Not posted in AGES...

... so time to remedy that.

Nothing too exciting been happening over the last couple of months. Have played at DTD a couple of times in the deepstack, with no joy Will be playing again next month. Had some limited success at their crapshoot comps though, including a 6th in the £75 f/o with ~80 runners, and 5th in a £50 f/o with ~110 runners. Had 10% of Jamie Sykes in the GBMCPTMRFOTWHATEVER main event, where he finished 2nd for £10,000, so that was nice :)

Haven't played live all that often recently because Alea haven't been having games. I've played at Gala a few times but am now boycotting the place because it's awful and tilts me so bad.

Alea have started a new WSOPE league, so there is now at least a game every night, even if it's only 1 or 2 tables. This doesn't bother me. As far as I'm concerned yes, there's less prizemoney, but they're easier to win. So you'll win less more often, rather than win more less often.

Quick report for Friday:

Went to Alea for the £25 w/ 1 rebuy/addon. Highlight of this comp was on a board of AA577 I bet the turn and river holding 77 and got paid off by 66. Out of 15 players I got to 4 handed with the chip lead and managed to finish 4th. wp me. Set into gutshot didn't help but w/e.

So I sat down at cash with £100, as it looked like a very soft table. I can't really remember what happened as I was getting more and more wasted on cocktails as the night went on. I recall being up to about £180 at one point, my stack being made up of entirely 50p/£1 chips as £5/£25 chips suck. I then was up to about £300, but at 6am when I cashed in I only had £180 again. Ah well. Best bit is I have no recollection of how lol.

So, gonna keep this a bit more up to date now. Will post quick tourney reports for most tourneys I play in. They won't be too in depth, unless there's a particulary interesting hand or something. But there'll be a nice overview. I'll also keep a track of how the league at Alea is going.

PS. Gala sucks.*

*except for girgy and brunny (aka gala brun), and the attractive dealers whose names i can't remember

I won an Alea tournament (technically)

A few quick reports on some recent tournies..

Monday 2nd Feb - Gala £10 rebuy

This was my first visit to Gala. I usually run a home game on Monday's but didn't arrange one this week. I fancied giving this rebuy a go, and given the horrendous weather, 2000 chips, and a £2000 guarantee this seemed like excellent value.

Indeed it was, only £880 was collected. Unfortuantely my UTG push with 23s with 8 remaining was called by 99. The JJ6 flop wasn't good for my hand. The 5 on the turn gave me some hope, but I was ultimitley unlucky, as the river bricked, and my undercards got busted.

Wednesday 4th Feb - Alea £40 freezeout

I set a new record here for me, as it was the first time I've ever been the first knocked out of a tournament I've played in. Second hand: couple of limpers, I raise to 350 with QQ. Milan reraises to 1400. Flop: 99T. Milan shoves. I pay off KK.

Only 13 people started this tournament, which was shocking. Everyone else was at Gala. This is a shame, as this is my favourite tourney at Alea. At least it is now an easy source of league points.

Wednesday 4th Feb - Gala £25+£15 second chance

This was my second Gala visit, and it went just as badly as my previous one. I ended up going out shortly after the break when my 72o was busted by AK.

A couple of notes on Gala - the guarantees are excellent, especially seeing as they never seem to hit them. But the cardroom itself is poor. Having dealers is a good point, although a couple of them don't appear to be fully competent. The dealers showing your cards at showdown when you try to muck is just daft. The chips are shockingly poor - when they're putting this much money into the cardroom I don't see why they don't invest in some new chips. The tables are a bit of a squeeze with 10 players and a dealer. The tables are also close together, which can make moving around a pain. The tables could do with some new felt too. The tournament clock runs on a laptop, lol. All in all, it felt as if I was playing in a home game run in a casino. Alea is a much nicer place to play.

Thursday 5th Feb - Alea £20 second chance

This marked the second week running that I decided to play poker rather than snooker in search of some league points. Thankfully, I got my wish and ended up finishing 4th (for £105 I think). Daniel won a race against me, me with 77, him with AJ, continuing my run of fourth place finishes at Alea, further cementing my belief that their cardroom is rigged against me winning one of these things.

