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Chipping Away (MAF) View profile

My 2006

Date: Fri, Dec 29, 2006

It's been an up and down year for me, and a few harsh lessons learnt. I keep a monthly record of my bankroll spread over the various sites. At the end of January, my bankroll was $647.08 which rose to a peak during the year of $872.03. I ended the year with $560.12, a loss of $86.96.

So what happened?

I started playing games which I simply couldn't afford to play, namely rebuys and higher limit Razz games than what I'm used to. The rebuys started as an experiment to try to qualify for the Sunday Stars Million tournament. I was pleased to qualify on my first attempt, but what I should have done is unregistered and kept the tournament $. Instead I decided to play as a load of ITH players were also playing that weekend and I wanted to join in. I thought that I should easily be able to qualify again. I was wrong. Although I used to do well during the rebuy periods, I used to find that I went card dead and failed to qualify. Rebuys can be very costly if you don't place in the money or qualify.

Another problem as mentioned was playing Razz beyond my means. This was due to me bonus chasing at Full Tilt and not finding the right limits to play at ($1/$2) due to the tables being full. I therefore tried to play at $2/$4 instead and didn't fare as well. I do remember blowing $80 in one session alone.

So now I'm playing games and limits that I feel comfortable with, namely 1 or 2 table SNGs at the $5.50 or $6.50 buyins. I've been playing a lot of turbos recently (which I used to hate) and have been quite successfull of late. In fact I made a nice profit in December from these alone to make my year to date bankroll figure look a bit better than it could have been. I will still play the occasional 180 man SNGs at Stars ($4.40 buyin) and they are good MTT practice. You can earn big if you get to the final table. I enjoy these and have made 5 final tables in about 40 attempts so far. But they are hard work and do use up a good 3-4 hours if you go deep.

During the year I also did try to step up to higher buyins. I was doing well at $5 and $10 SNGs and wanted to move up to $20 ones. Unfortunately the big hit to my bankroll from carrying on with this. I will let my roll get up a bit more before I attempt this again.

So as I said, a few lessons learnt, and lets hope I can use this to build up my roll during 2007.

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US banning online gaming

Date: Fri, Oct 13, 2006

Today George Bush is expected to sign a new law making it illegal for online gaming firms to accept payments from players in the US. This will therefore make it difficult for US poker players to play online as the companies will not be able to accept payments from them.

Why are they doing this? Well, the senator who introduced this bill, Bill Frist, has claimed it has been introduced to protect it's citizen from debt, addiction, and criminal activity. Yet, they're not banning live casinos, and if anything, this is going to make people play in more shadier cardrooms where there are no rules or controls. The other thing that makes this all suspicious is that the new bill has been tagged onto the US 'Port Security' bill which is the main bill protecting it's sea & airports from terrorism. What on earth does poker have to do with port security? The reason this was done was to avoid any possible objections or defeat. Which senator is going to vote against Port Security?

On all the poker forums I look at, the Americans are up in arms about this, and quite rightly too. But how does this affect me in the UK? Well, I can see 2 obvious things:

1) The standard of opponents will probably increase. This sounds like I'm stereotyping Americans as bad players. I suppose I am, but it's common knowledge that the easier games are during US peak times. There are a lot of very good Amercian players, but at the same time, there are a lot of very bad ones too.

2) The traffic will drop. When I want to play, I don't want to have to wait for half an hour for a table to fill up (this applies to SNG games). I want to play one straight away. Similarly with ring games. I hate it when there are hardly any $1/2 table free and I have to wait for someone to leave.

There is light at the end of the tunnel. Two of the major poker sites, Poker Stars & Full Tilt Poker have stated publicly that they will continue to accept US customers. This is good for me as these are the 2 sites I play the most at. Surprisingly Party Poker, the world's biggest poker site, has stated the opposite and will not be accepting US players. I say surprising because Party is one of the few sites that could have had some real clout when it came to opposing the ban and influencing others. Instead they did nothing and simply rolled over. Whilst they do have players from other parts of the world, I can't really see them being the force they once were. All their US customers are now defecting to the remaining sites opposing the ban. I've already withdrawn what little funds I had there.

