LEOCOP, Amsterdam and stuff

So, had a week in Leeds not really playing a lot of poker, just catching up with friends and drinking too much. On Saturday we went out way too early to attempt the otley run but that failed miserably; however the early start still ensured a messy night. At the end of the night I offered some guy HU4rollz in the kebab shop before going back home and watching the calzaghe fight and then passing out. On Sunday I needed to get back home to play the Sunday tournaments, including the main event of the Ladbrokes LEOCOP festival which had a juicy $250k added. I was still feeling very rough from the Saturday night and had to get up quite early to get a train home from Leeds before playing. I only ended up playing 7 tournaments in total, starting nothing later than 8pm because I was that tired/hungover.

Never really got going in any tournament and ended up 1 tabling Ladbrokes from about 10pm onwards. It was such a grind for long stretches with me never building a stack in the early stages. I was watching loads of stuff on ninja video including Madagascar 2, Eden lake, entourage, Dexter, American dad, Simpsons and family guy to keep me going, lol. Quite a few hours into the tournament I only had 11k from the 10k starting stack yet the blinds had now escalated to 400/800 – 80. I managed to double up with AA vs QQ and then never looked back. I used my tight image, newly acquired stack and the approaching bubble to build over the next few levels to get to over 100k when the blinds were 800/1600 – 160.

The next couple hours were a bit of a blur tbh, I was steadily building, trying to avoid massive confrontations and seemed to be picking my spots well. We got down to the final two tables and I was in the top 4 chip stacks. It was now 6am though and I was really struggling to stay alert and concentrate. On the break I grabbed a shower and a coffee to wake me up and it seemed to work for about 20 mins, lol. When we got down to 12 players I opened up again taking advantage of the players who were hanging on to make the final adding a fair amount of chips to my stack with little or no risk.

I made the final 3^rd in chips and with $230k ftw this was another great opportunity for my first 6 figure score that I’ve been chasing for so long now. 4 of the shorter stacks bust quite quickly but that consolidated the stacks to make it fairly even between the remaining players. Up until now I had been quite quiet not playing any big pots but still managing to add to my stack to be 1/6 albeit very slightly. Then things started to go wrong, I 4 bet/folded vs an aggressive scandie who time banked then 5 bet me all in sigh.... Next orbit I flat his raise with KQs, flop T9x with 1 of my suit. He bets the flop and I call hoping to either hit a K,Q,J or to pick up a flush draw in order to jam over his inevitable 2^nd barrel. Unfortunately I got no help on the turn and had to fold to his bet :-(.

My exit hand was pretty much a cooler, playing 550k at 20k BB I picked up AJs in the SB folded to me and I raise, the BB who was a very good aggressive player 3 bet me and the was no other option but to get it in. We had clashed several times throughout the tournament and there is just no way I can fold in this spot, unfortunately though he had woken up with KK and I was gone in 5^th place. $50k was a good score but I’m still left chasing that elusive 6 figures..............

After this it was a live outing, Amsterdam masters classic. Really liked the look of this event for the past couple of years but always been out of the country. Never got going at all, played pretty badly in the first couple of levels and then bust b4 the antes with TT on the button vs KK in the BB. I feel like my patience has been lacking in my last two events and will be looking to sort this in my next few live mtt’s. Amsterdam was pretty cool though, changed my flight to come home early than I originally planned but couldn’t get off my bed in the morning as I was too stoned, lol.

Grinded a bit online since getting back home, pretty brutal couple of days with a 3^rd in the FTP $120 being the highlight for $4300. Not great considering it was the conclusion of the FTOPS last weekend which included a $5k event, sigh. Trying to cut down on online mtt volume in general though to play more cash again, and leave more free time for socialising with my friends who don’t play poker.

Won’t be playing very much this weekend as I’m doing the otley run in Leeds for my mates going away party. The otley run is a pretty epic pub crawl and we will be in fancy dress. The theme is badly dressed golfers, not my idea, lol but I’ll go with it and should be good fun regardless. Off to London next week for the GUKPT main event, then to DTD for their £1k anniversary cup event, followed by EPT Prague. If I’m running good there is a chance i'll be off to Vegas for the WPT just b4 Xmas as well. That’s about all, gl at the tables,

Pab

First week back

I started playing again on Saturday and it didn’t really go to plan. I didn’t play a full schedule as any high stakes tournament starting after 9pm on a Saturday usually has a poor turnout and it’s not really worthwhile playing. Anyway my first day back playing had me tearing my hair out straight away as a frustrating session saw me ending with zero cashes, lol.

