In Hong Kong

Melbourne was really fun. We took a drive down with Shane, a mate of my dads down Great Ocean Road and had a load of beers (home brew) while cruising along the coast. The flies were fairly unbearable but we were treated to a pretty sick view of the 12 apostles (actually only about 7).

After that we went to Big Day Out which is some music festival and saw Kasabian, Muse, Lily, Dizzee and a touch of Calvin Harris/Groove Armarda. Was good fun esp Lily/Dizzee, personally think Muse are a bit overrated live but the lighting was impressive.

Then we went to the tennis to see Serena beat some Asian bird. I won $40 on props vs Sweir, then saw Henin destroy some other Asian bird. Next day we saw bit of mixed doubles/womens doubles final which was cool before seeing Federer obliterate some French darkie.

After that was the 6 max tourney. I had a really bad table made worse when a fairly decent player got replaced by Tommo. I made an awful call of LuckyChewys river check raise, made another bad call with KK on AxQxT, he 3 bet pre I flatted, I c/c flop and river. Then I knocked out Steve who was staying with us with AT vs A8. Then a Scandie came and sat down, he seemed like a bit of a headcase so I flatted J9s out of SB when he opens CO, 953, check call, 5 (gives me FD too), check call, Q, check call and win vs T4o. So was up to 11k on first break but gave them straight back to him where he raise CO, I flat A9o OTB, T9ssX, he bets I call, turn T, he bets 1500~ into 2k~, I call, river a blank I call 3.5k into 5k and lose to T8o. Poss a bad call given that I already called him down semi light although I justified it with the other calling station in the house Steve and he said he woulda SNAP called. So i’d been nitting it up since the tables tough and I didn’t fancy playing Chewy, Tommo and aggro Scandie postflop, I raise 33 UTG+1 and it gets thru, then I open 88 UTG to 550, the Scandie pops it to 1200 from BB, I jam in 7k which is probs bad but the guy was certifiably nuts even if I had been tight and he calls w AA and wins.

Sweir went deep and came 9th after losing an epic KK vs 77 against Leo Margets (she also went on to 2 outer Bond18 at the FT) which sucked massively cos he was chip leader with 24 left after day 1 and chip leader with 11 left on day 2… I also busted the $550 turbo, I raise AJs UTG, BTN flats, everyone at the table has downs syndrome so i’m not too worried especially after the flop comes AJT. I bet he raises I jam he calls w AK and wins.

We did hit up the clubs in the Crown which were pretty cool despite Mongys dubious preference of the dubstephiphopdnbdance club over the cheese/rock/pop one. Nevertheless I encouraged the boys to get some Jaegerbombs down ourselves so we could open up the potential to spend the morning vomming in the toilet and it was a pretty good night overall.

I’m now in Hong Kong and met up with Sweirs uni mates yday and chilled out. We went to an American diner and Tommo got some meat+rice dish which he is trying to palm off as Chinese food. He didn’t manage to stomach any noodles or rice for breakfast this morning though.

Probably off for cocktails somewhere tonight or something, not sure yet. We were going to go to the PEAK but it’s pretty foggy outside so we went to a shopping mall where I bought some trackies. MARVELLOUS

Rupert Elder : 02 Feb 2010 08:16 |  Comments (1) |  Close comments |  Report a problem

In Melbourne

Arrived safe and sound in Melbourne after an epic 36 hours of travelling. The flights went surprisingly smoothly, I managed to do off £63 on a plug adapter in the airport (!!) so I could use my laptop in flight and was delighted to find out that it was complete superfluous since we could plug laptops straight into the seat. Undeterred, myself and Keys played football manager with gin and tonics for the majority of the first flight before mostly sleeping/trying to sleep on the second. I did manage to slip in a cheeky viewing of “Cloudy with a chance of meatballs” which was mediocre at best.

The apartment here is gorgeous, a huuuuge living room/kitchen combo with 2 balconies leading onto a barbeque and a fantastic view of Ivanhoe and surrounding areas. We did manage to lock ourselves out when we got back from the donkament at 2am last night which required a $30 call out fee from some mug upstairs.

