lucky_scrote's blog

This blog is no longer in use

2010-08-03T09:49:00.001+01:00

This blog is no longer in use, you will find me at www.gamblingnetwork.com/forums

My blog thread: http://www.gamblingnetwork.com/forums/general-poker-forum/13460-scrotes-notes-adventures-ball-bag.html

Wow...so depressed

2009-09-29T03:21:00.002+01:00

I didn't know poker could make me so depressed.

I came to London very confident of winning a lot of money in the cash games. I got off to a great start after all.

Day 1 I was up 5k. After day 10 or so I am down £1k. Today I lost about £1k at 5/10, only a buyin I know but I don't think I was playing too great, infact fuck it, I was playing fine but running awful.

I went and played 1/3 to pwn some shit noobs and get some confidence back but the opposite happened. Imagine running the worst you ever have in your life. Now imagine twice as bad because that is how it went for me tonight. Hollllllllllllly shit I'm not even going to talk about hands.

This blog update has terminated.

Total:

Dan: -£1k

Davey: running EXTREMELY well today and nearly back to level! woop.

Back in London

2009-09-28T16:34:00.002+01:00

Was away for the weekend for a golf match but I'm fresh and ready for a week of another grinding.

Unfortunatly my last day was another disaster and I ended up just £1300 on the week. A long blog update will be coming tonight, hopefully some non poker related stuff to keep you all interested!

Totals:

Week1:

Dan: +£1300
Davey: -£2100

Day 6- Get me out of here!

2009-09-23T17:50:00.003+01:00

Had an awful start to yesterday. I started my session around 6pm and got pretty destroyed. I'm not thinking straight with all of my decisions and it feels like everyone is bluffing me. Yesterday sucked because I got check raised all the bloody time putting me in really tough spots.

Got a free meal voucher and decided to eat as much as possible in the casino, that nearly put me to sleep! Wasn't in the mood to play after that so went to the Empire to get drunk instead.

As it happens Paul Zimbler is trying to break the world heads up record for longest heads up session ever. It was 6am so he needed a game at the time. I agreed to give him a game. It was very clear that he was quite tired already. The timer showed 39 hours. I've been awake for 40 hours before and it was bad, I remember falling asleep on the motorway, I won't be making that mistake again.

I agreed to donate £100 to the charity and we played for £50. 3 hands in we get it in on KQJ with my AK vs his K8 and shiiiiiiiiiiip the monies. I told him to stick the £50 in the charity bin out of good will.

The games were really shitty last night, not much dead money in 2/5 or 5/10 so Dave also quit early with a small profit. I think he is pretty frustrated still being in the red, but only just.

In other news, I am leaving this crappy appt tomorrow and going somewhere nicer. It has a gym/swimming pool and free internet so I can use my laptop more.

Totals:

Dan: +£2800ish (I lost my cashier slip lolz)
Davey: -£800ish

Day 5

2009-09-22T15:07:00.002+01:00

I've been pretty bored of blogging on the iPhone. Hopefully i'm moving to a new appt with Internet access tomorrow.

I've some fun things to report on, but I'll save them for tomorrow.

Another breakevenish day, the games were no way near as good as they have been, but I did have a guy at my table who called pairs "doubles" LOL

Davey still struggling, he swears he's on his A game so I expect him
to shine through soon.

Totals:

Dan: +£4945
Davey:-£1300

Day 4- drunk Omaha!

2009-09-21T17:14:00.002+01:00

I spent the first 6 hours of yesterday grinding 5/10. I was plodding along nicely until I really butchered a couple of hands. I also had an OAP pull the sickest bluff off on me, I don't even want to talk about the hand as it haunts me!

I was down a little until I stacked someone with 67s vs AA. He slowplayed preflop which cost him as I turned a straight on a 2458r and got it in.

We went venturing for a Chinese restaurant at 10pm for an Hour before giving up and going for burger king :(. On the way back you almost couldn't walk back to the casino as it was some kind of ramadan celebration. People everywhere.

I got back to the casino and wasn't in the mood to play so got drunk with 2 friends and played 1/3 PLO! Somehow managed to win £800 as some Omaha noobs stacked the whole table and it turned 3 handed with my friends!