On to Sunday, the day started pretty well when I had decent size bet on arsenal to beat west ham, and although they made me sweat a little, always looked like scoring. On to the night’s tournaments, I played a gruelling full schedule, getting deep in several tournaments but only one developed into meaningful cash. I made the final on the $150r on full tilt but it was hard work because the final 27 players were all very tough opponents. I came into the final relatively short on a super aggressive table, so I had no other choice than to sit back really. I got into no big confrontations until my exit hand in 6^th place. I had AJ on the button and the aggressive chip leader had AQ in the sb, standard cooler given the dynamics of the table, $11.5k for my troubles.

Monday wasn’t too great either, I dominated my tables in the $100r 6 max on FTP having the chip lead from about 75 people out until we reached the final table bubble at 7 people. I then lost my composure and made a pretty terrible 4 bet straight into QQ and my K9s didn’t get there for a pretty big pot. On the final I then 3 bet folded in another stupid spot which just crushed the flexibility of my stack. AQ into KK a few hands later and I was the first to exit on the final for $1900, I’m such a mug. Nothing else materialised and a slight loss on the evening.

Tuesday however would turn out to be a totally different matter as it would become one of the days that makes it worthwhile when you are grinding tournaments day in day out. I made 4 final tables in total and managed to keep my head and not blow up in any of them, lol. I came 4^th in the early 109 on stars for $4100 (raced badly at crucial times), 2^nd in early $30r FTP for $4200 (muffed it HU really), 4^th in the late $30r on FTP for $3100 (raced badly on the final) and to top it all off, I won the $100r on ipoker (bam bam) for $13.5k, :-). I got a huge stack about 4 tables out in the 100r and started dominating the table. With 2 tables out though I got a little reckless, spewed off some chips and went back into the pack when we made the final. The key hand on the final table came when the button shoved for 70k @ 4k/8k, the SB isolated for 120k, and I call from the BB with AK playing 125k. The button had A3 and the SB had JJ but I hit a K to scoop the big pot and knock two players out. After this It was pretty plain sailing tbh, I sat back until I was heads up playing fairly even stacks and then the guy just played really bad heads up poker to gift me the win. He never 3 bet me, he folded to all my 3 bets, and limp/folded the button loads. With him playing so weak/passive it was just a matter of time before I ground him down and took the win, ship!

Went out to watch the football on Wednesday evening, WP arsenal, lol. I decided to play the late tournaments on Wednesday and regretted after only just 30 mins of the session. I was too tired and had a splitting headache which resulted in me playing like a twat for the most part and drawing blanks across the board, lol. Had Thursday off, went to see Ghost town the new Ricky Gervais film. Gervais was funny but the film generally was poor imo. Overall a pretty good first week back playing, even if tournaments proved as frustraitng as ever at times. Probably not playing tonight as on Fridays drinking > poker, back for a gruelling weekend schedule though..............

EPT & Holiday

So where to start, the lack of recent posts is only partially down to my laziness. Went to London and railed moorman to a bubble in the WSOPE which was pretty brutal as he ran KK into AA vs Johnny lodden who is a notoriously aggressive player. We then all played the EPT which for me personally couldn’t have gone worse, never got going really, had a set busted early, made some bad bluffs and eventually making a dodgy hero call on the river to bust. One to write off and forget about ASAP.

Got back home and played online on the Sunday and it was the usual story to be honest, had several chances at a big score but nothing materialised. The closest I came was an 8^th place finish in the pokerroom 350k gtd for $8800 when it was $110k ftw, :-(. I lost 2 pretty big races just before the final table that put a real dent in my chances and didn’t catch a break early on the final and that was that.

So after another frustrating Sunday, me, moorman and allinstevie all decided to go on holiday somewhere, no poker, no laptops etc.... This for me has been overdue for a long time. We looked around to see where the weather was good and eventually decided on ayia napa. Just got back yesterday, had a great time and really enjoyed the time off poker, not played in 2 weeks!!!! Had some really messy nights usually ended up with us trying to figure out what happened the next day by merging our recollections. Double JD n cokes + sambucas were the main culprits and also led to some stupid bets. During one heavy session me n Stevie had a $5k bet regarding berbatov. I have under 20 goals, Stevie has over 20 and 20 is no bet lol. Obviously the very next game berbatov scores 2 vs Celtic, gg $5k

There was a mini golf course near the hotel and we played 5 times, each time the loser having to pay for dinner that night. I won all 5 so got 5 free dinners, 2 from Stevie and 3 from moorman. Had some cracking steaks etc... and stuck some 150 euro bills in moorman/Stevie’s eye, happy times. Weather was good apart from a bit of rain on the first day and even managed to crawl out of the room occasionally before the sun went in to grab a bit of a tan.

That’s about all for now; just before I went away I was ranked on pocketfives however 2 weeks of not playing has seen me slip off the radar again today. Will start playing again soon but got shit loads of TV shows to catch up on; Heroes, Prison break, Entourage, US office, Family Guy, American dad & Simpsons :-) Some1 recommended a site to me for streaming stuff online called ninja video and I have been impressed so far, check it out.