Belated update

Things haven't really gotten any better, until yesterday that is as I picked up form on the sixpaks with my first big(ish) day for a while. Had a bad week last week and wasn't feeling too great, so I decided to hell with it and booked myself on a plane to warmer climates for 2 months; I leave tomorrow. I figure if I'm going to lose a couple of grand in a day, I can walk down to the beach and chill out, rather than open the curtains here and see the misery that is the Lancashire weather. It also stops me spending a silly amount of time in Vegas in June, always nice for the bank manager to hear.

UKPT was a bit meh, on Day 1 I played some very good poker, and threatened to have a big stack at various points, but just didn't get the rub of the green where I needed it e.g. I reraised in the cutoff with QQ when I was cruising around 30k ave stack 20k, only for the button to pick up KK and bring me back into the pack. Small things like that make a world of difference (especially with a stacked-up Rumit Somaiya to my left all day), but what can you do. Made it to day 2, where I tried to make things happen but it wasn't to be. Was good to see Paul from betfair, Mel Judah & the Champagne Campaign Crew again, but that was unfortunately the highlight.

Regards,
JPK

No more anonymous comments

..simply because all the abuse on here comes from nameless monkeys, if you want to flame me fire away but have the balls to do it under your name.

Poker has been pretty sick, I don't really want to talk about it.. I've nothing good to say so I'll keep schtum. UKPT next weekend, not sure if I'll be posting an update before then as I'm not too enamoured with the game right now.

Best,
JPK

Collusion?

What do you think.. SB left after this hand, c/o left a couple of hands later, both were fish. Guy who "won" the hand spun up his $1500 to $6k, the other did $1500 twice in quick fashion. The one with $6k was there a little while before the other.

Game #3765388293: Hold'em NL ($25/$50) - 2007/04/09 - 16:23:28 (EST)
Table "Abramov" Seat 5 is the button.
Seat 1: lundgren1 ($5694 in chips)
Seat 2: dankiiii ($6749.14 in chips)
Seat 3: AceHole ($5948 in chips)
Seat 4: Pau080570 ($3524.57 in chips)
Seat 5: JPK69 ($4800 in chips)
Seat 6: Sim100517 ($1870.60 in chips)
Sim100517: posts small blind $25
lundgren1: posts big blind $50
----- HOLE CARDS -----
dealt to JPK69 [Qh Jh]
dankiiii: folds
AceHole: folds
Pau080570: calls $50
JPK69: raises to $200
Sim100517: calls $175
lundgren1: folds
Pau080570: raises to $350
JPK69: calls $150
Sim100517: raises to $500
Pau080570: calls $150
JPK69: calls $150
----- FLOP ----- [Jd Ks 9s]
Sim100517: bets $1370.60 and is all-in
Pau080570: calls $1370.60
JPK69: folds
----- TURN ----- [Jd Ks 9s][Kh]
----- RIVER ----- [Jd Ks 9s Kh][6h]
----- SHOW DOWN -----
Sim100517: shows [Td Ad] (A Pair of Kings, Ace high)
Pau080570: shows [Jc As] (Two Pairs, Kings and Jacks, Ace high)
Pau080570 collected $4288.20 from Main pot
----- SUMMARY -----
Total pot $4291.20 Main pot $4288.20 Rake $3
Board [Jd Ks 9s Kh 6h]
Seat 1: lundgren1 (big blind) folded before Flop (didn't bet)
Seat 2: dankiiii folded before Flop (didn't bet)
Seat 3: AceHole folded before Flop (didn't bet)
Seat 4: Pau080570 showed [Jc As] and won ($4288.20) with Two Pairs, Kings and Jacks, Ace high
Seat 5: JPK69 (button) folded on the Flop
Seat 6: Sim100517 (small blind) showed [Td Ad] and lost with A Pair of Kings, Ace high

Bleh, meh, zzzzzzzzzz

Same old stuff really.. I am managing to grind out a slight profit at sixpaks despite losing every race on the bubble, but it's not like that hasn't always been the case so no problem there. Factoring with rakeback I could live a comfortable life by just breaking even, if I can turn some actual form for a couple of months there's a lot of cash up for grabs.

I think there's far more value on the cash tables these days, rather than SNGs.. and I am managing to make some cash on the $5/10 tables.. nothing earth shattering but it's positive. However, my main source seems to be the MTTs despite the fact I rarely play them, so I will concentrate a little more on those in the next month or two, focusing on the larger buyins on Crypto and Betfair (fantastic structure).. as well as the Mansion $100k. The Pokerstars tournies look good, but at 2000+ runners for every guaranteed MTT, it just sets me in the wrong frame of mind before I even start. I will probably play them a lot more just before the WSOP for practice and the prize pool is well worth the effort (1st place usually around the $200k mark). I'm predicting in 2007 I'll have a sizeable MTT win somewhere, it's just a gut feeling.

