Winning and Hairy Gymnasts Play Football

Had a great night at the tables last night, ending up almost 3 x buys in up and added another 62$ to the BR. These success were mainly down to 2 hands, one where I got very unlucky, then lucky, and the other where a great read and notes on an opponent paid off.

First up dealt AA and a 4 x bb raise in front of me. I re-raised to the max (Pot Limit table) and he called. Rainbow flop of Q 2 7, my opponent bets 3$ so I pushed all in. Opponent thinks for the maximum time, then calls. My AA is shown, and he has Kc Qc. My head hit my hands as another Q hit the turn, but then I look up and see the A on the river and I double up.

Few hands later a new player joins the table. I’ve played with this guy before and have quite a lot of notes on him, especially his playing of low pocket pairs. He raises before me and I’m on the button with 10 10. Reading his notes, the amount of his raise is pretty standard for indicating he has a low pocket pair. I re-raise him and he flat calls.
Flop was 8 9 2 and he bets half the pot. I think about this for a while, notes are great for getting a feel for how players play, but even bad players get good hands, and they may not think about how other players have picked up on their habits. So, my notes suggest low pair, and I’m pretty sure I’ve got him beat, but notes are a guide, not a statement of fact. Also, his low pair may have been 2s or 8s, but my notes show he check raises a flopped set, so I was pretty sure he put me on an AK type hand.

I decide to put him all in here, and he thinks for a while before calling and turning over 3 3. No one improves and my tens take down the pot and another buy in up! Played on for a little longer, lost a medium pot so after checking and seeing my BR was up 172$, decided to call it a night.

Hopefully this is the beginning of a good run, and the dark months of the year so far are right behind me. No further commenting on the United game, they were crap, I’m depressed and I’ll bet a team of hairy gymnasts would have put up more of a fight than we did. That would be an intersting concept, and I can already see the newspaper stories:

'Team of Hairy Gymnasts get to Champions League Semi-Final'
Fan Club President Nick 'The Cloud' Cantwell said he was delighted with the team and had worked hard to get them recognised nationally with an online PR campiagn, which resulted in their qualification to the Champions League this season. Although they knocked out Spurs in the Quarter finals, a team he has supported since he was a boy, he was still full of pride in his team.
'This makes life worthwhile' he said, putting on his kagoul.

Now, that was believable until the Spurs bit.

Just read Clouds blog and he has put a bounty on my head! Not a chocolate bar, but a 5$ reward to whoever knocks me out at the BritBlogger7 on Sunday. Only 5$!! What a cheapskate and I think there should be an official complaint.

I mean, does he know who I am?

:-)

Ah Well

It was bad enough I couldn't watch the semi final tonight. It was even worse as I received text messages with updates on the scoreline. But hey, you can't win them all. Just worse when you are convinced your team will win, and they lose convincingly. Playing well, scoring for fun and confidence was high, especially after the Roma result. Just hope this doesn't put United on tilt and they end up winning nothing.
This weekend is the Manchester derby, and working in an office 50/50 split between red and blue, there will be plenty of banter flying around, especially from the winners.

Anyway, it was the company's senior management meeting today/tomorrow, so I get to spend 2 days here. Things are going well at work, my area is way ahead of budget and with 2 months of our financial year to go, Life could be worse I suppose!

Poker is beginning to get back to winning ways. Poker Stars continues to frustrate, so I have cashed out my BritBlogger winnings and am concentrating on Poker Room, where the 25c Pot Limit tables are proving to be as fruitful now as they were a while back.
My BR is 110$ ahead so a focused effort on staying at this level for a while, until the BR has seen a continued growth, is my immediate plan. It's tough to ignor ethe temptation to step up a level, when you are used to higher levels, but BR management is the key so a few more weeks and I'll see how things go.

Anyway, off to bed - posting after a bottle of red wine and several pints of guiness is never a great idea!

Happy as a Pig in Muck!

Mia is really into a kiddie programme called Peppa Pig. For those without children, it is all about a cartoon family of Pig’s. A little girl pig called Peppa, her little brother George (who carries a toy dinosaur everywhere he goes), Mummy Pig and Daddy Pig. There are occasional appearances by Grandma and Grandad Pig too. Mummy Pig and Daddy Pig do not have names just Mummy Pig and Daddy Pig. So Cathy and I are no longer Mummy and Daddy, we are Mummy Pig and Daddy Pig.
As I open the front door coming home from work, I can hear the cries of ‘Daddy Pig, Daddy Pig’ as she runs up for her hug. Quite what the neighbours think is beyond me. When we play in the garden, I am prone to do silly things, and am now prompted with the words 'Silly Daddy Pig'.

Anyway, Isn’t it nice to wallow in the glory for a few days? Playing poker last night and anyone not respecting my raises was prompted with a comment ‘Do you know who I am? I won the BritBlogger6 Tourny you know? Show me some repect!’
Only kidding of course, but there is something very pleasing about finishing top of the pile, when up against the quality of opposition playing the Tourny.
Cathy thought it was a great achievement, but this was after finding out she wasn’t getting a new pair of shoes with the winnings! It’s an honour thing, as Juice put it last night.

