Vegas Ahoy!

It's quite early in the year to be thinking of the 2008 WSOP (July), but various qualification routes are already in progress.

At the beginning of January, I didn't yet realise that I was going to be physically able to go to Vegas this year (back then, annual leave was a key factor). However, Gutshot started running a $5 rebuy daily, as a satellite into a monthly final. The final would produce a main event package.

Well, $5 ? Hard not to. So on January 2nd, I duly entered and $15 later (2 rebuys, no add-on) I had my ticket to the 31st January final and pretty much forgot about it.

However, when 31st January came around, the context had altered a little. I had just handed in my notice at work so, all of a sudden, the thought of winning a package to Vegas was quite interesting. Add to that the fact that a lot of the 40 runners were personally known to me from the gutshot club and forum, and I really wanted to do well.

I checked the structure: 3,000 chips, 15minute levels, 10/20 starting blinds - in internet terms, a deep-stack event. Proper poker.

So, I resolved to play really tight poker, and I did. Fold after fold. Raise / re-raise / fold. Etc. Down to 2,075 chips, and the field had only thinned to about 31 players with over an hour gone.

Now, a hand. AK on the big blind. One MP limper for 150. SB raised to 650. Result. I re-raised all in and, after a dwell, the SB eventually called with AQ ! Can't ask for more than that - the AK held and I now had a little more than average for the first time in the event.

Next hand. JJ on the small blind !! Fantastic. Folded to me, I make it 400. The BB is short-stacked himself having been playing a tight game like me. He has 2,100 total and moves all-in. Sigh. Well, what am I supposed to do ? I couldn't think about it for too long as the time-bank on my software was broken (no idea why !) and I pretty much insta-called anyway.

KQ-clubs for him. That's about as 50/50 as it comes. The flop was all low with no clubs. Looking good, but the turn brings a King. I'm right back to where I was !

Shortly afterwards, I had my luckiest break. Folded to me in the SB. I have J5o. The BB has been really passive so I think I'll take a liberty of calling to see if I hit. I hit. J82 flop. I check, intending to check-raise. He bets, I check-raise all-in and he insta-calls. He has J2 !!

Oh dear. Well, I hit my kicker on the turn and I'm back in the game. After that, I did hit a run of cards (picking up KK on at least 3 occasions). I move steadily up the leaderboard and once I hit the chip lead I become very aggressive - raising nearly every pot pre-flop if folded to me.

I varied my raises a little, but basically I let position be the indicator rather than the cards, so I was making the same raise with KK as with T8o. For the most part, the others let me take it down and I just added steadily to my stack. If re-raised, I laid it down. If called, I bet nearly every flop.

It worked really well. At one stage on the final table, I did lose three reasonable pots in a row and fell back to the middle of the pack, but I still had about average chips and an adequate M (with the slow structure) so I ground it back up without too much opposition.

Heads-up, I started with about a 7/4 chip-lead and continued the aggressive strategy. It became apparent my opponent would see a reasonable number of flops but not continue without a piece of it. So, for the most part, it was easy to know where I was.

I did drop a couple of large pots including one where I started with AK and he with 59o. I raised pf and was called. I bet the 234-flop and was called. Ace on the turn. I checked / checked behind. River 3. I bet, he raised. I called and was shown the straight.

I did drop out of the chip lead briefly after that hand, but carried on with the same style until the lead was restored. I was about a 2/1 leader when the last hand came.

I had AQ. I raised. He re-raised, and I called. Q-3-2 flop with two hearts. I bet. He raised. I re-raised all in and He called with A3 (there was a three on board) and no flush draw. My hand stood up.

Fantastic ! It was a small field of 40, but it still had to be won. I was absolutely delighted to be the first to be on the Team Gutshot roster for Vegas 2008. Hopefully there may be as many as 30 or 40 of us eventually.

Last year, when I went out independently, I still wore the Team Gutshot colours but it means a lot to me to be a bona-fide member of The Only Real Team in Poker.

Big Deal

Here's a highly relevant piece of news from the home/poker overlap.

After 19 years in the financial markets, including 13 years at my current employer, I have decided that it's time to take a total change of direction. I have resigned "to pursue my interests in poker". In the short term, this will mean spending time at home with the family and playing poker !

The usual way that an amateur player decides to give up his job to play poker is that he's been playing and winning for years (maybe decades) and is now finding that he makes more from playing poker than the day job. He considers carefully, and eventually takes a big step into the unknown.

Well, in my case, I can say that I have considered carefully but apart from that I don't have too much in common with the paradigm. I've been playing for only 2-3 years and I'm a pretty average player (which means I am also a steady loser). In any event, even if I were winning, it would be fanciful to think I could win more than I can earn in the financial industry.

Nevertheless, for me, it's the right decision.

