Limit versus No-limit: Science versus Art
January 25, 2010
Like many before me I started my poker career by playing fixed-limit Hold’em online. Only being able to bet, and therefore lose, a specific amount on each street appealed to my novice psyche. The very thought of being able to lose an entire stack during a single hand quite frankly scared me to death so I avoided no-limit variants like the plague for a couple of years.
After becoming a winning fixed-limit player, albeit at small stakes, I decided to make the transition to the dark side and play no-limit Hold’em instead, expecting to take what I had learned at the min-bet tables and apply it to this game. After all, they are the same game barring the betting structure, aren’t they?
While on the surface this may seem true, it would actually be extremely incorrect to think fixed-limit Hold’em and no-limit Hold’em are anything like each other. The strategies and skills required to succeed at either are drastically different, with both games needing a unique approach in order to become successful.
Both games are based on mathematics but fixed-limit even more so than its no-limit cousin. The goal in fixed-limit is to push small edges as hard as you can, chipping away at your opponent’s chips but to also try and conserve losses. Compare this to no-limit where the goal is to win your opponent’s entire stack in one fell swoop.
There is little in the way of bluffing in fixed-limit Hold’em, this is not to say it does not have a place in the game, just that it is more difficult and less useful than in other games. Due to the betting structure, your opponents will often have the correct pot odds to draw to the most unlikely of hands, resulting in frequent bad beats which in turn leads to much more variance.
No-limit players have the luxury of setting the pot odds for their opponents, which can push them off certain draws and hands much more easily than when playing fixed-limit. Being able to bet what you wish also means you do not need the best hand to win as you can force your opponents to fold. In fixed-limit it is more difficult to do this so you need the best hand at showdown to win the pot.
Fixed-limit is like a science, always analysing the odds on each street, extracting small pieces of information, processing them and acting accordingly. No-limit is more like art – more flamboyant and creative. It’s about looking to paint a story in the eyes of the players to mesmerise and confuse them and force them to make an incorrect play.
Both games are still very enjoyable but which category do you naturally fit into? Are you more of a scientist or an artist? You can be sure the best online poker players know which they are. Maybe you would be better off switching disciplines.
For Sale
January 23, 2010
2 x WSoP Bracelets, diamond encrusted 14 karat gold!
It seems that the cookie man TJ Cloutier may well be struggling this year as a Pawn broker is advertising 2 of Cloutiers bracelets on ebay, sparking rumours that the great man is busto. Looks like the original owner has already received his cash and Plano Pawn Brokers are now offloading them.
Starting price was $2999 but after 3 bids one is already at $3,500 and with provenance from TJ Cloutier (a letter saying when, where and how it was won) the bracelet is expected to fetch over the $7k mark although if the new buyer wears it he will automatically be assumed a charlatan, unless PH buys it to make his total 12 
It is not unusual to see these bracelets in Las Vegas pawn shops, but historically it is only when the owners are on a bit of a downswing, quite rare to see them on ebay though.
I am still on the lookout for Isildur’s computer on the auction site, no sign yet.
Full Tilt Rush
January 22, 2010
Evolution or devolution? Call it what you will but it certainly won’t leave you bored anymore! Yes online poker has changed and quite drastically, obviously you can play normal ring games on Full Tilt too but if you are feeling adventurous press the Rush Poker button.
What is it exactly?
Well first of all when you click join Rush Poker you will be entered into a pool of players. The idea is as soon as you fold you will instantly be sat holding your next hand with a different set of players. It is quite hard to explain although the idea is so simple, here is a video of it in action.
Forget Poker Trakers if you haven’t got any software that tracks hands or players then you are now on an equal footing, as trackers do not work on these!
A little tip from me if you can, is to get a new FT account even if that means cancelling your old details, wipe it off and try and get a decent rakeback deal such as the Hendon Mobs as you will eat 300+ hands in one hour!!! Somebody suggested on one of the forums that if you play 1 table for 3 hours at $1/$2 your rakeback for the month will be $3,000. Can you imagine how much FT will make at these tables??? Not long before Stars has something similar.
You can join Rush up to 8 times at the same time, so you may even be in the same pool as yourself, although you will never play yourself (In fact I can’t wait to see anyone 8 tabling this nuts game – as you know some internetz whizz will have a go and master it). I would hate to imagine how much programming is involved in this 8-s
Is there a strategy? People will say that they get outdrawn more often or see that their kings have aces all the time. Remember how many hands you are seeing. This is the equivalent of 5 tabling, except you wont miss any hands and poker “information” is next to none. Play ABC poker with a higher/smaller range of starting hands and you wont go far wrong, do not try and be cute and certainly refrain from going on tilt …. THIS WILL BE DANGEROUS …… but hell it’s fun! For added adrenaline use the quick fold option;)
Best of luck at the table
Standards
January 21, 2010
Travelling across the UK and visiting many poker rooms, it has come to my attention that as in any business there are good and bad staff. It is a personal bugbear to myself of chatty dealers.
