All 11 entries tagged Poker

Walsall Shenanigans

Wednesday night saw 12 of us make the trek to Walsall Casino to play in their thirty quid double stack. I wasn’t going to go myself (as I had an exam in two days), but after some suitable encouragement from JD, I decided to sacrifice my revision for the greater good. I hope JD feels he made the right decision here. Anyway.

Bobby Jagger was one of those who decided to come. It was good to see Jags again, and it looked as if he had bought some new clothes to mark the occasion. His newly polished shoes, Party Poker Jacket, and disco-shirt combo were lovely, and the hand-moisturising he indulged in on the way meant he was glowing radiantly as we stepped out of the car at Walsall.

As we walked in, Flash and I got a bit of flirting in with the receptionists. Yawn. The rest of the group went off to Chiquito’s to have a Mexican. Chiquito’s is the most overpriced, overrated restaurant I have ever had the misfortune of stepping into. The service is terrible, and the food tastes like it just came out of a sewer. I wouldn’t feed it to my dog. Accordingly, I stayed at the casino and ordered some good old British bangers and mash.

The tournament kicked off at half nine, and unfortunately Scott, Minty and Jags, who weren’t in their seats at the time, were not allowed to play. I busted pretty quickly, and so sat in 2pound/2pound cash game. One interesting hand: Folded round to me on the button, and I pop it up to 16 with 7d9d (it had been straddled). SB and straddler both call. Flop is ATx, and the SB leads into me for 25. Straddler folds, and I am pretty sure that SB is just making a probe bet here with a weak ace. I shove for 104, and he calls with AT. gg me.

I walk over to the tourney to see how the Warwick lads are getting on. Jambon, Mark and Flash are still in, so I watch for a bit. They are using this tourney to train some new dealers for next weeks festival, and I time one dealer. She takes 1min and 10 seconds, which is absolutely ridiculous. I know that Saef can fire those bullets off in less than 5 seconds, which is much more like it.

After being forced to wait an hour, I sit in another cash game (this time the blinds are 1pound/1 pound). Mostly Warwick players, but also a few middle aged men. I begin to notice that one of the guys is muttering under his breath and is getting pissed off with me, so obviously I try to get him on tilt. I make it 4 blind UTG, and he looks at me, blood boiling in his veins and face turning a dark crimson, and says, menacingly ‘10, BLIND’. Ooooooh. Looks like this chap has come to play. I call and he shoves the flop. I fold and he shows 26. Nh sirrr.

Another classic:

Me: ‘Raise’

Old Boy: ‘Is that the only f***ing word in your vocabulary?’

Me: “I say pot sometimes too”

Anyway, was getting some good banter going before he bluffed his whole stack off to Flash with ten high. As the cash game is finishing up, Jambon wanders over. Jambon lost TT v 55 all in pre (even hitting a ten), AK v AJ all in pre, and then Ax vs Tc6c on an Ac xx board (i think). Sounds very sick. Mark has a similar experience when his A2 lost to QJ on an A52 board. Jambon finishes 7th and Mark 5th. I quit the cash game 250 quid up, so a good night, all in all.

Bit of banter as we are leaving the casino: the security guard starts teaching me a few Martial Arts moves. His name was Theo, and here is a pic:

More banter on the way back as Flash gets pulled over by the police for speeding. He had drunk 7 Stellas and Scotch on the Rocks earlier at the casino. Luckily, the ole penny in the mouth trick worked a treat, and the breathalyser came back negative.

WARNING: APPRENTICE SPOILERS FOLLOW

The next evening, watched a bit of Hustle and The Apprentice with Flash and Lauren. I don’t think Naomi deserved to go, but Simon is pretty funny, and is good at break-dancing, so fair dues. No doubt Naomi will go on and have a starring role in the Porn industry.

A quick note that a ‘How well do you know Tommo’ quiz will appear on my Facebook profile soon. 20 multiple choice questions, and if anyone gets the lot right, I’ll give them a pat on the back. Ok, got an exam in half an hour, so I better dash.

