Online Poker - Making the adjustment to 6-max 50NL
As of my last post, I have dropped from 100NL 8-max to 50NL and exclusively played 6-max online and have developed a style that is shaping to be boarding on the line of LAG/self-destructive. I have tried to work on reducing my passiveness pre-flop and my positional play, I think so far these aspects are certainly getting better but in I'm starting to get a bit risqué with the aggressiveness so I'm going to have to work on my reducing V$IP and using the the aggressiveness more selectively. Nonetheless it's far far too early, as I’ve played less than 1k of hands so it’ll take a bigger sample of my stats to analyse the weaknesses in my 6-max game
International Poker Open 17-19th October
Having slept for way too long, I woke up on the Saturday to realise it was almost 1pm and with the tournament due to kick off at 2pm. I rushed out of the house without any food but managed to arrive at the Regency hotel just a couple of minutes before the cards went up on the air. There were a few faces I recognised out of the 650 odd people that were playing Day 1b, but there were no familiar faces at my table.
The standard of play at my table was passive so I quickly got stuck in with the raises to accumulate chips as early as possible. The only player I felt that was capable of playing back at me was Martin, who I think was the only Irish person at my table as the French came over to Dublin in their droves. Fortunately for me, I had immediate position on him, which was a massive advantage. I liked one hand, which he set up a trap in which I dodged only because of something he had said beforehand. I had raised from all spots in position whenever it was limped around to me. Martin had previously limped several times into me only to get raised. He mutters something about the “others waiting for me” or something like that. So a few hands later, I'm on the button, blinds are 50-100 and I get dealt A10suited. Two people limp into the pot and Martin limps in from CO. I would have raised since I was raising with ATC in position but Martin limping in from that position after that comment I found his limp odd so I folded. As it turned out he flopped a set of nines but got no callers to his bet. Nothing very special about that hand I'm sure you'll agree, it was this hand and the way he played that made me rate him because he was the only one that was really observant and conscious of image. As it turned out I had 19k going into the first break when the average was about 11k. But I lost half of it after I had been dealt 99. EP raises 650, folded around to me in CO+1 I re-raised to 1,800 with 99. EP calls. Flop comes down J67. He checks and I pushed and he snap-called with KJ offsuit. We're both retarded here I think. Pre-flop him calling off 20% of his stack with KJo out of position, post flop I'm retarded for pushing with 99 when I think I should have just bet a wee bit over half the pot and get away from it when he calls or pushes. A couple of levels later, I get dealt 87d and a woman who has just been moved to our table makes it 1,000 to go from EP. I call from CO+1, as does the button and the BB. Pot is now worth 4k and I've only 8k behind. Flop comes down Jd9d4h. The woman bets out 4k and with a straight flush draw, I push and the rest fold and she calls with AA. I miss my 12 outs on the turn and river to see an end to my brief run in the International Poker Open.
I thoroughly enjoyed the tournament. My only gripe that the temperatures kept fluctuating to make me nauseous as the room was really hot but my table was by the door to the smoking area so a draught of coldness would sweep by every time someone went out for a smoke. But nonetheless, I thought that Pokerireland.ie had the tournament very well set up and it was great value with 20k added to the prizepool by the Boylepoker the sponsors. I'll probably play again next year barring unforeseen circumstances!
IDP deepstack weekend
Friday
After several months of planning and promoting our weekend, our deepstack weekend got underway on Friday evening. We had bought three tables but word was that there would be a good number of new Irish players turning up at the Deaf club so we ordered two more tables in desperation on the Friday morning and the website owner was able to deliver them by the evening before the poker night! Just as well as 5 tables proved to be not enough because we had to set up an extra two more as the Swedes, Finnish, British and of course the Irish arrived throughout the night. The games on offer were Sit & Go's that varied from €10 to €30. The IDP team didn't play in any of them as we were all very busy but as the night went on and things quietened down, we temporarily relived ourselves of our duties every now and again to indulge in Heads Up games. I only played the one game against Gerry Grehan for €40 and took it down within 5 mins when my JJ held up against his 55. I can't really recollect everything as it was busy for us all, but at the end of the night I felt extremely satisfied and pleased with how the night went without any hitches. It was a defining moment for the IDP team as we all worked in tandem and I felt that they were superb. After the poker, we all went to the pub afterwards and just got drunk in Quinn's pub! I just can't get enough of their cold bottles of Stella Artois!
