stars, and the $30r on full tilt. I was first out on the final of the $30r but faired much better on the $100r, getting a nice cooler early doors for a massive pot and never looking back. I ended up winning the whole thing with no chops for $27989.

Today was going very badly at the start and came close to quitting the session early doors because i was very tired and busting out of everything. Perseverance paid off though as the later tournaments proved to be very fruitful. I made 4 final tables in total, the UB $100k, the full tilt $75f/o, $30r and $163 f/o. I was first out of the $75 final and 2nd out of the $30r final. I came 2nd in the tilt $150f/o for around $11k or so and ended up winning the UB tournament with the aid of a chop for $21655. A pretty amazing couple of days result wise and hopefully i keep this run good up throughout the wcoop series. So, with 6 final tables and 2 wins it adds a fair amount to the charity prizepool, please keep the suggestions coming for possible charities as well. About to crash now before a full Sunday schedule tomorrow including the $10k hi roller event, :-)

Current total for charity - $3081.75 :-)

WCOOP day 1 review

2009-09-04T06:51:00.002Z

Only had about 3 hrs sleep before the first full session as I'm still adjusting my body clock to the new time zone. Had a few deep runs in some of the early comps finishing 29th in the stars 100r with $55k up top, :-( and then came 9th in the party super with $10.5k ftw after losing a CL flip just before the final. So a frustrating start but i was still registering and manged to run golden in a $30r sat the the WCOOP $10k hi roller event and Bink a seat as well as busting moorman in 16th place, justice. I never got going in the $200 6 max event, and managed to bubble to razz as well. So with 2 final tables there is currently $200 in the charity kitty and appreciate the suggestions after my last post. Depending on how much the final total is i could split it between several charities, will just sort of play it by ear. About to crash now ready for another full schedule tomorrow, PLO, NL 2-7 single draw and 8 game, :-)

NZ, WCOOP and a little something for charity

2009-09-03T17:51:00.002Z

OK, so the WCOOP is finally here and event 1 starts in around 2 hour’s time. I have arrived in Queenstown, NZ with moorman where we will be based for the whole of the WCOOP. I plan to stay here for several weeks after and relax with my friends from home and hopefully learn to snowboard, if the snow holds out. The flat is pretty nice but the surroundings are awesome and will try and get some photos on at some point if I’m not too lazy. I have not played an online tournament since 16th august so am feeling very refreshed in order to put in some sick volume for the next 18 days or so. I am hoping by living with moorman we can keep each other motivated/sane through this period as well as having his general aura of goldenness around to help us get the lot, :-)

I have also decided to pledge some money to charity for the WCOOP period. Not really sure why or how this came to me but had a really strong urge to do it. For every final table I make from today until the WCOOP ends I will give $100 to charity, and for any tournament I win I will donate 5% of the 1st place money. I will keep a running tally of how much is in the charity pot and sort it out at the end of the WCOOP. I welcome any suggestions for possible charities and hopefully run good over this period and end up making a sizeable donation. That’s about all for now, will try to keep regular updates on my WCOOP progress etc...

Have a break have a........

2009-08-20T06:12:00.002Z

The conclusion of the FTOPS series which I bricked (again) seemed a good time to stop playing for a few weeks and relax. When I started going on my heater and racking up a few results I was obviously motivated to play a lot and it is easy to get fully engrossed in the online mtt schedule. Grinding online mtt’s fulltime is not a healthy lifestyle whatsoever; a typical day would involve waking up around 5pm and grabbing a quick shower and some food before starting off with the 6pm tournaments. I register until 2am UK time and can have up to 12 tables at once, sometimes more on a Sunday. If I don’t final table one of the later tournaments I will finish playing maybe around 6-7am and then probably rail friends who are deep in stuff until going to sleep around 9am. Sometimes you don’t leave the house for days, have limited conversations in real life with people and become detached from reality. I think extended breaks are very important for an online mtt player in order to keep balance in your life and not become a social recluse. I had to learn this the hard way when I was first getting into online poker and became totally obsessed and harmed some friendships because of it. That’s all way in the past though and I feel I have the balance pretty much spot on these days.

I am playing the APPT Macau event next week which should be really fun; I have attended the last 2 years and always had a great time. I was lucky enough to win my seat on stars so it’s a nice freeroll as well. Will be meeting up with a few UK players out there as well as a few people I know from online so all in all should be a good trip. After the Macau tournament I am heading to Queenstown, New Zealand to meet up with some good friends from back home and possibly learning how to snowboard! Before that though there is the small matter of the WCOOP on pokerstars. Me and moorman have rented a pretty nice apartment for 3 weeks in order to grind this so hoping for some big scores. Moorman is coming off the back of a chop in the FTOPS $300r 6 max for $200k which has put him back in contention for the number 1 spot on pocketfives again. It is always good to be living with other poker players for things like wcoop and ftops because the days are long, the beats can be brutal and soul crushing.

That’s about all for now, will do a tournament/trip report after the APPT and then updates about me doing chunks in the WCOOP!