What this has also done is see these sites compete for new players by offering all sorts of incentives. For example, Full Tilt & Absolute are now offering Rakeback on EXISTING customers. In the past, this only used to be offered to brand new customers. I've already applied for the Full Tilt offer which will pay me back 27% of all rake I pay. Due to the relatively low limits I play at, this won't amount to much, but it's better than nothing :-).

The next couple of months will be interesting times in the poker industry. I can see a lot of sites closing down. In my opinion, I don't think this is a bad thing. I personally think there's too many out there nowadays.

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Photos from APAT tournament

Date: Wed, Oct 4, 2006

Here are some photos taken by the organisers of the APAT tournament in Birmingham. The full gallery can be found here.

Anyway, here are few selected ones (click to enlarge them):

Me:

My table (I'm in top right hand corner):

Ikeee:

Matty Milne:

Biohazard (far left):

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September

Date: Mon, Oct 2, 2006

I managed to bring my downswing to a halt. Basically I realised I had tried to change my style of play, and it wasn't working. I tried to play a lot looser, play more marginal hands, and take more risks. It didn't work, but I feel I learnt alot from it. I have gone but to playing more tighter and so far it seems to have paid off.

I have also moved back to single table SNG tournaments, with a couple of recent wins. I also played a couple of $4 180 man SNGs with some good results including a 6th ($36) and a 3rd ($85). I also worked out that I've now played about 20 of these 180 man SNGS, with 4 final tables, including a 2nd place finish. Thats not a bad record IMO.

By aim for October is to try some $20 SNGs and see how I get on. I'd like to think I have the game to compete at this level, but I've just been overly cautious with my bankroll. If it doesn't work, I'll drop back down to the $10 level. Watch this space.

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APAT

Date: Mon, Oct 2, 2006

APAT is the newly formed Amateur Players Association & Tour. The aim of the association is to provide a voice and organisation for Amateur players like myself.

They held their inaugural live tournament event at the Broadway Casino in Birmingham on the weekend of 23rd & 24th September 2006. It cost me just £10 to join APAT, and a further £75 to enter the tournament. Due to the size of the venue, the tournament was restricted to just 120 entrants. To be honest, I left it quite late and didn't think I'd get in. I was quite surprised to get an email from them to say I'd been accepted. I knew some others from ITH were going, so that made the trip worthwhile in itself.

The prize structure was very top heavy with only top 9 getting paid. The top prize was £4000 plus a trophy, $1000 added to your Stars account, and an automatic entry to the next EPT event in Copenhagen (inc travel & expenses). A very nice prize indeed.

I got the train up to Birmingham around 10am on the Saturday. I had hoped to go earlier, but I was up until playing in a Stars 180 tournament the previous night (I came 3rd so it was worth it). I checked into the hotel, grabbed a bite to eat, and made my way down to the casino. After a while sitting in the bar, I met up with Suited_Jock (Matthew Milne), Ikeee, PaulNico & Biohazard. I have spoken to Matt & Ikeee many times on IRC whilst playing, so it was good to finally meet them in person (as of course the other guys). The tournament started at 3pm prompt. My main goal was to survive until day 2.

The play overall was very tight, and all of us commented that we hadn’t seen any really bad players. The competition was tough and we all knew it was going to be a long day. In fact it took about an hour and a quarter for the first player to be eliminated. We started with 10,000 in chips with blinds starting at 25/50 and rising every 40 minutes, so it certainly wasn’t going to be a crapshoot. I didn’t actually play a hand until the 2nd level. By the first break, I was on my starting stack.

With blinds at 100/200, I moved up to 17,000 with the following hand. I was in UTG+1 with KK. UTG had raised to 800. I reraised to 2000, he called. Flop was all rags. UTG checked, I bet 2000 and he re-raised me to 5000. My read on UTG was that he had been fairly tight but had a habit of overbetting some pots. I thought for a long time on this. Calling was out of the question as I didn’t want to see an Ace on the turn. Raising would have left me pot-committed, so I had to push. If he had AA (or an unlikely set), I was in trouble. He folded.

