A tiny win

Not posted an outright win for a while, so happy with this 1st place, even if it was only in a $5 PLO game for 80 odd bucks.

Ace of Clubs Tonight

First hand, I'm dealer, 8 to a table, blinds 25/50, 5000 starting stack.

UTG bet 200
UTG + 1 raise 800
UTG + 2 all in for 5000
UTG +3 major tanks and then folds

everyone else folds, we find out that UTG had AJs, UTG + 1 had QQ, UTG + 2 had AKs, as did UTG+3

what a deal !

Next hand, I'm the CO

UTG bet 175
UTG +1 all in for 6075

everyone folds, UTG+1 shows 53o, wp sir.

Next hand
UTG makes it 300, everyone folds

Next hand all folded to the BB

Next hand, I'm UTG

I raise with KK to 175, called by UTG+1 and button, SB makes it 800, I think, yes mate your trying to win this game with in the first level so push rest of chips in to try and add 20% to my stack there and then, all folds to SB who instacalls with AA, which hold on a board of 10,8,10,2, A. Later find out that UTG+1 had 10,10 ! My timing is so off.

I'm out, not only in first level but in first orbit, not even paying a blind. Crazy table, crazy night, game finished within 3 hours.

It was the first night at the club since Lou picked the team for the APAT event. We knew there would be mates and members who would be disappointed by not being selected and tonight could be a difficult night. Hopefully Lou got her point across and explained why she selected who she did and how there would be opportunities in the future, however there was one guy who refused to talk to us, proper shame, a nice lad and a good player but we couldn't justify a place for him over others. He didn't take it well.

This is the problem when it comes to team events, when you are picking a team from people who you have built a relationship with and in the majority of cases have become friends. Not like a online forum where they might be picking people on results documented online and team selection confirmation is a yes or a no via a private online message. We have to face people who haven't been picked. In the main, the Ace of Clubs has become a close knit group, obviously some are more closer than others, but when it comes to a big game, we all will support each other, and hope that the other records a big score. So when it comes to telling people they haven't been selected, (especially when there are 14/15 names who in my opinion who would hold their own against the best) then it becomes very diffcult.

Lou and me disagreed for hours when picking this team, it was very hard to justify one over another, and in the end we agreed on a team formula for this event and hopefully that will be good on not just poker playing abilites but also on the representing the club front which is equally important to us.

I enjoy pushing our club forward and hoping our mates do well outside of our games, but disappointing mates by not selecting them for a team, when we can only pick so many is a task I need to learn to not get so emotionally wound up over if we are to play more of these types of games in the future.

Its Sunday night, I should be in bed its work tomorrow

So I listened to the majority of the WSOP Main Event Final Table last night and most of this morning via the Bluff website.

Must say I'm surprised Darwin Moon made it in the last 2 with some of his crazy calls, but still quite pleased and now Akenhead and Ivey are out, I would like to see him win it outright, even if he's not quite going to be the Poker Ambassador that the poker world would like to see. Pleased to say with all my trading on Betfair, I'm in profit whoever wins, so wont be staying up to listen to the heads up.

I got away with a number of lucky calls also this weekend, on my way to winning the game at Ace of Clubs on Friday night. I got away with my pocket 6's against 1010, on a 4,5,7 flop, when put allin only for the 3 to bink on the turn. I got it all in again a little later with AQs again against 10's in a blind on blind situation when down to 5, flop was no good but the turn and river both delivered an Ace. A little later when down to 3, I had raised and then made a snap call with KJ only to face KQ, however the J on the flop made sure I was good to go to heads up. Heads up took an age and in the end we decided to split the majority and play a hand for the rest, which I took, so pretty happy overall.

Talking about the AoC, I'm delighted that we have been invited as one of the 20 teams to play in the APAT team event next year. Me and Lou both played for Raise the River forum in the last one, and I'm pleased to see that they have been invited along with other big forums that we're members of, so hopefully it will fantastic to compete in this event with AoC against alot of people we know and should be a good weekend to look forward to. The downside is that when picking a team of only 8, Lou has to disappoint a few people, which is never nice, especially when they are your mates.

