Rob Yongs Home Game
July 31, 2008
Many moons ago, pre Dusk till Dawn, Rob Yong used to have a star studded home game. It was a regular feature on the old Blonde Forum. There were many house hold (poker players) that always played this event. When DTD opened, this game stopped…….well fret no more, it is back on, and there are satellites in the club and online to join in this game.
The game itself will be a 9 handed Single table tournament, with a buy-in of £1000, there will be a £50 freezeout satellite on Sunday 31st August @ 5pm.
The main game will be held on the TV table at DTD on the 5th September. It is an invite only event apart from the two seats, and those lucky winners will be playing the cream of the crop in full view of the club, the rumours are it may be a regular feature. Best of luck to all that take part in the revamped Yongstas Home game!
Broadway Festival Results
July 30, 2008
Sun, 20 Jul 2008£100 No Limit Texas Holdem Freezeout |
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Mon, 21 Jul 2008£100 No Limit Texas Holdem Rebuy |
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Tue, 22 Jul 2008£200 No Limit Texas Holdem with 1 Rebuy or 1 Addon |
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Wed, 23 Jul 2008£300 No Limit Texas Holdem Double Chance Freezeout |
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Sat, 26 Jul 2008£1000 No Limit Texas Holdem Freezeout Main Event |
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Sun, 27 Jul 2008£100 No Limit Texas Holdem Freezeout |
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Congratulations to Fari Badiemansour for taking the £100 rebuy, Pete Evans for taking down the £100 freezeout, Dave Colclough for taking down the £200 + 1 rebuy and the local lady who is on fire Michelle “Golden Lady” Sheills for taking 2nd in 2 events for £4220 All these players are locals, so a big well done for keeping the dosh in Brum 
But the biggest congratulations must go to the winner of the main event, Mick McCool who is smashing the UK final tables in these kind of events, for six!! The festival in the main was attended very well, although 45 runners for the main event is a bit disappointing and on a par with DTD’s main event just held, in which they got 79 runners for a £750 ME (Mick McCool was 7th in that btw for £2,370)
Another strange attendee at Broadway, was James Browning, I say this because, as i was watching the updates, a letter came through my door telling me (as a shareholder) that the company he had founded PokerPoka ltd had just gone tits up!
A Big Change At DTD
July 29, 2008
Rob Yong , the owner and brainchild has made public a statement of his thoughts and now actions leading to a big change at Dusk till Dawn, if you frequent the Poker Mecca then please keep reading.
After a chat with his mom this weekend, she asked why he didn’t go to DTD anymore? He must have dwelled seriously on this question and has now gone back to the basic principle of why DTD opened in the first place.
DTD was originally opened after Himself and Nick Whitten got turned away from a local comp due to their local rules. Whilst looking for a game on their way back they came up with the original concept of the now called Dusk Till Dawn.
It was never supposed to be a business, it was a place where he could socialise with his friends, entertain business partners and have a decent game of poker when he wanted. Recently Rob has not been into the club very often, and the emphasis was leaning more and more to the business side. To his credit he has taken a step back and reassesed the situation, and now has taken steps back to achieve his original goal.
Dusk Till Dawn will now be closed on Mondays and Tuesdays!! Rebuys are a thing of the past, all comps will be freeze outs. This will start from 4th August 2008.
Hopefully the place will now start buzzing again as the atmosphere IMO had started to get a little flat, the locals were now spreading their attendance over 7 days, by condensing the fields should now get back to how they were. His statement can be read here. ….. Rob Yong’s Press Release
Fantastic decision IMO but some of the staff seem very downhearted by the looks of facebook comments, only time will tell
You Lucky Bar Stool
July 28, 2008
You Lucky Bar Stool
Luck’s great, luck’s amazing and it’s often viewed as the life blood of poker as it keeps fools flooding back to a game they have no virtually chance to win at over the long term, because hitting those too few outer’s to justify there call is a marvellous feeling, It’s addictive and its also a big fuck you to all those people who constantly criticise there poor play, because “Well it won, didn’t it”. And so we are often told we need to learn to rejoice and celebrate these beats, they are what keep the game profitable so rejoice in you misfortune.