I kept around this level until the dinner break and finished that session on 16,500. Straight after dinner, I had a nightmare 3 hands in quick succession. Blinds were 400/800, I tried a semi blind steal in CO with A4s and got called by BB. BB was a good solid player and IMO probably the best player at the table (he eventually went on to finish 2nd). Flop was all rags. BB checked, I bet 2000 and he reraised me to 5000. I folded.

Next I was in BB with AK where I made a terrible play. All folded to SB who limped. I reraised to 2000 and he called. Again, flop was rags. He checked. I thought about it (for too long really) and should have pushed. Instead for some reason I simply checked back. Turn was a scary Q and SB bet 2500. I folded showing AK saying I knew I should have pushed the flop. SB said he knew I had that hand and showed K4s for the bluff.

The next disaster was a real beat. In fact I think it was the very next hand. It was all folded to me in SB with AQo. BB was short-stacked and I put him all-in. He called showing AQs (diamonds). Flop showed 2 diamonds and he completed his flush on the river. Ouch! I was now down to 6500 in 3 quick hands.

I managed to fight my way back with some pushes with JJ, QQ and Ax none of which got called. I then moved tables and manged to knock out a shortie with QQ again. By the final break I had fought back to 19,000 and was feeling good again.

Unfortunately it was short-lived as in the last session I went completely card-dead and had nothing to fight with. I was getting blinded away. In the meantime I saw Biohazard, Ikeee & PaulNico go out in quick succession (IIRC, I believe it was 67th, 60th & 52nd respectively, or close to that anyway).

They had a rule in the tournament that whenever anyone got knocked out everyone left should all applaud them. There was a funny moment when someone on our table hit a Royal Straight Flush. We all applauded, then everyone else joined in. We had to tell everyone that no one had got knocked out and it was a false alarm :-).

Shortly after this, Matt joined my table and he had been doing well with a stack of about 30,000. I was still card dead and hadn’t played a hand. There were a couple of occasions when I should have pushed with “any two”. I must confess that I just couldn’t pull the trigger when looking at total crap. This is a leak in my game. Maybe next time, I won’t bother looking at the cards :-). Anyway with blinds at 1000/2000, my stack had dwindled to 6000. UTG+1 had raised to 6000. I looked at 66. It was the best hand I’d seen in about 2 hours. I called and we got joined by the BB. Flop was something like QJxxQ. UTG+1 showed AK. This gave me hope as I showed. The BB very slowly turned over 77. I was out in 36th, just 3 minutes before the end of day #1’s play.

Overall I’m pleased at the way I played, despite the AK hand and the not pushing with any 2 cards earlier. I thoroughly enjoyed the day.

Matt went on to finish 3rd, and was really unlucky not to win the whole tournament. You can read about his exploits on the link to his own blog.

The next event is in Glasgow in November, which I won't be able to make. I do want to play more of these though in the future.

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Internet Problems

Date: Thu, Sep 7, 2006

I'm having problems with my broadband connection at home. In fact, I've had this problem for a while. I use a wireless connection, but every so often, the whole connection to the internet would fail (all the lights would go out and the modem would reset).

This used to get very frustrating in a tournament, but I never got round to sorting it out. That is until Monday. I was playing in a SNG at Full Tilt. The player to my immediate right had been very aggressive and making big raises and sometimes all-ins. I then got dealt AA, and started thinking how I could trap this guy. What happened? I lost my internet connection and my hand was folded pre-flop. Nooooooo!!!!

That was the final straw. I then rang up Orange. They said there's a problem with the phone line, which they are trying to fix. I hope it's back up tonight.

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Things aren't working as planned

Date: Thu, Sep 7, 2006

I have a game-plan, but nothing seems to be working at the moment:

1) Play less MTTs;
2) Play more 2-3 table SNGs
3) Play some HORSE SNGs
4) Read more and work on my game.

