Back home

Well made it back in one piece. Will do a proper post soon. Jet lag really taking it's toll, man England seems so dull and boring now!

Vegas, wow...

This is not gonna be a detailed Vegas post I think I will write about it more fully when I get home but I had my first live cash game last night so thought I should write a few things.

Firstly, wow, Vegas is amazing. Check out tree man above from the Bellagio, this thing moved and spoke, lol. We flew in at night which for your first time in Vegas I think has to be done, the city is a different place at night all lit up and is just amazing. There is loads I could talk about but that will have to wait.

So last night I played my first bit of poker here in Sin City. I'm staying in the Mirage and after kinda passing out for about half an hour owing to drink and serious lack of sleep and body clock all over the place I went downstairs to the poker room to see what was going on. I was a bit nervous at first I have to admit but the staff are very friendly. I initially put my name down for a $70 sit and go as I didn't wanna risk too much but this never got going and I got bored waiting so chose to sit in a $1/$2 cash game. Min buy in $100, max $300 so I opted to sit with $150. I took the 4 seat and was dealt cards before I had even sat down and got my chips sorted, not sure if I was supposed to post a blind or whatever I looked at 910o and quickly mucked. The flop came 99x...

I was a bit nervous at first, this was my first live cash game ever so I played very tight to begin with, folded KQo UTG for the flop to come KKx, lol. After about 15 mins of bad cards I pick up 2 red aces in position, the game was quite loose and it wasn't uncommon to see a pre flop raise of between $10-$18 get 2 or 3 callers. So 1 limper and I throw in $15 with my aces and everyone folds, great. Very next hand I get AhKh and make it $10, this time I get 3 callers... The flop could have been worse when it came 7h8h10h, was anyone playing my favourite hand of J9 suited? Anyway two checks to me I bet $25, guy behind me folds and the two checkers both call, nice, please blank the turn I think. Turn 3 non heart, sweet. Two checks to me again and by now my heart is pumping a bit and my hand is even shaking a little. I'm a bit rookie at counting out my chips compared to everyone else but somehow manage to fumble $50 and throw it in with my may-as-well-be nuts. First guy who is very loose but had a big stack and was a decent player now makes it $100, other guy folds and I can't believe my luck and ship the rest in which he duly calls with 6h4h, he misses his 2 outs and I scoop a massive pot. I can't tell you how great it felt to scoop in all those $5 chips, soooooooo much more satisfying than playing online. I tipped the dealer $5 (more than anyone else ever did, in fact I tipped them more than anyone did frequently, karma ftw). So it was fun to stack those chips and I felt a lot better with a stack and gradually relaxed into the game.

Two other hands of note, I am basically in a 4 way raised and 3 bet pot with Ad3d (don't ask). The flop comes xQQ, checked round, turn Q, checked round, river Q giving me the nuts, checked to me and I maybe a little too excitedly push forward one of the $50 stacks I have my chips divided into. Everyone folds and Mr.Loose asks me to show the ace so I oblige, there was quite a bit of showing going on, the game was friendly and relaxed with no one sitting there with hoodies and shades thinking they are Phil Ivey so it was all good.

Finally, I am dealt the 7d UTG but the dealer flips it so the card is dead. Next card 2, so I would have had 72o, great. Because of the misdeal however I'm obvioulsy given another card which is of course a 2. So I limp and a couple of others do and we see an AK9 flop with two diamonds, checked round and the turn brings the 2d for my set. I bet $10 and get raised another $45. Everyone else folds, I'm not sure I can put him on a flush but I just call half-hoping the board would pair. River is non diamond Q and I check. To my surprise he checks as well and shows A9 for two pair, (bet the flop maybe?!). So I scoop another nice pot, thanks for the mis-deal dealer!

I played for 2 and a half hours in total and left the table $264 up - not bad for my first live cash game! I wanted to leave with profit and a couple of people had left the table and I didn't wanna play too long. It was great fun though, the Mirage card room is really good and one of the better ones from what I have seen of the other casinos and I have seen a lot now! What's more drinks are free when you're playing! All people did was give the waitress a $1 chip as a tip so you are basically getting drinks for $1! I didn't have any though as I was just drinking my big bottle of water trying to rehydrate and wanted to observe how things worked. Next time though it's endless drinks for me!

Well, this has already been a lot longer than I intended. It's quarter to 5 in the evening local time here now and the sun is setting and the lights are coming up, this place really transforms at night. I can see the Bellagio fountains display from my 19th floor window, such a great view of the strip it's really something, quite magical in a way.

So I'm off to Vegas...

...more on that in a bit.

I haven't felt remotely compelled to blog recently. My poker playing has been typically erratic with some huge swings. I've been busto, span back up, busto again, span back up etc. Played a few sessions at $5/$10, initially successful until Monday night when I played heads up and proceeded to get raped by the deck having all my big hands cracked by the loosest fishiest opponent ever. End result was I did a load of money from my bank and felt the familiar feelings of desperation and despair and will I have to be going back to a shit job sooner than I thought?

