Setting Myself Up For 2012

Dec. 14, 2011

It's been about a year since I last blogged and overall I have to say the last 2 years of poker/ gambling have been a total nightmare (up until a few months ago ). Between PLO, casino games, staking and sports betting I probably managed to lose a few million since 2009.

The last few months however have been very progressive, I vowed to never gamble on anything other than no limit holdem poker ever again and it's starting to prove its worth. I had been running up small rolls on stars and busting them just before they hit 100k; it was then when I thought I would try my hand on the euro sites.

So between Ladbrokes ad ipoker in the last 3 months (without playing more than 4 days a week) I managed to really get a grip of no limit again and have netted around 400k USD at mostly 25 50 hu (some 6 max too ). There's not so much action on the euro sites and I haven't grinded too hard so I'm very happy with my win rate at the minute. I'll be making a good deposit on stars before the New Year and be expecting to have some great HU battles with some of the stronger regulars like Kanu7, Susie smith and Takechip. Looking forward to that as opposed to 1 tabling the euro bumhunters.

As far as tourneys go they have been extremely tilting. I bubbled the 25k high roller in EPT Madrid then went on to do the exact same in the London high roller, but I just came back from Prague and that high roller went a bit different . I was pretty much chip leader of the tourney from the offset and went into the final table as 1 of the top stacks. We got down to 4 handed and I had 400k, another guy had 400k and Timex and Philbort both had around 120k when this hand came up.

I had J6 dd on the button which was an easy raise on Timex's blind as he had a shove fold stack and the big stack in the small blind had been playing very honestly with me, not tangling at all but on this occasion decided to peel the raise, and then so did Timex .

Flop came down K 8 2 ddd, so I flopped the 3rd nuts! Both players checked to me so I bet 17k into 35k which prompted the big stack in the sb to check raise to 50k. The second he raised I was honestly thinking, FML, this is too sick. I thought about clicking back on the flop and trying to get to showdown cheaper by checking back the turn if he did have the nuts but then I thought that play was bad overall and that to flat call was probably the best play. The turn bought the 6 of hearts, he now leads for 80k which is a strong bet and really felt like the nuts, the right amount to set him up for a pot sized all-in shove on river.

So now I really though I'm beat. He just wouldn't flat call me from the sb with any combo of lower flushes i.e. 109, 97 dd, he would 3 bet or most likely just fold that hand pre flop, however I thought 2 things on the turn. My hand was still too strong to fold at this point, I have to call 1 more and fold any brick on the river and then I also thought if the board paired it would look so much like I had a set that if he did check or bet small on the river I could shove and he would have to fold his nut flush.

So I peeled off 1 more card and the river came an off suit ace. He now set me in as expected. My first thought was that the ace should easily save me here because now the only realistic hand he could of been bluffing with was the blocker like AJ, but then I thought he should know that top pair really doesn't have any showdown in this spot as me calling 80k on the turn looks like a flush or a set and not a QK, Qd type hand, so now it boiled down to what flushes could he have.

He was a good tournament player and never calls me from the sb with ace rag dd, it had to be a hand like ace ten dd, a9 dd, and maybe qt dd although the former 2 seemed unlikely imo. I really thought he would 3 bet those 2 combos pf. So here we have it, does he have the single hand in this spot (ace ten dd) to beat me or does he have something else like 109 dd, AJ off, ace ten off with a diamond etc . I then asked the tourney director if I could announce my hand which he allowed since it was a HU pot, so I went ahead and told my opponent I had J6 dd. He didn't flinch, he even looked more comfortable now than he had done throughout the whole hand....... huge tilt for me.

This player had told me earlier that he plays low stakes mtts online. He had been playing with 10 blinds for maybe 8 hours on the final table so the 50k for 4th or the 175k up top should have really indicated he was not bluffing now. He wasn't bluffing; he was cool as fuck, so happy with his spot.