Doubt its possible for me to run better

2009-08-04T21:43:00.004Z

I have run ridiculously hot online for the last 3-4 weeks starting in Vegas with the UB 200k and tilt 100r on Sunday 28^th June. Since getting home I have been catching up with family/friends etc... But still playing online a decent amount as well. I have been really struggling to sort a sleeping pattern since getting home as well; usually not sleeping for more than 3-4hrs at any one time but that isn’t too out of character for someone who plays poker for a living. Being back at home seems so quiet after living in Vegas for 3 months and it does make a refreshing change of pace, sort of, lol

Back to the poker, It feels as though I can do nothing wrong at the moment, winning key flips in big tournaments, being on the right end of coolers , making good calls/laydowns and getting there when I get in bad, all in all a pretty lethal combination. Following on from my good Sunday form in Vegas I managed to get 4^th in the $100r on stars, Sunday 26^th July for a tasty $32,302. The rest of the week was pretty quiet on the poker front until it kicked off this past weekend. On Saturday I made 2 final tables at the same time eventually finishing 2^nd in both, sigh. One was the Stars $100 2r1a for $5500 and the second was the FTP $100r for $12,700 marking a pretty good start to the weekend.

On to Sunday and up until recently Sunday’s had been the Bain of my existence, promising so many opportunities but failing to deliver any real substance. Obviously that had changed in recent weeks but the best was yet to come as I bagged my biggest online score to date. After numerous final tables in the big 100r on stars I finally managed to take it down for a cool $78,342!!! I felt I played really great throughout, especially form the last 3-4 tables but received a huge slice of luck 4 handed when I got all in pre with JJ vs KK and binked a J on the river, oi oi. Heads up really tested my patience as the guy was constantly betting 5x pre or 3-4x the pot once we got to the flop and I wasn’t making a pair for what felt like hours. I eventually got the upper hand, and clinched the victory, :-)

I am hoping this rich vein of form continues into the upcoming FTOPS and WCOOP festivals and can bag some more big scores. I have also come out of obscurity to claim 2^nd place in the UK rankings on pocketfives as well which is quite cool, although once I start travelling again my volume will drop significantly and those playing day in and day out will move back above me I’m sure. That’s about all for now, still undecided about playing GUKPT Luton this week, before heading off to Macau for the APT and APPT events.

GG Vegas 2009

2009-07-16T22:55:00.003Z

Ok, so as usual I was absolutely useless at updating my blog on this trip managing only 1 measly update, sorry... In the beginning I wasn’t updating because if pure laziness and then got twitter organised so I was updating on my tournaments in real time. After that the real reason I wasn’t blogging is because I had nothing positive to post about, I was bricking every tournament and getting more demoralised by the day. After my last post I was just about to play the $5kNLH event which went very well on day1 for a change and I ended up with 130k stack. Moving into day 2 and everything went wrong, got bluffed off a decent size pot, and made a few bad call downs then 4 bet 88 into KK to bust vs AMAK, fml.

After this I played a couple more 1500 events and never got going in any of them which is pretty common since u only start with 4500 at 25/50. The next event was the $2kNL event and I never had a big stack all day until the final level of the night. I had online player Breeth on my left and we had been talking for a while and then I managed to win a 40k race against him at 400/800 to give me a very workable stack. Breeth busted soon after and I was starting to gain momentum and had around 50k at 500/1000. I then lost two big pots, two hands in a row to the same guy to bring by tournament to an abrupt end. First I set the guy in for 15 BB's with A9 after he opened and he woke up with AK, I bricked after the 78T flop obv. Very next hand he opens again and I 3 bet AK and call off for 55k pot vs his QQ and lose, run better full tilt pro's imo.

Played 2 more 1500 events without success as well as a venetian 1k and then it was time for the $5k 6 max, an event I’ve had success in before in previous years. Unfortunately this year was over very quickly. In level 1 (50/100) I lose 25k when guy check raises his gutshot, bets half his stack on the turn and jams when he binks the river vs my set, wonderful. Grind for a while then lose AK vs JJ to the same guy, Marv.

As I’m writing this I just bust the main event about 90 mins into day 2. My day 1 started pretty well with me getting a full double up to 65k when I flopped a set vs 2 pair and held. I took this stack into the dinner break and then all went wrong in the final 2 levels. First I bricked top pair and flush draw vs a better top pair in a 3 bet pot, then 3 barrelled some guy who snapped me off with 1 pair despite the board getting uber scary. Another double barrel snapped off and I find myself on around 25k heading in the last level. I move tables and flop a set first hand, no good vs a gut shot obv. I fold for the final 30 mins and end the day on 22'400, not the greatest considering the 30k starting stack but the excellent structure still meant I had plenty of room. So today I got back and the blinds started at 250/500 - 50 and I get AK in the small blind second hand and 3 bet one guys open to 4100, he flats and I bet 6200 on a J68 flop and he sets me all in, fuck my life. I don’t really play any more hands and blind down to 8k when it folds to me in the SB and I have A6dd, I jam and the French guy slowrolls me with KK, wonderful. Flop comes 753 for additional outs and he gives it a victory cheer when the K turns but I don’t get the justice 4 on the river and my WSOP 2009 is officially over.

