What a disaster

On Monday night, I downloaded Full Tilt through an affilate that gives you the full version of PT3 once you reach 250 FT points. Plus Full Tilt were doing happy hours where they were doubling the points at cash tables so I figured I would be able to maximise my points if I multi-tabled at 50nl.
BAADDDD idea for two reasons:

1-Even playing one table, I still suck, so to even think of playing 4 tables was obscene!
2-I moved up to 50nl. Why I moved up when I cannot even beat 20nl playing one table- I cannot give any reasoning other than I am just plain f**king stupid.

Anyways I deposited $200 on Monday night and ended up with a $50 profit. Even though that's nothing, I thought it was great and was well chuffed I didn't lose money for once. Just as I was starting to think that maybe I'm not as bad as I think I am, the very next day, I multi-tabled 4 tables again and duly blew the lot.. Well done Ciarán, great thinking(!!!) Only plus was I managed to tally 200 FT points in that duration so I'm 50 points off gettin a free PT3. I was always going to lose money online anyway, so I might as well get free stuff for doing it! lol!! The only positive note of the night was that I took down the boardsie tournament on stars. Not too sure how much I won. It wasn't much but at least I won something online and gave me back some dignity after the FT farce.

Downloaded the ladbrokes poker client last night just to specifically satellite my way into the Killarney poker festival as I'm not paying €550 to play in the Main Event! Will play a satellite sometime this week, there's no real urgency anyways. I hope to see some deafies there so you guys better start trying to qualify as well! :)

Laters!

Brag: How to turn €20 into €1,200 in 12 hours

1. Buy into a €20 satellite tournament at Cool Hand Lukes at 6.30pm
2. Win a ticket for the €115 Freezeout later that evening
3. Agree a 5-way deal in above tournament, taking €750 because you were the chip-leader
4. Bring winnings to Fitz and sit down with a little bit of it, €160
5. Cash out at 6.30am with €1,200 in your wallet

€100 per hour, hmmm.... I run good :)

APAT Madness

Having sat down at the table and wished everybody luck (because I'm such a nice guy lol), I took it upon myself to liven up the play and started opening 90% of pots in the first level with trash. What possessed me to lose the plot, I just can't explain. It didn't help that I got dealt AK in the first hand. I showed some bluffs to establish a loose image, knowing I would get looked up more later. I kind of knew what I was doing but have to admit I nearly lost control on the following hand.

A couple of hours later, with blinds at 100-200, after two players limped in, I raised 600 with 74 off suit on the button with approx 10k stack. I was extremely restless at my table, it was so boring but nonetheless I acknowledge now just how careless it was to even play the hand! I get 2 callers and the flop comes down QJ8 two clubs, I bet out for half the pot (1,100) and get one caller. Turn is a Kh and he check raises me to 3,200. I call, knowing I can push him off the pot on the river. The pot is worth 10,700 now; we both have about 5k left. The river brings a Qc. He checks, I raise 3,400 with 1,200 behind to make him think I'm value betting. After a long dwell, he folds, I show him the 74offsuit, get a couple of laughs on the table and I can see he is tilted by this. I still can't figure out who's more retarded- Me for playing 74o in the way I did or him for folding on the river facing just a 3,400 bet into a 14k pot. Anyways a few hands later I take all his chips when I come over the top of his pre-flop raise and he pushes in the rest of his stack 5k, but his Jacks are no good against my Aces.

Peaking at 20k, this was unfortunately about as good as it ever got for me. I lost 8k when 83 beat my 99. I start making moves, some bluffs I show to the table as they are definitely playing back at me, re-raising my bets which is what I want them to do as I want to establish a loose image so I will be able to play my monster hands more aggressively and get maximum value out of them. My exit hand is just how I wanted it to be played. Blinds at 200-400, folded around to me on the button. I've 14k. I find QQ and raise to 1,300. This is a perfect situation; it looks like a steal when it really isn't. SB folds, BB is a solid player, he has caught me bluffing earlier. He's got about 16k. He re-raises to 5k. I think he thinks I’m at it so I’m more than happy to push here. His insta-call made me think he had either aces or kings. I was delighted to see AsKs, as my queens are a 55% favourite.

Flop: 2s5sJd Turn: 10s (BOLLOCKS!) River: Blank.

