Grosvenor Grand Prix
August 17, 2008
The time is coming for that fantastic value comp, that sees the qualifiers only comp, due to take place in October, qualifiers will be on Blue Sq or at your local Grosvenor. AND…… They are adding £25,000, woo hoo I hear you shout. A pot limit Hold’em deepstack comp with great added value!!! And yes the Final will take place at Walsall’s Grosvenor (remember them, they used to advertise online all the time, and hold decent tournies) And mainly the pioneers of all the added fees (reg fees, entry fees, both etc).
This competition will be no different, another pioneering charge is set to take place, some of you may have read the article that was written on here http://www.ukpokerinfo.co.uk/how-thick-do-they-think-poker-players-are-100/ If you remember the charge deducted from the prize pool was 10% but this was for a freezeout, the warning was that soon they will be deducting from rebuys. Well here you have it, the only way to qualify for this comp is to qualify, and they are all rebuy events, WITH NO REG FEE LOL but 5% of the total pool will be raked!!!!
The next warning is that soon this percentage will increase, and a hidden charge will take over in a cardroom near you. When questioned on the blonde poker forum here http://blondepoker.com/forum/index.php?topic=36072.0 Jonathon Raab aka AlrightJack who is the mastermind behind all the great comps Grosvenor/Blue Sq put on stated, when questioned about the fee ”In the USA they often rake the prize pool and charge a fee, not to mention the almost obligatory dealer bonus. Lovely little comps though…”
Yes Jonathon, but if this is the way forward, then soon 30% will be taken from the pool and the dealers wedge will be kept back too.
I just hope that the players that read here are intelligent enough to know where this is leading….don’t let it happen guys and gals.
Running Bad
July 26, 2008
How on Earth do people deal with long term bad runs, for over 4 years I have run absolutely terrible with only a few very small wins, but luck is not my best friend. At the moment it is everything in life, I could deal with things if they were in groups of three as the fable says. But I seem to get my runs into double figures.
Going Back to the poker, I used to play (and have the bankroll for) £5/£10, before internet poker really kicked in. Early Ultimate Bet is where that money went …. approximately £50k (my divorce settlement), this was mainly because I had withdrawn from the world and was locking myself in my new rented appartment and was at peace with myself (in truth looking back, it was basically a depression). But it was a solution to my lack of interaction with the world and it was something (i thought) I was good at. I had been involved with poker for 15 years at the start of this and always held my own.
My Bankroll management isn’t that bad either, although sometimes I induldge in the luxury of playing live, which i prefer, but not part of my bankroll. I am actually down to playing 1c/2c on poker stars. I am not embarrased to say either. But it looks like even that may come to an end now. There are only so many times you can get quads beaten by quads, or lose a nut flush against a runner runner straight flush. I am not trying to tell you a bad beat, I just want to know what other people do in the same situation, everyone must run bad at some stage……..
I have taken breaks sometimes and riden the storm sometimes, nothing seems to work. Do I just admit to myself that I am not a good poker player (but i firmly believe I can hold my own, with just a smidge of luck) or is it that I must have squashed too many flies in my life and reaping the rewards now.
Do you believe in luck?
Can someone run as bad as me in life, without hitting any luck?
Oh for the record, I am alive, with no physical defects (apart from a growing stomach), food to eat and shelter…….I know I am luckier than hell of a lot of people, and am grateful for that. But everything i touch seems to just turn to stone and I am a bit sick of it to be fair.
My childhood was fantastic, my teenage years even better, travelled around the world in my twenties, but this fucking decade really does suck!!! Roll on 40……just hope i make it !
Nuts
July 25, 2008
OK back to Absolute and Ultimate Bet, what on earth is going on here? After all the controversy, scandals, investigation…… and the continuing accusations from insider sources, numbers are dwindling on these sites, and so they should. So what would be the solution to those dwindling numbers?
Well Tokwiro Enterprises have come up with a solution, they have joined forces and merged with the new name of Cereus Poker Network. Fantastic for AP and UB, but for cereus?? I find it amusing that Ultimate and Absolute now want to be taken Cereus (do you see what i did there :)) And they now believe they will be challenging for third spot with iPoker and believe they can take on Full Tilt and Stars???? I also understand that they are not rebranding?
Surely 2 cheating sites wont get away with this, does anybody out there know if they already have other sites, as i am bit thick when it comes to online poker, and i have never heard of Cereus before, but apparently they have been working on it for 12 months now. Plenty of time for a new set of superusers i think 
On a side note, how the hell can Hellmuth and Duke still even want to be associated with this site? Oh yeah I forgot that Mr Hamilton was transferring them funds too lol.
Poker Apparel
July 24, 2008
I just wanted to see what the craic is with top pro’s and novices alike, by asking what is it with hoods, caps, sunglasses and ipods?