Davey played until 7am as he had the juciest game! He was pretty gutted to break even and not get out of the green. :(

Totals:

Me- +£5060

Day 3- confidence rolling

2009-09-20T03:53:00.002+01:00

I decided to play 2/5 for 10 hours today to get some confidence going. I totally owned it for a while but the game died after 12. The fish got big stacks and they tightend up.

Nothing to report on really. Hitting 5/10 tomorrow.

Total:

+£3679

Davey was at my table all day today but was totally card dead! He started slacking at the end so I told him we'd quit

Davey:

-£1100

Day 2- how to play bad

2009-09-19T04:19:00.002+01:00

God damnit, I can play fkin good poker a lot of the time, but if I want to exceed my expectations I need to do a lot better than today. It seems like I made so many shitty call downs at the wrong times. I'd give myself a 2/10 today.

I did get slow rolled today really bad, didn't bother me really but it was a big £2.5k pot where flop KK5 and I had 55 vs K7. Turn 7. I shove river and he tanked for 2 minutes before taunt calling.

The games weren't quite as good as yesterday, I might play a bit of 2/5 tomorrow just to get some confidence going.

Davey made 500 back for me today, even though he ran a little bad in big pots.

So far:

Me: +£2430
Davey: -£850

non-poker related, how fuvking weird is London?!?! Is everyone nocturnal, restaurants are packed at 4am I mean WTF?

Day 1- good start!

2009-09-18T02:15:00.002+01:00

Day 1 has started very well.

After sorting out the appt, food and stuff we eventually hit the casino. At first, the 5/10 game was awful, but a few soft spots came along.

The hand that got me going was calling a LP raise with A4dd in the sb, bb calls too. Flop 752 and I lead out half pot. Both call turn 3 so I lead the straight and get a raise. I tank and get it in for 200bb, he calls with 33 and I double up!

Played my best today, if I continue like this, I feel like destroying these games.

Day 1: +£4765

Stakes status: -£1300. My mate Dave has run really bad, most of his losses coming from set under set. Ewwwww.

Only played 5 hours or so today, Friday I feel like playing 12-14.

-Dan "lucky_scrote" Carter.

P.S wish this could be longer but I'm on my iPhone.

3 weeks of hardcore NLHE cash games in London

2009-09-14T12:19:00.003+01:00

From Thursday 17th Sept, me and my friend David are renting an appt in London for 3 weeks for some hardcore grinding! Hopefully, this blog is going to give everyone a little bit of entertainment along with the chance we might make a few quid.

I'm going to be truthful as possible and include all costs. (Travel, food etc).

I will be staking my friend David over the 3 weeks, taking 50% of profit after my stake back, he does get to stay at the appt for free though. I regularly stake him, mainly for live cash games over short periods of time and he has done very well for me in the past. He is confident of making a killing!

So far:

-£2710 for appt EDITED* Our appt was taken, so we have booked a new one, next to the casino.
-£49 train

I'm really hoping, that after my 50% share of my stakee's winnings, it will pay for the appt, travelling and food costs, which I estimate will come to just shy of £3k. I may include entertainment costs too as I think being in London all that time and just playing poker is a bit dumb when I can sightsee etc.

Wish me (us) luck!

-Dan "lucky_scrote" Carter

This year.

2009-03-29T15:21:00.002+01:00

I hope you all haven't had trouble keeping up with my blog lately, I'll try and space out the frequency of posts.

This year I am just playing HU cash online. I set myself a bit of a challenge at start of 09 and would try and grind 5/10 and some 10/20 HU cash games. As you can tell, I am quite lazy and have been managing about 1 hour a day LOL. Still, win rate is at about 14bb/100 so about $55k up this year.

I also have a new sponsorship with pokerineurope.com. After a long sponsorship with poker.co.uk (2-3 years I think?) our contract ended. I am excited to be with pokerineurope.com and look forward to playing a ton of live tournaments this year.

I shall be attending the Irish open, I haven't played this for 3 years so it will be nice to go over there for Easter.

As for now, I think I'm gonna get my head down for a looooooooooong 1 hour session.

Dan "lucky_scrote" Carter

June updatage.

2008-06-29T18:54:00.002+01:00

I'll be honest, I've been more interested in golf than poker this month but I still love poker!

I've not put many hands in but I've made a decent profit.

Mainly 10/20:

second graph is for ipoker which I haven't played much on yet.

August I'm going to go for 40k hands as I am moving into my own flat, yay!

May update.