I’m sent tumbling out somewhere in the wilderness of 90^thish place out of 140 runners. I’m not too upset about my exit hand; I would gladly accept a race against AK with queens every time if my tournament life depended on it. At least I got the chips in good and that’s the very best I can do really.

I go downstairs to play Blackjack for a wee while, losing €60. Then I see a regular from my local game and he persuades me to play €20 rebuy Omaha/Hold’em ROE tournament. I am still getting to grips with Omaha but decide to play anyway for a laugh. I lose my starting stack and rebuy. I lose it again and I decide against another rebuy as I’m hopeless at Omaha. I see Julianne and Susan playing cash; I’ve €135 left so I put my name down on the waiting list for the 50NL game even though I know I struggle at cash games. I finally get a seat at around 11pm or so and lose half my money before doubling up with JJ.

I had meant to go home at 12pm but end up staying on, vowing to catch the next bus at 2.30am. But by that time I was still nursing a €135 stack but felt the game was so soft, it was only a matter of time before I could profit from it. There were some awful players who were spewing away money although there were a couple of players that I thought were handy so I avoided tangling with them unless it was necessary. So I abandon any plans to go home and make the most from a game in which I felt I had an edge. (That sounds egoistical but that’s not how I want to sound!) But anyway I eventually left at 7am cashing out with €810. I could have stayed on longer but I felt the tiredness kicking in as I had been in the casino since 2pm. It was a nice bit of a confidence booster but I'm not gonna fool myself into thinking that I’m suddenly shit hot at cash as I know there’s a lot of areas I need to work on!!

APAT here I come!

Tomorrow I’m playing in a poker tournament organised by the Amateur Poker Association Tour. They are very well known and their tournaments are supposed to be very well organised. When they announced their tournament in Dublin, the seats were sold out very quickly and I was lucky enough to secure one. Even luckier were Julianne, Frank and Tim who managed to get a seat later through the seat exchange where people were unable to make it and were selling their tickets.

I haven’t played a tournament with such a good structure and clock since the PartyPoker Irish Poker Championship in Galway at the start of 2008. Most of the €100 tournaments in Dublin have a 25 minute clock with 8k starting stack so the main reason why I’m looking forward to tomorrow’s tournament is because we get a 10k starting stack with a 40minute clock which is superb for only €96!!! As always with every time I enter a tournament, I hope to go deep and cash! But if I get knocked out-may it be early and not close to the bubble!! That would just annoy me!

APAT will be doing updates so keep an eye out for one of us!!! Hope one of us takes it down!

I’ve been playing online the last few days. God I totally suck at online poker. I don’t have any reads on players and also I think online poker favours the mathematical players of which I certainly am not! I really have to do something about my online game- it sucks so much it embarrasses me.

I’ve been trying to organise a sponsorship package for IDP, I’ve been emailing a few companies but the best deal offered so far has been Betway. I was lucky to meet a Betway representative in Gothenburg and I asked him if they would sponsor us. He got his UK based colleague to contact me and they offered a very nice deal. I don’t think the other companies I emailed will come up with a better deal so I hope to have the Betway deal wrapped up over the next week or two.

Gonna play the usual €20 satellite in CHL later. My usual friday tournament!

And I finally managed to put up a SHORT post! No rambling for today!!! :-)

Sweden trip report

FRIDAY:

Justin, Nico, Donal, Tim, Jason and myself flew out to Gothenburg for the weekend. We were going over there to play in a Deaf poker tournament as well as going for a massive drinking session. Upon touching down on the runway of Gothenburg airport, we remarked at how small the airport was! Then we stepped outside and it was really hot, we were all wearing jeans so we agreed that as soon as we arrived in the city, we would go shopping for shorts and t-shirts. After getting our shorts we arrived at the hostel, which was basic but very nice and clean. We then got changed into our shorts and t-shirts and went out walking through the city for a few drinks and dinner.