Now I know I play poker for different reasons to most (so I have been told?), I play for the social aspect and for fun. I am the sort of person that enjoys sitting outside a Parisian cafe, watching the world go by and trying to interpret body language. It is for this reason i pose the question, what is it with poker players that use tools to inhibit their senses?
The biggest culprit to me are ipods/mp3 players, something that stops you listening to other players and a bi product unable to hear the dealer. I understand that sometimes you have pain in the arse players who never shut up etc but surely you need your ears open for a number of other reasons? To me it is just downright rude!
The other major bugbare are sunglasses, poker is played indoors in usually poor lighted cardrooms, the usual excuse for wearing sunglasses is that the eyes give too much away so they want to cover them up. OK I get that, but the majority of players I have seen wearing them, say they are just a fashion accessory!! As a dealer I have seen all sorts of glasses being worn, from prescription sunglasses to snow goggles. The most amusing was a student in Birmingham Gala who was short sighted and thought mirrored sunglasses would be trendy. Seat 10 had a perfect view of every one of his hole cards, as he peeped over his mirrors and held them about 4 inches from his eyes????? I suppose i should have said something, but i think his mates told him after he was knocked out….serves him right, but he was very bewildered when seat 10 passed top boat to a min raise on the river, when he held quads lol
Baseball caps and hoodies I can deal with as i can still converse and see players, but still don’t understand, I know if I wore a baseball cap in the house, my mom used to clip me round the ear! Phil Laak and Phil Ivey have a lot to answer for
But the wierdest one is the new fashion, hoodies that zip all the way up with two eye holes! How can anyone take these plebs seriously!!!!
How thick do they think poker players are?
July 23, 2008
Grosvenors - first to introduce registration fees
Grosvenors- first to introduce entry fees
Grosvenors- first to combine the two (agreed was very closely followed by Gala)
But wait for this gem, Grosvenors are now trialing No registration fee, but an entry fee and 10% raking of total prizepool. Laugh my fucking arse off, because players will still play these comps, but let me give you an example of figures. It looks completely innocent as it is being trialled on freezeouts (for the moment) But Walsall have now got rid of their once Flagship competition the £300 monthly freezeout, and replaced it with a £200 Freezeout. No big deal I here you say, well the £200 is the first comp that introduces this 10% off the prizepool. Lets take 100 runners for simplicity.
With reg 10% fee
£200+£20 = £2000 entry fees and a £20,000 prizepool
With 10% Off prizepool
£200 = £2000 rake and an £18,000 prizepool
On paper looks like no difference, no effect to the pocket etc and can be advertised as no reg fee woo hoo!
But lets take a closer look, effectively you are paying £180 + £20 which is now an 11.11% registration fee making them an extra £200 per comp, but obviously, you as the player wont question this as you wont be paying any registration fee?????????????? WTF ???????????????
So lets step it up one more level, AFAIK it wont happen just yet but please wait as it will happen 10% OFF the prizepool of a rebuy comp
same scenario but a £20 rebuy with 100 players
£20 + £2 x 100 = £2200 before the rebuys start …….so £200 for the club
New way
£20 = £1800 prize pool £200 before rebuys start ……still £200 for the club
Lets add 3 rebuys per person
£80 a head + £2 reg fee would be your total spend = £82 prize pool £8000 …….old way
Or New way
£80 a head No reg fee total spend = £80 prize pool £7200 casino makes £800 (£600 extra!!)
FFS Guys and Girls don’t fall for it this time, vote with your feet!!
This is daylight robbery!! Even Dick Turpin wore a mask.
Beware the easy excuse.
July 23, 2008
Beware the easy excuse.
For some time now, I’ve been analysing my game in a way which I thought, most poker players do. I have since come to the realisation however, that they really don’t. Every time I lose a decent pot in a cash game, get knocked out of a tournament, whatever it is, I look to criticise myself first, and my opponent second. Obviously, there are spots where I’ve just been dry bummed by a monkey with a mouse at his disposal but, often, when I replay the hand from my opponent’s point of view I can usually defend their play, or at least see what I could have done to prevent the inevitable car crash that occurred.
I would guess that you’ve all read the chat abuse that you get from faceless moron’s online, and have probably overheard the whispering slander on the rail of a live game. What I’m trying to say, is don’t let that person be you. Suck it up and try and appreciate the lesson that you should have just learned. I’ll try and give you an example to show you what I mean.
I recently played in a local £10 tournament for a bit of fun after a day on the ale. Due to the incredible bender I had just taken part in, I was still compos mentus but was slightly more aggressive than usual. I must say though, it was working with dramatic effect and during the evening I picked up on a couple of things about my play that I hadn’t realised before. Anyway, to set the scene, I must say that usually I’m slightly positionally aware but in this game I was literally abusing the button. I had two or three players to my right who were continually limping in from any position between UTG and the CO. I therefore decided to continually make a decent raise pre flop and was taking the all dead money. I was occasionally getting a caller but would then always take down the pot on the flop with a decent C Bet. Now, I’m not saying that this is anything, clever, it’s actually, extremely basic strategy but after four or five of these situations I had a big chip lead due to the blind and stack sizes we were playing with and it happened yet again.