Looking back at the series I definitely didn’t play my best poker but got some rough beats and sick set ups/coolers which amounted to a very frustrating time poker wise. Not a lot you can do about these types of things because in reality bricking 14 tournaments is just regular variance, it just feels worse as it takes a month and costs like $50k, lol. My live poker is just about done this trip apart from maybe the $5k main event of the Venetian festival on the 13th but I’m still undecided. OK, I started writing this entry about a week ago and didn’t make it to the Venetian 5k, prob saved money the way I’m running.

Had too many nights out to recall exact details but a lot of them followed a pretty similar pattern:

· Meal in a swanky restaurant

· Table in a club where too much vodka/jack daniels is consumed

· Stumble onto casino floor to play craps

· Go rhino/sapphire and spend remaining money that wasn’t spunked on the craps table

· Wake up at 6pm the next day feeling like death

Some of the nights out were epic and some pretty special photos made their way onto facebook and I’m sure many more will emerge over the coming weeks. Despite bricking out live I managed to run pretty golden online to ensure a winning trip overall. On 28^th June I managed to win the UB 200k for $44’600 as well as the Full tilt 100r turbo for an additional $34’925, pretty good Sunday! Didn’t play online again until the following Sunday when I came 6^th in the early 100r on stars for $14’352 and then came 2^nd in the late $100r on stars for $26’965, run better me. Came 7^th in the stars 1k Tuesday for another $10k to round off the trip pretty nicely.

Not really sure what my plans are now, heading back to the UK for the time being and gonna go to Macau for the APT and APPT events because I managed to win a seat for the APPT. After that there is a decent chance i'll be heading to New Zealand to meet up with friends, grind the WCOOP and then maybe some snowboarding. Gonna wrap this blog post up now as it seems to be dragging on a bit but can’t finish without giving a big shout of congratulations to James Akenhead for making the final of the WSOP main event and becoming one of the infamous November 9, SICKDOG!

Here is a link to an article i did for pocketfives.com not long back as well:

http://www.pocketfives.com/online-poker-scene/how-to-win-a-sunday-major-and-100-rebuy-on-the-same-day-4460433

WSOP so far

2009-06-06T18:31:00.003Z

Well, not been the best start to the WSOP, 0/4. Not been playing that great really, obv got coolered by Stevie in my first event but than ran up a decent stack in the $1500 6max event the next day. i had 15k at 100/200-25 but didn't see the end of the 150/300-25 level. I was very comfortable on my table but then got moved and made some rash moves with no real information to back it up and got caught out. After butchering my stack my exit hand was at least standard with me re-shipping AQs into KK with 20BB's, nice sweat after the K44 flop, sigh.

Next event was the $2k NLH but didn't get off to a very good start at all and was getting frustrated at old guys check raising me out of my seat. Made a couple of ill-timed moves and soon slipped to a push/fold stack. In the first level of antes I open 88 on the button with 20BB's and the small blind has TT, marv.

Yesterday I played the 2.5k NLH and things were going well early doors with me taking my 7.5k stack up to 12.5k in level 1 but then I made a move against an old guy (shoot me now) that didn't work out. He limps for 100 and and isolate to 350 with A5cc, he calls and we go HU to the flop. He had called a few of my raises and had not won one post flop yet, or seen any of my hands so had a feeling he was gonna try something funky soon. The flop comes KQQ and he check/raises my 400 to 1200 and i make the call planning to take it away on a later street. This was probably the big mistake, vs an old guy i should just small 4 bet the flop and he folds everything but Qx instead of trying to make a believable multi-street bluff. Anyway hindsight is 20/20 and we got to the turn which was a J he led for 1600 which again i called. The river was a 5 and he checked with about 5400 left in his stack, I dwelt for 30 secs and moved a stack of 1k's forward to set him in. He tanked for about 1 minute before calling with KJ, fml.

On to the $5k NLH today hopefully goes better and will write don't make moves on old guys on my hand to keep me focused. Ul to praz bansi yesterday who had his 2nd bracelet in sight but just fell short with a 7th place finish in the $1500 6 max. Stevie also had a deep run the $2.5k PLH/PLO tournament but came a frustrating 20th to go along with his min cash $1500 to make him the easy leader for cashes in our house, lol

Have started using twitter to update my progress in tournaments in real time if anyone is interested, here is the link:

http://twitter.com/Pab09

There is a box on my blog that also updates with my twitter messages as well, that's all for now, time to crush the 5k, gogogogo

Vegas so far

2009-06-03T17:48:00.000Z

So far we have spent a lot of time playing online, had a pretty good month myself winning a few tournaments online as well as some other decent results. Settled in the house now, will try and get some pics of it on the blog next time. Games room is gettin some abuse, pool table, table tennis table and xbox. Had tickets for the UFC last saturday which was awesome, machida smashed up evans in the main event but most of the undercard fights were sick as well.

