Sunday Donations

I haven't played much poker of late mainly due to my head being in a mess due to an acrimonious break-up with my girlfriend, and seeing as I'm not the most mentally stable person at the best of times I figured it best to have a few days off to get my head in order.

I have only really played the odd multi with limited success. There have been no decent wins..but there should have been. Twice I pissed away a big stack with 20odd left in the £12k and £8k on Crypto to leave me shortstacked on the FT and subsequently finished 9th and 10th respectively. Its bad enough having to cope with outdraws never mind my own donkey moves but never mind.

Yesterday I did my usual Sunday donations. Played the £1m on stars and ran QQ into KK early doors which I should have got away from. UTG+1 raises and UTG+2 calls, I reraise from the button and the initial raiser calls and other guy folds. Flop is rags and I'm check raised all-in, I'm pretty sure I'm going to be shown AA or KK but I call anyway. The $15k on Betfair was going ok until I made a cracking call to a raise allin with 2nd pair as I was sure my opponent was drawing..he was..and he hit. The Crypto £40k went a bit better despite me getting no cards to speak of I managed to hang around and steal like a gypsy to keep my head above water before finally falling just inside the money when I re-raise a Laggy player allin with 88, obviously he has a hand this time (QQ) and I'm a goner. Standard Sunday really!!

Bizarre

Tonight has been surreal. I have just had the most amazing run of cards ever in the $25k on Stars. AAx2, QQx3 and KKx2 in the space of 32 hands!! End result.....I'm out before the second break after QQ loses to TT in 20k pot with ave stack 4k. I manage to run my remaining 6k up to 10k before my KK is no good v 44 (4 on river) in another 20k pot v the same donkey!!!

Also had a 4 outer hit on me after I made a sparkling call in the £12k on Crypto. Happy Days!!!

Prior to tonight I'd actually been running ok picking up the odd decent win here and there (nothing spectacular but they all add up). Came a disappointing 9th in the Crypto £12k the other night after again losing a big pot with AK v QQ v JJ. One day I'll win the races that matter.

But its not all doom and gloom as the Walter Smith era has kicked off with a 5-0 win :-)

I run good

No really I do :-). 2007 has got off to a very good start!! Its only 5 days old and already I've pocketed $10k in winnings. On Jan 2nd I finished 2nd in the Stars $20 rebuy for $7.3k and yesterday I finished 2nd in Stars $10 rebuy for $2.7k. If only I could play HU :-(.

The $20 rebuy with 550 runners was a bit of an afterthought. I'd just been donked with AK v AJ in the Crypto £8k in a pot for the chip lead with 16 left so I went and watched a bit of the cricket thinking my poker playing was done for the night, however at 1.50am I decided to go and play the $100k GTD and $20 rebuy on Stars. I lasted about 20mins in the $100k when I 3-bet allin on the turn with a open-ended straight flush draw..the other guy was never passing his full house :-). At that point I was pissed off and ready to give up on the $20 rebuy but instead I decided to start hammering the allin button and managed to build up a healthy stack before losing it all in a 40k pot with QQ v KK 5mins before the end of rebuys. I did the double rebuy and won a pot and with my top up I was on 7k. Below average but whenever I finish the rebuy with a lot of chips I donk them off quickly so I wasn't overly concerned.

I battled away for a couple of hours slowly building my stack but seeing no hands when I decided to call a re-raise all in with JTs for no reason other than I was bored (it was for 10k of my 25k stack). That left me short again and it was a case of allin or fold. I don't really remember any big hands but I must have accumulated chips somehow. My table was very passive (either that or they were shit scared to reraise me after seeing me call with J high :-)) and I was able to get virtually every raise through uncontested.

When we reached the final three tables I decided it was time to waken myself up when I looked at the $12k payout for winning. So I went and made two cups of coffee and zoned myself in. With 11 remaining I was one of the chip leaders and cruising with 465k when a sick hand came up. Blinds 10k/20k and I make it 80k on the button. BB thinks for an age before pushing for 300k. I pass AK almost never and I wasn't passing now, the re-raiser was one of the more active players at the table and I felt his pushing range there included Ax and possibly KQ, KJ as well as any pair and possibly even air. I call and he flips 99 and holds. I'd just lost a race a couple of hands previously with A9s v a shortstacks 55 so I thought my old habit of losing the races that really matter was coming back to haunt me.