2008-06-01T14:53:00.001+01:00

So I tried to crush some bigger this month rather than playing 2/4nl.

I'd say it went very well except for the times I took shots at 50/100nl.

Lost 30k at 50/100nl in May so I won't be taking any shots at 50/100 until I win another 30-50 buyins at 10/20nl.

GL,

Dan lucky_scrote Carter

Poker update! (OMG APRIL)

2008-05-01T14:02:00.003+01:00

Well since I haven't been too serious with my blog lately I guess I better do a poker update.

I decided that after messing around with traveling for too long and not really playing online that it was about time I stopped being so lazy and played cash games again.

I deposited $750 and just tried multi-tabling 1/2 before I moved up to 2/4 pretty quick. This new site is so loose that variance is always going to be a disgusting factor. About a week in I had made around $12k which is obviously ridiculous when that is mainly at 2/4, still I had played around 18k hands in that time.

Well, unfortunately, things decided to get a little tough and I decided to drop quite a few buyins at 2/4.

Still, +$6k isn't too bad even though I put in a ton of hands and $1,200 rakeback to go with that.

I am going to play a similar amount of hands this month if possible, all I can do is play my best and hope variance isn't too nasty...

-Dan "lucky_scrote" Carter

EPT San Remo + Travelling!

2008-04-09T13:07:00.004+01:00

Well after prague I was happy to get home so I could rest...for 8 hours until my next flight.

I would have flown to Italy from Prague but I was going with my girlfriend and needed new clothes etc.

I expected San Remo to be an old fashioned and somewhat quiet yet populated area (if that makes sense). I was pretty right there, there isn't exactly much to do either, after busting Day 1(card dead, tough table) in the EPT and having a god awful 4 star hotel we decided to take a trip to a small village in France near Monaco called "Éze".

Éze had some awesome scenery and being next to Monaco it gave us something to do.

I'll just post up some pics, nothing to talk about other than it costs €6 for a can of coke in monaco and taxi's may as well point a gun at you and ask you to empty your pockets they are that god damn expensive!

Still, the 3 places I visited (San Remo, Monaco and Éze) had literally no crime rate. I met my friend Stu Rutter in the shopping square at San Remo and I was telling him how I haven't seen a police officer in 3 days! Well, you guessed it, in about 10 seconds 2 police officers with their sirens on rode their bikes onto the square (only for pedestrians) to chase the pigeons away. Me and Stu were crying in laughter at such a site, he labeled them the Pigeon detectives which was about right I guess.

San Remo harbour

Hotel Balcony, Éze

Monte Carlo harbour

-Dan "lucky_scrote" Carter

Trip report in prague, 28/03/08

2008-03-28T18:36:00.002Z

So, I get up at 11am and miss the free breakfast, I played internet poker until 3am which made me a little exhausted. We end up getting a taxi to the irish bar at 1:15pm as it is the place to meet for the shooting range. I eat an overly priced sausage and cheese sandwich and just drink a coke as I'm probably going to end up pissed by 6pm. The young attractive lady running the trip meets us in the bar and introuduces us to the other 2 brits that are joining us at the shooting range, We learn that these are two cool guys, fortunatly they weren't students as they are generally a weird species.

The taxi ride takes 20-30 minutes over the cobblestone roads. If you have never been to Prague, all the roads are made out of cobblestone's and it's a very bumpy ride! The driver was mad, infact they are all crazy here, you don't resist putting the seatbelt on.

We reach the firing range and are introduced to the first gun, the sniper rifle. I have no idea what type of sniper rifle it is, but it looks kinda cool. It is really easy to use, and have a target approx 50metres away. We have a target about the size of a cd, the centre scores 5 points and the outside scores 4 points. The round fired 5 shots and I managed to score a very nice 24 points, just 1 point dropped! Out of all the guns this easilt has the least recoil but accuracy was tough, the scope moved a ton from the slightest movement, fortunatly after playing Call of duty 4 i learned to hold my breath a few seconds before firing, lol.

Picture- Me with the sniper rifle.

Second up, the AK47. The expert told us in his best English "VERY LOUD, very powerful!"

I must admit I was a little nervous, as you look down the scope the target in the distance (once again about 50m away) goes very blurry. I fire my first three bullets and my friend with the binoculars says "10, 10, 10" after this my confidence was pretty high and I fired the remaining 7 bullets pretty fast. The gun ends up 45 degrees in the air after every bullet, this on full automatic must be incredibly difficult to control. I ended up with a score of 96 out of 100 which is very good In my opinion.