The WSOP started a few days ago so the online grinding was about to take a back seat as we started the quest for bracelets. Moorman was the only one from our house to play the $40k buy in, he even binked a $1500 sattelite for it 2 days beforhand saving himself a nice wedge. He never really got going on day 1 but went from 60k to 160k on day 2 before losing a big pot to mike matusow with set over set, sigh. Next on the list was the $1k freezeout on saturday so we all went to the rio on friday evening to buy in. After buying in we shot over to cesars to meet 'the shrewdies', creators of this epic thread on blonde :

http://blondepoker.com/forum/index.php?topic=40119.0

When we got there trigg was semi deep in the 500 but lost a 40BB flip straight away while horneris was in last 4 of the $200 turbo. He ended up losing HU much to the delight of his housemates when some old boy limped KK and horner jammed TJ in his eye, lol. After that things started getting messy, lots of beers and jager bombs before we all hit the craps table. It got to about 3am and every1 started going home as it was a mid-day start the next day. Me, stevie and jonnybelow thought it would be a better idea to take our winnings on craps to the rhino until 9am. Me and stevie both didnt make it to the tournament, gg 1k and lesson learnt... hopefully.

Played in the $1500 freezeout yesterday and it was a brief affair. out of 2900 people me and stevie managed to get drawn on the same table and after about 30 mins I have KK and lose all in preflop to stevies AA, kill me now. I but the 1st hand of level 2 (50/100) when stevie opens the cut-off to 300 and i jam 1200 from the SB with A9 only for the old guy in the BB to wake up with AA, wiiiiiiiiii. Heading down to play the $1500 6 max today so hopefully fair a little better.

Whats been going on

2009-05-06T07:33:00.002Z

So whats been going on in the last month? I arrived in Thailand at the start of the month but was grinding the Scoop for the initial 2 weeks so was pretty much living out of my hotel room on room service! The Scoop overall didn't go well for me at all, I was low on confidence and not playing anywhere near my best as demonstrated in the AQ hand vs moorman in my last entry. I was pretty relieved when it was all over and I could enjoy an extended break. Straight after the scoop had finished i got caught up in he Thai new year which I had no idea was going on but turned out to be a fun a few days. They celebrated it for 3 days in Bangkok where basically the whole city turns into 1 giant water fight and people dancing and drinking in the streets all day long. Here a is a little YouTube clip to try and let you picture it better, definitely an unforgettable experience!

After that I headed down to the phuket area where I had booked a 1 week diving trip to the similan islands. I have been here once before and was one of the best places in the world i had dived so was very eager to come back again. I had come at this time of year as it was the best time to possibly see whale sharks which was high on my to do list. I ran good in that department and managed to see one and all i have to say is wow! I had heard how big they were and had seen pics etc... but nothing could prepare you for how huge these things are in the flesh, another clip to explain better...

After that I had a few days relaxing on koh samui before heading back to rainy UK. I was only at home for 3 days though before jetting off to Vegas for a long summer of live poker action. I met up with Moorman and Stevie and we had got some pretty sweet tickets for the hatton/pacquiao fight on may 2nd. The atmosphere was amazing and some of the undercard fights were pretty good as well, but ultimately we were disappointed at Ricky's display and the swift outcome of the fight. We ended up getting pretty hammered during/after the fight and i have no recollection of coming home but managed to lose my money and bank card, wp pab! Moorman had an incident of his own that he may or may not choose to disclose on his blog but it was too funny.

Been playing online for the first time in a while the past 2 days and has gone quite well, I shipped the $30r on tilt for $8.8k ish on Monday then a 10th in the stars 1k today for $5k as well as few other smaller cashes. Was a little disappointed in the 1k, running AJ into QQ 5 handed when i had 38k stack at 1250/2500, pretty cold. Nice to get a bit of form/confidence online with the FTOPS starting tomorrow so hoping for a good showing!! We are staying in Vegas now until the end of the WSOP and will try and get some pics of the house up at some point as well. Not planning on playing live until the end of this month though when the wsop starts as well as festivals at venetian/Cesar's. That's about all for now,

Pab

Running bad, grand prix and SCOOP

2009-04-04T10:10:00.007Z

So, since i made my last post everything i have touched has turned to shit really pokerwise. Not been able to make a meaningful cash in the last 3 weeks and starting to get me down a bit. Wont bore you with HH's etc.. just running awful in crucial pots. Had a break last week to go on a road trip from Sydney to Melbourne in order to watch the grand prix with some friends. Had a great time and if anyone watched the grand prix on tv, the crash at the end was right in front of where we were standing, :-)

Things not improved after my break, my first meaningful session back was for the $50r, and $500r events in the SCOOP series. Was going well in both and then tangled with close friends in both and came unstuck. First in the $50r, me and Dave (geeforce) played a 80k pot at 300/600 with AK vs QQ and i lose that one, then a little while later we played a 67k pot, me AK him AQ, gg me, nice min cash. The $500r was going pretty well and then I got moved to moorman's table, he had a big stack and was being super aggro, as per usual. I was on his immidieate left though so not all bad. I had around 40k at 400/800 and moorman was well over 100k. My main mistake when moorman opened UTG and I flatted with AQcc in the next seat and everyone else passes. The flop is 985cc and moorman continuation bets, I elect to call as i raised the last flop we saw together but in hindsight that would make it an even better spot to raise again. The turn repeats the 5 and he bets again and i just call again leaving myself with about 24k and the pot is now around 17k. The river now repeats the 9 and moorman sets me all in, my first instinct was to snap call but then because im in a bad run etc... I elect to go into the time bank and think it through. I hover over the call button maybe 4 or 5 times before eventually folding as I dont wanna look stupid deep in a $500r vs one of my mates. Moorman later told me he had 34cc, sigh, wp to him tho, im a pussy. My exit hand came when i was in the BB with A2 and 14k and 400/800, all fold to moorman in the SB who jams me in, I call pretty quickly and lose to his Q5o, the board coming 2344A, thanks stars.....

