Pokerstars can just die. + I run bad at crucial stages live

Played all the mid stakes tournies on stars on Sunday. In the 1/4 million, get lovely stacked up, with 800 left am in the top 60 in chips, when the following hand happened.

Blinds 2k/4k, I'm in BB with approx 240k. Villian raises to 12k from mid position, s/stack goes all in for under 12k. On BB, I have AK, so raise to 56k. Villian insta calls. flop 9 9 7, I shove, he calls instantly with A7?? How the HELL does he make that preflop and flop call??? gg Stars tyvm and a whopping $50 to me. Gladly, he didn't get too far and only just scraped over $100 winnings, but still.

After that, I tilt played my minute roll off on stars on the $16 turbos. Won't be going back on there unless I get staked I think, or unless I start winning big monies elsewhere.

My Blonde staking is going ok, at crucial times I'm losing the vital hands, usually against players making awful calls. Have final tabled more often, but because I run SO bad on them, the best I've had is 2 4th's. Going in to the last $100 of the period, I need to win $150 to break even, which just sucks. Will still be going all out for a result tho, can't play any other way.

Live I've played more recently than I have in a while.

Played a £10 + 1 £5 r/b a cpl of weeks ago. Was in the last 15 when I lost a race at 1k/2k and went down to 8k. A cpl of shoves got through, then 3rd hand, mega stack limped, I looked to see 83d so shoved and he folded his A + decent kicker!!

Crucial hand was on my SB, 2 limpers, I have 24k so shove the lot, BB eventually calls, as does one of the limpers. Q hi flop was nice, esp when they both checked. J turn and BB shoves. He has JJ. FML.

In the £25 + 1 r/b on Saturday, 5k starting, I bullied my way up to 8k with no worries whatsoever, then did 6k in one hand.

Early raiser to 325 at 50/100 5 callers and I have 10 10. Just call ( I know I know) and see a K J 10 flop. Check raise all in, someone has KK sigh. Manage to get back up to 8k by the add on break, shoved KK off an A hi flop, I had 65 was one of the highlights. Had 12k at 200/400 and 10 10 UTG, so raise to 1200. Villian repops to 3k, he'd reraised a few times with Ax, so I tank/shove. He obv has AA. gg me.

Also played the £15 + 1 r/b last night. Wasn't a big tourny, only 37 in it, but we all had a laugh, especially at the new fucking self deal rules. One shuffles, another cuts, another deals. Absolute fucking farce if you ask me. Only interesting hands came late on. Am on the button with 12.8k at 600/1200, no raise before me so I shove with Q8d, BB obv calls with KK and he's dead by the turn weeeeeeeee. The hand before the break at 800/1600 killed me. SB checks to me in BB, I have 63 in BB so check. We both check the 552 flop, and he fires 5k outta his 10k on the 4 turn. I just throw 21k in, he tanks for an age, eventually calls with KK. I flip 6 4. Oops.. major fucking misread there. Go out on the FT bubble with a standard shove of KQ after a mini raise and a caller, mini raiser apparantly folds A8 for just 8k more, and same villian tank calls his A2. I miss my gazillion flush, straight and KQs and out 10th.

Pls run better. On the plus side, I am seen as quite a dangerous player in there. The regulars that I've talked to think I'm one not to tangle with as they know I'll stick it in in any situation with any 2. Which seems to be quite advantageous. Shoved 10s off a KQJ high board last night, both times with air.

On the negative side, work is abs fucking doing my head in at the mo. I just cannot be arsed with it all. Def need a new job as retail is fucking with my head. Its such fucking easy work, yet can be so fucking stressful. Anyway, will stick with it through this recession bollocks, and decide what I actually want to do. On a 7pm-7am shift tonight as there's new tills going in. Marv.

GUKPT side event report part 2, railing FTW and the summer series

My second attempt at the side events lasted until level 3. Have a fairly good image at the table, and at 100/200 on my BB I was dealt AK, 5 limpers and I have 4.5k so shove the lot. One bloke insta's with KJ and spikes the J, go out soon after.