It is nice to be on friendly on terms with dealers and to chat with them off the table, but I would prefer it if they didn’t chat to me whilst I am playing. In some respects when they do this I feel uncomfortable as at best other players are ignored, at it’s worst though is the slowing down of play as the dealers finish a sentence, even a conversation before moving on.
The other problems that I can see is that some dealers pitch and not very professionally, I much prefer dealers to slide the cards to me as there is no chance of other players seeing what cards have been dealt to me.
Collecting the chips in before the action has finished is also infuriating as I know as a player it is my responsibility to follow the action. If I turn to a waitress to order a drink it is impossible for me to know where the betting starts and if anything changes when the dealer comes to me.
Imagine my delight when Dusk Till Dawn opened, a poker players paradise!! All seemed good and well and any players disrupting the game were asked to leave, everything ran smoothly with no complaints.
I would just like to ask readers that play there if they feel the same as me now, as it looks like D2D has regressed to the old days of casino poker standards. Dealers chat constantly, bad dealing, cutting the deck with 2 hands, collecting chips in with action still taking place and loud aggressive customers that seem to get preferential treatment.
Dik9 have a word please!
Crapshoots!
January 19, 2010
Recently Dusk Till Dawn have been holding affordable deepstack freezeouts, with their Super 50 and 20twenty weekends. During this time I have been amazed to hear people tell me what a crapshoot these competition become at the business end (and sometimes before). Quite frankly these statements amaze me but I have a theory.
In the days before pc’s in cardrooms competitions were run using an egg timer! I remember opening a cardroom in a brand new casino and on the opening day running down to the market to find such a device for that evenings fanfare competition. The owner looked bemused as I turned up for the press launch with a clockwork apple the stall had run out of the swish looking Salter’s egg timers.
It was also true that freezeouts and no limit games were very rare, the average competition was 1000pt rebuy with blinds starting at 25/50 or even 50/100. There was however a rule of thumb that most of the players tried to stick too. This was to be in contention to have a minimum of 20 big blinds and to play accordingly. As there was no such regular competition to have a 75/150 or a 150/300 level this meant that aggression was the key in the early part of a tournament, with many early exits (it suited the casino to get people on the gaming floor asap anyway).
In 2001 the egg timer finally became a thing of the past in any decent cardroom as some software was approved by the gaming board (at the time) called Cardroom Magic. This was what every TD ever dreamed of, no more buzzing of a 2 bit timer but a clear announcement of blinds to be raised/breaks/starting etc, also it cut the unnecessary paperwork by 80%. It also was pleasing for the players as they could look at a plasma screen and find all the information about the tournament that they were playing, how many people left, how long was left of that level, prize money etc., but most importantly it gave a little piece of information that no-one had used before ” Average Chipstack”. I believe that this is the most looked at part of any TD software and it is the most misleading piece of information. If you go to any cardrooms smoking room during a break, all you will hear is “How many chips have you got?” The answer is usually “Average chips” or “Just under/over average”. PLEASE PLEASE PLEASE ignore this information, an average is just what it says on the tin, you may have someone on a monster stack and 10 very short stacks (this is not uncommon) when those shorties bust, those sitting on their “average” chips now are in a whole heap of crap, hence why you are now playing a crapshoot, as now most of the shorties have bust, let’s say 2 levels go past without losing a player (i.e. bubble scenario) you are now in a shit or bust situation and the skill of poker has now been thrown into the lap of the poker Gods.
Revert to the old ways dear friends, keep your stack above 20bb’s, this may mean you have to play poker, steal a few blinds, be braver ……… you will be rewarded in prize money!
So for those of you that are looking at a starting stack of 10,000 chips with starting blinds of 25/50 (200BB’s!!) and have a competition that includes all festival levels on a decent clock, think that the tournament is a crapshoot please re-adjust your game and play poker, or get blinded out!
What is ‘feel’?
January 18, 2010
You often hear the phrase from poker players about the ‘feel’ they get in certain spots or against certain players. To be honest, I think that a lot of the time, players use the phrase ‘feel’ to somehow defend a play which they know deep down was incorrect. If only I had a pound for every time I’ve seen someone call a pot sized bet to then hit their gutshot on the river and then make some bollocks reasoning of how they ‘felt’ they needed to call!!
I write this as I just called a large river bet in Omaha holding only two pair when the board was set up perfectly for a broadway straight which obviously my opponent had. Why did I call this bet? Because pre-flop I had a good ‘feeling’ about the hand. As I type this, the ridiculousness of my actions is becoming clearer by the second!
I consider myself to be of slightly above average intelligence and somewhat logical and analytical. How then do I make such a poor decision, simply because I had some silly feeling about a hand of poker based on no logical reasoning whatsoever? I don’t have the answer really, but basically, I think it’s the fact that although Poker is a pretty technical game, emotional control is almost, if not more important than the fundamental grasp of statistics and probability.