Friday 6th Feb - Alea £25 triple chance

With the APAT event the next day I fancied some poker as a warm up. Gala had a £100 freezeout on, but with a 15k stack and a 20 minute clock, and no doubt a 4.30am finishing time I decided not to bother with this. Instead, I went to Alea hoping the tourney would be quiet, and we might be done by 1am.

Both predictions turned out to be true. We started with 2 tables, and ended up with only 21 runners. Eventually there were 4 of us left on the final. One guy was short stacked and on one hand after tanking for a while he eventually pushed. His 56 was no match for my AA and we were down to three. As I wanted an early night I proposed a 3 way chop for £300 each, despite having a slight chip lead. Seeing as I had the chip lead at the time I technically won this tournament, netting me a cool 1000 league points.

Saturday 7th Feb - APAT UK Championship

This tournament took place in Grosvenor Walsall. As such I'd already driven to my mother's house in Heywood the previous night, to knock 40 minutes off the drive.

The casino itself was quite nice. It was an old style Grosvenor, rather than one of the newly rebranded Gs.

The tournament itself had 205 runners (200+5 alts). The buyin was £75, and for this we got an excellent structure with a 10k stack and 45 minute levels.

I never really got going in this tournament unfortuantely. My exit eventually came in the 300/600-50 level. I lost two races in consecutive hands. TT lost to AK. Then AK lost to 88. Bah.

Sunday 8th Feb - Alea £30 rebuy

Yet again we started a sunday comp with one table. Nothing much to report here, I finished 6th which at least netted me 500 league points. Out of 11 players the top 4 were being paid, which is just daft. 4th only got £40. Even worse was a saver was agreed on for 5th place for another £40 lol.

Monday 9th Feb - Alea £15 freezeout

The standard of the Monday games at Alea continues to amuse me. At the 25/50 level open raises of 600+ were the norm. "I had KK, I don't want anyone calling and hitting an ace".

Nothing much to really go into here, the standard is so bad. I laughed at a double up I recieved with KJ when the big blind called with J9 because "i like this hand".

Busted in 10th which was annoying as it mean no more league points. More annoying was Andy Jacques made the final, meaning he'll have got a little more of a lead into 2nd place now. I was previously on 9000 points to his 9300.Still, few weeks to go yet :)

My First Big Score

I have two tournaments to cover in this blog entry, the first being the new tournament at Alea, followed by Blackpool's deepstack event..

Alea £20 Second Chance

I wasn't planning on going to this tournament but decided to do so in an effort to get some league points, and also some last minute practice before Saturday.

We had an interesting hand in the 3rd hand where Steve Bolton held QT on a TcQcKcQhX board. His full house was no good against the J9cc lol.

I ended up getting 3rd in this tournament. What was so tilting was the woman who got to split 1st/2nd. She was so bad. With blinds at 5k/10k and 4 left the shortstack moved all in for 13k. The SB folded, and she then folded her BB. Oh dear god. I ended up getting £180 for 3rd, which was a reasonable return.

Blackpool G £100 Deepstack

I went to this tournament last month, and had a highly frustrating game. I don't think I'd ever been dealt J4o so many times in my life.

So, I went back again, hoping for a better run. £100, a 40 minute clock, and a 15k starting stack (though no 75/150 or 150/300) represent a decent structure.

My first interesting hand came in the 4th hand of the game. 3 limpers into the pot and I check my option in the BB with A8. The flop was 863. I fire 150 into the 200 pot and recieve one caller to my left. The turn brings another 8 which I check not wanting to scare him off. Unfortuantly, he checked behind - I was hoping he might take a stab. The river brought the final 8. I now bet 300 into the 500 pot which he called. I turned over my hand, he laughed and said it was good.

I had another interesting hand in the 25/50 level when I completed the SB with KJ. There had been about 5 limpers before me. J82 on the flop, which I checked. Guy to my left bet out, which recieved a couple of callers, and I called too. J on the turn, and again I check thinking I can check/raise. Annoyingly it checked around. 9 on the river and I don't particulary like my hand at this point. Guy to my left bets 250, which recieves a caller, and I just flat call too. He turns over QT. Lost the minimum there.

I made a bit of a blunder a bit later on in the 50/100 level. Having flopped a set of deuces I bet out and recieved about 4 callers. The turn brought a straight draw to go along with the flush draw already there and I decided to bet 1500 into the ~1800 pot to try and price out these draws. Unfortuantly as I wasn't used to the colour of the chips I accidently bet 6000. Obviously I like my hand and don't mind getting looked up, but I missed out on some value here. Though given how draw heavy that board was I wasn't too bothered.