We meant to go back to get changed later for the night but we were enjoying drinking in the sun far too much. The streets of Gothenburg were full of beautiful women! There were so many of them!!! Later that evening we saw some Deaf people and went up to them. It figured that they were standing outside the Deaf club! We wanted to have a look inside at the poker tournament that was going on but were told we couldn’t, as it was full. But just as we were going to go to the pub next door, Richard from PTG told us that we could come in because we had flown all the way over from Ireland! Nice one! We went inside and it was packed! There must have been over 80

people in squeezed in one big room. I met Marcus and the other members of the PTG team who welcomed us. The Deaf club also sold beer, which was cheaper than in the pubs so we got a round in and started watching the tournament. The tournaments looked very good- every small detail was taken care of-the table numbers, the two decks of cards for each table and the poker clock program. They even had their own chips with their logo on it! They also had a casino table provided by their sponsors!

During the tournament the PTG team seemed very relaxed and experienced. Nothing seemed to faze them. We sat down on the couch behind the tables and watched the poker for a while. After about 15 minutes we agreed that the average PTG player is better than the average IDP player. PTG have been running since the last 3 years and have tournaments every 2 weeks so hopefully IDP will become like them! After a while it was proposed we play Omaha PL for 100SEK (€10) so we all played for a laugh. I of course got knocked out on the first hand when Tim got JJJJ!!

I then ordered a round of Jagemiester and couldn’t believe how cheap the shots were! €1.50 for a shot! CHEAPPPP!! Wooo hooo!!! All night long we started drinking Jago bombs (jagemiester with red bull) and it wasn’t long until we started to get drunk. After Richard had won the Omaha tournament, we said our goodbyes and went to the Dubliner pub. I don’t know how the bouncer let us all in, we were all wearing shorts and t-shirts. And we were all bloody drunk! Lol!! We started drinking more shots and beer. As the night went on, 4 of the boys wanted to go back to the hostel leaving Tim and me to carry on partying until closing time! Tim went back to the hostel at 6am; I didn’t get back till 9am. It was a very enjoyable day indeed!!! ;)

SATURDAY:

I woke up feeling like I was going to die of dehydration. I needed lucozade so badly. I have never ever had such a bad case of dehydration, felt so tired and thirsty! The boys were the same too but we forced ourselves to get dressed and walk down to the casino. The sun beating down on us didn’t help as we gasped for an energy drink. We finally arrived at the casino and it was really posh!!! Once we paid the 30SEK to enter, I just didn’t have the energy to gamble at blackjack so I just went straight to the poker room, got my seat number and sat down to rest myself. Each table had an interpreter sat beside the dealer, which was really good. I wondered how PTG could afford to pay them but I later found out that the government provided the interpreters! Pretty cool!!!

PTG OPEN:

The tournament kicked off with 117 runners, with a 30minute clock with a 3k starting stack. I emailed Marcus the week before to ask if they could change the blind structure and the starting stack but it was out of his hands as it was the casino that decided it. I realised it was going to be very important to accumulate chips as early as possible. Tim, Jason and Justin were at the same table as each other and Donal and Nico shared the same table as well! I was the only Irish player at my table thank god. At my table I had Marcus sat to my left. The rest of the table I didn’t have a clue who they were. Within 10 minutes, I recognised that the old man two seats to my right was a fish. He had no concept of position and bet sizing. The same went for the Norwegian man who didn’t know what he was doing. In seat 2, there was Niklas who was a LAG and the table captain. Marcus, Johnny and the blonde girl fell into the TAG category. The rest I didn’t really think much of.

DISASTROUS START

I got off to a terrible start when the blinds were 50/100. Nicolas raised 300 from UTG, folded around to me on the button with 99. I flat call because I think he has suited connectors like AJ, AQ. Flop comes down 5610 rainbow. Nicolas bets out 300, I think he missed the flop and so I raise to 750. He calls. We check down the turn and river, he shows 10d9d to take the pot and I’m left with 1950, which looks bad as the blinds are going up to 100/200 in 10minutes. I get a probe bet re-raised by Marcus and I am down to 1600! I look around at the Irish boys, Jason & Tim have got around 15k, Justin’s on 3k, Nico and Donal are on 4k! Shit!! I don’t want to be first out! Lol!!