After maybe 20 minutes of painful tanking, having worked out that it was extremely likely he had the nuts and knowing that if I did fold I would still have double the chips the other 2 players had and a great shot at 1st place something tilted I'm my mind. I can't put my finger on it. I threw my chips in knowing I was going to be shown the ace ten of diamonds.

YES he had it......FML. I don't think many players get away from this hand but this time I really just knew he had it and should have folded. I'm good enough to fold and didn't do it, HUGE TILT.

Busto in 4th for 50k Euro's, monumentous tilt. Another reason I think I called was that I had a very similar hand in the televised Pokerfarm cash game only 2 days before. It was so upsetting for me to be shown the nut flush twice for around 150k euro's both times.

The hand in the cash game occurred under a very different scenario. For those that watched this cash game you would have seen there was a HUGE WHALE ( Leon ) in the game and after the filming had finished we continued the game in the poker room. I had bought in for 20k originally and had 80k in front of me at this point, we were playing 100/200 and Leon would sometimes make it 5k pre flop and laugh, lol.

In this hand Andy Mosley (one of the best British cash players) limps utg, Leon limps, 2 other nits limp in late position and I'm in the bb with q9 ss. I could have checked and sometimes would have but wanted to inflate the pot with Leon in with what I would have expected to be a very bad hand given his limp. Everyone called my 1300 raise and the flop came down 3 clubs 4 spaces 8 clubs. Leon says to me 'be careful' upon seeing the flop , I know 100% he's missed and had he not said that I might not have c bet into the 5 of them. Given he was playing so crazy I thought everyone would fold everything but absolute monsters here on this flop to try and get to the next hand .

Mosley called my c bet of 4.5k, everyone else folded and at this point I'm putting him on 33, 44 or a hand like 45cc, 46 cc since he limped utg and now wanted to call my strong c bet so I have to put him on quite a big hand. If he does have 33 or 44 I don't think he will raise me because he knows I'm too good to stack off there with just an over pair.

The turn brings the best card in deck for me, the 10 spades. I now I had a gut shot straight flush draw and 2 over cards to the 8, plus this is one of the safer over cards for an over pair to continue betting , so I bet 11.5k into like 18k. At this point, if he does have 33 or 44 most people would just jam with all the draws out but Andy is a very good player and vs. me I think he would still flat call.

So he did, and the river is the death card for me.... 6 of spades! I have back doored the 3rd nut flush in a pot where there is close to 50k in the middle and we both have 50k back. Now I thought, if I bet 25-30k he will just sigh and call pretty quick with a set. Then I thought, if I check he still has to value bet a set every time in this spot, and he also might turn his 4cc type hands into bluffs. He could also have made a light call on the flop with 45 ss or a4 ss, those I thought were less likely as I expect him to fold these hands on the flop given the table dynamics.

So I tanked checked, trying to rep an over pair and that I'm feeling sick about the river. He bets 19k and at this point I was loving life. I was behind to 1 hand and had he had the ace 4 spades he would have been making a bad call on the flop which he doesn't do very often and especially not in this game with a monster whale on the table. I thought I was golden, was sure he had set or busted pair with clubs and I was even more convinced that at least the 70k in the middle was all mine!

So I tanked a lil and then said all-in. He called in less than 1 milly second (yes he had a4 spades).

So so sick, out of the game and no more reloads for Leon :((((((( It was a brutal hand and I had played so good the whole day, chipping up constantly. Had the river been ANY other card apart from an off suite 4 or ace I would bet 15k-20k and he would have folded in less time than he took to call since he always puts me on a over pair in that spot. Sick river, why not the jack of spades !!!!

So two nasty coolers costing me around 300k Euro, albeit I could have gotten away from the J6dd tournament hand but the hand v's Andy was just so brutal.

10k tournament on stars on this weekend, hope to ship that and will be playing some cash there very soon, alias lb6121! gg Prague

Anyway, here's a hand from the cash I played against Jungle which all but summed up my luck.