Congrats to flushy who finalled the $50r event netting around $35k i belive and to Dave who jsut won the $1k 5 card draw event for $54k, lol toasty. Hopefully I can regain form/confidence pretty quickly as well as running better. Thats about all for now, here are a couple of pics from the grand prix,

Pab

Apologies

2009-03-17T04:29:00.003Z

Would like to apologise for letting my blog fall by the wayside over the last 2 months, no excuses just pure laziness. Gonna revive it over the next few weeks just in time for the annual carange known as the WSOP. Gonna be a longer than usual stay in vegas this year as me, stevie and moorman have tickets for the hatton fight on may 2nd and will be staying from then until the conclusion of wsop.

Quick round up of the last 2 months, been living in sydney with friends from home and some other poker players, generally having a good time and not putting in crazy volume pokerwise. Have done pretty well though despite striking out in another FTOPS series, die f.tilt! Won my first triple crown on pocketfives as well as scooping a wsop main event seat at the first time of asking on party last week, :-)

Heading down to melbourne for the F1 grnad prix at the end of the month and then into asia to do some scuba diving before going to vegas. Will be taking it easy on the poker front until pokerstars destroys my roll with the upcoming SCOOP series at the start of april, lol

If any1 see's me at an online table and I havent updated this blog in the last week please feel free to abuse me,

pab

Xmas, New year and Australia

2009-01-13T13:26:00.004Z

So, had a pretty extended break from poker over xmas and new year, the main reason being to spend time with family and friends. Travelled to australia 2 days after christmas and arrived in Sydney on the 29th Dec. Had a couple of days to get my bodyclock sorted then new year was upon us. We had a group of around 10 ppl, most of them from Doncaster, and we bought tickets to a rooftop bar that had a great view of the opera house across the harbour. The whole night was amazing but when the clock actually struck 12 the firework display all across the harbour was phenomenal and made it a truly memorable new year!

Not really got back into poker much since new year, played a few half sessions of mtt's but no success, did however get 2nd in the 100r on my first day here for $16.5k, :-). Decided to rent a flat here in sydney for 3 months with a few friends and it's pretty sick.

Been probably drinking too much, but generally been having a great time. Went to see a show at the opera house on sunday night which was pretty amazing. It was a daredevil acrobatic circus and some of the stuff was breathtaking. Been playing a little cash the last week but its not gone that well, getting pretty shafted to be fair and having to stop a few times as i could feel myself tilting. Heading down to melbourne on thursday for the aussie millions, and also have tickets for the Aus/SA 1 day cricket match on the 16th so looking forward to that. Not a massive tennis fan but the aussie open is on while we are there and some of the other guys are into it so might end up going to watch that as well. Apologies for the lack of updates but will do a full trip report when getting back from melbourne in a little under 2 weeks time!

Belated GUKPT trip report

2008-12-17T22:09:00.006Z

Ok, so this is long overdue, firstly I was just been lazy and then last week I recieved some very bad news and was in no frame of mind to be writing a blog and was way down on my list of priorities! Anyway here goes:

So, will try and remember all of the details form this trip although I have drunk a lot of alcohol since so might forget some things but here goes. Travel down on the Tuesday; meet up with Stevie, gregior, johne147 and clarkatroid. First time I’ve met Clark in real life and he’s a top bloke and we got on really well, don’t fuck with THE TROID! We all wanted to play the £500 f/o side event but was sold out on arrival, Greg and john were organised enough to buy in beforehand, who does that? Clark ended up getting in as an alternate but me and Stevie sacked it off, started drinking and watched the champion’s league football. Afterwards we decided to keep drinking and sit in the £1-£1 self deal cash game, lol Was great fun despite stacking off to Stevie with no pair no draw countless times, but cracking some old boy’s QQ with 25s was a personal highlight. Clark joined us in the game after busting the comp and had a master plan to move onto drinking double JD n cokes. This continued until about 5am, we were all hammered and somehow managed to stumble back to the hotel.

After Tuesday exploits, Wednesday was pretty much a write off with me Clark and Stevie feeling rough most of the day. Moorman turned up in the evening and we all headed to Asian fusion restaurant at the top of the Hilton, great food and also beat Stevie HU in credit card roulette, £150 in his eye! Relaxed in the hotel bar for the remainder of the evening, drinking pretty slowly and also playing a $0.5/$1 deep cash game on full tilt between the 5 of us, lol. The Troid cleaned up as far as I can remember but we all retired to out rooms pretty early as 4 of the guys were all playing day 1a on the Thursday.

Thursday was a pretty bad day for me really; I got no sleep the night before because moorman snores like a fucking elephant at times. I started to feel really ill during the day as well, cold/flu symptoms including constant running nose and coughing. Headed down to the Vic on the dinner break of 1a and caught up with guys playing and bought in to play day 1b. Headed back to the hotel soon after and called at a pharmacy to get day nurse/night nurse tablets. Just stayed in my room that night hammering tablets and watching films online as well as checking the live updates to witness moorman turn his 15k start stack into a whopping 138k and a commanding chip lead at the end of the day. Managed to sleep better on Thursday with the aid of night nurse and woke up feeling better on Friday although I was still coughing pretty badly.

