The last couple of weeks in 2007

Well 2007 has finished slightly better than my previous post suggests.

I was involved in a "league" type competition at Luton, where by the top 128 played a heads up comp for £10k first prize.

This was my shot to turn around a bad year. I was fully focused and determind to win this and I was confident in doing so.

Yes I got very lucky in my first round match where I held AQsuited on a Q rag rag board and all the money went in only to find the guy holding AA! , Q on the river saw me through the first round. Now with only 2500 chips to start and blinds of 25/50 it was always going to be a bit of a luck fest. But after the first round, the stack sizes doubled each time, with the starting blinds only rising now and again. This was the point at which you could play poker.

My 2nd round match was relatively easy. My oppo would only play "good" hands (for MTT situations) I was raising and re raising alot and winning lots of small pots uncontested and it did not take much time to take a commanding lead and an eventual victory.

My hardest match was either the 3rd or 4th round (cant remember which) where my oppo was ULTRA aggressive. He raised all but 3 of his buttons in the first 3 levels! AND always CB (over the pot size) . He also over re raised my raises alot of the time. This made this match very hard as I was totally card dead. He quickly took a dominating lead and I knew I would have to "gamble" with him with a mediocre hand or two - This I did, and won both of the crucial 60/40's and I eventually won.

My quarter final was the hardest mentally as it lasted 3 and 1/2 hours! It ebbed and flowed back and forth, I even had the guy with only 10xBB (I had a massive lead) only to call an all in with a weak ace to double him up then I doubled him up again - I was so sick with myself as to me, these were the only 2 mistakes I had made so far. I did manage to recoup and eventually won.

So onto the semi's and I was facing Danny Samson - who I rate highly and tbh would of preferred to avoid. Deals had been mentioned as early as round 3! But I was having none of it.
Deal talks were again started, and again I was having none of it, but then money took over. You see, the prize structure was £10k for 1st, £3k for 2nd and £1k for 3rd and 4th.
So with £15k in the pot a deal was agreed that we lock up £3k each leaving £3k for the final.

Danny was tired and was only a matter of time before he wore down and pushed with marginal hands - which he did and I took my shot with KQ - which won over his 99.

So onto the final, but with no real time to play, we agreed to chop up the £3k.

So I took £4.5k - not bad for what was in effect a freeroll!

As I have said, I was confident at winning this from the start and was totally focused. My driving force? Well I had promised myself a new motor. The one I have now has done 154k miles and is showing its age - however it still drives like new (Audi 2.8 quattro) . Germans certainly know how to build cars.
My new car? Yes its German again, this time a BWM 330i.

The new car purchase was only possible after another success at Luton 3 days after at the £50 one rebuy/add on event where I again chopped 4 ways.

So, with no money left for Poker, I have not played since - either online or live and will not be able to for a couple of weeks.

But I am itching to get going!!

2008 here we come!

2007 as a whole

2007 has been the worse year for me pokerwise since I started playing some 5/6 years ago by a long stretch.

All I have to show is a 2 week trip to Vegas (Binions Fessie) and a holiday for the good lady to Egypt. A VERY poor year indeed.

Online is where I have lost money, but as I play fewer and fewer tournies, the variance suggests that wins will now take longer to achieve. Thats not to say the standard online has not changed, it has. Immensely!

Online has become so ultra LAG that I have had to change my play to compensate for this. And this has proved difficult at times, but something I know I need to do to survive.

Online cash was probably break even overall, not helped by a couple of VERY BIG TILT periods. Playing while in a mood is something I must not do. It is a definate No No.

Live is where I have made my profit from, both MTT's and cash. Trouble is, with a family it is sometimes hard to justify the time spent playing poker - especially after a loosing session.

So 2007 all in all was a pretty terrible year poker wise and one I am glad to see the back of tbh. 2008 MUST be better.

DTD live club

Well I got an invite to the opening few tourneys, but could only make the 2nd night.
It was a £100 f/o. So off I travel to Nottingham.

What a place!!

Even with the teething problems, Rob and Co have done themselves proud. It is a fantastic environment to play poker in, the stepped levels is a nice touch.

I am unsure as to how "profitable" it will be for jo public who go regular, and by jo public I mean poker players who play as a hobby.

I am sure the club will be dominated by the Pro's who will frequent this place on a regular basis - feeding on the easy money (if there is any) - and who could blame them!

As for the comp, I exited early when my A9 was outdrawn on a 9 high board by K9. It was one of those SB vs BB confrontations, me being the BB
SB bets out and I re raised enough that I couldnt pass. He duly goes all in with K9 - strange play I thought but I'll take the play against me all the time!

ECOOP event 2 $100 rebuy PLO8

Decided to give this one a bash.

540 runners in this baby with 20 minute clock and 3000 starting stack. rebuys were 3000 more and the add on 4000. First prize of $23k

I took the rebuy almost straight away (new implementation into ipoker software and about time too!). My stack was never in danger and I was going along nicely.

Managed to get to 9k at the add on so came back with 13k and blinds of 50 100.

So $300 invested and I was liking my start.

I was in the top 20 all the way through the field with over twice the average stack until 20 left when I got moved to a hyper aggressive table with very very few hands that were not potted pre flop and I went totally card dead (hands like K J 6 8 rainbow etc...)

Then this hand occured. I have drifted down to 75k and am in the BB for 8k with Ad Jh 3S JC. Again it is potted from the c/o (who has 80k) and the button calls (who has 230k). I decide that this is the time to gamble with my made high and the 2nd nut low. Was this a good plan? I still am undecided, but my reasons for taking the gamble here was that the money for 20th ($850) was the same as 11th and it was the best hand I had seen for a while.

They both call, one had AS 2C Qh 8S and the other had AC AH 2S 3D - the AA23 taking the high with 2 pairs and the A2Q8 taking the low.

Maybe I should fold here? Even with hindsite I am unsure.

The next ECOOP event I like the look of is the $750 nlh with 5k starting and 30 minute levels, but am undecided as to weather to play or not.