: 01 Jun 2007 12:24 |  Tags: Casino Dealers Deepstack Flash Granger Jack Jambon Jd Mitesh Phil Poker Police Porno Saef Scott Theo Walsall Will |  Comments (20) |  Close comments |  Report a problem

USA

Well been a while since my last entry. Have been Stateside playing poker, drinking and seeing the sites. Many Thanks to Davey Lu for organising a fantastic trip and to all the people who came along for making it such a fantastic time.

Will probably whack some pictures on soon. Playing poker in US of A was certainly different, feel it’s helped my game somewhat, if only trying to get a better understanding of terrible player’s thought processes.

Really looking forward to next year. Living with Scott, Rick and Flash sounds like poker heaven, but I’m looking forward to getting out on the piss with them more. Rick and I should be catching up for anotherTequilla session pronto, wonder if he’ll get propositiponed again.

Pokerwise I spunked most of roll in states, and am now waiting for mansion to cough up the £1.1k they owe me. I think I will go about building a roll sensibly. I dominated the tournys on stars last few academic terms, yet it’s been Ha££INGOL’s strip club fund that has reaped the benefits.

Should be back up to Uni before start of term to put in some hours on the poker front. Will also look into playing GSOP as those fish deserve a good frying and I somehow didn’t place in the last £250 comp.

: 21 Sep 2006 19:11 |  Tags: Poker |  Comments (0) |  Close comments |  Report a problem

If at first you don't succeed, rely on Scandanavians to do well..

Anina, a friend of mine, who Flash and I met in Copenhagen played the $150 freeze on stars last night. I went out with AQ to JJ, I was happy to reraise allin, as I was trying to represent a squeezeplay, as button had already called the raise. However, the original raiser called me with JJ and it was off to the races. I don't mind how I played the hand here, I didn't really want to play against an aggressive opponent with AQ oop, and the latter fold by the flatcaller vindicated my move further. People often say "look for better spots", however, at present in these tourney stakes, I do not feel that I can sit around waiting for hands.

Anyway, as Anina and I had a 50/50 my involvement was not over. She asked my advice on one hand where there there was a player allin and an active sidepot, she held QJ on a Q high board, and when matey boy moved in she asked for advice. Being keen to assert my bravey, I obviously advised that she fold. Unfortunately the other chap held TT..OOPS..It was comforting when she told me "I don't know why I asked you anyway, I knew I should have called", it's moments like this when I take great pride in my decision making.

Progressing further without being hampered by my advice Anina reached the final table. Just as I was settling down under my duvet the unthinkable happened, she disconnected. I was impressed that Pokerstars gave her 4 minutes to reconnect, however, to no avail. Fortunately I found her phone number in an old email and gave her a call.

So I played the final table for her, I must say it was great fun playing under the guise of a Scandanavian Girl, I think I shall change Mary's location. We were the shortstack after a few rounds of folding..However, the Scandanavian influence was strong..before we got too short I moved in with 8To, and upon being called was rather concerned. However, our opponent held AK and was drawing dead on the turn when 8T fulfilled it's often unrealised potential.

Now we had a few chips to play with, however, unfortunately there was an excellent player with a large stack to our left, this chap wanted to dance; but we didn't fancy having our toes broken by his clod hoppers. Before long, after having pf raises snapped off it was back into allin mode.

We ended up coming 5th for $3.8k, a tidy sum, who know's what could have been if our final frenzied K7 push had stood up against AT…Top prize was 17k, which was collected by the disco diva on our left who spoilt our party.

Anina did really well to make final, and I think I played it fine, I certainly didn't disgrace her Scandanavian reputation and made a few dollars to boot.

