LEPO

I played the rather fancily named Leprechaun "European Poker open" over the weekend. It was a €200+20 event which got 139 people in total and I ended up splitting first place for €7k. This is pleasing for all sorts of reasons. It's a great way to end the year. It gets me out of my December hole and I shall be on the Hendon mob making me a real poker player!

Overall I am generally pleased with my play. The field was pretty poor and I felt pretty comfortable for the vast majority of the tournament. I played on day 1A which was the Saturday. For once iPokers incompetence served me well. I wasn't going to play it but because they deleted the tournament and I couldn't unregister for it. I decided just to play it.

Early on things were quiet as tends to be the way with these type of tournaments. There was 1 big pot though early on. I 3bet some French guys button open with 2 black Aces. He called. The flop was J95, 2 hearts on boards. I cbet, he called. Turn was 6 of hearts. I ended up check/folding. I honestly have no idea what was the best play. I think there was around 1.5 times the pot in his stack on the turn. I think I either just b/c or c/f. The problem is I am clueless to his range. Does he bet the Turn with Jx, Jx with a heart? Does he slowplay a set, can he have KK, QQ which he slowplayed from pre-flop? I just didn't know and ended up taking the "safe option" as I was still left with my starting stack on a fairly good table.
I suspect getting it in is better though. This was further backed up when I busted him. He limps in sb after 1 middle position limper. I raise, he limp/raises, I shove with AKs and he snap calls with 98s. GG sir.

The rest of the day I just gradually build my stack up by stealing and generally getting good value of my good hands postflop. I really felt like I had a huge edge post-flop on vast majority of the field and the rare times it got beyond a cbet on the flop I really felt in control and always knew where I stood and could get them to do what I wanted to do. I finished Day 1 with 54,400 chips. That was 37bb and I was in the top half of the field so in a good situation.

Day 2 started off fantastically. "Mad" Marty Wilson got moved to the table 20 minutes in and he doubled me through when he min raised utg, called my button 3 bet with A5 offsuit. He check/called a 742 rainbow flop and donk betted the turn which handily enough was an Ace. I went all in and he took about 2 minutes to call despite getting somewhere around 6-1 on his money, I had AK. It's pretty hard to misplay a hand any worse then he did there. After that I was chip leader with around 150,000. The blinds were 800/1500 so I was in a great spot with around 36 left but I spent the next few hours on the same stack size; never deviating more then 30,000 each way.

A crucial part of the tournament arrived for me as the bubble arrived. 14 people were going to be paid. A deal was proposed where we take 500 of the top and give 250 to 15th and 16th. The problem with this was 16th has just been knocked out. To my amazement everyone seemed happy with the deal; I on the other hand vetoed it as there was no way I was agreeing to pay someone already knocked out. This rather pissed off 2 of the people at my table who started mouthing of to me saying "I need to be thought some manners" or later on saying rather sarcastically "He thinks he is going to win this" The irony of that comment is not lost on me. This led to a much nastier atmosphere at the table and a general feeling that everyone was against me.

Around 20 minutes later the 2 hands that would go a long way to my success occurred. Blinds were 4000/8000 I was on the big blind, Utg who had raised my bb a few times went all in for 56,000. It got called by someone on the button. I had around 160,000 chips. I had A9 of spades. I felt I was ahead of the range of the utg raiser and the button was the type of guy who could fold a medium pair type hand, even something as high as JJ no matter how terrible that would be. Giving the dead money in the middle I felt I didn't need much folding equity to make it work so shoved. He snap called with Aces, utg had T9s. So it was hard to be any more dominated then I was seeing as both of them had each 1 of my cards. Still, not a problem as the flop featured 2 spades and a collective groan around the table as the third spade hit the turn. Everyone started going mental at me saying how terrible it was and so on.

A few minutes after that I had 350,000 chips. I raise otb with 85s. I am raising any 2 as guys in the blinds were particularly tight and thought I was nuts and I didn't think they adjusted well to it at all by not 3 betting me enough and just folding too much. The guy in the bb calls. He was 1 of the people who lets say let his feelings known to me about my vetoing of the deal and how aggressively he thought I was playing. The flop is 877 rainbow. I cbet and he raises all in for most of my stack. My biggest fear was an slowplayed overpair like Aces, Kings trying to trap the aggro young guy. On the other hand there is pretty much nothing else he can have other then that that I lose to. I ended up calling and he had 66 and I held.