I have such a huge psychological problem with poker and it's only when I have a big losing session that the value of the money really hits home and I sit at $100NL with $50 nursing my small stack like it's the last money I have in the world. Where days before I was 3 betting pre flop to $120... When I lose I feel the uncontrollable urge to win it back right now, this couldn't be any worse of an attitude towards poker when we all know it's a game of patience. I guess it's tilt at the end of the day, tilt has many forms and it rears it's ugly head with me far too often. I just don't know what I can do to overcome it, I probably never will in all honesty.

So after some awful sessions playing way over my bankroll I deposited $100 and have proceeded to play sensibly with a couple of semi deep runs in a few MTT's, a little bit of nitty cash play and now have a $500 roll again which only took me two nights to win. I ran like absolute shit in MTT's for weeks, losing every flip, losing huge pots on the river to opponents with a couple of outs, it all could have been so different. This seems to have changed somewhat in the last couple of days and I ran a little better, I ran ridiculously good in an MTT last night which I will write about in a minute because it really is unbelievable, it seems all my run-good was being saved up for this one tourney.

Notable results since last post have been:

5/389 for $1167

5/80 for $560

12/355 for $165

8/700 for $252

So I have over $2K of MTT winnings in October, maybe I should just stick to them and avoid cash? I honestly think if I didn't run so fucking awful in plenty of other MTT's for huge pots I would have made many more final tables too, and slightly deeper runs in any of them would have meant a great score. Anyway on to last nights tourney where I finished 8th of 700. This is ridiculous. I was all in early on with OESD and hit on river, not too amazing. Then about 4 from the bubble, totally card dead and without about 10BB's someone makes it 4000 and I am in the BB with QQ and a 10K stack, obviously all in but my opponent flips AA. The A10x flop doesn't really help matters either but I call for a Jack and the turn delivers with ease, do I hear a King on the river? I sure did! So from 2% on the flop I double up and at least cash. Then a bit later I am card dead again then finally dealt KK. EP raises I shove he calls with A10, flop KQ10 and I'm thinking uh oh, of course the turn is a Jack! But then my run good continues and the river brings another Jack and I'm still alive. Fast forward a while to when I have about a 60k stack. Some guy just raised everyone folded and he showed AA. Very next hand I am dealt 1010 in the BB, same guy raises and I decide to flat. Flop comes J high and I check call his bet, turn another low card I check again this time he bets very big about the pot. I decide to put the rest of my chips in which is not much more to him and to my dismay he flips AA again. But what's this? The river is of course the 10 and I double again. So fucking sick. Not sure I can ever complain about running bad again? But like I said I was more than owed some.

Anyway on to other news my laptop arrived and it's brilliant. Playing PKR on a fast computer is soooooooo much better. Oh yeah, so I'm off to Vegas on Tuesday!!! Since I had money I was like fuck it let's do something, I was originally gonna go to Australia but that was just too expensive so settled on Vegas instead. We don't have direct flights which is a bit shit but it means I get to go to Chicago and LA as well so at least I can say I have been to those places! The fact that I seem to have developed this fear of flying doesn't really help matters especially as I keep having recurring nightmares about plane crashes, fml! But in all honesty it's a stupid fear cos it's so safe so I'm just gonna look at it as an adventure and stop being such a pussy, it's not like I've never been on a plane before! We're gonna be staying at the Mirage which I heard is really nice and from the pictures it looks awesome, I can't wait! Not sure how much poker I'm gonna play out there, it's not gonna be all about poker, there are plenty of other things to do and it's my birthday on the Saturday 14th so to have my birthday in Vegas is gonna be awesome and such a nice change from going to a pub in St.Albans. I'm sure I'll play a tournament or 2 and probably some pissed up cash games at 3 in the morning when I can't sleep. Gonna be awesome to just be able to walk out of the hotel room, down the lift and step into a bustly poker room to play some cash!

I'm going to my sisters house this Saturday for a fireworks party, not at her house her garden is tiny but she lives at the bottom of the hill near Alexandra Palace and they put on a fantastic display every year. She is good mates with a solid poker player better known as grazza, most notably known for taking down the Ladbrokes European Online Championship of Poker Main Event or something for a cool $230,000. Apparently he's up for playing on Saturday so I look forward to some drunken limp/3 betting 72o and taking all his money!

I'll probably do some sort of post from Vegas but until then, let me run good and travel good! Good luck in whatever you're doing, and good luck to Phil Ivey and James Akenhead this Saturday for the main event final table, it sucks that I am just gonna miss being able to see this live but I really hope one of them takes it down. Right that's all for now this post is already long enough, here's to Vegas!