I get two limps to my right despite the fact that they probably had about 10 BB’s left each. I make it about 5/6BB’s to go with something like J5o, one calls for half his stack and the other folds. The flop comes K5x, he check’s I bet about 2/3 pot to take it down or have him call to hit and he painfully pushes for just a little more, forcing me to call I call knowing I’m behind with outs. He shows K6 off suit and I stand to lose about 15% of my stack tops. I turn the Jack and send my opponent to the rail moaning to his mates about how I got all these chips by being lucky. He had failed to notice that he should never have been in the pot in the first place, or at least shouldn’t have given me the opportunity to push him around. Yes I was lucky, but at least I knew what I was doing. He on the other hand, didn’t have the first clue where he was at any point during the hand.
So in summary, next time I suck out on you at the table there’s a reason for it remember!! In all seriousness though, rather than moan and abuse people next time you lose an important pot, I would suggest you look inwards, rather than outwards. Hopefully you’ll be surprised at what you find.
Universal Rules
July 21, 2008
A little bugbear of mine for a long time now, to the point where I bought a website 4 years ago to try and get an association to overcome this. At the same time APAT started (another story) now APAT stands or did stand for Amatuer Poker Association and Tour, and at the time I thought having 2 associations would do more harm than good. It transpired that as of yet no attempt to unify any rules has taken place and it just seems to be a Tour (a very good one too) but the association side doesn’t seem to exist as of yet, but am assured that they are on the case.
I am writing this today as a press release has just been doing the rounds. More of which later.
There are a number of rule books each basically the same but with some minor differences, add into the mix house rules and incompetent TD’s and it is just a recipe for disaster.
Most Home games operate using basic Robert Rules of Poker, And casinos going down the TDA, IPF, WPF and Caro and Cookes rules, all have their own merits, yet everywhere I know of, do not stick to the letter of the law, and most make silly little tweaks to individualise their own cardrooms.
Even DTD uses TDA rules but have not stuck to them rigidly. The confusing thing I find is that founder members are not just founder members of one set? The Matt Savages and Thomas Kremsners seem to be involved in more than one??
Well………… back to that press release. Marcel Luske (The Flying Dutchman) who is a stickler for the rules has started an organisation to try and unify the rules once again. The Press release can be seen here http://www.ukpokerlife.co.uk/phpBB3/viewtopic.php?f=1&t=5000.
The Federation Internationale de Poker Association (FIDPA), is set to be the next single set of Tournament rules, already the Bellagio are using these rules based on the TDA rules. But I just don’t get this paragraph……………?
The IP Rules consists of 80 technical rules, policies and procedures for tournament play, that reference and incorporate the latest version of the TDA’s 40 rules. The IP Rules provide a standardized set of tournament rules that are fully modifiable by a tournament director, tournament organizer or card room management. The IP Rules allow card rooms and tournaments to modify the rules in accordance to House Rules, State, Federal and Country Gaming Commission laws and regulations and/or the Tournament Director’s procedures and policies. All modifications made to the IP Rules will be provided to the players and will take precedence in that venue for the tournament.
Surely this paragraph reopens the individual cardrooms making their own house rules still, and therefore defeats the object.
Thoughts please, either in the comment box or on the thread provided after the press release.
This Weekend
July 20, 2008
Well apart from the DTD festival, this weekend also saw the APAT Forum challenge and the live super satellite for the Ladbrokes Millions. Despite my previous post about the state of festivals I thought I would just post some numbers and a couple of results, as two events are still playing.