Around about this point a guy named Ali Mallu was seated to my right, and my tournament changed from here on. The guy is an absolute maniac, and was involved in almost every pot of the game. I was already playing quite tight, but my game really had to turn tight at this point, waiting for an oppurtunity to trap this guy.

And so I grinded away. Picking up the occasional pot with raises, and trying to avoid this guy until I could trap him.

After dinner (they provided a carvery buffet) and the blinds are up to 300/600-25. I'm still at about 16k and need to start thinking of getting my stack up. However, after one or two unsucesful raises I find myself down to 9k in the 400/800-50 level, not good. My double up come however with AK winning a race against QQ. A few succesful blind steals later, including shoving over the top of a raise with 54s, and I find myself up to the dizzy heights of 40k.

From here on in I found myself pretty card dead, and with very few oppurtunities to make moves due to the guy sat to my right. I grinded and grinded though and managed to keep my head above water.

Fast forward to the 1k/2k-100 level and Ali raises to 6k on the button. With about 30-40k myself I shove over the top with AQ. He calls with ATs and manages to pick up a flush draw on the flop. I dodge the bullets however and double up.

At the 1.5k/3k-100 level Ali again raises it up, this time to 11k. With about 60k in my stack I push over the top of him again, this time with AK. He calls and turns over QQ, and my AK wins another race. With this double up I finally find myself with a somewhat comfortable chip position.

By this point 151 runners has been reduced to about 30ish. Players are dropping like flies, and the approaching bubble is seeing people make a push to get chips. The top 12 are getting paid, which seems a bit tight. With 2,265,000 chips in play everyone realised this meant an average stack by the final would be 226k.

With the blinds at 3k/6k-300 I find myself in a nice position. A guy raised from EP to 20k. With about 90k in my stack I pushed all in with KK. He tanked for a short while before calling with JJ. My KK held up and I'm in good shape.

We're now down to 2 tables. Players continued to get knocked out until only 14 remained. We remained at 14 players for quite some time, probably 30 minutes or so. Eventually someone busted and we were hand for hand. Everyone at the table agreed to do a £10 saver from everyone for the bubble. Everyone except Ali that is, who earlier said to me he thinks it should only be top 3 paid..

During the bubble I picked up AA for the first time all night. I raised pre, and got two further streets of value before the other guy folded. Shortly after, the bubble burst, and we're in the money.

I then finally got into a big pot against Ali. He started with ~220k. I myself had ~180k. Blinds at 5k/10k-400. It folded to Ali in the SB and he completed. I checked my option with KT. Flop was KT9. Ali lead for 10k, which I raised to 35k. He then shoved and I insta called. He turned over T9, which to be fair was bigger than I anticipated. No miracle and I'm very well chipped up, and he is crippled.

He exited soon after, and at the same time a player was eliminated on the other table, leaving us with our final table of 10.

I started the final table with 375k. Joining me there was Steve, who I mentioned earlier in the Alea tournament. Railing us was Justin, who had been knocked out in about 30th. He was interested in our progress as he had 10% of Steve's action and 5% of mine.

The final started with blinds at 6k/12k-500. I picked up KK early on. An aggressive player raised to 36k. I was in mid position myself, and deciding not to get too tricky here I went all in (to put him in essentially). He annoyingly passed, but given the blinds and antes, this was a nice pot to pick up.

I then had a fun hand against Steve. He was sat to my right and it folded to him in the SB. He completed, and I checked my option with A6. We checked it down to the river when an A came off. He asked me if I hit anything, to which I replied no. He then bet 12k. I called, and said I lied. He turned over A5. I then turned over A6 and said scoooop.

Unfortuantly Steve got knocked out in 9th not too long later. The earlier mentioned aggressive guy in the KK hand raised it up to 36k again. Steve went all in for ~100k and his AQ was looked up by A5. A flop of A23 and he commented that he just needs to dodge a 4. I mention that he obviously still needs to dodge a 5, which cruely comes down on the turn, sending him to the rail.