The intention is to build up my bankroll (which has taken a bit of a hit over the last 3 months) and play the occasional MTT. As my bankroll increases, I'd like to play higher limits for the SNGs. I currently play $5 and $10 2-3 table SNGS. I'd like to start playing $20 ones when I can afford it.

Unfortunately I'm struggling to cash even on the $5 ones. I'm trying to open my game up a bit based on some of the reading I've been doing (HOH3 and Erick Lindgren's book). I feel like I'm playing better, but I don't seem to be getting the rub of the green at the moment. Admittedly, I haven't been playing that much lately, so I'm basing my thoughts on a short set of results. It's frustrating, as I really wanted to start playing more satellites to bigger events (such as the EPT) and play higher limits. I feel like I'm being pegged back in my ambitions. I'm trying to be patient and sensible about it, but it's hard.

As for the HORSE games, I mentioned that I won the first SNG I entered. Maybe I spoke too soon as I've not been able to cash since. I've been working on a good Razz strategy to improve that discipline, but again, I feel like I've been quite card dead. The last one I played was particularly frustrating as I was short stacked, and had to pay the bring-in in Stud 5 TIMES in a row. It was more frustrating as we were down to last 4 (top 3 get paid). There were 2 big stacks, and another very tight player who had double my stack. I managed to get within a whisker of his stack to put him under pressure, when I got the 5 buy-ins in a row.

I do think the HORSE games are getting a bit harder now. More people have cottoned onto them. The trouble is it's good players who have cottoned on. Saying that, there are still some poor players out there. I had to laugh at one guy during the Razz section who called bets all the way to 7th street only to show a full house, Kings full of 7s. Saying that, I made an embarrassing move thinking I was playing Razz and had a cracking starting hand of something like (A2)3 followed by 5 & 7 (IIRC). My 2 opponents were showing queens and jacks, although one did eventually fold. I knew I had the best Razz hand, however, when we got to 7th Street, I suddenly noticed we were playing Stud. I simply checked 7th Street and managed to win with a pair of Tens caught at the end. The moral of the story is not to multi table when playing HORSE.

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HORSE

Date: Fri, Aug 25, 2006

The lastest craze now is for people to play HORSE games. A lot of the major sites have now started opening tables in ring games and tournaments devoted to HORSE. I've now started giving them a try myself.

So, "what is HORSE?", I hear you say! It's multiple poker games played one after the other. HORSE is an acronym for the different forms of poker played:

H - Holdem (Limit)
O - Omaha
R - Razz
S - Stud
E - Stud Eight

So for example, you may play Limit Holdem for 10 hands, then move to Omaha hi/lo, then Razz, Stud, Stud hi/lo, then back to Holdem.

I would say that Omaha hi/lo and Holdem are my two strongest games out of the variations in HORSE. I can play Stud, but I'm quite weak at it. I hadn't played Razz before, but I'm slowly getting the hang of it.

So now I've started playing it, and I love it. I played in my first tournament yesterday which was a qualifier to the WCOOP (World Cup of Online Poker) HORSE main event next month. 152 players entered, top 15 qualified. I finished in 41st place, but it was evident that a lot of the play was soft. I spoke to people afterwards and we agreed that with a bit more luck, and maybe brushing up on our weaker games, we could qualify.

I've just finished my 2nd tournament. That was a single table SNG at Full Tilt. Someone had recommended I played there, so I gave it a try. And what a recommendation it was...I won! Admittedly I got lucky at one stage. I was almost out with about 6 or 7 players left. In the Stud section, I held 2J2J on 4th street, and my opponent had xxQQ. From the betting I was sure they had 3 queens. Normally I probably would have folded, but I was so short stacked that I decided to gamble to the end in case either my read was wrong and I held the best hand, or that I may improve to a full house on a later street. I caught a Jack on 7th street to give me the full house and boost my stack (and yes, they did have the 3rd queen).