In the very short term, I have actually been playing less poker. I haven't played online at all since I resigned because I want to get myself organized. I also would like to start off winning so I want to be in the right frame of mind. I might not play at all until I have actually finished working my notice etc.

Once I am a free agent, of course I will be playing online and I will take a look to see which live events I should play. GPT or GUKPT events or other UK/Ireland festivals are an obvious choice. EPT also, possibly. There's so much choice these days that just choosing may be a difficulty !

Round Up

What's been happening ....

- Sky Poker: I'm well and truly bored of it, despite the fact that I haven't even played that much. I suppose if they worked on the speed, and it remained equally fishy, then it would represent good "value". For the moment, however, I'm finding the frustration factor is overwhelming. I should just cash out my remaining balance, but I'm a little bit tempted to first try throwing it all-in in a last attempt to double-up-quick!

- Party Poker UK Open: this is a TV event that is filming at the moment. I mention it because I played in a one-table live satellite to win a seat (it's a $7,000 buy-in). It was fun. I busted one player by turning 2-pair (Jacks & Tens), which was good for the chip lead, but then went on a downward spiral after I got involved with AK-suited vs. pocket Kings. You can read about that hand on the gutshot forum, here.

Obviously I still had chips after losing the hand, but it marked a bit of a turning point and I never threatened after that. Good luck to Piers who won the seat, and will be in action tomorrow (3rd Feb). I am not sure when it airs on TV, but I'll try to catch it.

- Omaha: I can't remember whether it was a New Year's resolution of mine not to play Omaha, but it should have been. I probably lost more money playing the four-card game last year than at Hold'em, even though I played it hardly at all. At the Gutshot, there is usually a game on a Wednesday and I will often go for the £75 Freezeout on that day. So, there is always the temptation to get dragged into the Omaha game. There are many good things about it - the table is usually filled with familiar "faces", and it's generally played in a great spirit.

Well, one recent Wednesday, Derek Kelly was over from Dublin. He loves his Omaha and, of course, he was able to persuade me to play. The good thing is that I played much, much better than previously. I know this because I did not lose all my money in 20 minutes. Instead it took me hours to lose all my money. In fact, I didn't even lose it all which is a new experience for me where Omaha is concerned.

The bad news is that I have picked up a basic level of competency at the game now. That means I am not misreading my hand, or throwing away the nuts by mistake. It doesn't mean I'm actually any good! I fear, though, that I may have played enough now that I can't exist on 2-card poker alone.

Poker bunker: I've known about this venue on Canary Wharf for a while but never visited. Nik Persaud was hosting an "Academy" there on a recent Monday night, so I went along to congratulate him on his recent 6th place in GUKPT Brighton, and to soak up the wisdom. Sit-n-Go strategy was the topic, and after watching Nik play and commentate on a Pokerstars one-table SnG, I went home and won three out of three myself ..... the power of education !

100% on Tilt

Full Tilt, that is. Well, not quite 100%, but let me explain.

I have had a Full Tilt account for a while, but literally never used it. However, I have a backing arrangement with a player who grinds away at the tournaments on FT so I have some kind of interest in it. And, I thought, why not give it a spin. So, I deposited and had a quick look around for something cheap and quick to play.

I alighted on a 45seat $10+1 SNG. I play that format on Stars and quite like it. Well, to cut a long story short, I won it. QQ vs JTo in the last hand. One big difference to the events I often play on Stars was the pace -- I'm used to the 5minute turbo blinds. It was more like proper poker and I don't know if it was a coincidence that I did well, but I'm not arguing.

So - 100% win record ! Obviously I thought of cashing out and never playing again, but I have played 3 more: a $2+0.25 180seat SNG, another 45seat $10+1 and also an MTT $24+2.

In the 45seat, my AA was cracked by KJ in a raised pot. He flopped two pair and I could not get away from it on the KJ2 flop (2clubs). In the $24+2, I got off to a strong start -- I picked up some good hands and they stood up, but most importantly the other players just seemed to want to stick their chips in when miles behind on the flop. Weird. In that one, I eventually bubbled (well, 126th/1129 with 108 to pay). I got it aipf with 88 vs AA. I was making a move on an EP raiser. Perhaps should have waited till the bubble burst.

In the $2, I won it ! What impressed me was how seriously they all took it - it lasted hours and the play was all pretty sensible. With about 4 left, I had a HUGE lead 2/3rd of all the chips), but the micro stack with < 2k chips got back to over 100k and would have taken it down had I not won a race with AKs vs 33. Anyway, even though it was only $97, I was delighted to win.

So - in 100% of FT events I either won it or went out holding or facing AA. 1000% ROI or something silly. 50% ITMF. Well, we know this cannot last but I have a clean track record on FT so I will try to keep it like that - my mission must be never to reload!