Me with the AK47 kalashnikov.

Third gun up, the .44 Magnum!

This gun looked super cool, unlike the first 2 guns you take a standing stance. We are taught how to grip this small pistol and exactly how to aim. I had an advantage not being first up to fire this gun as I noticed all bullet holes were above the "5" mark on the target from the first person firing the magnum. When it was my go I couldn't believe the recoil, the target was only around 25m away but I must have been aiming a good 1/3 of a metre below the highest scoring target. This clip was only 6 bullets and I managed another decent score of 26 out of 30, out of all the guns if I wanted a gun for personal use it would have been this one. It was very light, fast to load and fucking powerful.

Me with the magnum.

The final gun- pump sotty.

This gun looked very meaty, I was told this is a very powerful gun and can actually do your shoulder some damage. I was a little nervous but i gotta say this was the easiest gun to use, out of the 4 of us we had 3 shells each and all hit the target (a tin can 25m away) every time. If you stood square to the target with your feet together using this gun, no two words about it, you would fall on your ass.

My friend Will with the pump shotty.

So, the results are in, and the 2008 Prague multi weapon accuracy heavy weight champion is, no other than-

[size=18]Dan "lucky_scrote" Carter[/size]

My friend Will isn't the best loser, it took me some persuasion to get him to take this picture for me :D.

Anyhow, I am going out for some free booze in the casino. Czech beer is the (second) best!

A few more pictures for your pleasure:

http://img217.imageshack.us/img217/5421/iphonepics043cj7.jpg
http://img182.imageshack.us/img182/7858/iphonepics060cn0.jpg
http://img187.imageshack.us/img187/9978/iphonepics061pv1.jpg

-Dan "lucky_scrote" Carter

Results of playing 30 tables.

2008-03-25T23:22:00.002Z

Fun, exausting and an experience I guess.

SNG's played: 30
Time taken: 57 minutes
Mis-clicks: 0
Time-outs: 0
Stakes: $16'ers
Profit -$88.50.

I would definitly say that was fun, was definitly an experience anyhow lol, I think I could do 16 tables at the same time, but they would have to start at much different times as I was 4 handed in nearly all of them at one point!

I lost a few crucial races at the end, it would have spun it back to around -$20 or so but meh!

Video coming soon, and no...it won't be part of the poker school me thinks.

I play bad too often.

2008-03-24T19:39:00.004Z

I don't know how I get away with playing good live so consistently because online I'm really rubbish. I had a losing week last week of around $6k. I basically lost around $1k every day, my SNG strategy is awful and I think I am going to drop down to the $100 games if I don't start playing well soon again.

On a better note, around midnight tonight I am going to play 30 (thirty) $11 sng's on partypoker. I am doing this just for the crack really but I am donating all money to charity, I don't know which charity yet, perhaps I could get a Nintendo Wii(if i win enough) for a childrens hospital or something I dunno, will probably end up being a sega mega drive the way things are going haha.

Details on my nutso sng challenge is here: http://www.gambling.co.uk/forums/vbookie-betting-events/41190-lucky-scrote-playing-30-thirty-sit-goes-simultaneously-how-much-profit.html

Gl at the tables,

Dan "lucky_scrote" Carter

Ughhhhhhhh

2008-03-22T11:50:00.003Z

So last week was awesome, Sunday I made $3.5k in sng's and $12k in tourneys

This week on the other hand....

It started on Monday, I think I didn't cash in any sng I played, and I played about 15-20. I don't think I played especially bad at all, just variance has it's own ways sometimes; So that's -$2k

The next day, something similar happens, I cash in nearly nothing and lose another $2k. Of course I am playing worse today because I am beginning to believe that I am not playing correctly.

Day 3 and I lose another $1k, this is beginning to get old and I'm now laying off how much I play this week.

I'm going to Prague on Wednesday with a friend for a couple small tourneys, so I will treat this more like a holiday, hopefully I can make $2k in sng's by then to make me feel good.

-Dan

Finally!

2008-03-17T13:25:00.005Z

So last night I said I would update on how I did last night, I wanted to grind out some money in the SNG's and see how my 3 tourneys would go.

