The Pi Life

Cretins make me mad.  The excuses are worse.  The number of times someone has made a hugely bad play and got lucky only to respond with something like ‘I felt lucky’ or something equally as moronic.  Just had a hand on Party, I’m on the SB with JJ.  I haven’t played a hand yet this tournament and we are about 15 mins in.  Button has limped, I re-raise with my Jacks only to be min raised by the BB for half his stack.  Button calls so I figure I need to isolate and push all in the JJ.  BB calls, Button folds. Good.  BB has J8.  J8 I ask you.  Of course he makes a one card flush and doubles up.

 

I can’t help but be amazed and comment to him about what a moron he is.  His excuse being he has two tables and its fast….(?)

 

The tournament isn’t that fast, 20 minute levels so not fast at all really and if he can’t keep up with 2 tables why is he playing them????  I had 4 tables going but I know to fold J8 99% of the time let alone to a re-raise all in.

 

I know long-term blah blah blah and all that but cretins still annoy me J

OK well I'm back at school now unfortunately so I can't sit down and play poker all day.  Thats just crap

Gotta do some bonus grinding though to keep on top of that.  After chasing Ritz Club all week about there monthly pay to play montly bonus I get a reply today telling me that they have cancelled it.  Thats poo - it was one of the easiest to get.  Not happy and have now withdrawn from there - there are plenty of other Crypto sites that will pay me to play on them.  I'm getting 30% rakeback through rake the rake on Betfair and all the other sites have bonuses so up yer bottom Ritz Club

Gonna play a limit qualifier tonight on Prima (through Royal Vegas).  Never played on Prima before and have played very few limit tournaments so I don't rate my chances to highly!  Its for a strange event anyway - this will take me into the final round satellite for a limit tournament in the WSOP - strange thing is that its a limit shootout game.  Will be weird but hey its all experience and more pennies for spends too if I won.  This round is a 1 in 8 shot, final (end of the month) is a 1 in 6 I think so if luck goes my way you'll never know.

Also played a $6 thunder on Will Hill last night, going to stat my WSOP seat 2 quest.  Hey why not for $6? Got through so playing in the $25 tonight

 I love and hate cocky gits at the poker table – especially online cos you know half of them wouldn’t dare to say a thing if it was live.  I have to admit I can be just as bad as the rest of them but hey – its my blog so I can slate them if I want!

 

Playing a $30+$3 on party - $35k guaranteed so a fairly big tourney.  Started to feel I was getting a bit bullied at the table – one guy had already pushed me off a winning hand – I had 910 and had limped.  Flop came 9107, I bet and got one caller.  Turn comes a J – any 8 makes a straight but there are also 3 clubs now.  I thought this guy was drawing with the flat call on the flop so I checked the turn (the J made most draws), he checked behind me.  I thought I smelt a trap so put out a small bet on the river (blank) and he raises me big.  I fold and he shows pocket queens.  Damn.

 

I take a few chips off him with KQ (paired K) when he has pocket 8’s and he pushes me off a couple more with raises.  I decide I want to make a stand at the table.  So when another guy raises 3 times big blind, I call with 67 hearts to mix it up a bit.  BB also calls.  Flop 67J, two clubs.  I think yay!  BB checks, original raiser bets 500 (Pot is about $1k in chips).  I don’t want anyone drawing so I raise to 1500, to which the guy responds ‘No soup for you’ and goes all in.  I call of course.

 

He has aces and obviously thought they were invincible.  Turn comes another 7 giving me a boat, I take all his chips and tell him ‘No soup for you I think’

 

Ok lets bring things up to date.  This week has been half term so I been taking great delight in avoiding all the work I had planned to do this week by playing lots of poker (I am 5 tabling as I type this J).  Part of me knows it’s half term so why not?  Part of me knows I’ll stat panicking next week when I realise how much work I haven’t done…

 

Oh-oh table number 6 has just opened….

 

I can kind of justify it to myself in that I need the practise – after all I’ll soon be playing in the biggest event on the poker calendar.  Most of me realises that realistically I stand a cat in hells chance of getting anyway because I’m crap when I play live.  Hey-ho.

 

So what have I don’t this week, well Chris has tried where possible to get me to play some live poker but he has failed miserably.  I did play in our home game last Saturday, and although I thought I played ok, went out 5^th – my AK catching on the flop against Dan’s 66, only to have him catch trips on the river.  Next time Dan, next time.

 

Apart from that I have been playing online, clearing bonuses and getting some tournament practice in, as I don’t do a lot of that when I’m at school because of time commitments.  So how did it go?