Tournament Rollercoaster

I thought I might get a chance to report on a real "chip and a chair" story. Alas it became more on an "ashes to ashes" tale.

I was playing the "Nightly Hundred Grand" on pokerstars: $10+1 to enter. Twenty thousand runners (!). $20k first prize (pretty impressive for $11 investment). Top 3,000 places pay.

I think in this type of event, super-tight hand selection is the way to go and then you have to be prepared to go all the way with your strong hands.

So it was that I hadn't been involved in many hands, when I picked up KK in UTG+2. The player to my right limped, and I raised to 800 (blinds 100/200). Flop came out all low. He checked, and I bet 1,200. He raised all-in and I called for only 565 more.

He showed AQ with no flush draw. I was a bit surprised, but looking forward to raking in the pot when, of course, an Ace fell on the river and left me with only 220 chips. Not only that, but the blinds were up this hand to 300/600 with a 25 ante !

But, all was not lost: I had ATo in that very next hand - good enough to throw it in with. 5 people saw a cheap flop, which was 10-high. I quintupled up to 1,155.

On the next hand, I had QQ UTG but folded by mistake (oops) !!

Next hand: A2s on the big-blind. I got it all in vs TT and rivered the Ace myself this time (against that same player who cracked my Kings).

Next: AK vs AK (chop) and then AQ vs 22. From 195 chips I now had 5,596 !

I folded AJ on the big blind in the face of an all-in from mid-position and THEN I picked up AA. Before me there was a raise from a short stack and a re-raise all in from another short stack. I re-raised and us three saw the flop. The other hands were J9o and KTs. Board 56K. Still winning. Turn T (losing, but got outs). River Q - I finished in third place in the hand !

If my Aces had held up I'd have been back above average but instead, after that hit and with the blinds as they were, I soon pushed with A6 and lost to AJ to finish about 7,000th.

I guess in such a large field, even this amazing ride in the space of just 20 hands may not even be all that remarkable !

The sky is falling

Bit of an update on the skypoker situation. Not entirely surprisingly, in pursuit of a rapid multiple spin-up I have given back my gains. As anticipated, this is because I tried to short-cut the process. I feel highly confident that a patient approach would be a sure-fire winner.

I have discovered one new problem. Because the standard of play is so bad, one finds oneself starting to play badly oneself, especially in respect of playing poor hole cards and chasing draws.

The right approach, clearly, is to stick to patient, sound poker and then - surely - it's just a matter of time for the money to roll in. The problem with that is two-fold. Firstly, as we said, the play is really slow which makes it more difficult to be patient. Secondly, I find playing with such bad players rather corrosive so I'm not sure I really want to stick around on the site even if I'm right that it is a winning proposition.

On the other hand, as I am saying it is such easy money, I feel obliged to show a profit before moving on. I guess I'll probably settle for banking a small profit and then leave well alone.

Sky's Not The Limit

I have no intention of scouring the whole internet for the best or most interesting "deals" out there - there just is not enough time. Even as it is, I reckon I only would have time to actively play on one or two sites.

However, I was reading some really bad comments about skypoker.com. The people complaining about it were vociferous in their complaints about the terrible players and the horrendous outdraws, and so on.

Obviously this sort of moaning goes on all the time. I am a devout non-skeptic, so I don't pay the slightest attention to any claims that such-and-such a site is fixed etc. What caught my attention was that if the play was as bad as the posters said, then surely there had to be value.

So, I thought ... let's have a little look. The sign up process was very slick, I must say. The GUI itself isn't too bad either. The players on the site are absolutely horrendous like you just can't believe.

I have never really gone in for trying to select sites for their bad players, because I assumed that differences would tend to be competed away. But to say "soft as butter" would be a woeful understatement. The poker use of the term "ATM" would be aptly applied here.

I virtually tripled my buy-in in the space of an hour.

There is one big problem. The gameplay on the site is unbelievably slow. On a 6-handed NLH table, the hand rate is 8 - 10 hands per hour !! That is half the speed of a self-dealt live cash table. It is 5 - 10 times slower than I'm used to in online poker. It's a crushingly boring pace.

The fact that it is almost impossible not to make money is some considerable compensation but I'm not sure I will be able to stand playing there for long.

We'll see. One secondary problem is that now I would be terribly ashamed to lose money there. I could imagine how this would happen, though. I would notice that it's so incredibly soft that I'd want to take as much cash out as possible, as quickly as possible and start playing bigger limits to speed up the process. This is especially likely you happen because of the slow pace - it makes you want to find ways to accelerate the game.

Then, your standard poker variance can kick in and wipe me out. Of course, if we believe the detractors, then the site is bent as a coathanger and in that case I will be even more likely to go bust (cash-out curse) I can't imagine re-loading if this did happen !

I'll let you know ....