Online I'm rarely playing currently, but just had a quick session on Betfair. The standard really is terrible at times on there, and despite qualifying for a couple of their "HOT" games tonight, I didn't achieve any spectacular results in those, and infact went on major tilt, when my 11x BB push with QQ from the BB was called by a bigger stacks limped 22, only for the 2 to come first card out. Fortunately I managed to win an $11 turbo from 99 runners for a $300 return and ensure another positive session.

Outside of poker, I'm still on with my tache growing for Movember, and I'm quite pleased to say that I've now got 26 hair follicles on the top lip, 27 if you count the one with split ends, although I might have to use Lou's mascara to darken them a bit if they stay blonde ! .

Another night another cash

Played one of my Betfair challenge games tonight, didn't do that well finished around the top third but not close enough to the cash.

Played another couple of games on Betfair, including a $44 tourney which I came 3rd for $217 so not bad return and another profitable night. However I had a decision to make and can't decide if I made the right one or not, what do you do here ?

***** Betfair Poker Hand History for Game 600245980 *****

NL Texas Hold'em $40 Buy-in + $4 Entry Fee, Level:11 Blinds(600/1,200-75 ante) - Thursday, November 05, 00:00:42 GMT 2009

$1,200 Guaranteed NL Hold'em #293662

Table 1 9-max (Real Money)

Seat 8 is the button

Total number of active players : 3

Seat 1: Legato ( 42,474.25 )

Seat 5: derbyred ( 31,694.50 )

Seat 8: MagicMojo77 ( 10,831.25 )

Tourney Level:11 Blinds(600/1,200-75 ante)

Legato posts ante [75]

derbyred posts ante [75]

MagicMojo77 posts ante [75]

Legato posts small blind [600]

derbyred posts big blind [1,200]

** Dealing down cards **

Dealt to derbyred [ Ad, Kc ]

MagicMojo77 raises to [3,300]

Legato goes all-in

Legato raises to [42,399.25]

I eventually folded, as did the initial raiser, I think its a good fold but then again there's a few "what if's" lingering.

Betfair EWS Result

Lou gave me a shot of her laptop tonight to play a couple of games, I didn't do too much in the first $11 game I played, but fared a little better in my second game - $55 Eyes Wide Shut, coming 4th from 107 runners for $428, disappointed to not finish higher but still, not a bad result.

Movember - Prostate Cancer

This is a poker blog, I try to keep away from personal opinions - apart from the odd music video or football result, but this is pretty important, so I thought I'd share.

Prostate Cancer is the most wide spread cancer in men in UK. 35,000 will be diagnosed this year in the UK, with one fella unfortunate enough to die from it every hour.

Movember is a bit of a take the piss way of raising awareness and funds to combat this disease, by not shaving. Movember ( replacing November ) is where guys get to look stupid and grow silly taches in the hope that the Prostate Cancer Charity can earn funds to work towards helping change established attitudes and habits and make men aware of the risks they face, thereby increasing early detection, diagnosis and effective treatment.

So, I had my last shave yesterday, and for the entire month, I risk going without ( wink wink nudge nudge) - due to being "prickly" to do some good. At the last count, on my upper lip I had 6 hair follicles, so I reckon this is going to be very embarrasing for me, when all I can produce is a pencil tache, rather than the full biker handle bar, but hey its for a worthy cause.

Please support me, I'd be grateful for anything you can donate from your winnings in "Movember" at the following link http://uk.movember.com/mospace/209479/. I'll update the blog as when I can get a photo online of how I'm getting on.

To start us off, here is a picture of a very clean shaven me and my good looking mate Kev from the Ace of Clubs last night at a Halloween party.

Good News Bad News

My life is never simple. Don't get me wrong, its not all bad....just half of it. For every good thing there is something quickly there to bring me back down to earth. To prove this, I thought I would make a few notes from tonights experiences;

Good News - my night to play in the Betfair Challenge

Bad News - working late

Good News - office carpet cleaning, everybody got to leave early

Bad News - get to experience rush hour on way home

Good News - get home and see I'm registered to play the $55+5 $12GTD courtesy of Betfair

Bad News - laptop on its last legs and powers itself off 3 times within 30 mins prior to game

Good News - laptop runs ok for over an hour

Bad News - laptop turns itself off again when I've limped in MP with 78s

Good News - Lou has Betfair installed on her laptop and is in the next room

Bad News - Lou has about 4 games of her own going on, on different sites

Good News - Lou manages to log onto my Betfair account, in time to see a 10,9,7 rainbow flop