With 8 left came perhaps my most interesting hand of the night from the analysis point of view. I won't repeat it here, as it's generated some discussion on Blonde. Instead I'll just copy the link to the thread: http://blondepoker.com/forum/index.php?topic=39932.0

Not too long later the remaining 8 of us agreed to do a deal. There was only about 30 minutes left until we'd be forced into a chip count as it was currently about 4.30am. The deal was for £2000 for 5 of us, and £1500 for the other three. I was thankfully one of the ones to recieve £2000 despite having taken a hit in that previous hand - I only had about 40k more than one of the £1500 winners.

When counting the money we realised the guy told us the prizepool wrong. He forgot to knock 9th place money off leaving us a few hundred short. As a result three of us gave £50 to the shorter amounts, leaving me with a nice healthy £1950 for my efforts :) Tim got £195 of it, as we'd agreed 10% of each other beforehand. Justin got £97.50 for his 5%. Daniel also got £100 due to a deal we did for if either of us cashed over £1000. Next month I'm gonna keep these deals to a minimum, most likely only taking a % with Justin, assuming he's up for it again next month.

All in all it was a completely tiring day. I was up at 10.30am on Saturday morning, having got to sleep at 4am the night before. I then had to drive to Blackpool, and we started playing a 3pm. By the time we were done and I'd took Tim back to Bradford it was 7am before I got to bed. But I loved every minute of it. It's an excellent tournament, and I was so pleased to finally get a decent result under my belt.

Next weekend is the APAT UK Championship, which I have a seat in. Hopefully I will be able to get a similary good run there :)

Massive Overdue Entry

Been a lit lax with updates, so here's what i've been up to over the last week.

Wednesday 21st - Alea £40 Freezeout

I don't remember a great deal about this tourney until the final table, where I did my usual of running bad. Blind vs blind against Justin my 88 was no good against 22. Then a couple of hands later Salfi raised my BB, I shipped it with KQg, called by A3, didn't hit and that was that. Bubbled, but got £40 from bounties.

Sunday - Alea £30 Rebuy

This was a fun tournament. With only 9 players we started as one table, and one slightly late entry put us up to 10, maxing out the tourney. I got chipped up quite nicely after calling Salfi's all in with JJ on a 9 high hhh board. I didn't have the Jh but thankfully he had 33 without a heart himself. I then later lost a good chunk of my stack putting a medium stack all in with AK after he raised. He had 99 - I hit an A on the flop but he rivered a 4 flush. I then proceeded to steal blinds left right and centre, never really having a hand. With 3 left I shove with AQs, Steve Bolton calls with 77, flop is boring, I turn a Q, he rivers a 7, bah. £120 for my efforts, and some more league points.

Monday - Alea £15 Freezeout / £1/£2 Cash Game

Played in the £15 "deepstack" freezeout. Seriously, this game is in no way deepstack. Nothing really of interest to say, the standard is so low. With 3 tables left eventually went out with 33 against AJ.

In the cash game I got screwed over pretty bad. With only £40 left I shoved in after a raise to £12 with 99. Got called by 88 and obviously an 8 came out. Reloaded for £40, and got it up to about £45. Restradded to £8, 2 callers and looked down at A8. I shove to try and take it down but get called by Q4s. Flop: A (yay), 8 (yay), 7. Turn 6. River: 5. Ugh.

Wednesday - Alea £40 Freezeout

30 players this week. Robert was running thing, and he gave us loads of chips to start. 8x25, 8x100, 8x500, 5x1000. As I was dealing this made my life a lot easier as there was a lot less change making. We reached the final table suprisingly quickly in this game, with the blinds only at 800/1600. I started as the short stack with 12.6k. Three hands in the blinds are 1k/2k. UTG raises to 4k, and I ship it in with QQ. It is then reraised after me to 20k (which turned into 21.2k after I pointed out it was an underraise). The original guy passed and fearing I needed to hit a Q I was happy to see JJ. Now sat on a more reasonable stack I stole a few blinds. With 7 of us left and blinds at 2k/4k and a 30k stack I'm blind stealing a lot again. I eventually get looked up when holding 55 by AA, and that was that. Got £10 from a bounty, and a few league points.

The Last Week

I've not been updating after every tournament because I've decided it's a bit of an effort, and i'm not sure there's too much to be gained from it. Instead, here is a brief overview, with a few hands of interest.

