Monday, January 22, 2007

Back in London

After another 28 hour journey i got home yesterday. Feeling a bit jetlagged and woke up at 4am today. I should be able to sort out my sleeping pattern soon enough though being a poker player.

I really enjoyed Australia. I mostly had a relaxing time, and only played about 10 hours live and about the same amoubt online during the trip. I've had decent results online so far this year, but in the next 4/5 weeks i'll be playing alot more so i expect the swings to return!

The next few weeks i'm going to be playing $25/50 and $50/100 NL Holdem and PL Omaha. I really want to step up and play higher but just hate the $100k losing days too much to take the risk. I want to get back in the $200/400 PL Omaha at some stage this year. Maybe if i buy in for $20000 a go and don't multitable, then that could be something i can do in a few weeks.

I've added a few more blogs and links on the right hand side as well. People need to update their blogs more often :-)

Tuesday, January 16, 2007

Oz Update 3

I busted out of the main event on Day 1. I'm reasonably happy with most of the decisions i made, i get much more annoyed when i play badly.

The only real hands of note were these:

- I had AK 4 times and lost each of them. Twice i gave them up after missing flop, twice i continuation bet them, and gave up on the turn. So i decided i was going to play them like Aces or Kings if i missed the flop. Blinds 100/200. I made it 650 UTG. Button only caller. He hasn't been too busy so far. Flop J45. I bet 700 he calls. Turn a 5. I fire the second bullet of 2100. He thinks for a while and calls. River a 9. Now more often than not i will check here, but i fired the third bullet of 5500 and again after a dwell i got called. He had TT. Fair enough good call but i am beating him like 80% of the time given the action. That put me down to 12000 (we started with 20000)

- I limp in mid position with QT suited. Another limper and BB raises to 500 to play. Aggressive player so i see a flop. Flop 55T. He bets 1100. I call. Turn a 6. He checks and i bet 1700. He called. River a Queen and i bet 2700. He called and mucked. Difficult to put him on a hand there.

- The exit hand. I had dribbled down to about 10800 chips. Mid position made it 600 to play. Two callers so i call with JsQs. Flop 3d8s9s. This was the second flop i liked all day. I checked. Preflop raiser checked. Tight player bet 800 into a 2400 pot and the an aggressive Scandie made it 2400 on the button. I thought his range was big, and i could get him to fold if i pushed so i did. I also didn't want to just call 25% of my chips. He had a good hand though a set of threes and i couldn't catch any of my outs.

Hate busting out of tournaments but a few hours later it doesn't seem like the end of the world anymore. Had a good 6 hour session online so all is good with the world :-)

Fly home on Saturday and will be playing alot in the next 5 or 6 weeks online, as there is a break in tournaments before the EPT resumes.

Saturday, January 13, 2007

Oz Update 2

Haven't played live since my last post... unless you count Chinese poker :-) Not much online either... just enough wins to cover my spending!

This is definitely the best poker trip in my opinion factoring in everything that makes a poker trip good. Weather, hotel, restaurants, price, bars, gym, spa, tournaments etc. It scores highly on all those. Only downside is the gruelling journey over here. They need the net on these long haul flights. I saw EPT Deauville got cancelled. Not too bothered about that... too boring there. Plus its also a pain to get too. At least there are a couple of other EPT events in Dortmund and EPT Warsaw that i'll be going to.

You get to meet some sick gamblers in this poker world. I was chatting to a couple of Scandi players that i know. One of them had a $2 million roll in December. He lost it all in two weeks. Was down to $10000 and now has $1 million again. The other one once lost $380000 in one night over 50% of his bankroll playing drunk a week or so ago.

Ali Masterman won the $1500 side event. Played very good. Loose aggressive to the extreme. He was like calling raises with 72 off to make a move on any flop. A nice cash at around £80000 i think.

I see the schedule for the WSOP 2007 is out. Its not to long till it starts. Very excited about it this year. They have added a bunch of $5000 tournaments and less NL Hold'em events which is a good move.....

I play Day one flight two on Monday. I've have tweaked my strategy a bit for multi tournaments so i'll see how that goes.

Wednesday, January 10, 2007

Oz Update 1

Its good to be back at the Crown in Melbourne. I've been to loads of hotels around the world, but this remains my favourite hotel that hosts a poker event. Great restaurants/spa/gym etc and you don't have to walk past the people gambling to move around like in Vegas.

Played the PL Omaha event yesterday - no good. Only had one rebuy and a top up which was a result condsidering that it was $3000 a pop (£1200 ish). Field was hard... guess not many people who play an Omaha rebuy that high are going to be fish. My table was incredibly tight so it wasn't too much fun. I eventually busted in a big pot when i ran 69TJ into 97JQ on a 997 board. One day i will stop donating in PL Omaha tournaments. I am a lifetime loser of about £20000 in them.....

Trying to have as much fun as possible this year, because last year i was in my room most of the time watching my bankroll slide away. I didn't even make it to the beach! The Omaha cash games are going and they are pretty big. $600/$1200 limit high Omaha was going, and a $100/$200 PL game as well. Will play one of those before the main event which starts for me on Monday which is flight two. Think there is going to be around 600 players and we get 20000 chips to start so it should be a good tournament.

Monday, January 08, 2007

Hong Kong

Just stopped off en route to Melbourne for the Aussie Millions. I haven't played a hand of poker in about two weeks so looking forward to playing again. My first tourney is a $3000 rebuy Omaha in a couple of days, so i will be donating a few rebuys to that i reckon.

I'll do some more updates when i actually get around to playing some poker :-)