The winner of the DTD main event was officially, regular DTD player, Chris Bruce. I say officially as there was a controversial split DTD style (chip count) with Shahnawaz Randera. They recieved £16,700 and £16,300 respectively. The reason it was construed as controversial, was the fact that Shahnawaz Randera played like an absolute fish, risking his tournament life calling Marc Goodwin’s all-in on a 3 outer gutshot, and hitting. Many of his plays were very questionable, and the concensus was that Chris Bruce, on his “z” game could outplay him. I suppose there isn’t a substitute for playing a player with luck flowing through his veins constantly. So here is the full result for the ME
| PLACE | PLAYER | PRIZE |
| 1 | Christopher Bruce | £20,738 |
| 2 | Shahnawaz Randera | £12,443 |
| 3 | Andy Greekfish | £8,295 |
| 4 | Richard Berridge | £5,333 |
| 5 | Marc Goodwin | £4,148 |
| 6 | Jon Omara | £2,963 |
| 7 | Michael Mccool | £2,370 |
| 8 | Richard Stanley | £1,778 |
| 9 | Neil Giblin | £1,185 |
Here is the result for the similarly attended £200 DC Freezeout
| PLACE | PLAYER | PRIZE |
| 1 | Josh Gould | £5,320 |
| 2 | Thomas Nightingale | £3,192 |
| 3 | Anon | £2,128 |
| 4 | Jonathan Lundy | £1,368 |
| 5 | Waheed Ashraf | £1,064 |
| 6 | Andrea Gough | £760 |
| 7 | Gerald Morris | £608 |
| 8 | Michael Wernick | £456 |
| 9 | Luke Greaves | £304 |
Only 60 people have entered the Ladbrokes Satellite £100 rebuy, but some very noteable names, Waheed Ashraf (Wadey) won the seat, I wonder if he will shut up for television lol
Further North UKPL was involved in the battle of the forums at the Blue Sq/APAT forum tournament at the G casino in Blackpool. UKPL put up a spirited fight, despite only 2 members of the team scoring points, we came in the top 6 . Matt Boyd came out 26th and the last player out of day 1. Our other member finished a very creditable 5th for £700 …….. WELL DONE DALE LEIGHTON (BUNNY)!!
The winning team was eventually announced as Bristol and South West Meet up, and the last 2 players left are ( I say are as they are still playing heads up)
Mary Martin of Raise The River
and
Andy Bailey of the Gutshot Forum
As I am typing Mary Martin wins the event!!
Just an editors note: How did Gutshot get to play in an APAT competition after everything that has happened with them?
The State of Festivals
July 19, 2008
Now maybe it is just me, but having experienced a number of UK poker festivals, and witnessing the electric atmosphere one generates, it has come to my attention that something is amiss?
I was at Dusk Till Dawn for the start of the tournament, their main event £750 10k 60 min clock. Something was missing? The atmosphere was completely flat, apart from the single one hand flip over satellite 2 minutes before the off. Yes the field was/ is a quality field, but this was advertised everywhere and only managed to attract 79 runners after starting with 58. Is it just the anti-climax of the Vegas fallout or just simply 79 players cannot generate the atmosphere needed in a room that seats 400?
Well, the Norweigen Championships was the most electric I have seen ANY cardroom, yet this festival (held at the same place) is the dullest I have seen a main event. Have these kind of events had their time, are they too rich to hold as every week there is a main event somewhere, or simply Vegas has taken the wind out of a few sails. It is the Broadway festival next week, so will be interesting to see just what happens there.
At the same time as this main event, APAT are holding their forum team game of which 20 forums are taking part in the Blackpool “G”. Looking at footage and following updates, it seems that the atmosphere that is missing from DTD has been absorbed into this event! The future is team games, if you are not in one at the moment, join one now, they are the most fun people can have at a poker table. But back to DTD’s Festival, at the time of posting these are the chip counts
| PLAYER | TABLE | SEAT | CHIP COUNT |
| Andy Greekfish | 15 | 1 | 156100 |
| Christopher Bruce | 15 | 4 | 140200 |
| Richard Berridge | 15 | 5 | 136400 |
| Shahnawaz Randera | 15 | 8 | 128000 |
| Marc Goodwin | 15 | 2 | 114400 |
| Jon Omara | 15 | 3 | 57300 |
| Michael Mccool | 15 | 7 | 49300 |
And as it has been decided that the 3 day event will now be a 2 day event, expect a winner tonight!!
The Coachman
July 17, 2008
My Pub Game
My Dad owns a pub, and Tuesday used to be the quietest day of the week. It’s a nice big pub with a lovely conservatory and every Tuesday there were about three people in there, it was a real shame. I have a fair bit to do with the running of the place and when we had to come up with some ideas, I only had one thing on my mind, POKER!!!!
So I get the go ahead, and manage to secure some excellent PokerHeaven cards from Paul Sandells. I get a load of tables and other paraphernalia from E-Bay, I purchase the tournament director online, mither Dik9 and Mr Mac to death about it and away we go. The first night, I held a tournament for all my friends from UKPokerLife. The support was amazing. Kev Stevens travelled to play from friggin Somerset!! Rich and Billyboy came up from Birmingham with the Poker Widow. Big Mac and Happy Meal brought along the Chorley massive and the Stoke players came in their tens!! Most of us had a great night, all of us got smashed, and the boost in takings more than paid for all the equipment so we’re free rolling from here on in, beautiful.
After a little initial interest and a couple of friendly games, with about 8-12 local players, things started to slide a bit.