Wednesday- Alea £40 Freezeout

Not much to say here. Busted out shortly after the break. Rather than go through the hand again I'll just link to the post on Blonde:

http://blondepoker.com/forum/index.php?topic=39538.0

In the end I think I'm satisfied I made the right decision, although I think it was only marginally correct.

Saturday - Alea £20 Double Chance

The first thing to note in this tournament was that we ran it as a triple chance, to the agreement of all players present. I don't see this tournament taking off as currently advertised. If I go to it it'll be because I have nothing better to do rather than wanting to go to this particular tournament.

On the subject of Alea tournaments I posted in the following thread my suggestions:

http://blondepoker.com/forum/index.php?topic=36638.90

Back to the tournament at hand however, and the following situation occured.

My stack: 10kish
Villian 1: 10kish
Villian 2: 6kish
Blinds 100/200

I limp in LP after a few limpers with 98. Ed from the SB raises to 400, and naturally the whole table calls, putting us about 6 handed to the flop of QJT. Ed bets 800, I raise to 2400, player to the left of me flats, and Ed shoves all in. At this point I'm hating my hand, but am really only scared of 2 hands. Deciding Ed has probably got a strangely played AK I reluctantly fold, and the guy to my left calls. Ed: AA, other guy: K9.

So I was right, but I'm still not convinced this was a brilliant fold.

With 5 of us left a particulary sick hand occurred. I'm pretty shorstacked, M of about 4 or 5. I'm in the BB with AQ. Button shoves, so you'd think easy call for me, except Justin insta-shoved in the SB. I reluctantly folded, as Justin has a premium hand here like 99% of the time. Button: A9. Justin:QQ. Board: 55T55. I'm annoyed as I'd have had half of Justin's chips. Justin was sick to his stomach.

I eventually took 4th in this for £45, a net £15 loss lol.

Sunday - Alea £30 Rebuy

Only 12 turned up to this, so we ran it as a £60 freezeout. Busted out at the 400/800 level when there were 2 limpers into my BB and I held 88, with a stack of 8k. I shoved and ran into AA, bah.

Monday - Home Game £5 Rebuy

I enjoy these rebuy games, and thankfully this was a cheap one for me as I won quite a few early pots, getting dealt AA, and having Chris push all into me when I had 75 for the nuts, having hit the straight. I had a comfortable chip stack throughout the tournament, making occasional raises to keep my stack healthly. Once heads up our final hand was a somewhat controversial one. Details of it can be found at:

http://blondepoker.com/forum/index.php?topic=39657.0

In the end I won, for a return of £95, a nice £80 profit :)

Monday - Alea £1/£1 Cash Game

After our tournament only Me/Chris/Tim remained. Not wanting to play a 3 handed cash game me and Tim headed to Alea to get in on the action there. Having sat there for about an hour playing no hands I managed to bluff away about £65 by betting into a full house - oops. I then got coolered against Justin on a straddled pot with a 78J flop. I held 78, Justin held T9. Gah.

I reloaded for £50, and later on limped on the button after a few limpers with 42s. A lovely flop of 356 gave me the second nuts. I raised the flop and recieved a caller, who unfortuantly went away on the turn. But still, a nice pot.

A little later I'm in the blinds in a straddled pot, and make up with A6hh. Flop of KQ3 2 hearts. I check, a guy who has been playing fairly loose, but quite solidly, makes it £15. I look at my stack and decide it's a good time to pull the semi-bluff with the flush draw, thinking I can sell a bigger hand. I shove all in, and after a few minutes the villian folds, netting another nice pot.

I was then involved in my biggest pot of the night. But first, a little history on the villian. Maniac is probably the word. He'd been raising anywhere between 15-70BBs preflop, usually with mid-pocket pairs. I limp on the button with 78, and the flop comes K78. Checks around to me and I bet £4, which the villian raises to £12. Not wanting to bloat this pot I flat call. Turn was a 2 I think. Villian bets £15. Well, if I was good on the flop I'm surely good now, so I call. River is a Q. All straight/flush draws have now missed and the villian bets out £75. After 2 minutes of piecing the action together and deciding I'm good I call, and am relieved when he seems reluctant to show his hand: J7.

So, in the end I finished on £210, for a nice little £60 profit.