Then watched Simon Moorman, father of the pretty famous Chris Moorman proceed to rip the final table of the main event apart, which lasted until 2am.. up for work at 6, totally worth the lack of sleep just for the look on Chris' face!!

Using part of my winnings from my 5th place, I'm wanting to play in the summer series main event in Bolton, £550 buy in. Am putting in £275 myself, and selling off the rest at 1:1. Of that half, I've already sold 50% of it, not bad as I only put it up late last night!!!

In other staking news, got a cpl of decent results on Monday night, 4th in the 4.5k on Blonde, where I ran KQ into AA blind on blind for just over $400, and 21st in the 10k, where I lost a 3 way all in KK v 77 v A2, obv the A2 got there sigh. I've got roughly $300 of tournies to play ( will check properly tonight) and am about level, so 1 decent result puts us in profit for the period.

GUKPT side event report..

Thursday 23rd April was my first glimpse into the GUKPT world, playing in the £100 f/out. Met up with Claw from Blonde about 6ish, had a bit of a wander sampling the atmosphere and meeting a few Blondes around the place... then to kill time...

£20 each in a fruity.. Claw wins £75, I win £110... we stick £20 each in another one, similar results :)

feeling flushed, we go and play 3 card poker... never played it before.. started with 40 quid, and just continued winning... came off the table with £100.. so was freerolling in the tournament already. Obv Claw and myself swapped 10% and we were off.

Started in seat 2 on table 9, noone recognisable on my table, so went about playing my own game. On my 1st BB I get KK, only limper is the SB, so I raised 4bbs to 200. He calls, flop is J 4 3, he checks I bet 350 and he calls.. turn is a 2, again he checks and I pot bet, again he calls. Turn is a 5, pretty big danger card, to which he checks. Weigh up carefully, am behind to any A and even with just 2k back, I don't want to go out on 1 pair.. so check.. he shows 42os. Sigh. It was the sign of things to come from him, I just knew I had to get in my chips at the right time.

At 50/100 after multiple limpers he raises to 700, don't even look at him as I shove with KQ, he has KJ and calls, J turn and Q river weeeeeeeeeeeeee.

Only one other time was an all in of mine called in the first 4 levels, raised UTG with 66, s/stack shoves so I call, he has QQ and I hit a 6 river ( although I did have many more outs). From then I on, I just quietly accumulated chips, picking on the weaker members of the table, still trying to bide my time to bust the guy on my SB, however he got knocked out with 2 tables remaining, calling all in on a K J 9 7 flop with J3, and was drawing dead.

We were down to about 16 at this point, with 13 paid, and the table noticeably tightened up, apart from 3 players, myself, and the 2 guys to the left of me. Shoved all in on my SB a cpl of times with nothing, causing agony for the BB, both times he folded however. The pivotal moment for me came when, on my SB I had 88, I had about 42k at 2k/4k, and UTG had raised to 12k. He'd been playing a lot of pots with suited cards, KJ, Q10 etc so decided I could get him to fold with a shove. He called however with KQs, 1st card out was an 8 and had safely housed up by the turn.

Once the bubble had gone, we were playing 6 handed, so started opening up a few more pots, and eventually made the FT with 70 at 3k/6k.

Was pretty card dead during the 1st 2 orbits, managed to get a raise through twice to keep my head above water, and eventually we were down to 6. At this point, get chatting to a guy opposite, he's only tommymfkinC from Blonde, so we have a quick chat, wish each other gl gl, and he goes out next hand, QQ into KK!!

5 way, there's a deal proposed. CL 3k, 2nd CL 2.5k, other 2 2k and me 1.5k, I'm s/stack so happy to take as thats higher than 4th pays, but one guy isn't interested in seat 4 ( as he was on my other table) so we play on. I manage one double up, shoving with Q9d UTG, getting looked up by A2os, hit my Q, he hit his A, but I hit a diamond river. Am still fairly s/stacked tho, so when it comes round to me with no raises on my SB, I sneak a look at a card, its an A, I shove, BB eventually calls with AJ, my kicker was a 5, and I was gone. Was shoving any 2 in that position with the blinds + antes what they were.