Speaking of donkaments, I busted the $1.1k. Very happy with how I played, chipped up to 14k after flopping top set with kings vs some old guy who made second pair and went to war. Then played a hand at 150/300/25, UTG+2 limps playing about 5k, I make it 1100, young asian guy on my left calls who is playing well, limper calls. K9x, checks through, turn K, UTG+2 leads 1100 into bout 3.9k, I just flat as does the guy on my left. River is irrelevant, UTG+2 checks and I bet 5.7k into 7.2k, guy on my left tanks for a while and calls w jacks. Then I lost AJ vs AT and TT vs AJ to bust me.

Considered playing again today (day 1a/1b bustouts can play 1c again) but I woke up after it started. Playing a pokerpro $550 tomorrow which is basically like online poker but live. Should be fun!

Rupert Elder : 16 Jan 2010 03:09 |  Comments (1) |  Close comments |  Report a problem

Can't wait for 2010! (false optimism ITT)

Well 2009 was a cool year.

I feel at the start of the year I was a bit lost as to what direction and things I wanted to go but as fate had it I ended up playing poker once my final couple of half hearted job applications got declined. I’m in the fortunate position where my parents are happy enough for me to play and where there is nothing else in the world that I would want to do to win the bread.

After the honeymoon period in the south of France ended, it was time to get down to the real grind and after a final week of SNGs to see off the Paradise promotion I finally made the long awaited switch to cash games starting at NL50. I breezed through NL50 and it only took 55k hands at NL100 before I jumped in at NL200 which is where I am now. So far I am feeling incredibly comfortable there after 30k hands and even decided to punt off 5 buyins at a few NL400 shots. I’ve got some work to do there but that’s only if I can get away from my new crack that is MTTs.

I’ve been on and off with MTTs since I started playing poker but having had a +$28k December where my volume was almost entirely MTTs, I think at least for January i’ll give them a spin up since i’m off to Australia anyway.

Speaking of holidays, 2009 was another fantastic year for them. The Cambodia/Nam trip at Easter with Sweir/George was so fucking epic it was ridiculous. I don’t think I need much more elaboration on the also epic trip report I did after if you look under the April 09 section of this blog. In August I had the good fortune of organizing and spending a month in the ridiculously ballin’ Cote d’Azur which I didn’t blog about as much as perhaps I could have but needless to say the nights in Jimmyz/Palais/the house were all fucking brilliant. Estonia at the end of October and have 2 friends bink the tourney then get absolutely smashed in the club compliments of Stars was brilliant. Then to top the year off myself and Gwen headed to Edinburgh to join Tommo/Flash/JD+housemates+friends for a pretty awesome new years eve in the pubs, clubs, and casinos of the city. The street party was perhaps a bit overrated, but a tenner for the fireworks, atmosphere, and queueing for toilets was definitely money well spent, or as the casino regs would say “value”.

2010 has even more to offer on that front! I’m off to Australia on the 12th January for the Aussie Millions as well as Big Day Out and the Oz Open. I’m planning on playing 7 of the tournies at AM and Lily Allen is playing at BDO so lots more banter to be had there. After that we’re off to Hong Kong for a cheeky 10 days to check out Sweirs azn pad and probs hit up Macau. March/April the plan is currently to hit up some ski resort, possibly EPT Snowfest then over to Monte Carlo again for the EPT there. June 20th myself and George are booked in at the Rio in Vegas for 15 days of WSOP where we are gonna try and not do the lot off on craps. The Rio did have the good will to comp me 5 nights and discount the rest of the nights so it’s nice to be wanted. Then in September we are back to the south of France, this time Villefranche-sur-Mer where we have a villa for 4 weeks as well as the obligatory trips to neighbouring Monte. No doubt the odd trip to Estonia and Prague will be thrown in just for completeness.