Home 25p/50p Cash Game

Held my first home game of the year last night. Decided to kick things off with a cash game. Only 5 of us due to people being busy/working, but this suited me as I enjoy short handed games.

I'm going to go through a few hands that I thought were of interest. I'll start off by listing the people present, and how I perceive their games:

Andy: Quite loose, opens a lot of pots with raises. Will usually cbet flops.
John: Tight, if he opens a pot usually has a good hand.
Gary: Tight, if he opens a pot usually has a good hand. Plays a smallball style postflop. Capable of firing off big bets as bluffs.
Tim: Very loose, will call raises with a wide variety of hands. Somewhat passive postflop.

The first interesting pot of the night came against Tim. We both had about £50. Tim limped and I raised to £2.25. (my standard raise being 3.5xBB + 1 per limper). Tim called and we see a flop of 532cc. Tim checks, and I cbetted £3.25. Tim then check-raises to £8. Thinking Tim was just making a play here, as he knows I cbet very often, I raised it up to £20. Tim then thought for a while before shipping in the entire stack, making it £30 for me to call. I started wondering what could he have: AA/KK? No, he wouldn't have limp/called preflop. A straight? Highly unlikely, besides, wouldn't he flat my £20 hoping to get the money in on the turn? A set? Same argument. I then told him I had QQ, and offered to let him take the £30 back, and we'd just run out the board for the current pot. He said no to this, but thinking about it he had to say this. Saying "yes" is admitting he doesn't want a call, which will make me call, so he's hoping I'll fold. And if he has a hand beating mine he obviously doesn't want to do this. Deciding that he didn't have a hand better than mine I eventually called and he turned over K3cc. Given how many outs he had (2 3s, 3 Ks, 8 clubs) I then offered again to take back the £30 and play for the £40-£50 in the middle. He accepted, and I won the pot, obviously now wishing I hadn't made that offer again. But I didn't really want to lose an entire buyin like that.

Not too long later there was another interesting hand against Tim, who was now down to £25. Andy opened the pot for £1.50. Tim raised to £4. I reraised to £10 with AKss. Andy gets out of the way and Tim curiously just flat calls, leaving about £15 behind. I decide I'm pretty much open shoving any flop, but when the flop is QT8ccc I can't do it, as this is an awful flop for me. I check, and Tim checks behind too. Can't remember the turn, but I have to check/fold to Tim's shove. Tim is annoyed as he had JJ and was beating me, but I point out that all he had to do was shove preflop and he'd have doubled up.

I then proceed to not play many pots. I open a few for my standard £1.75, and take them down with cbets. But generally I'm not involved much, and am folding to people's raises, even when I'm told I'm getting "value" to call.

A bit later on I do something I've not done all night: I open limp UTG with 43dd hoping to see a cheap flop, but deciding not to raise this time for variety. Gary after me raises to £1.25 (a pretty small raise given I've already limped). Andy then reraises to £4.50. It then folds back to me and I have an interesting scenario. I'm aware that this is the first pot I've limped into. I'm also aware it's been an aggressive table in that there's been a lot of preflop raises, but not so many 3bets. Figuring I could sell a big hand here I raised to £14. Gary quickly got out of the way, and Andy then folded too. I think he had AJ in this hand. Thankfully Andy came up with the same reasoning that I was trying to sell.

I played a rare pot against Andy when it folded to me on the button. I raised to £1.75 with KJo. Gary folded the SB, and Andy called from the BB. We saw a KXXss board. Andy checked, and deciding to slow play a hand for once, I checked behind. Turn was a non-spade 5. Andy bet £2.50, which I called. River was the 5s, which was a pretty nasty card. Andy led out for £4. Deciding he probably didn't have the 5, and that I've acted pretty weak throughout the hand I decided my top pair was probably ok, so I called, only to be shown the flush - gah.

Later on I raise to £1.75 on the button with K6cc. Gary in the SB raises to £3.25, and Andy calls in the BB, giving me a pretty straight forward call too. Flop was AXXcc. Gary leads for £4. Andy folds and I call with my flush draw. Turn was a blank, and Gary checks. At this point I fired £12 into the pot. His check to me suggested he didn't have an A, so I could represent one. And If I do get called then I have my flush draw as backup. Also worth noting is Gary only had about £20 or so behind at this point, so if he does push then this prices in my flush draw. He thinks for a while before eventually folding TT.