Saturday
The following morning, with a hangover in tow I got out of bed and got the bus to meet the Swedes at their hotel only to arrive to find that they had already left to go to the Fitz. I get there to see a deaf cash game going so I sit down and make €90 before we all had to go upstairs to play the tournament. At my table I arrive to find that to my left was Niklas Wanjura and to my right was David Johnsson, both of whom I have played before in Gothenburg. (Niklas was at my first table and I later joined him at the final table with David). So I was sandwiched between two good players and the fact Niklas had immediate position on me was far from ideal.
Play began and it was as passive as I expected it to be, for Deaf people love to call and see the flop so I went into aggressive mode to try and get as many chips as quickly as possible to be absorb any sick beats that I thought I would receive at the later stages. Little did I know I wouldn't get remotely as far as I thought I would. Da
vid Johnsson made an early exit when he pushed with AJ on a Jxx board but Magnus had JJ for a set. So I felt a bit more comfortable with David gone but still had to contend with Niklas who counter-acted my raises successfully whenever he did. To cut a long story short, I got up to 13.5k before going down to 6k on a stone-cold bluff against a Swede holding a full house. Then I get back up to 13.5k again by being aggressive in position. Then during the 100/200 level (I think), I find AJ offsuit and make a raise of 875 and get called by Larry White in the SB. Flop comes out KQx and he check-calls my 1,200 bet. Turn is another X, and again he checks-calls my 2,450 bet. River is another blank and Larry again checks. I can't check here and give up the pot so I look at Larry's stack and he has only 5 or 6k behind so I bet out 4k. He calls and shows 44 to win a big pot. I regrettably ask him angrily “44?!” and go on tilt. About 5 minutes later with 7k behind, I find KJ and make the standard raise from MP. I get re-raised by Magnus who has proved very solid and has impressed with his play. I very reluctantly call his raise, basically blindly hoping there was a K or J on the flop, which was stupid now that I come to think of it. I miss the flop and I check and he bets out 2k. I really hate this spot I've gotten myself into. I go all in after thinking about it quickly and after a couple of seconds he calls, correctly putting me on picture cards. He has 88 so I’ve still got live cards, however the 8 on the turn seals my fate and I'm out.At the time I was pissed off with the 44 hand, for it really put me on tilt and I never got over it, but now as I'm typing this I think I played the hand badly too. As impossible as it was to put a player like Larry on a hand, he could have had a K or Q so I can't go criticising his play before criticising mine. It was reckless and against a calling station, I should have slowed down on the turn and river instead of firing bets at every street. So I need to take a good long hard look at myself and stop going into cash-mode during tournaments.
Anyway Henry McDougall went on to take the tournament down, winning €1,300 which was a fantastic win for him as he had won his deepstack ticket in our private tournament when I gave away the ticket that I had won in our freeroll. On the other hand, the first person to exit the tournament, Stefan Weitmann went downstairs to the blackjack tables and played €1/2 PL and left the casino with a €1,500 profit so it goes to show that contrary to popular thinking amongst the deaf community, an early tournament exit doesn't necessarily make one a bad poker player,
My next live tournament will be in Stockholm. I'm really looking forward to the weekend away and catching up with the Swedes but the tournament will be as tough as it was in Gothenburg, not because of the standard of players but because of the blind structure and starting stack. So in order to do well, I need a lot of luck just like I had in Gothenburg but if I must get knocked out, I pray that it will be early and not late so that I can perform like Stefan Weitmann at the cash tables and make a nice profit!