Onto my first day, 1b and despite having a few good players on my table they were all lined up on my right which is fine by me. They were skalie, Roberto romanello and Padraig Parkinson. Not a lot happened in the first 2 levels, I flopped a set in a limped pot and got to the river where skalie tried to bluff raise me. I flatted romanello’s raise with KK and got 3 streets of value when he check/called them all. Next two levels I hardly played a pot as a player had turned up late to our table and was clearly here just for fun and was drinking and playing every pot. I deliberately stayed out his way with marginal hands as I knew I would end up 3 barrel bluffing him for no reason at all.

After the dinner break I slipped down from my peak of 30k to around 19k when I managed to bust the crazy guy with AK vs his AJ. He raised UTG and I 3 bet on the button, folded back to him and he goes, meh, I’ve had fun I’m all in, lol. That pot took me up to around 40k again and gave me lots of room to manoeuvre again. I was quiet again for a while before my next big confrontation. UTG was an active player who made it 1600 at 300/600 with about 21k behind, I decided to use my stack and 3 bet him in mid position with 45s, basically putting him in a really tough spot. In my eyes he has to fold or shove, and the fact I 3 bet his UTG he got to give me tons of respect since we have never played together before. Moorman on the other hand would know what I’m doing and jam 56s for value, lol. Anyway it folds back to the UTG guy and to my surprise he flat calls creating a pot of around 11k with him having about 15k behind. Now I was the one in an awkward spot and was prepared to give up the pot tbh unless I flopped hard as I really feared he was trapping me with a big pair. Well the flop came a pretty tasty A 8 6 with the 68 of my suit, no folding now. He checks, I bet about 9k and he instantly ships in and I make the obligatory call. He tables AJo and because I run so good I bink my flush on the end propelling me to around 65k. I really don’t like the way he played the hand vs an unknown and think he is going be spewing chips in the majority of situations.

After this hand a really weird dynamic forms on our table when a player who was in his seat at the start of the tournament hasn’t returned from the last break. This means every time I’m on the button, the BB is sat out and romanello and Parkinson are the 2 players to act before me. I am the chip leader on the table and have 3 bet each of them once on the button to take the pot uncontested when the BB is absent. Then my biggest and most crucial pot of the tournament arrives. Padraig opens in the cut-off, and I 3 bet 99 on the button with the BB sat out, the SB quickly folds and its back to Padraig who makes a relatively small 4 bet. My 3 bet just looks like I’m full of shit and using my stack to exploit the dynamic created by the missing BB. Padraig is obviously good enough to recognise this and can 4 bet/fold profitably imo as I have to fold so many marginal hands. Given my analysis I 5 bet jam for value and he instantly calls and I think I might have said ‘fuck!’ The pot is about 80k, and I have 25k behind if I lose at 400/800. He tables the only hand I want to see after the snap call in the form of AK, I hold and take a 100k+ stack into the last level of the night, :-)

I was rooming with moorman in London and the last thing he said to me before I left to start day 1b was: ‘If you get more chips than me I’m quitting poker’. Obviously he wouldn’t quit but if I did manage to get more chips than him it would tilt him bad especially when me and the rest of the lads would wind him up mercifully that night. I was quiet for most of the last level but did get into a pot that would have propelled me over moorman’s stack. I am in the BB with AK and facing 3 limps for 1k make it 5k total to play, first guy quickly folds and then Richard Ashby (chufty) plays with his stack for a while eventually calling the 5k out of his 20k stack much to my amazement. After the initial limps + blinds and antes he now has less that a pot size bet left which pretty much makes the flop irrelevant for me, I’m setting him in regardless of what comes. The flop came J9x and I set him in, he snap calls with his expertly played T8 and rivers an 8 to win the 48k pot, sigh. Was pretty titled after this hand and basically sat the last 30 minutes out and took my 100k stack into day 2.

With just over 50 players left at the start of day 2, amazingly moorman was chip leader and I was in 3^rd place, with another one of our group gregior also making it through with a workable stack. There was obviously a redraw for tables so even though I had a big stack I was going to adopt my normal strategy of sitting back early and analysing the table and letting the dynamic develop. My seat draw was interesting as I was on the immediate left of Ali mallu who also had a lot of chips after busting Richard gryko early. Most people know all about Ali, but for those that don’t, he is ultra aggressive and can turn up with any two cards at any given point. He is also very capable of ridiculous spews and blow ups though which made my seating position pretty valuable. Even though my plan was to play small pots and observe a while, Ali put paid to that plan on my very first orbit at the table. With blinds at 600/1200 – 100, Ali opens the button to 3200 and I 3 bet from the SB to 10500 with AK, the BB quickly folds and back to Ali who instantly says ‘all in’. I had around 100k at the start of the hand and he had be covered, I wasn’t too pleased about getting such a big stack all in pre with AK this early on, but the fact that it was ali mallu made it a pretty easy call. I call for a monster pot and he flips A9 off, :-) no dramas and I’m the overwhelming chip leader with around 210k.