There were probably a few more interesting hands, but those were the main ones. Next time I'll take a piece of paper and write them down as I play so I can remember more of them. All in all I started with £50, and ended up on £120, so a nice little profit there :)

Gala £2000 Freeroll

Thought I'd post my blog a day early for this. Free to enter competition with a £2000 prizepool and 100+ runners, where there'll be no doubt a 10 way chop or something daft.

My performance can be summed up quite easily: Didn't go.

Alea £40 freezeout

Went to Alea again last night, still on the lookout for that elusive first win.

On my first table I had Shaun and Fraiser - anyone who knows these two will understand that this means complete carnage.

My first pot of the night came from a player I've not seen before, but he seemed to be playing a tight aggresive game - he'd generally folded, but raised/cbetted a couple of times. With 1 limper he raised to 300 at 50/100 level. I found JTs in the SB and made the call, as did the BB and limper. 4 of us saw a J high flop which checked around to the perflop raiser - as expected he cbetted 600. Deciding not to turn this into a big pot, but suspecting my J was good, I just called. The other two folded taking us to the turn, which was a K - not a great card for me. I checked, and he checked behind me. River was a blank, I check yet again, thinking my J is good, and hoping he's going to fire again. Sure enough he fires 1500 which I call. He turns over AQ :)

My next big pot was against Shaun. Blinds now 100/200. I raise to 600 with AJs on Fraiser's BB (who isn't sat at the table at the minute). I get called by Shaun (obviously) and the SB. Flop is J72. Checked to me and I fire 1600. Shaun raises to 3200, and the other guy got out of the way. My J is good here the majority of the time, so I called the flop with the intention of check raising all in on the turn. Turn is a 4 or something, I check, Shaun bets 1600 (was hoping for more) and this is the point where I pull the trigger. He thinks for a while and folds, claiming he had two pair with 72.

Absolute comedy hand a bit later. Blinds were 150/300. Tight player (which to be fair with Shaun/Fraiser on the table is the best way to play) raises to 1200, prob his first pot all night. Shaun calls on the button, and Fraiser calls on the BB. Flop is 742. Fraiser checks, and the tight player bets 3000 (leaving about 4000 behind). Shaun moves all in. Other guy snap calls with AA. Shaun turns over 73 and has a go at the other guy for not being able to lay down AA post flop, lol. River is a 7 and Shaun points out the other guy needs to go home and learn how to play poker, brilliant.

At the break our table got split. On my new table I quickly picked up a bounty after shoving over a raise/call with AK - the caller calling the shove with AJ. So I'm quickly up to 25,000 or so and sitting quite comfortably. Not too long later I pick up another bounty after a short stack shoves into my BB and I'm holding AK again.

With blinds at 400/800 it's time to start using my stack to pick up some blinds. With only 7 players on my table I raise to 2400 with 99 UTG. The BB shoves for 5000 more, which I obv call, hoping for a race, but as it turns out I'm ahead of his K5s... another bounty, plus 2 that he was carrying, and i'm now up to 40,000ish.

Things went downhill from here. My perflop raises were getting shoved over the top. People raising/shoving kept happening on my blinds meaning I was forced to let them go. And with blinds at 1000/2000 I'm down to about 20,000. A fairly tight player to my left was now getting pretty active preflop, obv trying to take down some blinds. He raised to 6,000 on my BB and I'm holding AQs. My stack goes into the middle, and gets called by TT. I hit an A and double up.

Lost a small pot and am back down to 30,000. Blinds at 1500/3000 and folds to Pat in the SB who completes. I have 68 and check. Flop is a magical 579. Check, check, hoping he catches up. Q on the turn and the money all inevitably ends up in the middle as he had QT.

I for the second time running burst the final table bubble. Blinds at 2000/4000 and a guy shoves into my BB. I have 99 and call for the 16,000 more it was. He had AJ. Dealt the flop: J in the window wasn't nice, but the 9 hiding underneath was :) Unfortuantely this guy didn't have any bounties to steal.

Final table started with me recieving £70 for the bounties I earnt. I was 2nd in chips with 86,000, behind Pat with 87,000. Very first hand I call an all in for 20,000 with AQs. Guy has A7 and hits a 7 - bah.