 

Well thankfully, as I cleared tiger at the start of the holiday (don’t touch that site with a bargepole!) I had time to clear my other outstanding monthly bonuses.  These are mainly crypto sites and are pretty easy to clear (click here to see the details of these).  They all clear pretty well at $2/$4, slower at $1/$2 (apart from William Hill and Ritz Poker as they are pay to play bonuses - £5 for every hour of table play at $1/$2 or above).  Rattled through those this week no problem – just Inter to finish but they stack anyway so no problems with carrying this one over.

 

I hadn’t played Stars for a while so went on a bit of a mission on there – nothing major but played some of their 180 player $4 SNG’s. For such low stakes they fill up pretty quick, which is good.  I think I have played about 12 or so this week and have cashed in about 5/6.  Best two showings being a 6^th for $36 and a 4^th for $57.50.  Not too bad.  They are enjoyable tournaments, take 2/3 hours if you get to the later stages and obviously are not a huge outlay.  I would strongly recommend them to brush up on your tournament play.

 

I have also played a few on Party, cashed in a $30 on Tuesday for about $95 and last night pushed the boat out to play a $50.  410 people and was storming for a long time until I ran into JJ with 99 – both over pairs.  For some reason I refused to believe I was behind, pushed all in and lost most of my stack, bad move.  Had to cling on for money after that but got very lucky when I pushed all in with A10 of hearts, being called by AK and AK and made the flush.  Sweet.  That took me into money.  Made a few decent moves to maintain, eventually going out 13^th when my 77 didn’t hold up against AQ.  $130 or so for my trouble.

 

OK – real time!  Just gone out my Stars tournament (another $4 180 SNG).  One shorty has gone all in, flat called by another guy so I push all in over the top with qq.  Its about another 800 but he calls instantly.  He has 78, original raiser has AJ Flop A56, turn 9.  And who says Poker Stars doesn’t favour the big stack?? L

 

Had a good week really, definitely profitable though not big wads.  I think my tournament play is improving; online definitely, now I just have to translate that to live!  What else has happened, William Hill have paid me the $3k for accommodation, which is nice, we’ve found a new house with a pool for the summer. A little frivolous for the two of us but hey – its free!  I’ve just starting my Betfred bonus (details here) but haven’t played enough of that yet to form an opinion and have started teaching my self how to use PowerPoint for school – oh what fun J

 

And woohoo! Just had aces hold up in my party tournament against QQ and JJ – it does happen occasionally!

So now what? 

 

Radical as ever Chris has ordered me to read Harrington (volumes 1 &2), you never know I may actually get round to doing this.  I haven’t ever read a poker book and am getting to the stage where I almost pride myself on it so this would be quite a big step!  Still as it stands right now I’m a pretty crappy live tournament player so if I actually want to make the most out of this experience (I usually end up getting blinded away cos I’m too wimpy) I need to work on my game a little.  Currently most of my time is spent with grinding out bonuses (bonii if you prefer) on various poker rooms.  Whoring if you like.  As I said I do this mainly at low stakes limit holdem.  Working on Tiger Gaming at the minute – good sign up bonus but I detest the site with a passion.  The players are real fishy (you’d think this would make it easy pickings but it doesn’t believe me!) and they will just call with anything – raise and 3 bet pre-flop you’ll still have about 4 callers to see the flop.  I have not enjoyed this site so would not recommend it at all – better players than me may be able to make a fortune against players like this, I can’t and don’t mind admitting this.  Soon as my bonus is done, I’m out of there.

However after a few more rounds that guys right back in it and its all every so tense again.  I can’t cope.  Chris is in need to drugs by this point and worse than me.

 

I can’t remember how it happened but eventually we get an all n called and one guy goes out 4^th.  I don’t care now – I have 3k guaranteed – I wanted it over.  Whew as they say.  We must have played 4 handed for about 2 hours.

 

So we play 3 handed for a bit,  the guy who knocked out the guy in 4^th has a huge chip lead so he makes it pretty obvious he’s not going play so its between me and the other shorty.  He’s betting into me which is the problem and I’m betting into the big stack.  He steals my blinds by going all in a lot; I have to steal when I have a bit of something from the big stack, hoping that he won’t call me. 

 

I feel sick and want it over.

 

I get A10 on my bb.  I make up my mind to gamble – I have to.  If SB is all in, I call.  He does and I do.

 

He has A9. 

 

I can’t breathe.

 

I catch the 10 on the flop, I still don’t breath.  Chris tells me he’s drawing dead after the turn, I need to see it.  River comes.  I win.  He goes out, I’m through.