LUCK OF THE IRISH

I decide I have only two moves- All In/Fold when this hand happens at 100/200. I’m on the BB with 103o, gets two limpers. Flop comes down 1026 with two clubs. I look at the pot, its 700. I’ve only got 1500. I push in the dark hoping that no one hit the flop. The UTG+1 pushes as well and Johnny in CO+1 calls. I’m gutted, as I know I have to be behind so I get up to leave. UTG+1 shows Qh10h, Johnny shows Ac9c for a nut flush draw. My heart sinks because I know I’m practically dead and buried. The turn brings a 10 but I’m still behind as the UTG+1 has a better kicker. The river brings a 2 to give us both a full house. I breathe a sigh of relief and tell myself “you lucky bollix”. I am now nursing a 2k stack and don’t really do much until after the break when I am moved to a different table. The blinds were really hard to beat so I kept playing “All-In” or “fold”. I was short-stacked for about 4 hours, never above 10BB when this hand happens on another table I got moved to.

I don’t remember what blind level it was at, but there were a lot of short stacks at this stage because the blinds levels were too harsh. I picked up A8o on the button as the cards were being dealt and thought to myself “crap hand, I’m gonna fold this”. UTG who was the chip leader raised 3xBB, MP pushed. Then MP+1 pushed as well. I looked at the size of the pot and suddenly I was overcome with a premonition that I was going to scoop it. I cannot explain the feeling; it was like an overwhelming hunch. Another short stack in LP pushed as well and the pot was massive and the premonition was really really strong so I just thought “ Fuck it, this is the kind of pot I am going to need to win if I am going to stay in the tournament. If I’m gonna get knocked out, I rather get knocked out now than on the bubble” and found myself pushing even though I knew my ace was already dominated. The UTG was clearly not expecting 4 shorties to push and started to dwell. It became clear that he had a monster. I didn’t want him to call so I started trash-talking him to put him off calling. He eventually folded KK!!!!!!!!!! Against 4 short stacks whose ranges are so wide, that fold beggars belief! The 3 guys flipped over Ad10d, 99, KJo. Flop comes down 1056, turn 9 (cue brief cries of joy from the 99guy) and the river brings a glorious 7 to give me a runner-runner straight. Even though there were still around 30 players left, I get really confident about my chances of cashing as I’ve finally got a playable stack after playing ninja poker for the last 4/5 hours. At this stage Jason, Donal and Nico had been busted and were railing me, Justin and Tim who were playing together at the other table. Tim got busted about 30 minutes later and Justin was still short-stacked but was playing well stealing blinds and pushing in profitable spots.

GETTING TO THE FINAL TABLE

Soon 30 became 20 and two tables were formed with Justin on the other one. I really start to go card-dead and resisting steals was hard to do as there was always a danger a shortie would push and leave me little room to manoeuvre. The casino’s blind structure was not great as everyone’s stacks were shallow. If it weren’t for the big pot I had scooped earlier, I probably would have struggled really badly here. But I allowed my stack to be blinded away as we quickly approached the bubble. Justin unfortunately went out in 12^th place, 2 places away from the money and the bubble burst soon after and the final table was formed. I was the shortest stack on it- I only had 7BB. I wanted to give myself the best chance of cashing as much as I could so I decided to steal the blinds every two orbits with air if necessary. They managed to get through to give me a lifeline, as 10 players quickly became 6. I noticed the blinds were doubling yet again and asked for the previous level to be repeated because the average stack at the table was less than 15BB but the language barrier meant that I was coming across wrong and got treated like I was moaning. It also didn’t help that I was the short stack, which made it looked like I was only trying to save my own skin. There were other guys who were spewing away their chips and looked like they would be knocked out by the bigger stacks if they didn’t play more tactically, but I was still really struggling and became a bit tighter because I wanted to hang in there and hope these guys would be knocked out to allow me to finish higher up the money. My stack dwindled desperately down to 4BB and then the most beautiful sight greeted me- AA. I pushed and got called by the SB with Jh8h. The aces held and I doubled up to 8BB, which was still not enough. The very next hand a guy pushes from EP and I find AKo and call. My AK is good over his KQo and I now have 12BB. Buoyed by this, I start making moves and get my stack up to 15BB with steals. Soon there were only 3 of us left. We take a break and I have a word with the casino staff about the clock, as the blinds were about to jump from 5,000/10,000 to 10,000/20,000 when the average stack was about 150,000!!! They agree to freeze the 5,000/10,000 level, which buys me some time, as I’m short stacked with 60k and in the BB. I push with 10s9c and take the pot. The two other players have way more than me. I push again the next hand with Jd8d and get no callers. Then I push again for the third time in a row with Qh9d and get called with QcJc and I’m dominated. I pray for a 9 to hit the flop. It doesn’t but the flop brings two diamonds, the turn another diamond. I’m on a runner-runner flush draw but I turn around and face the Irish guys, as I don’t want to look at the river while it’s being dealt. I know by the look on their faces the river was a blank and I’m sent tumbling out in 3^rd place for 7,000SEK, which was over €750. When I told some Swedish people I would like to give some of my winnings as a tip for the dealers, the general feedback I got was that it wasn’t common to tip the dealer in Sweden which I found a bit strange, as in Ireland you are expected to tip the dealer after getting a prize.Anyways the two guys later chop the prize even though the old guy had a 2:1 chip-lead. He was given the official finish of 1^st place. I was exhausted and still dehydrated but I was glad I managed to get as far as I did in 3rd place as I got off to a terrible start. I felt it was a pity that the blind structure was harsh which saw the luck factor increased and play a big part in this tournament but that’s a matter for the Casino. The PTG team put on a great weekend and provided a well-organised weekend. After the tournament we all went back to the Deaf club where there were poker tournaments going on. I didn’t play in them, as I preferred to chat with Deaf people. I met Kristain, the Deaf guy who won a pot against “rainman” Khan in the WSOP with KK. He was pretty cool. The four lads played poker while me and Tim stayed for about an hour or two before leaving to go to a nightclub. It was pretty quiet night compared to the night before!!