Happy enough with my first foray into the GUKPT world, probably will play the £100 bounty on Sunday, but as of yet am undecided.

I'll update this with names of opponents etc when the results get posted

work and more fkin work... staking period 2 and GUKPT side events

Been working a ridiculous amount of hours recently, which is knackering me out. Means when I get chance to play poker, I'm shattered. Have cut right back on playing. Finished work early today for once, so had a pop in a few Blonde tournaments, as well as a few on stars. In the 30k on stars, ran up the 3k starting to 12k within 15 mins, out within 70 mins having lost 2 races, both times chips in 1st and ahead. Finalled the 3k $20 on Blonde 4/10, but went mega card dead, abs no spots to shove/push as most of the time, someone was all in b4 it got to me. Its fair to say I was playing tight...

so when I shoved all in on a 9 hi board, showing 3 diamonds, I didn't expect a call from 10 9 h??? I'd raised pre as well. 8th place for not much more than $100 sigh

Played the $33 NL SCOOP event on stars.. comfortably in the money, then quite bluntly get fcuked over...

[ ] good call pre sir

PokerStars Game #26771983927: Tournament #200904081, $30+$3 Hold'em No Limit - Level XIX (1000/2000) - 2009/04/06 2:41:39 WET [2009/04/05 21:41:39 ET]
Table '200904081 1486' 9-max Seat #1 is the button
Seat 1: hamsterboy (13334 in chips)
Seat 2: ohsportsguy (25809 in chips)
Seat 3: unreality0 (53273 in chips)
Seat 4: dillerdopp (48393 in chips)
Seat 5: alimali63 (110546 in chips)
Seat 6: NotABot (71735 in chips)
Seat 7: Thomas823 (122491 in chips)
Seat 8: malle501 (59252 in chips)
Seat 9: amcgrath1uk (40104 in chips)
hamsterboy: posts the ante 250
ohsportsguy: posts the ante 250
unreality0: posts the ante 250
dillerdopp: posts the ante 250
alimali63: posts the ante 250
NotABot: posts the ante 250
Thomas823: posts the ante 250
malle501: posts the ante 250
amcgrath1uk: posts the ante 250
ohsportsguy: posts small blind 1000
unreality0: posts big blind 2000
*** HOLE CARDS ***
Dealt to amcgrath1uk [Th Td]
dillerdopp: folds
alimali63: calls 2000
NotABot: calls 2000
Thomas823: folds
malle501: calls 2000
amcgrath1uk: raises 18000 to 20000
hamsterboy: folds
ohsportsguy: folds
unreality0: folds
alimali63: calls 18000
NotABot: folds
malle501: folds
*** FLOP *** [8c 2c Ts]
alimali63: bets 20000
amcgrath1uk: calls 19854 and is all-in
Uncalled bet (146) returned to alimali63
*** TURN *** [8c 2c Ts] [9h]
*** RIVER *** [8c 2c Ts 9h] [As]
amcgrath1uk said, "sigh"
*** SHOW DOWN ***
alimali63: shows [Qc Jc] (a straight, Eight to Queen)
amcgrath1uk: shows [Th Td] (three of a kind, Tens)
alimali63 collected 88958 from pot
*** SUMMARY ***
Total pot 88958 | Rake 0
Board [8c 2c Ts 9h As]
Seat 1: hamsterboy (button) folded before Flop (didn't bet)
Seat 2: ohsportsguy (small blind) folded before Flop
Seat 3: unreality0 (big blind) folded before Flop
Seat 4: dillerdopp folded before Flop (didn't bet)
Seat 5: alimali63 showed [Qc Jc] and won (88958) with a straight, Eight to Queen
Seat 6: NotABot folded before Flop
Seat 7: Thomas823 folded before Flop (didn't bet)
Seat 8: malle501 folded before Flop
Seat 9: amcgrath1uk showed [Th Td] and lost with three of a kind, Tens

Also using some of my winnings from my live win to play the £100 GUKPT side event on 23rd April, same structure as I'm used to at the place, so just the small matter of slightly better players to try my moves on!!

staking.. and live!!