The good thing about these HORSE games is that most players don't have a clue about most of the variations. Some may be good at Holdem, but haven't got a clue how to play Razz. Some may know Omaha, but not Stud. If you can learn basic strategy for each of the disciplines, there's some easy money to be made from these games (before everyone else learns them).

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Why don't I just stick to what I'm good at?

Date: Fri, Aug 25, 2006

One of my objectives this year was to play more Multi-table tournaments (MTTs). That is where the real money can be found if you can do well in them. In the past I've never been that strong in them. On a good day, I'd just sneak into the money, which is usually quite depressing anyway. I mean, you've just spent the last 3 hours playing in a tournament for a profit of about $1.

My usual game is the 2 or 3 table 'Sit n Go' tournaments (SNGs). I have a good record in those and used to make a steady profit in those. However, whilst I've been learning to play the MTTs, I've neglected to keep my bankroll ticking along with the SNGs. Therefore I've been paying a lot out in tournament fees, but not getting much return. I have had a couple of successes in the $4 180 man SNGs at Stars with a 2nd ($144) and a 7th ($25), but nothing for a while. They are good practice, but I'm not good enough yet to use them as a steady income.

So, as a result I've now gone back to playing my usual games - the 18 or 27 man SNGs at Stars and the 20 man SNGs at Party. In about the last week, I've had two 2nd places and two 3rd places to remind me that I can still play these. I will still keep playing the 180s, but I'll make sure that I don't neglect my most profitable game. A valuable lesson learnt!

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WSOP Quailifers

Date: Fri, Jul 21, 2006

I haven't posted for a while, so here goes with an update.

On 11th June, I played in a freeroll organised by ITH where the winner wins a seat to the World Series of Poker (WSOP) main event in August. The buyin for this event is $10,000 so it's certainly a nice prize to win. I qualified for this freeroll back in February by winning one of the league matches being run by ITH (which i wrote about in this blog earlier). The freeroll had 59 entrants, and as usual with these events, all good players. I played ok for the first half of the tournament. Just kept it steady and ensured I didn't take any unnecessary risks. I was able to double up when my AA beat QQ, but after this I went card dead for the rest of the tournament. I ended up in 17th place, which I should be happy with. I suppose I am really as I feel like I played good solid poker. It was just a shame that my cards ran dry at the end.

As it turned out the eventual winner of the freeroll was under 21, and was therefore ineligible to take part in the WSOP. So, ITH decided to organise another event to get a representative in the main event. The buyin for this tournament would be $200, with $100 of the fee going towards a stake in the winner. Basically, this meant that I would get a share of any winnings made by the person who qualified. $200 is quite a chunk of my bankroll, but I was keen to play. Then one weekend, I had a bit of luck. First of all, I finished 7th in a 180 man SNG winning $25. Next I won a 27 man tournament winning $72, then capped it by staking Suited_Jock in the Stars Million to earn $100. I had earnt close to the required $200, so I decided to buy straight into the ITH tournament.

The next tournament wasn't so successful. It was held on 9th July. This time there were only 42 entrants. I just didn't get going and didn't get any luck. My tournament was pretty much over in 2 decisive hands. First was when I held JJ. Jeffnc was short-stacked and pushed all-in with AK. It was an easy call for me as it was for about a third of my stack. An ace on the flop ended that hand for me. My tournament was over with blinds at 75/150. I had a stack of $1520 and held AK. McFoldem raised pre-flop with 33. I came over the top of him by pushing all-in. He called. I had no help on the flop, and another 3 on the river finished me off in 33rd place.

In order to progress in these tournaments, you have to win your coinflips. There's nothing wrong with the way I played either hand, but you need luck on your side at times. This time it wasn't to be.

The tournament was won by Primitive who I know is a very experienced tournament player. I honestly believe he will do well in the WSOP as he certainly won't be overawed.

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My tournament in Las Vegas

Date: Fri, May 5, 2006

Here is a report on the tournament I entered whilst in Las Vegas.

I played at the Aladdin where the tournaments were $50 for 1000 chips plus an optional add-on of a further 1000 for just $10. 44 players entered and the top 6 got paid.