On a personal front, Gwen and myself had some rocky moments over the year but things are looking really good right now. Although we’ve both been slacking on the blogging front, she’s searching hard for jobs and degrees to do but in the mean time is getting by with just a few hiccups in Stroud. There were periods in December where I was suffering pretty bad depression and even forced myself to take 2 days off. I thought it was cos I was living at home but I think i’ve found a new lease for life and I think it’s important to always have something to look forward to as a next milestone. For me it’s the holidays so that’s what i’m doing, constantly searching for some ridiculous hotel in an exotic location. Recommendations welcome (not Cuba or any of this backpacker nonsense though please). It’s also the reason i’m going to stay living at home. I reckon that to move out i’ll spend an extra £15k or so just on rent/food etc where as it costs my parents like £3.5k to have me at home cos they’d pay the mortgage whether I was there or not. While i’m very fortunate to have them not request any money for living, even if they were it just means I can take double the holidays with the money i’m saving! Bit of a shrewdie I am…

Anyway, onto the goals nonsense… I read a post on 2+2 that said goals shouldn’t be financially orientated because “thats kinda retarded”. None the less, the reason I play poker is for money not for EV so you’re getting a money goal.

1) $100k
2) 300 working days

So that’s it, nice and easy. Every year at university I wanted all my goals to be poker orientated but I put in the degree ones anyway. Now it’s guilt free grinding. If I make $100k tax free in my first full year as a graduate, I will be an extremely happy bunny. Who knows, I might just bink a tourney in Oz (BOKBOKBOK).

Anyway, happy new year

Rupert Elder : 01 Jan 2010 21:42 |  Comments (3) |  Close comments |  Report a problem

Where did it all go wrong?

Bashed out a session of MTTs last night and while I managed to FT the Warwick 8 game as well as the HU, even closing the HU when Callum graciously allowed me to flip him (never in doubt from that point) instead of let me get owned by a mere SNG player, I won 11 dimes having come 2nd [1] in a $75 on Full Tilt. Was extremely happy with the way I played, including a nice small 3 bet to “induce” a shove from the button only to find out I was flipping with his QTo anyway. Swongs. When we got HU I was dropping all sorts of angles like “am a 1/2 HU reg” etc which didn’t get much of a reception from him in the deal making sense. I certainly would have preferred a deal since we were playing HU for $5k but instead decided to let him win despite a couple of fairly sick call downs from me. I lost AQ vs AK for a huge pot then won A9 vs AJ before finally losing 77 vs A3 for the rest of the loot after a river raise went wrong when he semi-tank-called top pair.

Still, it’s enough of a win to grant myself a day off and update the somewhat neglected blog as well as catch up on all the awful American TV shows I love so much. Also I suppose I can justify booking a hotel in Hong Kong now rather than opt for slumming it on the exceptionally clean streets.

[1] See title

Rupert Elder : 07 Dec 2009 16:39 |  Comments (0) |  Close comments |  Report a problem

PKR Live III

Had the pleasure of heading over to Loose Cannon in London for PKR Live 3. Having retained a good deal of my action well in the knowledge that it would be a soft one I was very excited to learn that I knew no names on my starting table. It later conspired that one player was particularly handy when he started mentioning EPTs and such like but he was more than willing to give up when I bombed the turn with A7 on a KxxJ board.

Progress was steady and before I knew it i’d value towned the decent Scandie with my queens and check/called 3 streets with KQ on Q3434, including a somewhat ominous 3.6k bet into 12.5k on the river before having my opponent insta-muck. So I was up to 40k at 400/800 and feeling extremely good about how I was playing.

The shit hit the fan and I lost a string of hands. First off ATs vs 22 straight off the bat after the break, then I raised TT UTG+1 vs an active 3 bettor (I was more than willing – fist pumping dare I say – to go broke preflop with this hand) who flatted me, A84, check check, 7, check check, 6 I bet 2500 into 5600 he calls me with queens… Then I raised 66 UTG and my cbet on AJT fails (was bit tilted, probs shoulda checked it back) after the big blind makes a small raise, before finally smashing the lot in with JTs and being exceptionally happy to see my nitty villain who snap called me turn over ace king. No dice however and I was sent packing to the £1/2 game where everyone was smashed as hell. I would have stayed until closing time were it not for the 7 hours sleep and 13 hours of grinding I was playing off. So I called it a night £168 better off after making a dubious call on a Th7hx K xh with A7 which turned out to be miles ahead when my opponent told me 4 times it was a very nice call.

Overall the weekend was very fun and I will definitely back to play the next PKR Live event, although telling everyone my screenname was TerribleSoftware provoked mixed reactions including the classic “I know it is, but what’s your username?”. Nice one.