My 1st period of staking ended up in a profit of just over $1k, from a starting roll of $1.5k I'm pretty damn happy with the start :)

The second period has started slowly, just the 1 minor cash so far, but plenty of time to go.

As I've run relatively bad online, I decided to have a laugh and a break and play the £15 deepstack at the G in Manchester on Weds night, 7k starting stack, pretty much suits my game.

Owned my opening table, won 2 all ins both times as massive favourite, called 4th pair on a dangerous board to snap call a bluff.

At the 1st break I had 25k! I continued plundering away, had an average stack when we were at 1k/2k and then shoved with A10, looked up by 99 and didn't hit. Left me with 3k.

It then can be described as a rampage. Quadded up next hand I played with J5, shoved with AK the hand after and beat AQ. Moved tables for a short while, and ended up making a hero call. 1.5k/3k blinds, a bloke throws a 5k chip in meant to raise on my bb, was ruled as a call. I had 10 9, flop was a rainbow J 9 7, I checked and he threw another 5k in.. got a soul read on him ( had him on AK/AQ) threw in a strong looking 15k, he shoved with A10, I called, and the board bricked.

very next hand on my sb I had 44, 2 short stacks had gone all in, and I was preparing to call, when a big stack shoved, correctly folded IMO, the 4 was the 1st card out, would have had a monster stack. Get moved back to my original table, pick up JJ and shove it straight into bb's AA.

Was basically in no danger of missing final table from this point on, including shoving with Q10, called by JJ and I 4 flushed, calling a short stacked all in with Q5h, he had QJ and flushed that too.

FT'd as 2nd stack, and lost 2 races immediately, 77 into JJ, AK into 44, which left me with 50k at 4k/8k. Played positionally ( and aggressively) until 6 left, shoved my 110k stack in with AA, called by A10 and won, 3 hands later, did the same again, and bust AQ. 3 left, with roughly similar stacks, 1 wanted to deal 390 each, I was happy with that, but the guy in the slight CL didn't want to. Fine. Then went on to own him. Kept shoving over the top, won most of his chips with a straight vs 2 pair on a 4 club board.

The final hand was a fun one, I'm BB, and have QQ with 340k. short stacked bloke shoves and I shove behind, button had limped with AA. Q on the flop.. £620 tyvm weeeeeeeeee

Quick update..

Off to DtD for the weekend so hoping to run good :)

Staking is still going well, 3 very well played tournies last night IMO, finished 26th ( 20 paid) running J10 on a J hi flop into a slow played AA, final tabled bubbled losing 2 straight races in another, and finished 5th for just over $300 losing a cooler, JJ v AJ, A on flop kind of killed me dead!!

Up at least $800 on the staking period, still have just over $500 of buy ins to go. Hoping for another $700 of winnings at least to double all stakers :)

Staking so far...

Until last night, I had played in $451 worth of tournaments, with a total of $174 in winnings.

Played a decent schedule last night, including the 6k $30 on Blonde.

Early on, doubled up with AA v QQ, and promptly lost it all with AK v AA.

After a while, pushed for a 2.5bb raise with JJ, and called the all in from a loose player who tabled KQos.. I held..

Managed to misclick a shortstacks all in call with 87s against their AQ and managed to bink the straight :)

Twice I raised with Jacks preflop, both times called, and both times rewarded by low flops and a subsequent fold.. which helped me into a decent position..

The big hand of the night for me unfolded..picked up KJc in early position and put in a 2.76bb raise ( ty Rooks) a shortstack pushed as did a bigger stack.. was a very easy call putting in the extra 1.5k into an approx 10k pot.. rewarded by a 3 6 J K 7 board :)

Finding a raiser before me holding AA was good.. esp with an A on the flop.... also KK on a K hi flop with an all in ( and no straight/flush possibilities)

Got to the final table 5/10 and fairly comfortable, and basically, after the 1st couple of people went out, I went on a rampage.. 35 >> AJ , AJ>> AK, KT>>55, KQ>>A8, 22>>AK, A5>>32 to win

$1.7k ftw tyvm :)