The High rollers on poker.co.uk ended early, SB vs BB I raised it up with 88 and donkey villain calls me. Flop 810K, bet call. Turn 10, Bet raise allin, he has Q10 and rivers a ten. This was pretty early on too which pissed me off, but nevertheless I got my head down grinding on the SNG's before the two tourneys began on stars and party.

The stars tourney started early (Daylight savings) which was cool because I hate the late starting times in these tourneys, theses are the only 3 tourneys worth playing because all the "big" guarantees are 8pm onwards and quite frankly, I don't want to be awake until 6am every time I get deep. I made an agreement with myself about summer last year that I would always be in bed by 3am and be up by around midday.

The problem with all poker players is that they are lazy, you can end up sleeping in the day and up all night, and honestly, it gets old fast. Ever since I improved my sleep and eating patterns I felt a lot better, was socialising with my friends more often and actually playing better poker!

Anyway back onto the two biggies on party and stars...I doubled up with AA very early which is so awesome...when the blinds hit 300/600 you get a lot of short stacks with around 8k or so shoving, at this time you just stay patient and hope you pick up some kind of premium hand. Anyhow to cut it short, I got lucky about 3 times in this tourney and scraped into the money- I won two crucial races then sucked out on AK with AJ. Really If I'm going to use all my luckbox I want to at least go deep into the tourney. So I think I picked up $300 or so I don't remember.

The party tourney was great also, I doubled up early and won a lot of small pots, I do remember going short stacked after someone sucked out on me but it's a bit of a blur. I accumulated a lot of chips just before the money where I think I shoved about 15 hands in a row, it was the classic everybody times down to increase their chances of making the money; I was the biggest stack at the table so didn't bother even looking at my cards and just kept hitting the all-in button.

I'm so rubbish at remembering hands but I know that bores people anyhow, but I had double the average with 580k in chips with about 5 tables in when I picked up KK on the button. The only player with more chips than me made it 45k so I made it 145k to go. He flat called.

The flop was A102 and he led out for 75k. This is a very small bet and I didn't know what to make of it, well, I was in position with Kings and was prepared to call. The turn, a beloved king lol.

He checked and I ended up shoving my whole stack of 375k or so since the pot was well over 450k. He INSTA calls with AK which is pretty unfortunate for him, the only King in the pack hit. Still, he sucked out on the flop and I don't feel too bad (like I ever feel bad for anyone anyway).

I was then sat on just over 1M chips for a good 2 hours, infact when we went into the final table I had just under 1M. I really went card dead and couldn't bully the table since the chip leader was a complete donkey, difficult to push off any hands.

I ended up calling with KQo in the BB when I was down to 700k in chips with blinds at 50k/100k when the button (chip leader raised) His range was huge and I had to take a shot, he had A3 so it was pretty much a 50/50.

I busted 6th for $11.5k. I am happy that I've final tabled one of these biggies because its been 2 years since I have done.

Along with this, I grinded about $3k playing SNG's so all in all a VERY good night on partypoker. Hopefully I can turn my $24k roll on there into $30k by the end of the month.

-Dan "lucky_scrote" Carter

Goals are good...

2008-03-16T15:04:00.003Z

For about the last 6 months I have struggled with internet poker, always trying to find a new game to keep me entertained until I realised that it is actually costing me money.

So I decided to be a little boring, deposit $10k on partypoker and just grind it out on the 200/350 sngs.

I am going to try and make $500 a day and will withdraw $10k each time I double the roll. I would say it is impossible to bust but I may have some boring long break even stretches.

To go along with the sng grindage I'm going to play a few Sunday tourneys including the High rollers on poker.co.uk and the two tourneys that start at 5:45pm on party/stars. I have gotten pretty deep a few times in the stars tourney, but you need to be incredibly lucky to cash big in a tourney with 2k+ players.

So, time to take some grinding seriously because If I wasn't sponsored live then this would be my living!

Anyhow, since I started grinding at sng's feeling comfortable that I actually have an edge for once, I've been enjoying online poker a lot more; I guess the fact I am travelling a lot over Europe at the moment helps keep the mind fresh.

I'll keep my blog up to date to see how the SNG grind goes.

It's been a while...

2008-03-11T10:17:00.000Z

It's been a while, but honestly I didn't realise many people even read my blog, I have had a couple people in the past few weeks come up to me asking when this would be updated, so, here we are.