Well anyone who thinks this can just fuck right off, how are you supposed to enjoy taking a beat! You can’t, it’s just horrible and the more retarded the call the more it makes you choke with rage when they pull miracle, running cards out of there arse. Personally I believe there’s something fundamentally wrong with any game that allows a player the opportunity to make the most horrible decisions and then see such outrageous good fortune save them, I believe its time for a change in the rules.
Now I’m not talking about someone getting lucky with an under pair or making a dodgy overcall with AJ or pushing a poor flush draw, no I’m talking about those spectacular calls you get under the name of value or so many of the crime’s committed in the name of pot odd’s or pot commitment, (Even if you have stuck 75% of your chips into the pot with seven high your not pot committed if you have 30BB’s you fucking idiot, fold every now and again you fucktard) No I’m talking about those mystical, surreal calls with absolutely nothing, that seem to so often catch miracle running cards.
And here’s what I’m suggesting, every player at the start of the tournament gets one bad beat chip, now if a phenomenal enough bad beat is suffered then the players at the table can throw this chip into the middle before the pot is dragged, if 70% of the table throw there chip in then the player who suffers the beat has the following options available to them,
1.) He can have his chip’s back
2.) He can have half his chips backs and get give his opponent a Chinese burn
3.) The TD get’s called over and his opponent has to explain his
thinking on the hand, its then up to the TD to decide if the reasoning during this hand is so is so bad it warrants a “Donkey kick” punishment, this could be anything from forfeiting all his chips, having to apologise for being a thick headed fool or giving Tony G a back rub.
I know people will be quick to criticise this idea, but can you imagine the fun of seeing Matusow giving Hellmuth a Chinese burn. I’d pay to watch that and I think it’s the future of televised poker.
VALUE!!
July 27, 2008
7pm Circus Casino Stoke
3rd August, Sunday
£100 Freezeout
The Casino is adding £2000 to the prize pool regardless of runners. This means the value is tremendous. A very well done To Andy Gray (Blazing Saddler) for getting this added value to their anniversery competition. The field should be well over 100 players, I hope it is at capacity as added money to a prize pool is few and far betweens cardrooms. On top of this every first Sunday in the month the Circus in Stoke add £1000 to their regular £100 freezeout!!!
Many places offer a guarantee, but casinos aren’t stupid, some places even have a guarantee with the condition of reaching X amount of players, they very rarely have to add anything so is poor value, especially if you are paying reg fees and entry fees etc. Many moons ago, these fees did not exist and casinos were booming, as it brought players through the door for the house games. So I think personally there should be plenty of these comps with added money, as the casinos are running an added comp with the players money anyway. Say for instance £1000 is added for a £100 FO, and 100 players fork up the £100 +£10 the reg fees = £1000 anyway. It is nice to see these comps and hope they bloom ……… advice to casino cardrooms …….stay away from guaranteed comps and add value every now and then!!!
You can register online at circuspoker.com to guarantee a seat, I stress, this is the best value game in the Midlands at the moment, be there or be square!!!!
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!!!!
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.
Showdown hopefully explained
July 22, 2008
The Showdown explained.
I am now going to try and explain the showdown rule, and give examples of other rulings in the same situation. Let me first tell you the varying rules I have seen.
1)Some house rules state that anyone at the table is allowed to ask to see players cards at showdown.
2)Some house rules state that only active players involved on the turn can ask to see players cards at showdown.
3)Some house rules state that only the players that called the last bet are entitled to see the aggressors cards at showdown
4)Some house rules state that no one is entitled to see anyone’s cards if asked and leave the players to turn cards over in order.