I remember having a discussion about feel on the UKPI forum a while back, and Kev Stevens (Devilmeat) put forward the point that feel is a subconscious understanding of a situation based upon many hours of play and study. I actually think this is a very good way of describing the aspect of feel but I would say that this sort of feel is the sort of thing that can make a good player great. Unfortunately for me, whenever I try and play with ‘feel’ it makes an average player poor!
Poker sites and players team up for Haiti
January 17, 2010
After the terrible events in Haiti this week, I was glad to see some of the main poker sites doing their bit to try and offer financial assistance.
Pokerstars, Full Tilt and Cake have generously announced that they will match all donations made via their sites and I can say from experience that making donations via the Pokerstars site is extremely simple, you just do a normal fund transfer with the recipient name of ‘haiti fund’. I believe that there are also dummy tournaments which don’t actually run, they simply use the funds as a donation. Full Tilt are using the same methods and Cake have three dummy tournaments available, for amounts of $5, $25 & $100.
All donations are being given to the American Red Cross and I would urge all poker players to make a donation of whatever their standard tournament entry fee would be. Be it, $2 or $215. Please don’t believe that this will lead to the site turning off your doomswitch however. After my donation I just got two outered!! So much for karma.
That Feeling
January 16, 2010
I often write nonsensical pieces about specific emotions I get whilst playing poker and this another of those; so if the last few have bored you senseless then please switch off now.
As per most Thursdays, this week I was down at Hartford Social Club with my mates having an average game of poker in the same old setting with the same old faces and it’s still as enjoyable as ever. Now maybe most people don’t think like I do, maybe I’m weird, but I have this thing inside my head whereby if something happens to me that is pretty normal at the time but is one of those things that when you look back at it in twenty years you’ll go on about how good it was; well I try to take those things in and appreciate them at the time. It’s a bit like a decent night out in a city centre. At the time, you go out, you have a laugh, get pissed, fall asleep then get on with your life the next day. Five years on, when you’re a bit older and more boring, you reminisce about that night and then truly appreciate it for the great night that it was. Anyway I’m digressing.
So the same old game is running as it does every week and I toddle along nicely, winning a few pots, bluffing a couple and losing a few. We start with 20 players and without much to report I make my way to the final table. Everyone is relatively similarly stacked although I’m maybe one of the lower ones. It’s the same old final table we’ve all played a hundred times where in a single hand, the short stacks and big stacks are swapping places regularly. Then the following hand crops up; I think we were still eight handed at the time and blinds were 1k/2k. Average stack 50k and I had about 40k.
To my immediate right is Jeff, a solid player and very good. He raises 3*BB from early position and I call behind holding 710 suited. I know this seems like an odd play, especially given our position but given the blind sizes only 2/3 players were ever seeing a flop and although Jeff is very solid, if I’ve got position on him I can be pretty sure where I am and can easily take a decent post post flop. My thinking is proved to be nonsense when my flat call induces three more callers!! One of them is to my immediate left and it’s the infamous Devil Neck, a player I love to have at every game. You can’t put him on much, you never, ever, ever bluff him but he’s not as bad as some players like to think. Anyway, with the pre flop action, the pot is already healthy and we see a beautiful flop of 7-10-3 with two spades. Even better, Jeff leads out for 12k. Now the pot is already something like 30k, I’ve got about 30k behind facing a 12k bet so I just ship the lot. I think I’m someway ahead of both players and the pot is now the biggest of the night by by a mile.
A soon as I ship it Devil starts think about the call and I can see that Jeff is really, really thinking hard, both of them think they’re ahead. That said, Devil is infamous for calling with any sort of draw; I saw him draw at a flush once after facing overbets on the flop and turn and he only held the two of the suit he was chasing!! Anyway, as I sit there I got that old feeling back. My heart was literally thumping in my chest. Now this is a poxy poker game in a poxy club with a bunch of players of ability ranging from ‘good’ to ‘atrocius’. The prizepool is about £250 total but for those short few moments, the game draws you in and it becomes as important as anything else in the world. As it happens, they both held top pair but due to the nature of the action and the fact that it was me who shipped the chips, they both convinced themselves everyone else was on a draw and both called. The board blanked off and I took the chip lead to subsequently finish third for a massive £40!!
That’s the point of this piece, I love the way in which poker can matter so much when it actually matters so little. Aside from a European Cup Final penalty shootout, I don’t think that there’s anything else in my life that could give me that feeling. Now maybe that says more about how sad I am rather than how great the game of poker is but I really don’t care. As long as I can continue to enjoy a simple game of cards more than other hobbies which cost other people hundreds and thousands of pounds then I’ll continue to be an extremely sad individual. I suppose if you’ve bothered to read this piece to the end, then you’re about as sad as me 
.
S
Channing almost takes down monthly million
January 15, 2010
With his ‘Black Belt Poker‘ online poker/training site on the ipoker network, Neil Channing took part in the network’s online ‘monthly million’ this week. Playing with many of his site’s players, horses and posters, Neil almost took it down but eventually settled for the $104,000 second place spot.