I have decided I am going to write more about experiences rather than hand histories as you can go to any blog to read about bad beats and brags; this is going to be more of an article if you wish. Speaking of articles I have written two for the WPT mag recently and although I spent some time on my first article on HU I think I did a pretty naff one to follow it up, my writing skills are not very good and I find it difficult to get my imagination onto paper sometimes.

I am writing this on a train on the way to Poland, this will be my fourth EPT and I am looking to repeat my performance from EPT Germany where I cashed 12th for €41k, I was very pleased, I played my best poker and was rewarded, not something you can get used to in poker unfortunatly.

One thing I must bring up is the intense poker schedule this spring, in the space of 7 weeks I am travelling away 6 times- London (last weeks GUKPT), EPT Poland, Irish open, Prague student open(travelling with a friend, more of a holiday if you wish), EPT Sanremo and some small tourney I qualified for online that takes place in Slovenia. I am so lucky to be doing all these things at such a young age doing what I enjoy.

So, I guess I should talk about online a little bit since I'm sure a few people wonder what I get up to in online poker since I'm so active live. ONLINE SUCKS. I have been fortunate to qualify for a couple of EPT's (Poland and Italy) otherwise I think I've been a steady loser the last 4 months or so, I had a bit of an upset last night in the Sunday warmup on stars when very deep (150 remaining) and lost the biggest pot of the tourney to a runner runner, yes I know I know, less bad beat stories so I won't go into it.
I've pretty much given up in online HU sng's, a bad run followed by a run a flux of good players meant that I was on the rail insted. I gave cash games another shot since I enjoy short sessions on the internet since I can get frustrated and bored a lot easier. I should link myself to this page the next time I attempt an online cash game- I AM A DONKEY AT CASH. It's pretty sad actually because it's how I built up my bankroll but with all the new software available to players at the moment it's coming to a point where there is virtually no decision making, you can literally get a computer to tell you what to do most of the time, what kind of skill is that? Clicking a mouse? I guess I'm no good at that then.
The only thing I seem to enjoy any more is MTT's and 10 handed sng's on certain sites (too many tough competetors on bigger sites such as stars and FTP). I guess at least you don't get table selection in these meaning you get some fish before all the sharks come and gobble them up. A software I recently got to learn about is where you boot it up and it automatically boots up as many tables as you wish on a certain software at certain stakes, it then sits you down at tables with the fish. Now think about it, this is going to lead all the intelligent players to the worst players meaning that these bad players will get beaten down with almost no hope. This is far worse in the long run because, in poker you need to have at least some hope to come back and give it another shot, but with such weak players getting destroyed so quickly, the overall playing field is getting stronger and stronger online. Alright rant over about how I suck at cash games online.
i have really enjoyed playing online tourneys on a sunday, I sit down at the computer at 3pm for my first tourney and my last registration for tourneys is usually 8pm, if I havn't tilted by then, I will play the later tourneys on stars. I have yet to hit a big online win since I first started in Jan 05 when I chopped the stars million for $102k. I have definitly got deep in a lot of sunday tourneys but just havn't taken advantage of this or just been a little unlucky. This can get frustrating at times as you don't get many chances like this. The variance in tourneys is unbelievable because they are so volatile, it sends a lot of good players broke because the bankroll required is huge. I think 200 buyins is needed when you take into account costs of travel, food, accomodation etc. Fortunatly I am lucky enough to have sponsers who pay for almost all my buyins and expenses, in return I give back a percentage, wear their clothing, play their site and help with the communioty a little so it's a win-win I guess.

Hope I havn't gone on too much and I shall bring updates on Poland If I get the time!

-Dan "lucky_scrote" Carter

Luton main event.

2007-08-12T12:40:00.000+01:00

Ok its actually been a while since i cashed (Barcelona HU) and i am eager to do well, i played liek a plonker in the £500 event and this is a chance to make up for it.

Im playing very good poker and have destroyed a few players stacks, infact after just the 4th level ive built up to 32k from 10k putting me about 1st or 2nd in chips. I have a player to my right with a similar chip stack.

Coming into level 5 i played slightly tighter picking up only a few small pots putting me up to about 35k.

Then the nasty hand comes along.

I had 35k in chips after level 5, the average was 15k so im doing really well.