It wasn’t all doom and gloom and doing off money though, I did manage to spot Alan Shearer of Blackburn fame at Kings Cross. If it weren’t for the unusually large queue at WH Smith, I would have got a nice autograph on postcard for JDs birthday. Unfortunately for him he will just be receiving a blank postcard of a London bus with “Happy Birthday” scrawled upon it.

Rupert Elder : 22 Nov 2009 16:42 |  Comments (2) |  Close comments |  Report a problem

Lost my phone

I forgot to mention that I lost my iPhone on the way to the airport in Estonia. When I realised I lost it, I tried to ring it and it didn’t even ring. So no idea what happened there, my bill didn’t have any additional charges on or anything. Nevermind not the end of the world, just get a new one.

Well I would have done, if the cunts at O2 didn’t want to charge me a WHOPPING £550 for a new fucking iPhone when a) my last one was £330 (already through the fucking roof) and b) i’ve done off considerably over £1k in bills in the time i’ve been with them and will no doubt continue to fucking do so. I asked the man in the shop if there was any leeway since i’ve been with them for a while and he blagged some bollocks about treating every customer the same. I couldn’t even begin to explain to him how retarded that policy is before I ushered myself out of the shop the basically get scammed by Marks and Spencer changing my Kroon into Sterling because unfortunately my bank turned down my money. wotva.

So I ended up going with a 70 quid Nokia which seems to be doing the trick and i’m undecided if i’ll go for the upgrade when contract time is up. People always say that phone contracts are very barterable when they finish but i’ve also heard that the iPhone contracts have no leeway at all. The cunts. So I might hop over to Orange or something, purely out of spite you understand.

====================================

Myself and George took 10% each in an Omaha horse while Tommo took the lions share. Unfortunately he’s done the lot off and now we’re in the uncomfortable position of thinking about reloading. He was playing 2/4 and 3/6 so things could certainly get messier. Other than that i’ve done off a few k staking people in these FTOPs including one person who got to 70k by 150/300 before punting the lot at 250/500.

It’s a good job i’m getting the absolute cake on Party otherwise i’d probably be broke again. I was a bit sceptical of playing NL200 but having settled down reasonably well it’s pretty obvious that the rivers are abundant with fish.

I also had a cheeky £300 on Joe Cada to beat Moon heads up which netted me £100. MBN.

====================================

On the holidays front it looks like Bratislava could be put on the back burner (for me at least) just since i’m not putting enough volume in. But no worries, Aussie/Hong Kong in January, talk of Austria in March, Coventry (!!!!) in April, and then the dredded/beloved WSOP from June to November (well I have to dream). Better save up…

Rupert Elder : 11 Nov 2009 01:46 |  Comments (0) |  Close comments |  Report a problem

Back home, what an awesome holiday

In the interests of continuity I ought to let you all know how Estonia finished. I played one more SNG and came 5th in a spot I may have been able to fold (chip leader effectively shoved button at 300/600 I have 3k and A6s). Whatever though.

I did manage to make a bit of a name for myself in the turbo €110 tourney where I binked a final table for around $700. The average stack at FT was around 6 BBs and I couldn’t win 3 flips.

Not to be one-upped, Tommo had the pleasure of beating Keys heads up to scoop himself a PCA package and a good few stacks of high society while i’m sure Keys himself won’t be hanging himself over the $108k or so he pocketed. In a fashion that wouldn’t be out of place in a Party Poker “VIP” event, the trophy had enscribed on the bottom “545 EEK” which to the well informed is around $55. Marvellous.

The ensuing piss up was a mixture of vodka and cokes and complimentary bottles of Dom Perignon from the very lovely people at Pokerstars. It was all getting a bit too much for me and decided to crash out of the “Hollywood” club at what people reckon must have been about 3-4am.

The flight home was largely uneventful other than doing off 31 points at chinese poker and Tommo offering to buy the whole plane gin and tonics, which Easyjet promptly took up. I also lost £20 on scratch cards, but Tommo covered the cost since I netted less winning than him.

I’m on the home straight of importing 2.5M hands or so as well as trying to transfer websites/flog off advertising space so I can get back to the grind of $1/2 (!) tomorrow.