Known more for his live results that online, it shows that Neil must be a very versatile and capable player to be able to adjust his game from the high stakes live cash action with hard nosed grinders at the Vic, through to the multi table hyper-aggressive online tournament players on the ipoker network.
Over the years I personally have have found Neil’s blog most interesting and highly amusing but I’m most impressed with the way in which he appears to be a player who is genuinely committed to fronting his site and interacting with his members in a way that many of poker’s big names seem too busy or self-important to do. I remember once, sending him a PM on The Hendon Mob Forum about placing a bet on Carlos Barrerra from Stoke playing in the GUKPT main final. What struck me was the way he immediately replied, with odds and methods of placing the bet, even offering to meet me at the event with cash if I wanted! It’s little things like this that show someone as a genuine character and someone whose results I always look out for.
Congratualtions to Neil on his win and his approach to the game; a true UK poker star in my eyes.
Although i don;t use B;ack
Catch the PCA high roller event tonight on PCE
January 14, 2010
Although I’m not a huge fan of the Poker Channel Europe and rarely watch it, some of you might be interested to know that they’re showing the final of the Pokerstars Caribbean Adventure high roller event from 9pm tonight and coverage will run for eight hours (or longer if required).
Although there won’t be any UK players present at the final table, it still looks to be an interesting line up with some players who will be looking to make a name for themselves this year. Many people regard the high roller event as tougher than the main PCA event due to the generally ‘pro heavy’, albeit much smaller field. This theory doesn’t seem to have been borne out with most of the final table being relatively unknown and spread from a variety of nations worldwide; but maybe we’ll see the beginning of a future star if you tune in tonight!
Good luck to all involved
Even more value at Dusk Till Dawn
January 13, 2010
Is it just me or does everything you hear about dusk till dawn just make it seem better than it already is? Maybe I’m bias, but I think that whilst it’s around UK poker players should appreciate what a truly great poker venue they have at their disposal.
Anyway, I was looking at the DTD site earlier just to catch up on dates for next months Super 50 & 20/20 games when I came upon their latest added value news here: http://www.dusktilldawnpoker.com/newsitem.php?id=698.
Basically, the winner of the excellent £40+£6 deepstack on a Wednesday gets an entry to the next £300+36, 80k guarantee comp AND a seat to the 150+18 20k guarantee comp!! That’s an added £504 value to the winner. If the guarantee on the comp is 2,500, and first prize was say 875 that means they’ve added another 58% to the first prize spot, or another 9 times your buy-in!! From DTD’s POV they’ve added another 20% on top of the prizepool in addition to the guarantee!!
Not only this, but the winner of the £25+£6 comp on the same night gets a buy in to BOTH days of the £100+£12 20k guarantee 20/20 comp for additional value of £224 to the first payout spot. I just think it’s amazing value.
At times I can’t believe how great the place is. Sorry if this sounds like an advert, it really isn’t; I just love the way the place works for us UK poker players as customers and pray that long may it continue.
Win A Trip To Vegas With Black Belt And Bluff Europe!
January 12, 2010
Black Belt Poker, the poker site which tries to offer more than your average card room has come up with another appealing offer for there clientele. The Black Belt Boot camp which is scheduled to run May 8th-9th 2010 11am-7pm will not only offer the chance to learn from top notch pro’s such as Nik Persuad and Neil Channing but also the chance to win $7,200 worth of giveaways including two Vegas packages that will include buy-in to a WSOP $1,500 event, flights and accommodation in a tournament where all the attendees will get the chance to test there newly acquired knowledge!
The camp will be held at the Victoria Casino London with every attendee guaranteed one-on-one time with a hand picked Black Belt Poker mentor in addition to the two days of world class tuition, training, analysis, interactive learning sessions and master classes that are scheduled. Boot camp laces are capped at 30 so hurry, if the £600* asking fee is a little steep then never fear, as seats can be purchased through the Black Belt Poker shop using points accrued by playing on the site.
If you wish to join Black Belt Poker please used the UKPI affiliate link here; UKPI BBP LINK
* Places can be reserved by sending a cheque for £600 to Black Belt Poker Limited, The Rotunda, 42/3 Gloucester Crescent, London, NW1 7DL
RIP Amir
January 12, 2010
Like most of the poker world, we were saddened to see the loss of one of the genuine poker ‘characters’ in Mr Amir Vahedi last week.
If you can’t quite place Vahedi, he’s the Iranian fella with the big cigar that made the 2003 WSOP ME table entertaining to watch. Interestingly Vahedi also won a bracelet that year in one of the side events and went on to win many others in recent times, with reported career earnings of over $3 million.
Vahedi served in the Iranian army before settling in the United States as a political refugee. He’d playing the US circuit for over a decade and was one of the most well known and much loved pro’s out there. Many of the Poker World’s biggest names have been paying their repsects to Amir in the last few days, be it on their twitter pages, blogs or press releases after it was announced at the weekend that Vahedi had passed away on January 8th to a Diabetes related condition.