Looks like it's going to be a nice day, which is good as I've got a cricket match this afternoon. The past two games I've been the subject of some horrific LBW decisions…BAD BEAT..46 overs in the field followed by one bad decision…Day over

: 03 Jun 2006 09:09 |  Tags: Anina Poker |  Comments (0) |  Close comments |  Report a problem

The Return

Was eating out in Leamington Bar and Grill for a spot of lunch (this has now become a regular occurence due to my recent string of MTT flukes), when who should we see sitting in the cheap seats but Jimmy (Mr Carr for all those not on first name terms with him).

Taking pity on him, we offered him a glass of decent red and began to tell him why he is funny, but, then again, he should be, as he is a comedian– I think he took this in the post–modern ironic sense in which it was inteneded. He excels in his field, yet James, Flash and I excel in our chosen fields to..ant breeding, sleeping on sofas, and knowing ALL the words to Candy shop.

Anyway I haven't blogged in a month, I'm still alive. I've sat my French politics exam and signed it off as the work of shaniac, that man truly is an artist. Had some decent MTT scores, but I don't think the level of achievement I have reached this month is sustainable.

: 02 Jun 2006 18:11 |  Tags: Carr Jimmy Poker |  Comments (0) |  Close comments |  Report a problem

Oxford Cup

Well, I have so much to say about this. Here goes.

After a hearty Rootes breakfast,we were full of good cheer and humour.Spurred along by the tireless lyrical genius that is "Candyshop", and the boost button the journey to Oxford passed quickly.

Upon arrival it was obvious that the tournament was going to be on the shambolic side. However, my confidence was buoyed when I was greeted by an American wearing sunglasses who appeared to be "organising" registration. Clearly, this gent felt the shades necessary in order to shade his identity, lest he was lynched by the hoardes of disappointed punters who had unwittingly forked out £7.5k for the pleasure of a smoke filled, dirty hole. However, perhaps the lack of natural light made some of the internet players feel at home.

Without doubt the tournament directors did a superb joke, who could fail to see the funny side ofthe MC's Alzheimers joke..About 400 people at a guess. Thought it was in the best possible taste myself..A considerable sum of the £7.5k must have been spent on the audio equipment, we were lucky enough to hear the life memoirs of the terribly amusing gent, who seemed to be havinga wonderful time with the microphone.

Performances aside, this had the potential to be a shining example of tournament poker. This compounded my misery, I felt incredibly dissapointed, despite the huge amount of rake taken, there was no customer satisfaction whatsoever. The standard of play was pretty poor, but this is no problem. Clearly not for Simon Trumper, who despite finishing second was whinging about the ability of the field. Thought it was a nice touch from a player who went broke, that's the tournament rollercoaster for you Simon.

The event was also full of a large amount of unsavoury characters, I'd expect this in a casino environment, but clearly the organisers felt the need to whore out the event..No doubt to ensure they generated enough to pay for Eric Engler's snappy wardrobe. Held under the guise of a student event, the field was full of weak/tight and loose/weak middle aged men who had a rather exagerrated sense of their own ability.

On the bright side, 1/2 pint of coke was only £1.50, very reasonable I'm sure you'd agree. Over all this event was no more than cynical exploitation, I'm shocked the University Poker League would endorse such a chaotic travesty. Whilst I understand the field was large, the players were dehumanised, barely treated as humans as we were enforced to endure the ridiculous self dealing ettiquette. I felt violated by my experience in Oxford.

: 02 May 2006 18:24 |  Tags: Casino Deepstack Mitesh Poker |  Comments (10) |  Close comments |  Report a problem

Saturday poker

Just won $1.3k in the $100 PL FO on Stars. Cracked KK with 33, QQ with 77, QQ with J9 and KJ with KT. Apart from that, played pretty well.

Using some of my winnings to play a bit more. $50 STT, $11 rebuy, $13 double shootout, $10 deepstack and a $10 Omaha tourney. Will play the Million Dollar Guaranteed soon too.

At least I've made back some of the money I lost betting on the snooker.