I'm down to 165k and two hands later I find AQ and jam, the guy who has just done me with 99 insta calls with KK but I flop trips Queens and its game on again. Thankfully it wasn't my table which was broken when we went to FT as the player to my left was very passive and folded her BB to my raise every time. She didn't just fold, she did it quickly :-). I was still relatively short for most of the FT and eventually I had to make a stand with 66 with 6 left, I re-raise allin knowing that I'm getting a call but I was happy to race as I was down to 7BBs at the time he calls with AQ and one time I hold. I then hit a rush as the chip leader doubles me with AK v AQ and AK v AJ twice in quick succesion.

The next key hand I had was 3-handed when I lost a race with QJ0 v shortstacks 55. I win that I go HU with a 2-1 chip lead and I'd have fancied my chances of closing it out from there. As it happens the other guy eventually accounted for the shortstack and I had a 3-1 deficit when I got to HU and I eventually got it allin with A2 v A7 and 7 on flop sealed my fate.

In the $10 rebuy with 450runners again I failed to get a decent stack during the rebuy period and I compounded that by forgetting to addon and thus ended up with a paltry 4400. I never really had a stack worthy of the name at any point and after losing a couple of pots I was left with only 11k with blinds at 800/1600. I get K4o utg and push (can't let blinds pass through). Its folded to the BB who is playing only 9k, he calls with 88 and I lose. This leaves me with just under 2k as we go on a break (blinds 1k/2k on the restart). I've basically given up and i'm busy reading forums when the table pops up and I've got T7o in my BB and I'm up against A8. I hit my 7 to double up and next hand its folded to my in SB with J7o, I push and BB calls with KT and I hit my J and I'm now back to where I was before. The very next hand I'm on the button and have JJ, theres a raise before me and I push allin and get called by 77 and I hold and now have 26k :-). Golden!!

From that point on I led a charmed life. I've never won so many races in my life and managed to build a proper stack by the time we were down to 2 tables. I continued to run good on the FT and we were down to 3 handed when the shortstack starts mumbling something about a deal. I'm chip leader at the time and have no interest. He then jams on my BB and I call with A8s, he has QJs and hits. Very next hand he jams again and I hold QQ and beat him into the pot. I hold and now have a 2-1 chip lead HU. I was very confident of winning here but I blew it :-(. I didn't play particularly well HU and although I hit nothing at all I made a couple of dodgy calls/plays and allowed him to gain the initiative. He then had the 2-1 lead and the final hand was a bit of a sickener. I flop and open ended straight draw and check raise the flop which he calls. Turn gives me my straight and I lead and he jams, I call and he turns over the straight with the flush draw and hit on the river :-(.

All in all it has been a decent start to 2007. I'm feeling confident and playing well and shrugging off the beats (always easier to do after a nice result). Hopefully this continues in the coming months :-)

Update and Review of 2006

Firstly, apologies for the lack of updates but I hadn't been playing much poker and I couldn't be arsed :-). 2006 ended as a bit of a damp squib as far as poker was concerned. I hardly played the last 3 weeks in December. I had been running bad and it was affecting my game so decided to take a few weeks off. That coincided with the darts starting so had plenty to keep me occupied, and I won a few quid as well which is always good.

I did play some of the big multis on Christmas Eve and New Years Eve, with limited success. On the 24th, 10th in the Crypto £40k was the best I could muster, losing a big race with AKo v 88. On the 31st I cashed in the £40k again and was going nicely until I hit the self destruct button and donked my chips away with 9high :-). I also played a few hours of low stake NL cash as well with reasonable success. I may play more of this in the coming months.

As for 2006 as a whole one word springs to mind....underachievement. I really feel I should have done a lot better, particularly in the latter half of the year, however when I look back to where I was this time last year I have to be happy.

There were undoubtedly some highs, notably cashing in the WSOP, although eventually getting KO'd would be down there with the lows. I also had some decent MTT wins as well, although there should have been a lot more. Combination of bad luck, bad play and my propensity to hit the self-destruct button has definetly cost me at times.

As for the lows, the one that immediately springs to mind is the sick outdraw in Barcelona EPT. I've also been disappointed with my STT results, and I'm going to have a bit of a rethink on them in the forthcoming weeks.

All in all 2006 was a decent year and I believe the foundations to enable further success have been built. Heres hoping that 2007 yields that success.