I started slowly as I struggled to get any hands. In fact bizarrely in the first orbit I was dealt K7 5 times!!! I tried to play 99 and 88 but missed the flop and folded to bets. Then I moved tables.

With blinds at 50/100, I had about 1050 in chips. I had A9 one before the cutoff. A player in MP1 just called, I called, and so did a couple of others. Flop was A9x. The BB bet 300, MP1 called. I pushed all-in. Everyone folded to MP1. He looked over at me, and I just looked down trying to pretend to be weak. He called with amazingly K5. He called an all-in with King high!! What an idiot! I doubled up to around 2800 in chips with my 2 pair.

My chips once again frittered away. $500 was taken when I called a pre-flop raise with KQ, but a big stack pushed all-in. I folded. He had AA.

Then first hand after the break, with blinds up to 200/400 I pushed with AT. I got called by QT and doubled up again. Shortly after this we were moved to the final table.

By the time we got to the final table, blinds were 300/600 and I had about 3000 in chips. I was seriously short stacked and needed a miracle. We were down to 10 players, and only 6 get paid. I got the miracle. In one hand, 4 players all pushed all-in. The big stack at the table won the hand with JJ and knocked 3 players out in one go. We were down to 7 players. I only needed 1 more to go out, but I was still very short.

A few hands later, a player in EP made a raise. I looked down to see TT. I had to push all-in as I probably wouldn't get another hand like this for a while. My opponent called and showed T8. I doubled up again. Blinds were now getting high. I pushed a couple more times with QJ and AJ and won the blinds. In another hand, I called a player's raise with KJ. Flop came down K high. I pushed all my chips in. He folded. I was up to around 12,000 in chips and could sit back. I was no longer the short stack.

This tactic worked as 3 more players went out.

My tournament ended when we were down to 4 players. I was back to being the shortest stack at the table. I pushed with AT and got a quick call. I knew I was in trouble. My opponent showed JJ. Flop was JQQ. A King on the river made my straight, but I couldn't beat his flopped full house. I was out in 4th for a nice payout of $246. What a nice birthday present!

A nice story to finish with - when the tournament started, I told everyone at the table that it was my birthday. One loud American latched onto this and proceeded to tell everyone he met this. When I got to the final table, I had developed my own fan club all rooting for me to win. That was a nice feeling.

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Las Vegas

Date: Fri, May 5, 2006

Last week was my 40th birthday. To celebrate (or mourn) my new decade in life, Penny booked a mystery holiday for us as a present. After many guesses, she finally told me we were going to Venice, so I duly packed my Euros and Italian dictionary. I was shocked to find we'd actually been booked into the Venetian hotel in Las Vegas. (She claims this doesn't constitute a lie).

The actual itinery was 4 nights in the Venetian, then a couple of days staying at a ranch in Arizona to see the Grand Canyon, then back to Las Vegas and staying in the Bellagio for 2 more nights. What a fantastic holiday!

I didn't know if I'd like Las Vegas with it's excesses, tackiness and seediness, but in fact I loved it there. I certainly think it's somewhere you can only take in small doses at a time.

I was hoping to play a lot of poker there, but I was surprised how expensive a lot of the games and tournaments were there, especially on the Strip. Due to my budget, I was looking at maybe $50 tournaments max and limit ring games of $1/2. Most of the tournaments started at about $100 and the ring games were all $4/8 min. All too much for my meagre bankroll.

Another highlight for the week I should mention is that we managed to catch part of the WPT tournament that was being held at the Bellagio. We watched the final 7 play out until someone got knocked out before the televised final. It was quite amazing standing around the final table watching and rubbing shoulders with famous names like Mike Sexton, Martin DeKnjiff (sp??), Andrew Black and Harry Demetriou (and these were just the guys I recognised). We did try to watch the final 6 the next day, but the waiting list was too long. I'll just wait for it to be shown on TV. Then we wondered back to the main poker room in the Ballagio and saw Gus Hansen, Barnie Boatman and Donnacha O'Dhea playing (well, actually Gus was just wondering around).