I think if I cbet that board that I have to call an all in cause it's really hard to get value out of anything so the only way I can get value is to induce a raise with overcards or whatever. I think checking behind and just pot controlling is also a valid way of playing it and arguably is better considering I felt he was on the tight side. The fact that I felt he could be somewhat after me swayed me towards how I did play it but I am still unsure.

That hand meant the final table was formed and I was the big chip leader with 650,000 chips. Aidan was in 2nd with around 500,000. I felt really good about things and thought unless I got majorly coolered I was definitely getting into the top 3. The final table started off well. I was picking up chips and generally in control.

After around 90 minutes I have around 850,000 chips and momentum is totally with me but that totally got turned around in 2 hands. Blinds are 8000/15,000 with an ante of 1,000. Guy to my right pushes all in on the button for around 240,000. I pick up 77 in the sb. I felt he was a bit tired and tilty and wouldn’t have gone all in with an big pair so I called. He had ATo and hit on the Turn. The very next hand I raise with 33, Ciaran goes all in for about 170,000. He had 3 bet me a good few times so I called. He had 77 and held up. This was a huge turning point as not only had I lost the chip lead and was back in the main pack but Ciaran now had chips to play with and had direct position on me. He then preceded to 3 bet me liberally and made my life really tough. I had to tighten up and also regain my composure.

I played really tight for an hour and another big moment for me occurred. Ciaran got knocked out in fifth. This opened up things right up as it meant I could steal more especially on the button as the blinds were very tight. The guy who I doubled through when he had AT got knocked out in fourth. An hour or so later I got it all in with ATs vs. 77 and hit on the river. This meant Aidan and I were exactly even in chips. We immediately agreed on the deal to split the money after leaving money to the dealers. I definitely think I would have been favourite to win a heads up battle but the blinds were about to go up and it was a little too crapshooty for my liking and I was getting tired so happy with the split.

In terms of my overall play I am most happy with my patience and how I kept my head after I took those 2 big hits at the final table. It can be very easy to compare your situation to what you once had and try to over-extend to reach it and end up blowing your chips. On the downside I still think I wasn’t aggressive enough at times. This would likely amuse some on my opponents who thought I was insane but there was opportunities when I could have raised it up more and didn’t as I kept thinking people have to play back against me. I still give too much credit to people and assume they do what they should do to adjust to me, live players very much don’t do that. My other issue is not thinking through every variable clearly. I think this is a function of online poker and iPoker in particular as you have so little time you almost rely on instinct. I need to use the time advantages live play has to take in more of the information and make better decisions.

Anyway this has turned out to be much longer then I anticipated it to be. It was a great weekend and end of the year for me. It is just what I needed!

Hallelujah

I have never been much of a music fan so music debates and arguments over the charts always escaped me. This week this years X-factor winner got the Christmas number 1 again covering an old song. I knew this song well as my at times my brother used to play an older version by Jeff Buckley on a near loop. A big campaign started on facebook to get Buckleys version number so I was subjected to many mails and texts to support some dead guys version of the song. Honestly, I just don't get this. Why the hell do people care. So called "real music" fans drive me up the wall. It's like they have no concept that it's personal taste. Why are you so offended so that a big bunch of 15 year olds buy some pop song, they like it and more people like it then whatever indy band happen to be hip. Tough shit. Try worrying about something that matters and stop trying to convince me to care!

I have been making an effort to read a lot more. I used to always read books as a kid. I loved Enid Blyton, 3 investigators etc. Anything with adventure in it but school seemed to have the opposite effect of what it should. I never read during semester and lost my love for reading. It should be the opposite and promoting it to me. Lately I have been trying to address this. My brother gave me some Stephen King books, I also bought catch 22. It just feels like 1 of those books that everyone should read in their lifetime.

I also read the Selfish Gene. It's weird I have never heard of or being exposed to the ideas in the book. There is something inspiring about learning something new, it gives an inner confidence and it just makes you feel better about yourself. I think that it goes a long way to explaining the deception people feel about poker. I remember learning all about pot odds back in the day. I felt like I had eaten the salmon of knowledge and knew something which only the privileged few had access to. The fact that everyone knows pot odds didn't matter to me at the time as it was new to me. I am sure many others have felt that and feel the same when they discover 3 betting and so on. It makes it very easy to think you are better then you are.