In a time when poker seems to be lacking genuinely entertaining characters it’s a shame that one of the real good guys has left us, but we’re sure that there’s quite a cash game goin on up there now; and that Chip, Stu and all the rest will be glad of Amir’s presence. Our condolences to the Vahedi family as poker mourns a well loved figure.
Poker Room’s On Alert as UK Government Looking For Dough!
January 10, 2010
Its has been revealed in a leaked report from the Department of Culture Media and Sport that the UK government will be looking to target online gaming providers who target UK residents. The report which is a response to a government wide search for way’s to increase money from taxation revenues for the UK’s cash strapped treasury was leaked to gaming industry paper ‘Coinslot’.
The system under consideration would require offshore gaming companies including online poker rooms to be licensed in the UK and failure to so would result in the company being prohibited from marketing their services to a UK audience.
In other UK news it’s been revealed that the UKIP or UK independence party are the only political party committed to overturning the ban on smoking in public places (including casino’s!) as we approach the 2010 general election.
Poker Tourettes
January 9, 2010
This week in my local game, I coined the phrase ‘Poker Tourettes’ much to the amusement of my friends and opponents, Wilko and Tourist. This isn’t intended as a cheap gag at those that suffer with the terrible affliction (even though I can’t resist laughing at times), it’s just the best way I can explain how my mind works. When I was a kid, my best friend at school suffered with tourettes at a time when it was relatively unknown and misunderstood so I do actually understand the pain it causes and certain ways in manifests itself. It’s a truly horrendous affliction
The reason I was thinking of why I had the phrase in mind was that I managed to overcome and control an involuntary and sudden action that I didn’t intend; the same way in which my friend used to just blurt out ’shitting hell, shittin hell’ with no good reason but learned through various exercises to control his outbursts. The tourettes seems to take hold of me at certain stages of tournament poker, normally when I’m approaching a short stack position, say 10BB’s or have a healthy stack and am trying to dominate a table when the blinds are starting to damage my competitors. This action must have cost me numerous torunaments over the years and it’s only now that I’m starting to correct it.
It stems from the generally accepted ‘aggressive’ approach that seems to be bandied around by anyone willing to put their thoughts about tournament poker on the web or in print. I’ve been indoctrinated by Mr Harrington into thinking that as soon as my M goes orange I need to think about shoving every pot I can open. Mr Hansen told me to dominate the table when I’ve got the chips to use and Mr Ivey just looked so cool when he bluffed Paul Jackson off that hand in the Monte Carlo Millions. I’m not criticising these players, but I’ve taken their advice far too literally and I’m exaggerating their impact on my poker style.
This week I’d been playing well and was generally in control of my table until I got it all in on the flop with AK overcards and the nut flush draw to an opponent holding second pair which held up and he cut my stack in half. I was 90 % sure I was favourite, was happy to play for stacks, and was right to do so. All of a sudden though I feel like I’m short stacked when really I’m not. (You may be seeing echoes of my last DTD write up here). For the next half an hour, all I wanted to do was throw my chips in at every chance I got. I saw every raise as a steal that I should re-steal. Every unopened pot was a chance to take the blinds, I almost announced ‘all-in’ involuntarily on at least three occasions. I’m sure it’s another example of tilt manifesting in my play as I really don’t get upset when the cards fall against me, but even though I always remain calm, this must be the way in which my mind lets the tilt take control
Whilst I was trying to distract myself from shoving all my chips in the pot with 6-4 offsuit I tried to think of other occasions in which this had happened to me. I came third in a tournament recently against two of the worst players I’ve ever come across when I bluffed pre-flop/flop/turn/river with nothing but A high against the biggest station I’d ever met. I knew he had nothing and he duly called me down with nothing but J8 which hit a J on the river to win him the pot! Most people, if they’re honest, would berate the moron for making every call to river; personally I think I’m the moron for making such a horrendous series of bets to lose a tournament I should have walked. The thing is, I made each bet almost instinctively; I couldn’t control it, I just had to bet.
The upshot of this is that I’m a person expressing their thoughts whilst learning to control a major leak. Don’t get me wrong, I still think aggressive tournament poker is the most fun, and most successful way to play but there’s a difference between aggression and lunacy, I just need to try and reverse an instinct that’s been ground into my poker character for the last four years. Maybe if you look at yourself hard enough you might spot a couple of similarities, even if it’s a different response to an instinctive action.
Anyway, if ever you see me shoving 8BB’s from UTG with 6-8 off, then please remind me of this piece when I head to the rail!!
Online Qualifiers for European Master’s Gran Canaria
January 8, 2010
The next stop on the Masters of Poker tour is sunny Gran Canaria which if like me you’ve been arse deep in snow for the last five day’s, well then the thought of jetting of to the Canary islands for the €1,000+€100 buy-in main event that takes place from Jan. 28 to 31 is bloody appealing. In fact even the knowledge that Poker legend Dave ”Devilfish” Ulliott will be in attendance isn’t enough to put the dampeners on that!
Qualifiers are running online at the moment on all sites on the Entraction network and start from as little as €2. It’s also possible to buy in directly from any of the networks cashiers and players are encouraged to pick up there seat as soon as possible as the 260seater event is very much expected to sell out.