Pick up a pot or two preflop to keep my stack healthy. Then in my BB a somewhat tight player raises to 12,000 (blinds now at 3000/6000). He only has about 30,000 left behind. I call in the BB with KJo. Flop is 343. I ship it in knowing he can't call without an overpair - he folds KQ face up and I resist the urge to show my KJ, not wanting to damage my credibility when stealing pots is such an important tactic at this point.

We're eventually down to 5. Blinds now at 5000/10,000 and Justin shoves his SB into my BB. About 30,000 more to me, and my KT is way ahead of even Justin's range - he turns over Q7 and hits two pair, bah.

We were then discussing high pocket pairs, and I point out I don't want AA/KK/QQ as I've been on a horrible run with them recently. Next hand, Gail raises to 30,000. I look down at AA :D I shove for about 80,000. The guy whose A7 beat me earlier goes all in too. Gail tanks and folds AQ. I'm against KK, and my AA holds.

4 left. Guy to my left raises to 30,000. Folds to me in the BB with AJs and I go all in. With only about 50,000 behind the other guy couldn't really fold, and he eventually called with 33. I lose the race and lose a decent amount of my stack.

Lost a couple of blinds due to raises and we come to my exit hand. Blinds 6000/12000. Folds to me in the SB with 87s, I complete, having started the hand with about 80,000. BB raises 12,000 more. I'm tempted to fold, but just can't because of the pot odds. Flop was 89J. I shove, and he calls with KK, and that's me done. Can't decide if I like my play on that last hand. I was a tad unlucky to run into KK, but that flop hits quite a few of his raising hands.

So, 4th place netted me £115, plus the £70 bounties, making £185. Not bad, some valuable league points, but that first win at Alea still eludes me.

Alea £30 rebuy

Went to the Alea to play in the £30r last night. After a few weeks of generally small wins I was hoping for a decent score.

Got down to 2500 during the rebuy period so I rebought to 7500. The very next hand I flatted a raise with AK in the hope the guy to my left would pull a squeeze play for his last 2500. He did, but the original raiser then shoved. Deciding that he could have TT+/AK I made the call. He had AA :( Flop of 234 was decent, K on turn was nice, but nothing on the river and I'm wishing I hadn't made that rebuy.

After the break and I'm up to about 12000, with blinds at 200/400. Pat raised to 800 and I called in the cutoff with 78cc, knowing that there'd be at least one more caller cos Danny was in the big blind. 4 of us saw a flop that got checked around. Turn gave me straight+flush draw. Pat bet 1k, I raised to 3k. He called. Hit my flush on the river, value betted it and he folded.

Mainly increased my stack by raising for the rest of the comp. With 14 left and blinds at 1000/2000 Pat pushed all in for about 11000 with TT. I, having 20000 or so called with QQ and he rivered a T, bah.

Got my stack back up by stealing. The best one was with 72o on the button, and the big blind folded A2 face up, lol.

Pushed with AJo, got called by AJs, and hit runner runner 4 flush. Serves the guys mate behind him for calling for the hearts :)

Final table was fairly uneventful for me to start. Won a race with 55 vs overcards to get a decent stack. Stole one or two pots, but it started going downhill as we got to 5 handed where my stack dwindled a bit.

With 4 left Daniel lost a big pot, leaving him with only 5000 with blinds of 4000/8000. He was on the SB, I shoved with KK. He made a complete donk call (obv I have a strong hand here otherwise I wouldn't push). 45679 board isn't nice. We turn over his cards: 83 - gah. Fish.

3 left. Tim shoves my BB with T9, I called with A2, he rivers a straight, and that is all she wrote.

So, £260 - not the big win I wanted, but it will do. And some league points too :)

First Post

I've finally decided to start a blog, not sure why it's taken me so long..

I will start with a list of my poker new year goals:

1) Finally win a tournament at Alea rather than these 2nd-4th finishes

2) Qualify for all Alea freerolls, and hopefully win one of the leagues

3) Play at least one DTD £300 event

4) Play more higher buyin freezeouts (£100-£200)

5) Play more cash games

6) Make a profit

Last night was ok, finished 3rd at the Alea £30r for £260, which suited me seeing as I was in for £120. Daniel beating my KK with 83 and hitting a 7 card straight wasn't very nice though :)