: 29 Apr 2006 16:29 |  Tags: Deepstack Flash Landora Poker |  Comments (1) |  Close comments |  Report a problem

Oxford Cup: The Preview

Looking forward to heading to Oxford this weekend. Will be a good chance to listen to the lyrical genius of Candyshop. Am feeling very confident, although there are a few players from Warwick I will be keeping my eye on. Jambon is one of those, and I also feel Alex Liang is a bit of a wildcard (he is due a result soon, he hasn't had one for donkeys years). The softly spoken Mitesh is another one to watch.

The sad news is that Devilfish has let the whole of the UK Poker Scene down by his decision to dishonour his previous commitment and visit strip clubs in Vegas. Bloody Northeners! Oh well, I suppose at least he is not beating his wife.

: 27 Apr 2006 14:45 |  Tags: Casino Deepstack Flash Jambon Landora Liang Mitesh Northeners Poker Wasop |  Comments (0) |  Close comments |  Report a problem

Reflections on WaSOP

Well forgive me, it has been too long since my last confession…

The past few days have been a bit of a blur…mainly alcohol induced. Anyway I'll run through the main occurences for those interested.

Thursday:

After having only had 6 hours sleep in the previous 72, my nap was interruped by Alan Pars (Parsy). He informed me that he was in the bar and had started boozing. I promised to join him and promptly fell back to sleep.

However, by 9pm I had made it onto campus met Parsy at the bar, from there we progressed to the beer festival and met with Rick, Matt and friends..Parsy recommened an ale that was pretty good, however, before long he was whinging and clearly missing the lager filth he normally consumes.

We then moved onto the Union and saw a band called Breakestron.To be honest Parsy and I were not really convinced that this was such an effective use of our time as drinking. But before long Alan milkshake seemed to bringing the boys to the yard. Rick was perfectly at home wearing his hat, whilst Manny was content pouring beer over some guy and his girlfriend.

We caught a rather large pink taxi back to Sydenham and watched "Beat the bailiff"-A classic programme. Parsy slep soundly in Dave Lu's bed dreaming of his friend in the haberdashery who he knew he was sure to be seeing soon.

: 07 Mar 2006 21:13 |  Tags: Landora Poker Wasop |  Comments (0) |  Close comments |  Report a problem

£5 rebuy tournament

After Flash had given me a good thrashing at chess in the Graduate, it was along to Social studies. The King of landora poker himself was sat on my original table, and witnessed medouble up holding A8 and getting all my chips in on the turn with 2pr to crush my opponents AK.

After a nippy venture to CostCutterwith Mr James O'maha-the nicest man in Warwick Poker it was back to the grindstone. I massaged my stack up to aound 20k before making what I consider a very dubious play. Overbetting utg holding TT, when Chris Burton pushed from the blinds, I was less than happy. My original overbet meant I was essentially almost comitted to a call- at least mentally I was. Sure enough Chris flipped overrockets.

Down to about 6k with blinds at 400–800 I moved allin for the next 3 hands. I then cracked KK with 33, and to add insult to injury then cracked William's A7, holding 35, when the A24 flop gave me the wheel, it was clear I was destined to be my night.

I then made a steal attempt against Alex Straight who had raised it up in ep holding 99. It was time for me to find out where I was with the monster that is Q5, Alex confirmed exactly where I wa after deliberating for a few minutes. However, the Queen on the river meant rather than being up 'shit creak' I was coasting along on the QE2.

Played aggressively around the bubble and before you could say "35 flopped the wheel" it was time for the final table. There were some definite players there in the shape of Pav, Dhruv, SnakeKing, Alex Liang, and Brutal Stack. However, despite the strength of the enemy, my army of chips meant I was in with a great chance of a top 2 finish.

As players dropped out it was left to me and "the kid" for a showdown at what Lukin was worried was midnight. The Kid was not quick on the trigger, instead he kindly handed me the rope to hang myself, bluffing off my chips with merely King high.

A good night all in all, I won a seat in WASOP and £75 to boot. It was just a shame I was out of earshot of Richard Mylles as I was unable to benefit from his words of wisdom on cash game strategy. Oh well, you can't have all the luck!