There are 32 cash and VIP point satellite qualifiers running each day into the weekly finals.
Tuesday 20:40 (CET) – €100 buy in with five €2,000 packages guaranteed
Thursday 20:40 (CET) – €100 buy in with five €2,000 packages guaranteed
Sunday 20:40 (CET) – €200 buy in with eight €2,000 packages guaranteed
Dave Ulliot when asked about his EMOP participation has this too say “I’ve heard a lot of good things about EMOP “and I’m really looking forward to playing in Gran Canaria as part of Team Devilfish*. What could be better than a poker party in the sun in the middle of winter!”
* Team Devilfish is gang of marauding middle aged men who travel the European poker tour dancing like your Dad and trying to chat up women young enough to be there daughters whilst wearing crowded house T-Shirts in the mistaken belief this will make them look ‘cool’.
UK Poker player tops early chip count in PCA
January 7, 2010
With the field anticipated to break all sorts of non-US field size records after a day 1A entrance of 669 players, UK player and Pokerstars qualifier, Wayne Bentley, is head and shoulders above the rest of the field with a stack size of 329,500 chips from his starting stack of 30,000, a chip lead of over six figures to his nearest competitor!
Bentley doubled up early thanks to an aces versus kings confrontation and continued to run well, having won a big race and made other big hands such as flopping a set of eights against Bill Edler’s Kings to take his competitors 100k stack.
There are plenty of big names following Bentley in the early chip counts, last year’s winner, Poorya Nazari being one of them. Let’s hope that Wayne’s form continues into the later stages and that he is joined by some other Brits after the completion of day 1B. Hopefully this is a sign of things to come for a hotly anticipated year for UK poker on the worldwide stage.
Win Your Way To The Irish Open For $10!
January 6, 2010
Popular online poker room paddypowerpoker.com have announced that they will be running a series of $10 rebuy Irish Open Super Sat’s every Monday evening starting at 8pm UK time. The tournaments will start Monday, January 11th and winner swill move on to the Super Satellite stage which will guaranteed at least one Irish Open 2010 ticket.
Additionally any player qualifying through the $10 rebuys will also be entered in the €100,000 Sole survivor promotion which awards prizes to the last paddypowerpoker.com qualifies in the field.
The Irish open is one of the highlights of the European poker tour and this year returns to the magnificent Burlington Hotel in Dublin which will accommodate in the region of 750 players in the grand hotel ballroom and produces a special atmosphere for the duration which this year will be from Friday 2nd – Monday 5th April 2010.
I was at the Burlington the last time this event was played there and it really is a special event with a fantastic atmosphere with, players, dealers, and media mostly under the one roof. Wow, I can’t believe it I just wrote a whole article about the Irish open with using the word craic once, oh fuck I just used it. Oh well, there’s always next year.
Irish Open $10 Rebuy Super Satellites:
• January 11th @ 8pm
• January 18th @ 8pm
• January 25th @ 8pm
• February 1st @ 8pm
DTD 20/20 weekend part deux
January 6, 2010
So as my last piece explained we were having a cracking day out at the DTD 20/20 in December in which I played pretty terribly but managed to consume plenty of ale and a lovely burger whilst my travel companions managed to consume even more lager and cash for over four grand.
I busted from the 20/20 event at a pretty nice time, about six o’clock. This gave me time to have another drink or two, something to eat, play some cash and enter the £40 deepstack at 20.00. From the point that I exited the 20/20 my day got better bit by bit.
The cash went well, I sat down at a £1/£2 £200 cap game with £140 with the same again kept in my wallet as a fall back. We started three handed but the table soon expanded to eight handed. I won’t go into detail but I got a great table with some real soft players but as I wanted to play the deepstack I only had about half an hour to kill. The cash went well, I got maximum value for a pair of aces, got a couple of bluffs through and was well up when I played a hand well (IMO!) but had to let it go on the river. The result was that I made over £50 in the thirty minutes I played which meant I was freerolling the entry fee to the £40+£6 comp.
I buy in with my other two companions who’d been knocked out and only just manage to get to my seat as my cards are dealt. First hand I look down at a pair of tens sat on the button. I must say that tens are my least favourite poker hand, I’ve lost more than I’ve won online with them so I have some pretty conservative ways of playing them deepstacked, I really think more people should do this. In this instance I decided to play them pretty slowly, like a small/mid pair rather than treating them as a premium hand. There’s a raise from UTG+1, a mid position call and I flat call as well. The three of us see a Q57 flop. UTG checks, MP bets, I flat call as does UTG. I’m not 100% where I’m at here, I don’t think I can fold the flop to a single bet with one overcard and I have position to re-asses the turn. The turn comes a beautiful ten. UTG checks, MP bets, I call and UTG raises!! MP gets out of the way and I’m sat there happy as a pig in shit. Obviously he may have the QQ but if he has then good luck to him, I’m putting him on TPTK, two pair or another set. I ship the rest of my stack, he insta calls, I flip, he shouts that I’m a ‘lucky boy’ and storms off having showed a set of fives. A double up first hand of the comp, yours truly is chip leader!!!