 

It was one the worst times I have spent playing poker in my life, it was so unbelievably tense we actually felt ill.  Ok the prize is worth it but still – I did not enjoy it until it was over.  We went for a drive after to try and chill out.  5 hours with the last 3 so unbelievably tense – was it worth it?

 

Hell yeah J

So Sunday.  Tourney started at 18.00.  It was quite tense to start with, a little tentative and tight.  2500 starting chips and 20-minute blind meant that we only lost 3 out of the 33 players in, in the first hour.  Second hour loosened up a bit.  One table seemed to have 3 people all fighting for chip lead.  My table became quite aggressive so my chips were up and down quite a bit.  Anyway I can’t remember all the details but I managed to get onto the final table.  2 seats and $3k in cash for third.  I picked up a few hands, people slowly went out and we were down to 5.  Everyone was playing – all in or nothing so rarely were we getting calls or flops.  I pick up AQ on the button so move all in to steal the blinds.  Small blind calls (f***) with KK.  Flop comes with an ace, I get lucky and he curses himself saying he should have folded and is left really short. I dance.  I have a three to one chip lead over my nearest river after I knock him out next hand with my 10j v with kx.  Down to 4.  I have 45k.  I’m loving it.

 

However, now it goes wrong.  I sit tight for a while; lose about 3k in blinds, nothing major.  Then I’m forced to call a min raise from the SB with I’m on BB with k7 suited.  Flop comes 7 high, I move all in, he calls with his pocket aces and I double him up. Losing 7k or so in the process.  I start to worry. 

 

So I have to play now, I raised a few times to steal and got re-raised all in and have to fold.  Within 30 minutes or so I lose my big chip lead and all of a sudden I’m only 3k or so ahead and there’s still one person going home with nothing.  No one is really up for a deal so I poo my pants.  I feel like I have thrown it all away without really making a bad move and think I’m going home with nothing again.

 

Anyway I picked myself up; re did my plan and started again.  I had already looked at the Cryptologic route of qualifying as it seems a good option.  $6 6 player wit and go tourney would take you into a $25 buy in every night at 9pm.  This, in turn, put you into a $150 buy in (about 4 times a week), which led into a $1k buy in on Sundays at 6pm.  Good times for qualifiers as its mainly European players on Crypo, none of this getting up at 4am to play.  Every stage was good odds, 1 in 6 for the $6, 1 in 6 for the $25, 1 in 8 for the $150 and 1 in 15 for the final.  Not bad.  I played a few $6’s and got into the $25 a couple of times.  Also bought into the $25 directly a couple of times.  Qualified for the $150 twice I think and bought in directly once after I sold some of the w$ I had on stars.  Making progress but not too close.

 

Then last Sunday (14^th May) I bought into the $25 and got through. I have to admit I had some luck, all in on a flush draw on one occasions and made it, getting short and was put all in when I was on the big blind when I had picked up pocket aces (they held up).  All of a sudden it was over (was playing another table at the time and missed the end!) and I was in Wednesday’s $150.

 

Wednesday came and Chris sat with me while I played it.  Managed to cling on and make my way through the field, again having some luck when I needed it to finally survive and qualify to Sunday’s final.  After it I registered to start this blog J

So next thing was their new player offer.  Earn 4000 MPPs in your first 30 days of signing up and they put you in a freeroll.  They were offering 4 of these; the first one had taken place and had only had about 12 people in.  Bargain I thought so set my sites on this.  I did it right, signed up[ through rake the rake so I would get rake back on my play and also got their bonus signup offer (2000 MPPs for $200 I think it was) which could be earned at the same time as the freeroll.  During the Easter break I sat on Betfair solid for a couple of weeks and racked up my 4k in points – into the freeroll I went.  (Obviously also got the bonus and rakeback – ended up with a nice little profit through it too).

 

So this freeroll.  It played on Sunday the --- of May.  Psyched myself up for it all day, watched the lobby to check how many people would be playing and sat down with 8 other people to fight it out.  After 10 minutes one player was removed (they didn’t go out, I can only presume they were idle so they got booted from the table after a certain amount of time), down to 8.  I fought it out, played some good poker and got down to 4.  At the first break I had brought up the idea of a deal, some were up for it – good.  Then came the problems.  There was a maniac at the table who would play and raise with anything – either very good or very stupid.  He was quite short so I had a pop at him with k7 on the button, I put him all in after I caught top pair, he called with middle pair and an inside straight draw and caught it on the river.  Damn.