SUNDAY

We just spent the day walking around Gothenburg city, going into shops and pubs, and basically chilling out. The evening was pretty quiet because most people were back to work the next day. We drank until closing time and went back to our hostel to get a good night’s sleep as we had to be up early to catch the flight home. It was a weekend I really enjoyed, the Swedish people are really cool and easy to talk to. Poker was great fun; my weekend didn’t cost me anything as my winnings paid for everything! :-)

POKER THIS WEEKEND

Have got a ticket for the APAT championship in Dublin for €96. The blind structure and clock is really beautiful so I hope to go deep in this. I also might play a CHL satellite tournament tonight for the Waterford Open, which is taking place at the weekend too. So if I get a ticket for the Waterford Open, I’ll sell my APAT ticket and play in the Waterford Open, as it’s a bigger tournament.

Another long post.. 100% poker!

Report 3rd May-I' m happy to report that the Irish Open Deaf Poker Championship was a great success!!! But the preparation and the aftermath of the Irish Open Deaf Poker Championship was stressful, sometimes I felt like banging my head off the wall especially when it came to arranging the return of equipment to Paddy Power. I felt it would be a better idea to have it in a casino the next time. Save more money that way anyways. The tournament itself was great fun, I was busy playing/worrying about everything but it was great to see everyone enjoy themselves. I wasn’t really looking forward to playing in the tournament itself but the usual bad standard was even worse because our players didn’t wanna get knocked out of the biggest tournament we have hosted to date. But I wasn’t complaining as I went into super-aggro style and hovered up the chips. I always wished I could understand the general banter in casinos/pubs as most of the time they seem to be having a good craic, so this time it was great having no communication issues with the table on this occasion and I made the most of it by trash talking most of the time which was pretty funny. Key hand for me was when I was chip leader at a table when I wake up and find KK, make a huge raise cos there were 4 limpers in the pot. Only one of them folds and the pot is now worth more than what I had behind. Flop comes down pretty shitty 599rainbow, gets checked to me and I push and get called by Nick O’Halloran with A9. I lose the head and tell him what a bad and risky pre-flop call it was to make when he had a comfortable chip count (he was 2^nd chip leader) and he rubs it in my face smirking “But I won the pot” without any concept for overall expected value. With 5 BB left, I push with k8 suited and get a call from Stuart who dominates me with k10 and I’m out of the championship that I organised when the I get no help from the board. But thankfully some donkey didn’t win the whole thing. While the final table consisted of some really dodgy players, thankfully the title was contested between two good players in Julianne and Keenan, with Keenan coming out on top to win €920.