After that I continue to run hot, the only problem is that I did scare off some people as my big stack is scaring people out of pots and I’m not getting good value for some really good hands. By the first break I’ve run my 8k starting stack up to over 24k. I then go on to lose a big pot which nearly costs me the comp. A player I’d intially marked as soft, but subsequently re-assessed as anything but, had raised from MP. I flat call on the button with 55. Flop comes AA10. He bets and I call, standard cbet, let’s see what happens. Turn comes a blank and we both check. Similar to my hand in the 20/20, I don’t like my hand enought to bet but still think I may be ahead so check the turn with the intention to call a bluff possibly on the river. River comes a Q and he makes a massive overbet, something like 6k into a 2k pot. I think a little this time but still read it as a pure bluff. I’ve not got good odds, I should let it go but I was getting brave, thought it was a shit bluff by a shit player and make the call. He shows AQ for a boat, great read Gaz!!!!
This hand severely tilted me. I was drinking, I’d made myself look silly, I got check-raised off a pot shortly after and was in danger of throwing my stack away needlessly. My 24k stack was now down to about 13k so I’m still on the tournament average but I felt like I was losing it. I’m just regaining my composure but not really enjoying the poker. I didn’t really like anyone else on my table, I had a bit of needle with one player who I tried to straighten out as being cocky when he said something thinking I couldn’t hear but when I asked him straight he said he was paying me a compliment, dunno which was right but he certainly backed down. I then get KK. I get most of a players stack in by the turn, hit trips on the river after the flush completed and I really, really read him for the flush so just checked down the river in position. It was only then that I realise the board had paired on the turn also thus giving me a full house and meaning I miss out on 4k of chips but more importantly look like a complete tit to everyone else there. I decided to stop drinking at this point as I was in FBMT. (Full Blown Monkey Tilt copyright Kev Stevens)
Luckily I get moved tables to a really friendly table which I can calm down at. There are some really nice older fellas on there. We talk Golf and Football, compliment each others play rather than the usual criticism and bravado bollocks that younger players usually bring to the table and I remembere why I love poker again, it was great. My stack tootles along nicely and I build it along with the average whilst we lose a few more players. Before I know it we’re down to two tables but the blinds are starting to bite. I’m letting my stack dwindle but rather than start shoving every chance to get, I learn from my mistake in the 20/20 and start to use selective aggression. There are no major hands until I pick up J10 on the button. I’ve got about 8-10 BB’s from memory. Previously I’d shove here, but I just raise 2.5BBs. People will argue with this strategy but I’m starting to change my thinking now. There are five reasons I did this but I won’t bore you with them. Bottom line is that the BB calls, I flop the nut straight and we get it all in on the turn as he’d hit top pair. before you know it, we’re on to the final table.
The final table is a strange affair. Minimum cash is £125 I think, going up in £50 increments for the first five or so out, then the final five spots jump something like, £300, £425, £665, £1,000, £1,750. At this point one player suggests a nine way split for £500 each. This is usually something I’d reject out of hand but the average stack was probably about ten BB’s, you’d have to finish third or better to get more than the deal, and with the blind/stack ratio, no-one could honestly say they had enough of an edge to assure themselves of that. Most were happy to deal but the few bigger stacks obviously didn’t want to so away we go. The highlight of my final tabel was the free drink you get for making it!! I opted for the Vodka and Red Bull as it was now about 3am.
I had a competent player to my left, a female nit to my right. Three big stacks of average ability to the left again, one good player and one TAG further to my right, soemthing like that anyway. The problem I had was that many fo the final table were relatively short stacked. I had the three big stacks to my left with a player I think capable of a re-steal so I’ve got to wait it out.
I played the final table as well as I could. I wait out three eliminations, steal a couple of pots and get sucked out on for a really big pot but before I know it we’re down to four handed. This was the toughest part of the tournament. I had the female nit to my right who was short stacked and the two huge stacks to my left. This meant stealing was hard and the woman on my right was trying to wait me out. I realised I couldn’t really aim for the two top spots but had to finish above the woman as it was a £240 pay jump from fourth to third. I played four handed the tightest I’ve ever played short handed in my life. I was completely card-dead but I made some small raises that looked like really strong hands, were read as such but were actually steals. I outlast the woman with only about four BB’s left. I shove the button with 4/5 as I’m pot committed from the blinds after that and get looked up by KJ which hits and knocks me out.
I must thank my good friend Rich Wootton for his company during the breaks of this competition. A bit of sensible conversation and someone watching me play who I don’t want to look a tit in front of really helped me to concentrate!!
All in all the £40 comp was great The structure is as good as you can for the time frame you have, everything about the place is brilliant, I cashed for £665 from an effectively free buy-in and I go home happy. It takes about another half hour to get my mates Wilko and Chris off the cash table, DTD have now refused to serve them any more ale and they’re arguin like a pair of children. We leave the club about half four and I got home at 6am, tired, sober again, but happy.