By about the time the fourth week came around things didn’t look good. Being sat in a big empty pub with two new tables set up, all the chips, cards and seats laid out perfectly and, only three of us sat around the deserted poker table waiting for players to arrive who never really intended to show up, is not a pleasant place to be. You can see the couple of craggy regulars, and the fella and his Mrs having a quiet drink, just looking and whispering to each other “look at that prick, what he does he look like”. I should be used to people talking about me like this by now, but when it’s something I cared about, I was actually quite hurt (not that I showed it, being well ‘ard and everyfink)
Not to be dissuaded, I turned back to the place I can rely on, UKPokerLife. I made a conscious effort to text everyone who I knew locally at least twice a week, and the following week, we managed to fill a couple of tables. The weeks that followed, you could just feel the support building. Danno, Sleazy and Boydy came every single week with Sleaze’s flatmate Jason. The best couple in poker, Kev B and Jools, started to show their faces week in, week out with Matt L, and before I know it, I’ve got the man with the most misleading nickname I know, the Rage, coming weekly, with his lad Si, and occasionally his brother, the mighty Brasso. James W starts to show every week, with his wife Sam. Honk Cocklebags, Crewe Crazy and Jonah are there frequently and even Dik9, Andy D and Billyboy have shown their faces. Throw in excellent local support from Martin N, Chris ‘WTF is that T-Shirt’ Goward, Irish Mick, the mental midget Marje, Nick ‘Tenco’ peters, Matt ‘Segal’ Platt, PJ and the infamous Devil neck, and we’ve got a real poker game starting to roll here.
Tuesday nights are now my favourite night of the week by several thousand miles. The UKPL players are showing up in their numbers weekly and have the cheek to thank ME for putting on the game!! The local lads are enjoying it and the pub atmosphere is incomparable. The last few weeks have seen overflowing numbers in the poker, and as a consequence word has spread and the pub is packed to the rafters. Sitting back in a poker game, in my Dad’s packed pub, with the best people you could sit in a poker game with is something that I am privileged to be able to do.
Thank you to all of those that have made it possible. Thank you, thank you, and thank you.
Playboy Rumours
July 16, 2008
Heard a little rumour a couple of days ago, and don’t know how true it is? Playboy has been rumoured to be returning to the UK for a couple of decades, however a little bird tells me that they may be interested in purchasing the Sports Cafe chain, that went into the administration process owing more than £10million in January.
Although share prices for Playboy Enterprises are at an all time low, they have allegedly signed a deal with Agilo, the owners of the Sports Cafe Chain, and it includes seeking consent for a gaming license from Westminster Council.
Only time will tell the accuracy of these rumours, as the Sports Cafe (Birmingham and Bournemouth) have recently been associated with the Fox Club, as cardrooms were due to be opened at Each one, to the point where they have been advertising for staff on poker forums?
In this PC mad world it would be nice to see the return of skantily clad bunny girls
Viva la Bunny!!!!!!
Will I ever be able to handle the beats?
July 16, 2008
For quite a while now I’ve taken a really healthy approach to bad beats. I’m quite a logical and reasonable person really, (if you know me, and are laughing your cock off at this, then just go with it please, honest I am really!!) Anyway, as I said, I really thought I had bad beats down as I was playin a lot of cash poker, even gone through a 7 buy in downswing with ease etc. I took it, I laughed, I thought, you fools, you will pay, bow before my superior TAG style….and I carried on winning nicely.
Then I decided to start playing MTT’s again…..
Now, I’ve been playing well recently, the best I’ve ever played. I only play micro MTT’s for $5-$10 a pop with fields ranging from 400-1000+ and I must say that I’ve been doing well. I’ve mastered the re-steal (almost) and thanks to an excellent article by Kev Stevens, my C-Betting and C-betting defence has been good, so I’ve cashed in nearly every single one (for a total profit of about $8). Before I start moaning I’ll give you my view on tournaments as I see it at the moment.
Recently, I have cruised into the pay spots with double the average stack in every tournament. This stage of a tournament is the best part of poker in my opinion (bar possibly the final five spots, but that’s debatable). If you’ve got a stack here, you’ve got to make moves and accumulate, but not donk off your chips. You need to know who to attack and when. There will be a good mix on your table of one or two good players, a couple of mid stacks who have no concept of strategy and will be blinded away or get lucky, some short stacks who will shove at every opportunity, and probably some luckbox with a big stack, plus a couple of lunatics who think they’re playing snap online or something. Now, here, you can do anything you want, sit back, attack, play weak, play aggressive, the poker world is your oyster.
I could go on all day about various situations but if you ask me, being in control of your poker when a poker tournament is at its crucial stage is the best thing there is. This is about the only time I can play online poker at a single table and actually enjoy it. Cash poker is the bread and butter of online poker, but late stage tournaments are your fillet steak.
So, where was I? Oh, yeah, so I’m ace at poker and everything is great, and the birds are singing, and Rachael Stevens is waiting downstairs with nothing but a big black Mac on and then it happens…the river.
I can handle, losing 60/40’s with ease (they hurt really). I can just about take 75/25’s when they hit the flop (I wince but I don’t cry) but recently I’ve been rivered 3 or 4 times on the bounce and to be honest, I’d forgotten how painful it is. Last night was a perfect example, apologies for a bad beat moan but here it goes. (For those not interested in bad beat stories then please ignore the bold text below. There will be a brief summary afterwards.)