Let me go through 1-4 one at a time and explain my thoughts
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Endorsed by Roberts Rules of Poker, in my opinion he fucked up on this one, why should anyone have the right to see a players cards. The only reason people do this is for free information, yet some petty players insist all cards must be shown. The amount of times I have heard players argue saying “all cards must be shown at showdown” that’s why it is called a showdown …… bollox. The reason it is called a showdown is that to win a pot a hand must be shown if there is no betting into it. Then the players say how do you know players aren’t passing chips? Grow some balls and call for the floor if you think someone is cheating, tell the dealer etc. But just don’t tell us because you want to see cards to see what they played as you will end up on the wrong side of a penalty for bad etiquette.
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Another load of bollox, if you want to see, stay in until the end, why should the whole table get to see the cards you were playing against. It hinders action and causes bad feeling. Why do you want to see someone’s cards? For information? That costs money in my book, unless playing by example 1, that’s why it is stupid.
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Points 3 and 4 look completely different, however they are one in the same really. Of course, if you have called to see a players cards then they should be shown, although by calling and asking to see you are giving information to the whole table that you have paid for. The other controversy is if you ask for the cards to be shown should they be live. This is where point 3 and 4 differ. Some rules state that if you have tabled your cards then ask to see the bettors cards, then the cards should touch the muck (effectively killing them) and then turning the dead cards over. Other house rules state that if you ask to see someones cards then they are live, and that is the penalty for asking to see a players cards.
In points 1 to 3 in every situation it is still bad etiquette to ask to see a players cards. Also in my opinion a bettor should never be able to request to see a callers cards, this is where point 4 kicks in
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There is an order of showdown, if no one has bet on the turn or river then players should show in a clockwise direction from the button. If there was aggressive action on the flop, but nothing on the turn and river, those cards have changed the situation that dramatically that the order of showdown from the button is the fairest way. At any point players can pass cards face down and not show once they think they are beat. The biggie and the one that causes the most confusion is if someone bets and gets a caller on the turn or river, in this situation the person who made the last aggressive action ( ie bet, raised or reraised and was called by the other player(s) ) Is committed to show first in showdown order, and the caller can insist they show before he turns his/her cards over (this is not bad etiquette, this is the correct order) The bettor can if he wishes throw his cards into the muck, the caller was probably right and the bettor was bluffing. If the cards are retrievable the caller can still ask to see (this is now bad etiquette) Even still, the caller must now expose his cards to win the pot. If the bettor shows his cards when asked, and tables a winning hand then the caller can muck, his cards are not retrievable. If for some reason the caller exposes his cards first, the bettor can now muck, and the caller cannot ask to see his cards as he has just forfieted the right and upset the order of showdown, by his hastiness. Although it is also good etiquette, if you believe you have the best hand to table your cards if you do not wish to see the opponents cards. The reason why this system works well, is there can be no bad feeling, and it also induces action and allows players to bluff more often unlike the other points, which inhibit action.
I hope this has cleared the showdown rule up a little, reading it back to myself I will be amazed if anyone actually understands it lol, put basically simple if you follow a showdown order there will never be a reason to ask to see cards.
Advice to everyone……….. if in doubt ask the cardroom you are playing in, what rules they use.
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!!
Freerolls – A victim of their own success?
July 18, 2008
These can be a very good way for someone to be able to experience the site software and to get used to the differences from other sites they may have used in the past. They are also a way for newer players to try to improve their skills before making their first real money deposit.
There are now freerolls on just about every site that you can find and they all offer something else which is usually considered ‘too good to be true’, which is free money.
This holds a great attraction for thousands of people and freerolls on certain sites regularly fill up to 10000+ entries of which in some cases only 1 person will actually win anything at all. This leads to what can only be described as crazy play where you have full tables all shoving in the entire chip stacks preflop regardless of their cards on the first hand and will continue to do so until they either win or bust with the latter happening eventually in almost all cases.
What this means in practice is that they are no longer a reasonable way for a newer player to improve their poker skills and also makes it more difficult for more experienced players to be able to get a feel for the software before making a deposit on the site.
What will this mean for the future? Well obviously only the poker sites themselves know this. There is obviously a good publicity factor that will encourage them to keep running them but as the market becomes saturated the value of continuing to run them must be dropping. Perhaps they will die out but for alot of players they died a long time ago….
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?