So, nothing special going on, back into the daily lifestyle in the epicenter of entertainment of Longridge, near Preston, Lancashire. May "pop off" to Thailand for a couple of months rather than the originally planned one month after UKPT Manchester, we'll see what poker brings ;-)

Regards,
JPK

Goa Money Arrives & JPK Signs with BF.. sortof

Since I've been moaning about it, I thought I would let you guys know :-)

You know a bad run is over, when you are angry about "only" being $2k up for the day. Boy, I can take those bad moods anytime ;-)

I've signed up as a contributing writer to the poker section of the Betfair website in a series entitled: "The Life of a Poker Pro". Check it out at http://poker.betfair.com .. the first column charts my journey in Goa. I'm not too sure what exactly I'll write about yet, but I'll make sure it's as original and insightful as I can possibly make it.

Best
JPK

Calling Thomas "Buzzer" Bihl, the classy gent

£200 sixpak:

Game #3700527203: Hold'em NL (100/200) - 2007/04/03 - 18:05:16 (EST)
Table "1" Seat 2 is the button.
Seat 1: _martin_ (1365 in chips)
Seat 2: Craig11op (2746 in chips)
Seat 3: JPK69 (2587 in chips)
Seat 4: mny75 (2302 in chips)
JPK69: posts small blind 100
mny75: posts big blind 200
----- HOLE CARDS -----
dealt to JPK69 [Ac 5c]
_martin_: folds
Craig11op: folds
JPK69: calls 100
mny75: checks
----- FLOP ----- [3s Ad 9c]
JPK69: bets 200
mny75: calls 200
----- TURN ----- [3s Ad 9c][4s]
JPK69: checks
mny75: bets 400
JPK69: raises to 2187 and is all-in
mny75: is all-in 1502
Returned uncalled bets 285 to JPK69
----- RIVER ----- [3s Ad 9c 4s][7h]
----- SHOW DOWN -----
JPK69: shows [Ac 5c] (A Pair of Aces, Nine high)
mny75: shows [9h 7d] (Two Pairs, Nines and Sevens, Ace high)
mny75 collected 4604 from Main pot
----- SUMMARY -----
Total pot 4604 Main pot 4604 Rake 0
Board [3s Ad 9c 4s 7h]
Seat 1: _martin_ folded before Flop (didn't bet)
Seat 2: Craig11op (button) folded before Flop (didn't bet)
Seat 3: JPK69 (small blind) showed [Ac 5c] and lost with A Pair of Aces, Nine high
Seat 4: mny75 (big blind) showed [9h 7d] and won (4604) with Two Pairs, Nines and Sevens, Ace high

Dealer: #3700527203, mny75 wins 4604 chips with Two Pairs, Nines and Sevens, Ace high.
mny75: yaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaa

You are so classy young man, I see you still finished 3rd, LOL.. and don't even try and argue it wasn't you.. but no matter, I will continue to take your donations in the near, and distant future. I just felt the Betfair forum and my blogger readers would like to see this so as to further enhance your nice guy reputation.

Regards,
JPK

Kiss Kiss

FT Woes

I decided to play my first MTTs last night since Goa, the Betfair $50k and the Cryptologic £40k guaranteed tournies. In the BF tourney I played good, solid stuff, nothing out of the ordinary but never looked like not making the final table, which I duly did. 7 left, blinds at 2/4k matey UTG with 50k raises to 10k. I jam in the BB with A8d for about the same as I know he hasn't got much of anything with such a pathetic raise, he thinks for 5 seconds and calls with JTc. So, 7th for $1750. The clown went on to win, and scoop $15k. Tilt.

At the same time I'd been playing the £40k with not much interest as it was early on and basically just played good hands and never limped into pots. Had two early double ups and was in the top 2 at level 2, where I remained until the FT as I completely dominated the field. Whenever this happens I am a dead cert not to win as it proved. I lost with TT to KQ on a ATx board, then called an SB jam with KT, he had T7o. I called it to Benno before the cards were dealt, "he's jamming, I'm calling and getting raped". Self-fulfilling prophecies, eh. This was really frustrating as I had a big stack at the time, and if I win these pots, I eliminate two players, it's short handed and I'm strong odds-on to win. Swings are so important, even the small ones as they can totally change the dynamic of a game.

Final 4 and I get the chip lead, a bluff goes wrong but I'm still looking strong. Raise UTG to 24k at 4.8k with AT.. SB villain who only had one move all tourney (all-in jam/resteal) for 75k-ish with KQo (let's not dissect this and talk about how this is such an awful move), ten on flop, queen on turn and he stays alive for the 8th or 9th time. Next hand, QQ vs AK, he boats up. GG WP. £3000 prize money, should've been £10k (at least it wasn't for $250k like Goa), same old story.

Alright, so I made £4000 on the day but ignoring the financial success it really is irritating this continues to occur on final tables for me. My hands never hold up and my gimmick seems to be that I lose every crucial race. In that sense, my confidence is very low when I get all-in. When I'm playing poker and not bingo, everything's all good. One thing's for sure, sometime, at some point, I'll FT somewhere and completely destroy my opponents, where and when that will be, who knows..

In lieu of this I've decided to pull out of the Irish Open. I really can't be bothered shelling out 5k Euro only to have a big stick shoved up my arse at a critical moment to cost me 500k or whatever, I just can't handle such a disappointment currently. Add to the fact I've STILL not received my prize money from Goa, I am tightening the purse strings. I'll probably play the UKPT in Manchester, and take a rest before the WSOP main event. Back to the daily grind for me.

Regards,
JPK