I’m in the BB with the second biggest stack on the table and get bullets, could life get any better? The big stack is UTG+1. He’s been super aggressive and raises to 3* the BB as he has with most unopened pots.
I’m putting him on a mid pair+, maybe some paint, maybe an ace, and it’s folded round to me. All I want here is to get my stack in, Blinds are something like 500/1000, I’ve got about 25k and he’s got about 40k. If I can get my stack in here, I’m in the top spots.
I make a 3bet from the BB like a defence to 9k. I don’t want to shove cos I want my stack in, and he’s too aggressive to fold to a raise, but won’t call a shove with his likely range. I raise he calls.
Flop is something like K 8 5 rainbow. Now he’s bet every flop, the pot out there is about 18.5k, I’ve got about 11k behind which looks like I can fold if he represents (or bets) the K. If I check, he’ll bet and be committed to call. I check, he bets about 10k and I’m all-in, he calls. He Has Q9 of hearts!!!
Runner runner hearts and I’m out, it hurt.
If you skipped the above, I got it all-in on the flop late in a tourney with AA and my opponent hit a runner-runner flush, so…..
Now you’ll know this feeling cos I’ve been getting it a lot recently. You can see the river come before it hits. I don’t want to look but I’ve got to. Its like is destined and there’s nothing you can do. I’m sat there in disbelief and sort of make this weird sharp exhaling sound like “ Hooo”, like I’ve just been stabbed in the wrong en with a marrow. I analysed this hand after, and thought, “Maybe I should have been stronger pre flop and took it down, I got greedy”. I thought, “Well, you checked the flop, hence letting him in, if you bet he’s out of it” and tried to criticise my own play (you have to do this to improve). But realistically, I knew where I was, I got it all-in how I wanted, as a huge favourite and that’s all you can do.
Five minutes later and I’m quite embarrassed at getting upset over poker, after all the ‘it will even out, blah, blah, blah’ bollocks that I’ve been spouting for the last few months. To summarise, I love tournament poker, but I’ve just got to accept that I will never, ever, ever be able to handle the beats that come with the territory.
(Excellent thinly veiled bad beat post imo J)
Poker Afflictions
July 15, 2008
What is it with poker players that turn them from reasonable, sensible, semi-educated people, into moronic ballbags as soon as you put some cards in front of them?
Now I know that certain people will change with any sport (I become a foaming-at-the-mouth lunatic after a three putt on golf course, my respectable father becomes a 20 year old hooligan during football matches etc) but with poker, normally placid and intelligent human beings become the pseudo-American gobshites that you usually associate with Jerry Springer.
I mean, the thought of a fully grown man screaming, “One time dealer” at some underpaid Eastern European immigrant in a casino makes me shudder harder than when I first saw Pat Butcher take all her clothes of for some TV Drama (dig it out, it’s horrendous)
Another pet hate of mine, are those people who copy everything that they’ve seen on telly. I saw a fella in a £10 pub game last year, complete with a branded online poker site T-Shirt, a cap pulled down, wraparound shades and an i-pod. What does he think he looks like? Does he actually think people will look and say “wow he must be good”, it must be the same affliction that makes young men on council estates think that driving round in a Ford escort with crappy Alloys, with no shirt on whilst smoking and playing Euro Hardcore rave at full blast is tantamount to being the hardest man to walk the planet. I just don’t get how some people’s minds work, really I don’t.
Finally, the slow roll. If you do it, you really do deserve a smack in the mouth, seriously, you do.
What do you want from the game?
July 14, 2008
I’ve been thinking about why I play poker quite a lot recently. Despite the odd spell of disillusionment, my love of the game has never diminished. Given the opportunity (and ability) I’m pretty sure I could play both live and online full time for the rest of my life. At the end of the day though, I’m an average player at best with a family and a job and there’s about as much chance of me making it as a poker player as there is of Heather Mills growing a new leg and becoming a nice person.
So, with that in mind, I thought I’d take a look at my poker ‘career’ and see what I want from it.
Live Play.
Now making a serious level of income at live poker requires an enormous amount of time, a lot of spare cash for a decent bankroll and a huge amount of ability. Sadly, I have none of these things and so making money at live poker is out of the question. I’ve seen so many people playing in the casino, at home games and pub games who treat it like the World Series. You’ve heard the quotes like “yeah I really like the game there cos there’s decent players there who will respect your moves”. Are you for real mate? It was a £10 pub game FFS! Now I want to make money as much as the next man and an extra £100 in my sky rocket on a Tuesday night is a very welcome bonus but to me, whatever I spend, I’m willing to lose cos I’m going for a night out It’s not a night’s work, IT’S A NIGHT OUT. Yes success in poker is measured by money, but I’m going to enjoy myself, not be a successful poker player. If your enjoyment is directly correlated to your winnings then fair enough my friend, but I’d have another look if I were you, let’s get together in two years time. I’ll compare my memories of fun nights and raucous pissed up Dealers Choice cash games, to the fact that you’ve got a positive income of £178 and then you can tell me who’s had the best of it. That’s my idea of positive expectation anyway.