On the poker front things are getting better. Last week was steady. I am well back in the zone now. Yesterday I ran like a god and had a huge day. I am close to being out of the hole that I found myself in the first 5 days of the month. This is something that seems to becoming a pattern. I get myself in the hole at the start, stabilise myself and then run like a god in the final few days. Perhaps I should start playing on the 20th...

Finally I watched this 2 or 3 weeks back. It was a documentary on BBC broadcast at the start of 2008 called the power of the planet. There are 5 episodes. This is part 1 of episode 1 and I highly recommend it if you haven't watched it before. The links to all the other parts are there on the right

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=kjldb9Z5fmA

Not much happening

Not been playing much the last week.
I just looked up my stats for the week and I have only played 3k hands which is a fairly poor effort on my part. That constant tightrope of trying to play a decent amount of hands but also only playing when I want to is an eternal struggle to me and still something I don't have an answer to. 1 of the reasons to move up levels is simply I don't have to play as many hands to win a reasonable amount. A rather obvious statement but important. I will likely never be a big grinder of 40k hands a month so to compensate it I need to move up as 200nl isn't going to serve my needs at a limited amount of hands.

Usual story in those stats, 400nl I am down but it's only 600 hands while at 200nl I am up fairly big over 2400 hands although that us down to 1 guy. All my profits from the week come from these 2 hands.
http://forumserver.twoplustwo.com/showpost.php?p=7571848&postcount=4983

First time I ever had 1000bb on 1 table which felt good and likely my biggest pot ever. He was extremely awkward to play against though as he usually had position on me and kept overshoving all in which when we both have 500bb poses some tricky situations. I definitely made 1 bad fold before it but my patience paid off in the end to spectacular effect.

Mosconi cup, Preimiership, Heiniken Cup and NFL are on pretty much all weekend so it's an excellent weekend of sport but it will likely mean I don't get many hands in. Next week I will try to improve and go for 7k if I feel up for it.

400nl my nemesis

So I've slightly calmed down after my last entry.
It was mainly prompted by a hand where someone check/raised me twice on the flop and the turn. Check/raises are annoying but when it happens after you make a really retardo terrible bet it makes you want throw things at walls. Still, normally I wouldn't get as angry as I did. It's a cumulative thing cause so far December has been really going badly for me. It's about 75% running bad, 25% playing bad but it's the 25% that pisses me off. The problem is this always happens when I make a conscious effort to try move up to 400nl. It feels like I am just destined to languish at the obscurity of 200nl.

At the start of this year I was playing 200nl and it seems I will end it that way. That's not something to be proud off. Now I obviously had a lot going on throughout the year and took 2 or 3 major breaks which stifled any moves up along with my cautious nature with my bankroll. In terms of poker ability I feel like I have improved leaps and bounds but if I want to keep this up I need to show it next year. If I am still at 200nl at this point next year something is majorly wrong and if I haven't already I will likely have to take a cold hard look at everything.
Still a year a long time away!

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Wish this month had never started.
Bah

November

November was a pretty good month all in all. As graph shows I finished up $4k, when you take "loyalty bonuses" and exchange rates into account I think it roughly offsets to make it €4k. If you add the IO ticket it nearly doubles it but I am not going to add that to I am fully 100% certain that I have it. I got told everything will be finalised and I shall be registered before Christmas. I shall wait and see if that comes to pass.

I got 13k hands in November. 10k at 200nl which went very well. My bb/100 was 21. I definitely ran a bit hot but as I said in a previous entry my confidence is very high at the level and I feel like I should be able to crush it on Ipoker. I got 2k hands in at 400nl and finished virtually breakeven, down $56 to be exact. Nothing much to take from that. I still felt comfortable at the level, even most of my regs I was against were pretty weak tight and easy to play against. Although it would be good if the results start to back me up.

Considering my desktop was broken for nearly half the month the number of hands isn't too bad. I had problems getting back into the zone the last few days for unusual reasons. I actually have a normal sleep pattern! I keep conking out before midnight and waking up at 7-8am and as the number of tables don't pick up until late afternoon/evening I am only getting 1 session a day in. So need to sort that out and overall play more sessions at 400nl. I am aiming for at least 10k hands there this month. If I keep my confidence level high then the year should finish off well. I can also say goodbye to 2008 which will be most welcome.