 

I raised a couple of times trying to steal and had to lay them down to all ins, this left me quite even with the rest of the table; I had been quite a way ahead.  So I decided to loosen up and limped with 97 of spades.  Button min raises, maniac is on small blind and he calls, bb calls so I have to call.  Flop 972.  Woohoo. Maniac bets the minimum – 300 chips at this point.  BB folds, I raise it to 1k.  Button re-raises me to 2k, half both mine and his stack, maniac folds.  I think.  It seems pretty clear to me that the button has an over pair, he thinks he’s good, I know he’s not so I move all in.  Instantly he calls me with his pocket aces.  I hold my breath.

 

Turn 6.  River 6.

 

I’m out. Aces have a bigger two pair, runner runner and I’m gone.  I was gutted.  I felt, and still do that I had played the hand just right, the only thing possibly a little suspect being the initial limp with 97.  I couldn’t do any more.  Had I won I’d have had a 2:1 chip lead on two people who had already said they would be open to a deal.  As it was the guy who knocked me out when I approximately an 85% favourite went on to win the seat.  I was fun to live with over the next few days….

Being a teacher it’s hard to find big live tournaments that I can play in.  I nearly got through the Aussie one but that would have been during term time so I don’t even know if I would actually have been able to play in it.  So when I heard that this years world series main event was during my summer holidays I set my mind on trying to qualify for it.  Although I’m a much better online player (IMHO) I felt that the experience alone was one that I could learn from and as were going to be in Vegas during this time anyway it seemed ideal.

 

I had already accumulated about $1k in $w on Poker Stars so decided to use some of these to try to qualify for one of their satellites, $640 entry I think so 1 in every 18 got a seat.  Most of the quallies into this main satellite were double shootout type games, 2 table structure where you need to win and win.  During Easter I played quite a few of these, as if you played during the morning there tended to be quite an overlay, with only 2/3 people in the first round.  I found I was often getting through to the final table but had didn’t really get anywhere close to winning.  I tied one or two single table quallies but again had very little success.

 

So one morning when Chris was still in bed I did some scouting round to try and find the best way into the world series.  A lot of quallies were 1 for every 50 or so, not ideal so I wanted to find the best value route.  This led me to Betfair.  At first I was interested in their rake qualification route – if you earned them so much in rake back they would give you anything between a free WSOP seat to a freeroll for some of the smaller events.  I considered this for a while but after we sat down and did some calculations, with coming to the site after this promo had already started we soon realised it would be near impossible to actually rack up enough rake back in the time left, unless I didn’t work or sleep that is….

(Continues tomorrow)

My thoughts, views and experiences on my life as an amateur poker player!

Ok, my first proper entry (finally) . Chris has been nagging me for a few weeks to get started, and finally forced me to get set up on here after I won through round 2 of a world series of poker qualifier last Wednesday (17th May 2006). I kept meaning to get started, I even sat at my pc on the Thursday evening and tried to write a description for this blog, after about 30 minutes of coming up with nothing I gave up!

Anyway, here I am. A bit about me to start with, my name is Claire, I’m 31 and a full time Maths teacher. I live with Chris, my long suffering partner of over 10 years now. We have no kids (thankfully ) and we usually go to Las Vegas twice a year, work and money permitting.

I’ve been playing poker ‘seriously’ for about 18 months, 2 years now and its where most of my free time goes. I pay mainly holdem, limit and no limit, cash and tournament. I prefer online play and feel I am a much better online player than live player, but I guess that is only to be expected with the amount of experience I have had with each. I play on a lot of different poker sites; I started a long time ago on Planet Poker but haven’t played there for years! I have played most of my poker on Party Poker and Poker Stars, but have played a lot on Empire, Paradise and more recently the Cryptologic sites (and anywhere offering decent bonuses!). I started by playing mainly low limit sit and go tournaments (SNGs) then progressed to low buy in no limit cash games. Following some long chats with Steve during last summers ‘Summer O’Poker’ in Vegas I gave limit cash a try and now play mainly $1/$2, $2/$4 limit cash games. I still pay tournaments, sngs and multi but find that time is often against me with these so I have to plan around what time I have. My highest win was about 18 months ago in an Aussie Million qualifier. I played through 2 SNG tournies to win my place in the final qualifier, got up at 4am to play it and ended coming 4th. I missed out on a seat but got about $3.5k for my trouble. Since then I’ve placed in a few other multi table tournaments (MTTs) (but nothing as good, best since has been about $1500 I think!) and maintained a bankroll through cash games.

Until recently that is

OK I have finally got round to posting

I have already got quite a lot waiting to be posted - instead of doing one huge post I'll post regularly over the next few days until I'm up to date. Hopefully this will help me to get into a routine of posting.