It really was quite an amazing holiday to have two good friends 1 2 the tourney. Also a good excuse for badgering them to come out next year.

Rupert Elder : 03 Nov 2009 00:30 |  Comments (2) |  Close comments |  Report a problem

Estonia in the house

Seem to be using up all my run good at once in Estonia. Have played 3 SNGs so far, $110, $110 and $220. Have finished in 3rd ($200), chopped 1st ($400) and chopped first ($865) respectively. All 3 obviously ran pretty well, the 1st and 3rd was even stack with the shortest stack on the bubble and the mugs decided to get it in in pretty bad spots and the 2nd one had a pretty commanding lead on the bubble before chopping it up with Tommo. Managed to bink Q4 vs AJ, AK vs Q8, AJ vs K8 on the 3rd 3 and 4 handed for all the gold before doing a chip chop with mongy so pretty pleased with that.

Putting myself through the trauma of playing the big one tomorrow though so hopefully will wake up in time without too much of a hangover in order to not doing anything stupid. I think my general hand reading and soul reading has been fine so far but could perhaps improve on my overall strategy as things all kicked off on a discussion of Keys limping the button with 85o and me leading J4cc on A2x with 2 clubs.

Food is very behind-the-iron-curtain so far, had wild boar today which was very nice in a quaint little restaurant in the old town (a UNESCO heritage site so wikitravel reliably informs me) and a not so great duck yesterday.

But the wodka [sic] and cokes have been flowing reasonably cheaply and quickly so it’s not all doom and gloom on the food and drink side and hopefully will be able to go the whole 1st level without resorting to perching on the bar hearing about Shaun Deebs [1] escapades of having a gun drawn on him in Warsaw while winning a 3 handed high rollers event.

Hope everyone in the UK is fine and not having to tolerate 6 degree with 40mph wind weather like us slumming it in a plush 5* hotel are.

[1] name drops ITT

Rupert Elder : 29 Oct 2009 00:32 |  Comments (0) |  Close comments |  Report a problem

100k hands before Christmas

From 8am Monday 19th October until midnight 25th December 2009 the goal is to play 100k hands. Tommo has to play 90k hands and if one of us fails we owe the other $200.

Should be decent motivation to grind since the last couple of days i’ve been a bit too lazy to put in the hands. Also need to put in more crosstrainer sessions as am becoming a bit too well rounded.

Occasional updates to follow.

Rupert Elder : 19 Oct 2009 23:59 |  Comments (0) |  Close comments |  Report a problem

Your withdrawl request for $100 has been approved

Myself and Tommo have been doing a lot of tennis betting recently thanks to a tipster off the forums. Not only get a decent sweat but covers the exes to Oz and HK. Up 25 units so far betting $10 a unit, but I daren’t brag too much as we’ve only been able to get 5 bets on so far so the sample size isn’t substantial.

Poker has been fine, managed to close out a couple of tournaments. One for $3k and another for a $2.8k package to the sunny Baltic region of Estonia. Tommo managed to bink 50% in that one so he’s coming out along with Keys and Mongy. The hotel Stars is putting us up at looks pretty ballin’ so no doubt will degenerate into a massive pissup while the comp gets put on a back burner. Am up few k at cash as well this month although only played 15k hands. Quite disappointed to see my EV line is far below my green line which is going to leave me little to write about in my end of the month despair post.

Plans for Australia in mid-January and HK in February are heating up as I booked tickets for the Aussie Open semi-finals as well as Big Day Out which judging by the name should be a bit of a laugh. Is a bit of a reuniting with the much loved Lily Allen as well as Muse, Harris and a few other so called artists showing their faces. The Aussie millions are happening while we are there so have full intentions to do the absolute lot in the sides.

But so far poker seems to be sustaining the kind of lifestyle I was keen on having. I read a post on a forum from a guy struggling to get a job. He said he was in 3 figures for applications, 50 phone interviews deep, 15 1st rounds and just 1 2nd round. Jealous? Not a bit.

Rupert Elder : 15 Oct 2009 20:47 |  Tags: Video |  Comments (2) |  Close comments |  Report a problem