Online poker
I dream of satelliting into a big event from an online game. I nearly did this last night and so the dream is stronger than ever. I won’t waste a lot of money on this and would prefer to dabble with the silly little steps tournaments, super, super, super satellites and freerolls but I’ll keep plugging away and one day it might happen. Getting a seat at an EPT event for me, would be like playing at Wembley for United. (Well not really but you get the idea). This side of the game is the fantasy that keeps us all coming back and I don’t ever want to lose sight of the ‘big score’ that everyone wants. The way I see it, my Mrs plays the lottery every week and there’s a much better chance of me getting my dream than she has, so why not? I’m not expecting anything so I’ll keep trying at a total cost of about £10 a year and one day, you never know, I’ll be that fella on telly who proudly declares a straight flush versus de Wolfe in the London EPT, despite there only being two hearts on the board.
MTT’s. Friday and Saturday nights you’ll probably find me in the $5 donkaments on ipoker (I no longer have a life). This is mildly related to the satellite game as they’re just a bit of fun with an outside chance of a decent score but I have one weakness that I struggle with. I play good quality, solid, tight-aggressive poker for the first four or five levels, then by the time I’ve hit the second bottle of Red, I transform into Phil Ivey’s semi-retarded cousin. I start thinking that a pre flop 3bet, floating the flop and an all-in check raise semi bluff on the turn is stunning poker and my opponent must fold, surely? I have, however, paid no attention to the fact my opponent hasn’t played a hand for 4 orbits, the flop is wetter than Dawn French in a cake shop and I’m holding 5-2 off suit. I’ll never make any serious money at this but who cares. I enjoy it, it doesn’t really cost me anything and barring the odd occurrence of punching my computer (I have actually done this twice) I’m happy with it.
Cash Poker. For me, this is all about money. Grinding away at micro stakes should never just be for fun. It’s a must for anyone who really, really wants to learn the game, but to do it forever? I think you’d best join a dating site if you think that a lifetime of 5c/10c NLHE is a suitable pastime. I used to lose most of my money at cash poker but now, this is where I make it. My old Poker Tracker stats were recently analysed in a poker magazine article. The standout point from the generally poor advice that I received were that I was a borderline maniac. I couldn’t agree more. Luckily though, thanks to the ukpokerlife forum and the help of one outstanding poker pro, I’m now turning a nice little profit and it’s funding all the fun parts of my game. I never expect to live of my poker winnings, but if one day, I can get my hands on enough regular money for a session with the lads every few weeks without the wife moaning about my spending ability then I know I’ll have finally made it as a poker player.
To summarize, I, love playing poker now that I know why I play it. Have a think about it yourself and just concentrate on having fun you miserable b*stards J
Wrong Structure?
July 13, 2008
Well, let me first say that as a Tournament Director, how I judge what comps to put on with values and structures, is whether or not I would like to play the suggested tournament. Also I don’t think that the entry amount should make any difference, in my personal opinion, everyone should have the opportunity at playing a decent structured competition, regardless of bankroll, therefore £10 freezeouts should get the same treatment as £1000 freezeouts.
As a player I much prefer freezeouts to rebuys and anywhere that you will see my schedules will reflect that. The competition that my bankroll can sustain, is a mere £30 freezeout and this is my optimum competition, and therefore i feel I am a connoisseur of them.
Now here’s the reason for the title. Whilst at DTD today I noticed that the £30 freezeout had the same structure as every other structure there, but only 3000 chips and a 24 minute clock……why?
The severeness of the structure was reflected by the speed of entries getting knocked out. The competition started with 56 runners, yet 3 levels in the field was cut down to 22 players????? WTF?? Surely the poker players paradise can come up with something better than a coinflip comp?
Lord Lucan
July 12, 2008
Not exactly poker news, but for a while there has been something or someone missing from Bearwood, that is heavily into his Heavy Metal, and goes by the name of Metal Dave!! Now those new to UKPokerlife or even the new ukpokerinfo will not know who the hell I am talking about. Well let me tell you all what a decent nice bloke Metal Dave is. For some reason he had disappeared off the face off the earth, until now ladies and gentleman. Whilst dealing poker at Bearwood a text came through from Metal Dave himself to watch The Lottery program on BBC 1.
As normal everyone was too engrossed in the poker to remember, but in the main room the television was on, when Metal Dave was spotted!!
Looking good from his break of poker, he only went on to win the competition, and now will be jetting off to Tokyo!