This tourney has inspired a lot more conversation between an ever expanding circle of friends. OK, maybe not real life friends, as many of us will never meet, but still friends who look out for each other and are quick with praise and congratulations as well as concern and best wishes when things may not be going so well.
I think back to about 18months ago, when I was first introduced to Juice and The Edge by Rosie and Acorn – and their first comment was ‘Welcome to the Family’. Well that family has expanded ten-fold by now, and it is nice to see more and more people joining in the fun and banter. I hope that new players are made to feel as welcome and at home as I have always felt.
So stop by the Tourny on Sunday at Poker Stars. The banter from Mik is worth the 5$ entry fee alone!

I would like to start a campaign to coerce Mr Edge into joining the next Blogger tourney. A regular at the tables for a while, I get the feeling he has lost the love for poker, so maybe if we stop by his blog and offer him words of support and enthusiasm, he will join us on Sunday. His banter and one liners were legendary, and I for one would love to see him do his stuff at the Blogger Tourny.

Come on Mr Edge!!

BritBlogger 6

You probably guessed already, from the last post, that at last my amazing poker skills have been deservedly rewarded with a sweeping victory at the BritBlogger 6 tournament last night!! Only joking, of course.
I actually had a strategy! This may come as a surprise to many, but I had actually thought out a plan. These Blogger tournies have been pretty tight, most players have a good regard for each other, and raises are respected and good play expected. I began a period of raising from late position with any two cards, if there was only 1 caller before me, and the blinds to come. I showed a few of raises with 6 2, 10 4 and K4, stealing quite a few from Resident Evil, who by the 6 2 hand, I think realised what I was doing, and commented in the chat. It was pretty tight from then on.

It started well with winning a couple of hands early on to double my stack. I hovered around the 4k mark for a while, dipped down to the 2k mark and then back up to just over 5k as we hit the final table.
I’m not one for remembering every hand, but there were a few that stuck out. My A9 taking down the Milkman’s Q2. Mik had been in the top 3 for a while but ran into Kat’s flush (I think) which severely depleted him, and I took his remaining chips when he pushed on the BB. I was thinking at this point that, at least I got my money back, as I was sure there was a bounty on his head. Alas this was not to be, but better was to come.
After building my stack quite nicely with a few steals and re-raises, it was down to 4. Cloud, Acorn, Kat and myself were left – and there was going to be a new champion, whoever won.
I was on the big blind, Kat and Acorn folded and Cloud pushed. I had AJ. Hmmmmm. Fold. Then, next BB the same thing happened. This time I call and Cloud turns over 77. The J on the flop meant I was in the money and poor Cloud was the bubble boy.
To his credit, he stayed around till the end, and even had a ‘Bubble Boy’ banner on his blog within minutes!
Then it was 3. And this was probably my worse hand of the night, and luckiest. Kat flat called, Acorn folded the small blind and I checked with 8 5.
The flop came out 8 high. I put Kat (with no pre flop raise) on a higher, unpaired hand and bet about 2k in chips. She had about 5k and pushed all in. I thought for a few seconds, checking my stack (12k) and hers before deciding that a call was almost inevitable.
The 5 hit the turn as Kat’s cards were shown. KK. Oops.
I took a bit of stick from Kat for this, and observers too, but a little luck is needed in these tournies, and looking back over previous winner’s blogs, there seems to be one or two of these along the way. By way of another apology, I've added a link to her blog :-)

So, it was heads up. Acorn v Mias_dad. Actually, it was Zagga v Spid (Mias_dad was already taken at Poker Stars). A few observers added to the tension by making it an England v Scotland game, and reminding me that last time at Wembley, Scottish fans made off with the goalposts. Previous winner Al Eleven turned up towards the end to wish his Countryman ‘good luck’ and I felt a little unpopular as his many hoards of fans cheered him on.
After a lot of backing and to-ing, the first confrontation. I was ahead with around 17k in chips, Acorn about 7k and he pushed when I was holding 66. Was this my moment, or did he have a genuine hand. I wished him good luck and called. He turned over Texas Dolly, 10 2. A brief moment passed my eyes before a 10 hit the flop and I thought this was the beginning of the end.
Next hand I had KQ sooted and raised about 4 x BB, Acorn pushed and I called. I don’t actually remember what he had, think it was a mid pair, but I was delighted when the K hit the flop and I was back where I was a few hands earlier.
After a few more pushes from Acorn, uncalled, I finally had a hand I could call with. Acorn pushed with 5 6 and I held AK and called. The K on the flop secured it for me, though the 6 on the turn meant for a few nervous moments before the river hit.

Overall, a great game and I look forward to defending my crown next week! In fact, after a few more weeks – maybe we should have a ‘Champion of Champions’ Tourny?

Yes!!

Get in there!

More to follow.