The next two hours I play some of the worst poker of my life and proceed to donk off from 240k down to about 120k playing ridiculously bad and just spewing chips every which way. The following two hours I regained my composure but had a dwindling stack compared to the rising blinds so was hardly playing any hands at all until I was on the right side of a cooler situation. Pretty close to the bubble and a guy opens in the cut-off and I find JJ on the button with about 20BB’s, I jam he snap calls with TT, which crushes my 20BB re-shove range versus cut-off open and he is very unfortunate to only have 2 outs. This pot gives me a playable stack again and just at the right time as play is beginning to tighten up and slow down around the bubble. I end up bubbling my mate Sam trickett with TT vs KT to solidify my position going into hand to hand play. A pretty big hand then played out on the bubble, everyone folded to robin keston in the small blind who made it 24k, blinds 4k/8k and I call in the BB with QJ. The flop comes J 7 3 rainbow, almost perfect for my hand. Moorman had played with keston for most of the first day and said he was very aggressive which influenced me to play the QJ how I did. Robin bets the flop and I call, the turn is a low blank and now he fires a pretty big bet of around 60k, if I call I have around 120k behind. No point in shoving the turn here really as he only calls me with better hands, but since it was the bubble I thought he was very capable of setting me on the river with a bluff since I’m an unknown to him who could be hanging on to make the money. So I call and we go to the river when another blank rolls off and he is eyeing up my remaining stack as well as checking his own, contemplating a bet. He eventually checks and I check behind and he insta-mucks, after the pot he mutters something about firing a 3^rd barrel but I would have beat him into the pot with a fist pump and a chair spin, :-)

After this pot I was comfortable stacked again and with the bubble bursting shortly after, normal play resumed. Stuart rutter was two seats to my right for the whole day, I have a lot of respect for his game and we rarely tangled in any meaningful pots. Earlier in the day I re-raised his cut-off open from the small blind with KQs and he replied in kind with a shove all in, sigh. Stuart had enough to make me pass and imo he was never 4 betting light in this spot unless it was some sick level but way too risky to gamble and Stuart told me on the break he had AA, phew. I then misplayed a hand against Stuart towards the end of the day, he opened in LP and I 3 bet with pocket 4’s on the button, again he responded with an all in but we were much deeper stacked than the previous situation. I should definitely have flat called here preflop and played the hand in position as we were pretty deep. He told me again after he had QQ, mbn to get premiums the two times I 3 bet you all day, lol.

The rest of day 2 went quite slowly, I wasn’t involved in any big pots, and the aggressive Norwegian Erik svanes was on our table with the chip lead and opening most pots 5/6 handed which kind of sucked for me. I did 3 bet him from the SB with 24 off to keep me above average and to try and slow him down a little as everybody else seemed content to let him take every pot. Not long after there was a big confrontation on the other table followed by a short stack exit and final 9 were set, this was to be my 3^rd big live final and was desperate for the old saying to come true.

My seat draw on the final table was pretty good with Erik 2 seats my right with all the chips, then Stuart, the other player I feared, was across the table so we wouldn’t be butting heads that often. Blinds started at 5k/10k -1k but 3 players were all under 100k I think so I envisaged a pretty fast start to the final with short-stacks either doubling up or busting before the stacks eventually condensed and play slowed down again. I think I raised 55 pretty early doors and Stuart 3 bet me from the SB and it was an easy pass. My first big hand came when it folded to me in the SB and surinder sunar is in the BB with 7BB’s. I look down at K6 and slide in a 100k stack enough to set him in. He honestly dwells for 5 mins, playing with his stack, pushing it up to the line and back again looking at me for a reaction I think, before eventually making the very brave call with 77. Fucking great news, first big hand on the final is a ridiculous slow roll from a guy that won a WPT ffs, door card is a 7 cos he’s the best he doubles.

Not long after that hand I get AA, raise in LP and Richard Ashby moves all in for about 8BB’s total with A5, no dramas and we have lost the first player and my stack is back up to about the 280k mark. My next hand involves surinder again, all fold to me in the SB and I raise with J9, he defends pretty quickly and we see a 922 flop. I check and he checks behind, the turn is an 8 and I bet 30k into 55k pot and he tank calls. The river is a very nice deuce, so the board reads 22982 and I bet 75k and he tank calls again, mucking when I show the 9, welcome to valuetown! The rest of the table is pretty cagey so I start to open preflop more frequently when the blinds go up to 6k/12k and take 3 pots in a row uncontested, :-). A few of the short stacks then bust including Surinder and Stuart Nash, making us 6 handed. Tony cascarino then opened to 55k in the cut-off with 80k behind and I make it 125k on the button with AQS, back to tony who folds saying 22, wp sir. The next hand I play is when I open to 32k at 6k/12k and the guy in the SB who hasn’t played a hand makes it 75k total to play, lol. I have 67 suited and peel looking to flop huge and stack his face up big pair. Well the flop comes A high and he checks, I decide to implement plan B and bet relatively small with 90k and he snap folds, I show to claimer and trickett on the rail, :-) The guy must have seen it as well because the next time I open for 32k, he makes it 150k, lol.