Well I know it’s not poker related but everyone at Bearwood and UKPI, and UKPL wishes him\well and hopes he makes an appearance back on the scene when he gets back.
Nice one MD!!
Ultimate Bet Rumours
July 11, 2008
Yet again Ultimate Bet is at the centre of players distrust this month.
Sponsored Pro, Eric “Rizen” Lynch, has resigned from his controversial sponsors after only one month. When he joined the UB team, their sister room “Absolute” was just clearing up a cheating superuser scandel, which was claimed involved UB. To Rizen’s credit, he has decided an association with UB would do more harm than good for him, and has withdrawn all his money, stating on his blog that he now has doubts about UB’s integrity.
A 2+2 member has claimed that he has access to UB’s records, and has decided to dish up the dirt because he hasn’t seen any evidence of the Kahnawake Gaming Commission, even though they are supposed to be mid investigation. The 2+2′er gave some more names that are supposed to be involved in the ring, and UB quickly admitted that these accounts had been overlooked. The posters IP addy was confirmed as Costa Rican (where UB are based) leading to speculation that this again is an inside job. The list (which seems to be authentic) involves money being moved from account to account from players on the UB payroll. One account is used purely for transferring funds from play to player and is topped up by Russ Hamilton (who was with UB from the start and majorly involved at the start with UB)
Money was transferred from this account to one of the alleged cheats on the list ShaqTack, opening up the question of superuser accounts once again. The insider say’s the situation is only going to get worse, as he intends to pull the plug on everything and everyone if it doesn’t get investigated properly. Things don’t look good for UB!!
Sorry to keep harping on
July 8, 2008
I may be bias, but at the moment there is nothing to compete with Dusk Till Dawn, and the innovative festivals they come up with. OK The Norweigen Open was a hired event by expekt.com and the Virgin Festival, is of course Virgins baby. But Dusk till Dawn have a few aces up their sleeve too.
July is the month for their mini fextival, followed by another 321 weekend at the start of August, but the jewel in the crown (in my opinion) is the August Bank Holiday Deepstack festival. This baby comprises of
Event 1:
Thursday 21st 3pm A £100 scalp comp, which I feel is the best one I have seen. £75 goes towards the prize pool and £25 for each scalp (the aggressors will love this baby
7.30pm a £50 Satellite to the main event 3000pts 24 min clock
Friday 22nd 3pm The Main Event a £500 15,000pts 60 min clock (day 1)
Saturday 23rd 3pm Main Event Day 2
7.30pm A £300 10,000pts 45 min clock 2 dayer
Sunday 24th 3pm Main Event day 3
3pm Final of £300
4pm £100 Double chance freezeout 4000+4000 NLHE 24min clock
7.30pm £200 PLO 7500pts 30 min clock
Monday 25th 3pm Final of Main Event
4pm £75 Freezout 6000pts 30 min clock
WOWAWEEZA!!!! Love it!!!!
Cock-o-meter
July 6, 2008
I have come to the conclusion, that the bigger the buy-in (in the UK anyway) the pettier the player. Any event over £100 always seems to attract a few knobs, and the higher entry fee, the bigger the knobs and the amount of them! Sometimes I really feel that it would be more civilised, looking after 150 pre school brats. Give me grass roots £30 Freezeouts any day of the week. Anyway Rant Over
So today is Dusk Till Dawn’s 321 weekend, the £300 attracted 119 runners, the £200 got a poor show imo of 41 runners, but the biggest disappointment was the £100 Freezeout with only 51 entries. A few of the regulars are away in Vegas, but despite that I feel that 51 is an extremely poor show, however it could be affected by the great comp down the road in Stoke at the Circus, which is also a £100 Freezeout, but a double chance. Still it’s 3000pts more than DTD on the same clock, and to cap their comp off they ADD £1000 EXTRA to the prize pool. Personally for me it’s a no brainer, and don’t understand why these events always have to clash? The 321 and Stoke Circus’s £100′er always clash on the first weekend of the month………….it would be sensible IMO to either change the schedule or change the date that DTD hold the 321. (I am not saying the 321 is a bad comp either, it’s just once a month, the Circus £100′er beats the competition hands down.)
Todays Gossip
July 5, 2008
The Live Pub Poker League, will be hosting the next National Finals in Cleethorpes, strangely enough not in a casino (so I don’t know how they will be playing legally?). Player s have been playing in their local pubs and clubs to qualify for this all year, and is said to be the fastest growing pub league in the north west.
Full Tilt have announced their major online poker series, the week after Poker Stars announced theirs, dates for the FTOPS will be announced soon on this thread, but at the moment all i know is that it will be held throughout August.
The APAT team event is all ready to do battle against the forums, with individuals and teams getting their own market on Betfair.
Dusk till Dawn have announced a deepstack festival to run over the August Bank Holiday, again I will post details of this event very soon, if not later today. (But let me just say the schedule looks fantastic!!)