Bad News - I have no time to work out what to do, so I push which is met by a call, and I lose and am out v.early

Good News - I'm still in the $22 $3.2K GTD

Bad News - laptop wont power up again and gets a little tap

Very Bad News - laptop has now got a smashed screen, the little tap might have been a little on the hard side

Good News - poker tilt as just evaporated

Extremely Bad News - just remembered all my poker results spreadsheets are still on laptop

Good News - I can't see how bad I've been running this past week

Bad News - I've already pre registered for a satellite into the "Eyes Wide Shut $55 $5K GTD", a $33 $1K GTD game and a $16.5 $1K Hourly turbo

Good News - my mother in law as a laptop and she only lives about 5 minutes away

Bad News - that would mean visiting the mother in law

Good News - my Niece volunteer's to nip up and get it

Bad News - I now have no excuse but to wash up whilst she's gone

Good News - I win the satellite into the $55 EWS game.

Bad News - I run well in the $16.5 game and look to cash, until I make a "move" with AKs, obviously this is looked up by a bigger stack KJ, who hits 2 Jacks on the flop

Good News - I run well in the EWS game and look to make the final table

Bad News - I lose a blind v blind battle when I put the BB all in, I've got KQ, obviously he has QQ. I'm now the short stack on the bubble

Good News - I'm a black belt in the art of being a short stack ninja and still limp into the cash

Bad News - I need about 10 double ups just to pay the next blinds

Good News - I somehow make the final table and push myself into 5th in chips

Bad News - My allin with AQ is met with a call from big stacks QJo, obviously J on the flop

Good News - $196 return from $5 satellite entry

Bad News - first place was $1600, enough for a new laptop

Good News - I've made the final table in the $33 game

Bad News - its proper tight and only 5 get paid

Good News - I get myself 2nd in chips and in the cash

Bad News - I lose another blind on blind battle, this time I have 22 in the BB, SB makes a gay raise, I call. Flop J, 10, 2. SB pushes, I install call

Good News - SB has Q 10 o

Bad News - turn comes K, river comes 9, I'm now uber short

Good News - $120 return from $33 buyin and another FT

Bad News - still not enough for a laptop, not sure when I'm going to be able to play again

Good News - I might get something other than socks for Christmas

Most Haunted

The Most Haunted team are basing their live halloween show from the town of my youth this year - Morecambe.

To be honest, I'm suprised that they don't spend more time there, as I can recall dating some right horror's in that area when I was a kid. If Lapland is the place which exports phoney santa's at Christmas, then look to Morecambe as a chief exporter of Witches and ghouls at this time of the year.

If your not familiar with the show, basically its a team of people who are trying to make contact with lost souls from the other side, with a number of ghost busting techniques. They've been running for the best part of 10 years, but I've yet to hear that they've had any major success to their questions of " is there anybody here" or their pleas of " do something to me if you can hear us".

Just one time, please, how good would it make for TV, if they got the answer " Yes, I'm here, now fook off" before Yvette Fielding is lifted off her feet and thrown into the nearest wall.

To continue with the halloween theme, but moving onto poker, my online results have been pretty terrifying in the last week. I've not had a decent return for about a week, and around 300 bucks down in the last 7 days. I seem to be the bubble man at the moment or very close to it. You must get extra points for the Betfair leaderboard for bubbling, because I managed to finish 38th last week, which is my 3rd consecutive top 100 leaderboard finish on the small stakes leaderboard since I've been taking notice.

Don't get me wrong, I'm still pulling in a few cashes, but nowhere near as well as I was doing a couple of weeks ago, my volume as increased to try and get back on track, meaning larger losses, when results don't go my way. Confidence is dipping and on the wrong side of variance at the moment. Tonights key hand that sticks in my mind was coming over the top of a serial raiser when in the last 7 of a $44 game, top 5 paid, I had AQs, he called with K6o, flop K6x, turn K river x. GG.

On the flip side, played at the Ace of Clubs on Friday, and not only did I cash for the first time in weeks, I won it. It was a smaller field than normal, but a win's a win.

Lou played her second challenge game tonight, she came very close again, but missed out on the money when she got her chips in with AQ against JJ which held, going out in 26th place from approx 180. She did pull up this royal flush though, the first one either of us has had in years.