Eyes of the beast

After doing bar staff overnight, I come home, have a bath and pass out on my bed for a few hours. I wake up at 6:45 pm, and consider doing the £30 freezeout at 8pm at the gutshot.

I mulled over the decision for 20 minutes, then a breath away from not bothering to go I said 'the hell with it' and turned up with 3 minutes to spare.

104 runners in the tournament, each starting with 2,000 chips, making a total of 208,000 chips in play. I start on an 11-handed table with a dealer, there is some competitive banter at the table between to rivals and play ensues. I play tight and observe people's play and behaviours, and the mistakes they make.

I'm not really going to talk about my strategies and whatnot, because I don't want to give my game away to gutshot members (that includes you Mark!). But I will say this. Observation is such a marvellous tool. Every time I play poker at the gutshot I have my ipod on me and my headphones plugged in, yet I am never listening to music. This has various advantages: One, people usually do not try to make conversation with me. Two, I can think to myself without interruption, and people don't notice my table 'presence'.

Most satisfying play: Stealing the blinds by going all-in with 10-3 offsuit.

Bad beat of the tournament: Two short stacks on my table. One goes all-in with 5-5. After much thinking, the other calls with 6-3 offsuit. Community Cards: A A 7 4 7

Caller wins with two pairs and a six high! Killer!

When we hit the final table, two of the big stacks raised, re-raised, and all-in'ed each other. AA vs 88, AA gets trips on the flop. One huge stack out. I was out next in 7th place (9th went out before even getting to the final table), for £125. Nice.

See you at the £5 tournament tonight!

Learning the hard way

Today at the gutshot, I did the £5 tournament and the £10 tournament.

This was the happy hour £5 tournament, at 5:45 PM, it was turbo (blinds up every 10 minutes), and you were allowed 1x rebuy and 1x topup, all of which you could purchase straight away, which all but one did. So it was basically it was a £15 freezeout. There were not as many people playing as usual, and the first place prize money was a meagre £158. Not worth the trouble in my opinion.

Anyway, about 8 hands in, I was SB, everyone folded, so I went all in blind, and the BB called with 66. I had 3Qd, and hit nothing. Out in less than fifteen minutes.

The big blind pointed out to me that I went in for a pot of 75 chips, and thinking about this, it wasn't even worth trying to steal the blind. I mean, thinking about it, there was no justifyable reason for me to go all in.

So after the others went out (Damian made the final tale for the first time, surely the world will fall apart tomorrow), we bought some drinks and sat outside. It was at this point, that the people living above the restaurant/bar/poker room, decided to water the plants hanging over the balcony.

Cue water splashing all over us. At this point I went into incredible hulk mode, and looked around asking people how to get upstaism thinking someone was taking the mickey and asking for a slap. Five minutes later a slightly calmer James was sitting with the others inside, after the owner of the gutshot & a member of staff convinced him to leave it.

You must be an idiot to water your flowers in the middle of the evening when you live above a restaurant that has tables outside. Really.

Anyway, the others went home and I stayed for the £10 rebuy tournament. For some completely bizarre reason, everyone at my table seemed to not know how to play poker properly, except for the staff member that was playing at my table. Some bizarre plays were also being had; for some reason this one guy called with 72os, found a flop of K-J-10, someone bet, he called, hit a 2 on the turn, and bet, other guy went all in, and he called. Complete plonker.

Anyway, when I went out, he was probably chip leader. Go figure.

I did ok on that table, hit some trips, full houses, but lost a lot going all-in post flop with up & down straight draws, and a pair to boot. Ended up doing a rebuy and then a topup.

Doubled up once or twice, and then, the second extremely foolish hand. I had 78 offsuit, and called. BB checked, everyone else folded. Flop: 2-4-7

I thought I had the BB covered quite well in chips and went all in with my pair of 7s. Now, considering he was BB this was a bad play to start off with. To add to that, I stared him in the face, which clearly indicated I was bluffing and was trying to indimidate him to make him fold. I noticed someone else do this on the £5 table, and discussed it with my friends. Then did the same thing myself.

Anyway, he called with 7-10 offsuit, and won with two pair in the end. I had about 300 left, with the blinds at 150/300. Went out a few rounds later. There was 400 or 600 in the pot. I'm unsure about the all in I did, but I certainly should not have done it against BB or SB. If he was purely in early position, then he most likely would not have had it, or a big pair, because he would have raised pre flop.

A strong lesson has been learned; and hopefully a leak in the barrel has been plugged.

You know you have improved leaps and bounds when...

Blinds 150/300, A 7 offsuit in the hole.

inferlogic is the dealer.
funnypages posted small blind.
hakfest posted big blind.
Game [67] started with 5 players.
Dealing Hole Cards.
holdthispete folded.
EAGLE HAWK called 300
inferlogic called 300 and raised 300
funnypages folded.
hakfest called 300
EAGLE HAWK folded.
Dealing flop.
Board cards [Ts 7h 7s]
hakfest bet 600
inferlogic called 600 and raised 630 and is All-in
hakfest called 630
Showdown!
Board cards [Ts 7h 7s 5d Jd]
inferlogic has Two Pair: 10s and 7s
hakfest has 3 of a Kind: 7s
hakfest wins 4,110 with 3 of a Kind: 7s
Hand is over.

hakfest: walked right into that one
inferlogic: nh
inferlogic: well i dont know what ud call!
hakfest: :)
inferlogic: youve been calling just about anything today
hakfest: good game man!

This $5 STT was the best performance of my life, form start to finish.

A new era has dawned!

I just want to play poker!

Last week I came for the 8pm tournie at 7:30 PM, and it was already full up. What happens when it fills up is, you can register for it as a reserve. So, when someone goes out, you can start playing. There is a max of 129, and 30 reserves. I was reserve 27 so I went back home. This time I left early to ensure I was in the 129. Get on the train at Victoria station, it gets one carriage deep into the tunnel, then POW, a HEEEUGE power cut stops us there for 15 minutes. Then when we resume, the train driver tries to explain to us what's happening at other stations, but his mic cuts out every time he gets to the bit about the station I need to get off at being closed.

Anyway I got there in the end. Had a nice bunch of guys around my table. I had my headphones in, but I was not actually listening to anything. Just put them in to appear to not be paying attention.

So I played tight, but not in a noticeable fashion. The key hand I lost was when someone raised pre-flop. Now this guy made some stupid decisions, like calling 2 all-ins before him with 3-3 in the hole, only to get four of a kind. So naturally I doubt he has a monster, so I re-raise all in with my AJ suited. He calls with A4 suited, and gets two pair on the turn. Arse.

Rebuy, nothing really stunning going my way, so on the SB, everyone folds except for the dealer, who raises 400, so I go all-in blind, BB folds, I turned over J8 offsuit, he had KQos, wins with the high card.