: 28 Feb 2006 17:46 |  Tags: Poker Wasop |  Comments (3) |  Close comments |  Report a problem

Poker Marathon

Played a long sesion on Pokerstars yesterday. Was pretty pleased with how patiently I played especially in the $30 deepstack. After missing a lot of draws early on and not getting above the starting stack of 5000 for a coupleof hours I battled hard and never gave up.

In the $10 deepstack I played for 5 hours for a profit of just $5..However, you can't knock a final table cash and so intend to persevere with these events.

Flash played the Monte Carlo sat and made a terrific call pre-flop holding JJ and was not phased by his tournament life being on the line. Unfortunately he didn't win a seat and played an interesting pot holding A8 on an AK8 board. Unforunately his opponent held a set of Kings.

Big week coming up work wise with a couple of essays to crack on with. Have the WASOP and going home to look forward to..I'm intending on going in fancy dress..

: 27 Feb 2006 00:42 |  Tags: Carlo Deepstack Flash Monte Poker Wasop |  Comments (0) |  Close comments |  Report a problem

The black hole that is Star City

With ten fellow slackers last night I visited the Star City casino complex to compete in the £10 rebuy competition.

The whole place looked like a circus, and I was particularly perturbed by the lavatories being named "restrooms". However, I am sorry to say that this shocking inditement on the establishment was perhaps only a minor irritation in comparison with the other horrors that awaited.

The dealers' incompetence was a disgrace, they clearly shouldn't have ever been employed, couldn't they do something more useful, like claim "Jobseekers Allowance"? The speed of their dealing was incredibly frustrating and splitting the pot and calculating sidepots clearly regarded as a massive inconvenience.

The structure of the tournament was incredibly fast which enabled me to adopt a hyper-aggressive style in order to build my stack by blind-stealing. I became incredibly frustrated with our dealer; incidentally I have played snap with 5yr olds who are more articulate and better card handlers than the travesty that was our dealer.

Clearly not being one to suffer in silence it became apparent that our charming dealer was aware of my displeasure. Obviously rather than treat the cause of the problem i.e terrible dealers, I was apparently threatened with being asked to leave the tournament, although this was never mentioned to my face.

Being a polite lad at heart I managed to add a scrap of sincerity to an apology. Upon the final table I felt I was the most accomplished player and was feeling very confident of my ability to take many pots down to China Town preflop. Buoyed by a glass of decent red wine I became a raising machine who one of my opponents described as "one aggressive bastard".

One particularly amusing hand occured when I held 85o..With 2 limpers and blinds at 2k 4k and a couple of limpers a 15k raise from the Small blind seemed the order of the day. One player, the ep limper called, and uponn hitting a 5 (mid pair) I put the chap allin, he called off his chips with AJ and my hand stood up. The old guard at the table were visibly shocked, and I felt that no-one fancied getting involved with me, as I had a tonne of chips and was capable of running anyone over…

Unfortunately a pre-flop raise met with some resistance from this chap, Ronnie, I had AJ and made a pot sized continuation bet on the flop, and he moved right over the top. I had to lay down.

I now started raising like a man possesed as my stack was around 40k and blinds at 3k-6k. One memorable moment was moving in with T3s utg only for my opponent to fold 77 face up, claiming he didn't fancy gambling against 2 overcards. Other raising hands included 84,26,27,2T etc….

So I stole my way back up to 100k with four players left. Unfortunately I made a move that clearly led to murder on the dance floor when my pre flop allin with K3 failed to convince 'The Kid' and 'Frenchy' that their 99 and AK were inferior…

Out in 4th for a somewhat dissapointing £340. I felt I played incredibly well, and received compliments from several players. Whilst I could have tempered my aggressive style after having resusitating my stack, the blinds were still high, and I was playing to win.

Returned to leamington, and was in bed under poker stars table cloths by 6am…

: 23 Feb 2006 18:02 |  Tags: Casino Poker Star City |  Comments (0) |  Close comments |  Report a problem