Report-10th May &17th May:: The following Saturday I played in the €55 DC in CHL. Even though I got off to a great start when I flopped a full house and was stacked by someone holding trips, I spewed it all over the place like some donkey calling in bad spots and being too overly aggro. I had been meaning to go back to reading strats and theory but didn’t and after that night feeling disappointed in myself, I decided to go on an undefined break and spent every night of the week reading strats online. The break was going well until last Friday when after working late at work, I was walking to my bus-stop and went by CHL but found the temptation to play in the €20 satellite far too tempting and went inside and only found 5 players playing with three tickets guaranteed!! It was great value and I got off to a brilliant start when I managed to get it in with quads against a full house! Lol!! We got down to four players and then all of a sudden a heated exchange of words breaks out between Mick and Declan who were sitting shoulder to shoulder with each other. I dunno what exactly was said but Mick was obviously annoyed cos he invited Declan to step outside and sort it out lol. Eventually the others calmed them both down and Mick had the satisfaction of busting Declan when his AK was too good over A8. I was really pleased to get a ticket worth €115 for the handsome sum of €20!

The €115 freezeout was really enjoyable. I had two really good players at my table, Mick and Conor (Lazare on boards). Mick kept using the stop & go tactic against me while Conor had a good read on me, often 3betting my pre-flop raises. So I tried to stay out of their way and pick up the small pots but my stack wasn’t increasing fast enough in proportion with the blinds so I had to get into pots with these two. I had to counter-act them so I started 4-betting Conor and calling Mick’s flop bets and pushing him off on the turn, a lot of the time with air which was a bit hairy for me. There were two major hands in the tournament that were significant to me. I had about 9k with blinds at 300-600, folded around to me on the button, I find KQo and raise to 1.4k, happy to take down the pot there and then. But Conor on the small blind, re-raises to 3k-I don’t like this but then the BB pushes his short stack of 5k in. It’s obvious what the BB is at but I’m glad he pushed as it makes my hand looks stronger than it does and I go all in myself. Conor dwells up as calling would take a massive chunk out of his stack but eventually he does and tables 66 whilst the BB tables 55. I got a beautiful king on the flop and the turn and river is a blank for the boys and my chip lead is boosted to 23k. Three hands later I tangle with Mick who I have just about covered. I limp in from CO with K10 suited. Mick raises on the BB and I call. The flop brings AK5 rainbow. Mick insta-bets. I know instantly from the bet size that he doesn’t have the Ace but I cannot afford to raise with ten as my kicker so I flat call. Turn comes 5. This is a great card for me. Mick puts out a small bet, he doesn’t exactly look that confident so I ask how much he has behind “About 10k”. I figure if I come over the top, he’ll fold. I want him to go all in so I flat call again. River gives a harmless looking 2 but Mick pauses before going all in. I don’t like his body language now, he looks very assured and instead of insta-calling, I stopped to ask myself if he would be mad enough to raise with X5 preflop? Or would he really play Ace rag this way? I wrack my brains as to why his body language changed on the river, it takes me about 4 minutes to decide. The only two things that swayed my original plan was Mick’s body language and my gut instinct. I folded showing my king and said “if you’re bluffing, by god it’s an excellent bluff”. He tabled 43 offsuit, the cheeky bollix was betting with air and got lucky on the river to give him the straight. I never entertained the idea that he had 43. Folding on the river on a pot of that size is generally a mistake but trusting my instinct turned out to be the right move although I did feel tilted that the play didn’t turn out how I wanted it to. Just as well for him the river gave him the gutshot straight. I was immediately back to where I was three hands ago and with the blinds going up and the final table being formed, I was pretty much amongst shorties. I didn’t wanna play tight until the bubble burst so I just went into aggro mode and got busted when a steal went wrong and ran into a pair of aces. Win some, lose some I guess!!

23rd May: A week later I played in the €30 FO in the Fitzwilliam on the Sunday after watching Leeds lose their playoff final 1-0 to Doncaster which was sickening. The prospect of League one football next season is depressing! Anyway The Fitzwilliam really impressed me, the place is big and feels like a proper card club. There were over 60 runners there but the standard was woeful and I quickly amassed a very healthy chip lead and got to the final table with Tim. Long story cut short, I pushed with KK and got called by some fool with A10 who of course spiked an ace on the flop to leave me gasping for breath with 4BB, which I push on the next hand with KQo and get called with JJ. No help from the board and I’m out in 8^th place for €50. Lol donkaments!

3rd June: Am writing a report about Sweden-will post it up within the next few days.