Cascarino goes out next and we are 5 handed, then an interesting hand comes up between me and Stuart rutter. I raise to 40k at 8k/16k and he flats on the button, I bet an 848 flop and Stuart thinks for a little while and calls. The turn is a K and I make a fairly big bet that Stuart thinks about for a long time before calling, at this point I’m fairly confident his hand is a pair between 5’s and J’s. Before the river came I was pretty sure I was turning my hand into a bluff on the river and jamming all in leaving Stuart with a very difficult decision. It remains a hypothetical situation since I binked a 3 on the river and Stuart time bank folds to my shove later telling me he had JJ. I told Stuart later on what I had and we talked a little bit about the hand, I was pretty sure Stuart had a hand like JJ or with similar value and was calling my bet on the K turn guessing I wouldn’t bet again on the river with nothing since the K was such a good barrel card for me and would normally bet it with 100% of my range. This pot propels me into a slight chip lead and now we are 5 handed I’m full of confidence. Unfortunately Stuart is the next to bust out with KQ vs AK after seeing a K high flop with Erik, tough spot to get away from imo.

We head into the dinner break with approx chip counts of 1m to Erik, 570k to me and Jeff Duvall and 500k to guy steel, blinds would be rising to 10/20k after the break. While eating dinner, Guy steel was desperate to do a deal, he wanted to give Erik £100k, the 3 of us took £75k and we played on for an extra £50k ftw. I wasn’t interested in a deal and told him so; he seemed taken aback and kept on at me through the dinner break which became a little annoying. I did agree to flatten the payouts though, taking some money off the top and bumping up 4^th and 3^rd payouts since they were set out pretty top heavy originally. Got a nice free meal courtesy of grovensnor which was a nice bonus and trigg even managed to get in with me for a freebee, wp sir.

Over the course of the last 2 days I had 3 bet Erik quite a few times but he had yet to see any of hands and was becoming visibly frustrated. Sometimes I had had hands, but others were complete air balls, and it was definitely playing on his mind that I could be owning him too much. This battle then swung massively in my favour when Erik button raised to 50k a few hands after dinner, I make it 160k from the SB with AK and he instantly sets me in. I obviously snap call and he sheepishly turns over KJ and I hold to win a 1.2m million pot 4 handed with 2.7m total chips in play, wiiiiiiiiiiii! Erik is then the next to go out, 3 bet shoving on Jeff with T8 and failing to get there against Jeff’s KJ and we were down to 3. 3 handed goes pretty slow, I’m taking a fair amount of hands preflop and the shorter stack, guy steel, seems to be getting visibly frustrated with how things are going. Anyway, I make it my standard 50k on the button with A5 and guy steel makes it 150k playing 500k total, I don’t think he is very strong and set him all in, he beats me in pot and I’m pretty sure I’ve got 3 outs. To my surprise and delight he turns over KJ, I hold as a 60/40 favourite and get heads up in a live tournament for the first time in my poker career, lol

At the start of heads up I have around 1.5m and Jeff Duvall has 1.2m with the blinds at 10/20k. With lots of play left I thought we were gonna be in for a long battle but then Jeff check/raised all in the first flop lol. He was making huge raises pre-flop and pot sized bets or more post flop making it very difficult when I went through runs of not getting hands preflop or hitting flops as is often the case in HU play. I was determined to stick my strategy and try and wear him down and frustrate into making a big mistake for a huge pot. After gaining the advantage in the match I 3 bet Jeff 2 hands in a row, the 2^nd time with AJ suited to which he responded with an all in, I called very quickly he showed K8, I won the pot and had 2.2m to his 500k and was within touching distance. Unfortunately I got him all in with 89 vs my A3 and he doubled, then he doubled again with KJ vs my rashly played KT and he was chip leader again with 1.6m to my 1.1m. The back and forth goes on for a total of close to 4 hours and was mentally exhausting. He got lucky several times when he was all in for his tournament life and I got lucky once for my tournament life. Overall I think I played a pretty good patient HU game and manage to trap him well on several occasions. The final hand of heads up went down like this and was captured all on video by Jon Raab at blue square:

So that was that really, delighted obviously to book a huge win that has eluded me on many occasions now if you have read my blog before. Not only is the money great but winning it in a live tournament such as the GUKPT grand final that carries so much prestige means a lot to me. Not done a lot since getting back home, final tabled the hi roller ECOOP event on bam bam poker for $20k, so along with my LEOCOP score and the GUKPT it’s been a pretty sick last 4 weeks. Just gearing up for Christmas atm so don’t plan to play a great deal of poker, but heading out to Australia for New year to meet up with some friends and then play the Aussie millions tournament in January. Just like to thank everybody who wished me well throughout the GUKPT and congratulated me after, really meant a lot, that’s about all for now, ill finish with a few pictures I’ve nicked from the live updates, by for now

Pab

Full GUKPT Trip Report

2008-12-12T00:34:00.001Z

Almsot done my entry, gonna me a mammoth one, should be up tonight or 2morrow

GUKPT main event final table

2008-11-30T02:15:00.002Z

just made the final table, 9 left, i got about avg stack start again at 2pm UK time tomorrow, updates available on blondepoker

full report to follow in a few days time

Erm, I won, full update with photos n shit sometime this week, £140k, SEND!