What a great trip. Can't wait until I go back there again.

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March wasn't a good month

Date: Tue, Apr 11, 2006

March wasn't a good month. In total, I lost about $70 over the 5 accounts I have money held. This is in comparison to the gain of $204 I made in February (made up mostly of the $162 I won in the ITH league event). Now some people may think $70 is nothing, but a loss is a loss, and I was worried about why the losses occured.

My losses in March was due to bonus chasing at Poker.com and having a bad time in tournaments. I wasn't too worried about losing at the limit tables at Poker.com, but it was the lack of success at the tournaments that really got to me.

It started in one of the ITH Sunday VIP league games, when after playing fairly steadily, I had AA beaten by 88. The following week I had JJ beaten by A8s (IIRC) which made a straight on the turn. After this, it felt like nothing went right whatever I played. I felt I was either card dead, or getting outdrawn when ahead. Another example of what was happening was in a SNG at Poker.com. I had been playing very tight mainly due to lack of cards. With my stack at about 900 and blinds at 50/100, I pushed with AK. I got called by someone who decided to risk half his stack on KT. A ten on the river put me out. Nothing was going right.

I looked at some hand histories, and saw on a few occasions that I had played hands badly. On another occasion at Full Tilt, I bubbled in 4th when I pushed AJ on a J high board. I got called by Q8 who had a made straight. I looked at the history and realised I didn't raise pre-flop. Why? I think when things aren't going your way, you play scared. You try not to risk too many chips and you make bad plays. This was the type of mistakes I was making.

I decided I needed to work on my game and found an interesting way to do this. I found a really interesting play money tournament at Full Tilt. Most players don't recommend play tables as quite often the play does not reflect a real money game. People play more recklessly as it's not real money they're playing for. Yes, this is the case a lot of the time, but if you can find the right game, you can sometimes find players who do take it more seriously. The tournament I found was a 90 man SNG. As expected, half the field disappears in the first 5 minutes, but once it gets down to the last 30 or 40 players, people tighten up and take it more seriously. This was exactly the practice I needed.

The first one I entered, I finished 7th, but that's only half the story. With only top 9 winning back any play chips, I had been lying as the short stack with 12 players left for quite a long time. I waited, picked my moments, and crept into the final table. I played the bubble really well, and was really pleased with myself. The next one didn't go so well as I crashed out in 37th after losing a couple of big pots in close succession. But in the next one I finished a fantastic 2nd. I did have a big chip lead at one stage after winning a 4 way all-in with AA. However when we were down to the last 3, I was really outplayed by the eventual winner. Never mind. That 2nd place really gave me the confidence I needed.

With a renewed confidence, here's hoping for a better April.

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I played with Phil Ivey

Date: Sun, Feb 12, 2006

Last Thursday, I got home late after watching Goldfrapp in concert. I wasn't tired, and fancied playing a bit of poker before I went to bed.

I logged into Full Tilt and noticed that Phil Ivey was playing on a 7 card stud $0.5/1 table. There are quite a few of the top pros who play at Full Tilt, although not always at such low levels. I assume they must get asked to play at these levels from time to time to give your average player like me a chance to play with these guys.

The only problem is that the waiting list was 40 deep. I put my name down and decided to see how long it would take. It was around 11pm at the time. I played on another table for a while, then watched my friend Tall Paul play the final stages on a tournament.

By the time this had finished, I down to 10th in the waiting list. This went very quickly as I assume a lot of people had given up. I was seated at around 1am, and was sitting next to Phil. I managed to win a couple of hands off him. The first was when I chased and caught a straight on 7th street. (It was a bad play as I should have folded earlier). I won $12.30 for that. The other hand I won was when I picked up a monster - AJA. Then another Ace on 4th street. Surprisingly, Phil still called me, and only folded on 5th street. Anyway I won $5.20 for that.

In total, I spent about half an hour playing with him and was up around $8. I good nights work. Here's a screenshot. I'm the frog.

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