Thank you DTD, can’t wait to see you again.
DTD 20/20 Weekend
January 4, 2010
Me and my mates usually have a little poker road trip over the festive period. When we weighed up our options there was only one serious choice, the DTD 20/20 on 27th/28th December.
The Sunday game saw the poker room at capacity with alternates in play and a £8.5k first prize. We opted for the Monday game on 28th december which attracted 227 runners from memory. The game was perfect for us lads having a day out at the poker. There’s the £100 early start at 14.00 then a deepstack £40 at 20.00 in case if you get knocked out and even a £15 game for those wanting to watch the budget after Christmas. Let’s also not forget the numerous and varied cash games on offer to suit all poker tastes.
Myself, Mark ‘Wilko’ Wilkinson, Chris ‘Poker Dog’ Goward, Stuart ‘Tourist’ Clarke and Big Kev set out around quarter to twelve and due to a little traffic congestion on the M6 and around Nottingham managed to get there just in time for kick off. I must say that having registered online and checked my entry with customer support, the club still delivered the first class service that I’d expect before I even got there.
So we sit down for the £100 er and I start to weigh up my table. I’ve got a nit to my left, a TAG left of him, most players in mid position from me appear to be standardish and the player to my immediate right is playing very tightly but without seeming like a big gob seems to play some pretty big games. The first few levels are pretty uneventful, I get my 10k stack up about 3k with one TPTK hand I get two streets of value for with a bet, check, bet in position and another bluff on the turn after a checked flop. I then lose a couple of k or so with a few hands like with a missed AK in a mulitway pot and other standard missed boards. I then lose a decent chunk to the player on my right.
He raises my BB from the SB by a small amount, think it was just above a min raise. I call with Q-10 offsuit, partly for value but partly to defend and I’ve got position. Rag flop which he check calls a half pot flop bet by me. A Queen comes on the turn which gives me top pair albeit with a weak kicker. He checks again and I check as I’m not mad about my hand but think that I now look like weak and can call a bluff on the river; a bet here only gets called by hands that are beating me so I don’t see much value in it. River blanks again and he makes a very big bet, about twice the pot. I’d decided on the turn to call any river bet, I was bluff inducing but on reflection I maybe should have known that often these massive river bets after two checks are desperate value attempts, after slowplaying the early streets. I actually snap called but should have thought about the hand a little more and decided not to risk another 3k on the river when there was only maybe 1500 in the pot to begin with. Anyway, it’s not a horrendous call given the way I played then hand but he flipped a set of 7’s and I’m back down to about 7k.
This hand tilted me a little as it was the first big pot I’d shown down in, and I came off the worst. Add the fact that I was also 7/8 bottles of Peroni in now and I started getting itchy fingers. I’ve got a common fault which I think many players have who sometimes over-egg their strategy at times rather than reading the situation a little better. It occurs especially when I’ve had a drink, but if I’m getting short stacked (by the M ratio) then I just can’t wait to get chips in, I’m looking to open every pot I can, re-squeeze when I can, C-bet every time. It’s not terrible but I’m far too aggressive as I see my stack as far shorter than it actually is, I use over-aggression as opposed to controlled aggression. I can’t specifically remember many more hands after the one mentioned above as I got myself into a couple of raise, bet, fold pots until I got to about 4/5 big blinds, shoved over an AK and went home. It’s a pretty common occurence in my tournament game which I need to sort out.
Meanwhile, some of my fellow team were faring a little better. Tourist and Big Kev went out at around the same time as me. I decided to try the DTD burger which I would wholeheartedly recommend to any potential diner, one of the best burgers I’ve ever had. Big Kev also ordered onion rings with his. They are massive, fresh and tasty but please share them, they were far too much for even the two of us with our burgers.
Wilko and Poker Dog were going along very nicely indeed. By about the second or third break (say about 12 levels in) they were both well above average chipstacks. They were also amongst the leading alcohol consumers in the comp and during one of the breaks they decided they’d split any prize money won as they figured surely one of them would cash. As the tournament continued it became clear that Wilko was doing well, he had a chipstack dwarfing every other player. As he got drunker I could hear him getting louder. He was pulling stunts like deciding to call an all-in 3bet holding 55. He flips tails, makes the call and duly wins a monster pot, it was that soprt of scenario. Chris is going well too but I can hear him even more, at one point I overheard him say runner-runner-runner-runner-runner very loudly. The upshot of this is that Chris missed the final table but cashed for £300. Wilko went into the FT with 700k of the 2.2m chips in play and ended up agreeing a split when three handed. He cashed for £4k, finished third but had to give Chris £2k of his hard earned winnings!!!!
When all said and done though, a class comp, in a class card room with class service. I can’t find a single thing wrong to say about DTD, except that it’s not in Northwich.
As well as the 20/20 I decided to take part in the £40 deepstack and some £1/£2 cash, I’ll update this in my next piece as I did slightly better than in my first attempt of the day!!!