A donkey to my right has me covered and he raises to 1200 with 150/300 blinds and i call with 87 (we are both in late position). Now he has raised 4x BB and i am pretty confident that this means he has a monster (maybe AA!). He usually just raises the minimum or 3x unless he has a monster. Well 78 is obv a perfect hand to call with right now.

Flop comes 789.

He bets 3000. (Strong bet, confirms he has overpair)
I raise to 9000.
He re-raises to 15,000. (Minimum raise, this guy is always scared to commit for whatever reason)
I re-raise allin to about 34,000.

He thinks for a few seconds and calls. He turns over 1010 and improves on the turn with a jack.

Well 1010 was the worst hand i could see because its actually a 50/50, but he doesnt know that, he could only have a straight draw if i have 99/J10. I was really hoping he had AA.

That hand takes me out of the tourney and i am gutted, this player now has 80k in chips and could sit out and still be chip leader 4 hours later!

Never mind, next stop, barcelona!!!!!!!

Luton. day 1

2007-08-08T15:07:00.001+01:00

Ok so after a 2 1/2 hour drive to luton i have a £550 double chance tourney to start the day. I must say i am enjoying these poker festivals more and more. The more i play the more people that recognise me and greet me which is great. I must say there are a lot of nice people that play these festivals.

As for the new luton g-casino i am impressed. Its very big and smart, entertainment in the evenings and a massive card room!

Anyhow lets talk about the £500 double chance freezeout. It is probably the biggest side event at 180 entrants, it was deep too, 10k chip stack...should be some decent play.

The first hand i played was very early on when i found a-j of spades in the small blind. There was 1 limper so i raised to make sure i got julian thew (the BB) out of the pot at least and maybe get it HU which i did.

The flop was a grim KK8 with two diamonds. I decided to check and my opponent followed. The turn was now a jack of diamonds. I lead out for quite a big bet i think and i was raised about 1.5x more. I dwelled and was annoyed that i had to lay the hand down since i didnt really know how this guy played. Infact it was a good fold because he didnt play another hand for an hour.

I seemed to get myself into a few sticky situations where i had the 2nd best hand, and after losing half my stack by being in tough situations i began to get a little frustrated trying very hard to win every pot i entered.

For example i raised preflop to 1700 (blinds 300-600) with K10 in the cut off, button and BB calls. Flop brings 678 where i should just give it up but i am determined to make a stab at the pot and just get raised from the button!

Well after dribbling down to 5k the blinds were now 400-800 and i went allin two hands in a row (blind) which took me up to about 7.5k. The next hand i decided to look and thought that KhQh was good enough, some chap was obviously fed up and called me with 77 and i didnt improve. What a rubbish tourney! I didnt get any decent situations and i probably played pretty bad too. Tomorrow is the omaha tourney so ill give that a miss and prepare myself for the £1000 main event.

Im lazy, newcastle update.

2007-07-28T18:28:00.000+01:00

Well im posting this 1 week late! I do apologise but its better late then never eh?

I arriveth in newcastle very excited because its been a while since my last poker festival.

The first tourney is just a 300 quid double chance.

The blinds went up 45 mins and increased quite a lot each step, so a lot of skill is sucked out of the game this way, also only a 7k starting stack.

Anyhow, i won one pot the entire tourney and the pot was about 500 :(. Nothing i can do, i just could not get in any favourable situations! Oh well, let me talk about the main event.

In the first two levels i manage to increase my stack from 10k to 17k without ever putting many chips in danger, i have been playing a lot of hands preflop in late position. As soon as i get back i destroy 8k in chips with a terrible play.

I raise in the CO with JQs. Big blind calls (quite a tight player).

The flop: As 10h 6s

He checks so i obviously bet with my flush and straight draw. I think i bet 600 and he calls.

Turn: Jd And he fires 2k in chips at me. Now he only had 4.5k in chips left, and i should have called since there isnt much fold equity. Yup i raise him all-in and he calls with AJ and i dont improve.

Well over the next 8 hours or so nothing amazing happens, i build up to about 35k in 5 hours but ending up coming to day 2 with 23k. My key hand of day 1 hand to be when mid position raised 3x, guy to my right calls so i also call with 109o using position to my advantage.

Flop: 10d 9s 6d. First player bets, second player bets half his stack, i give it about 30 seconds to see whats going on (i also dont like betting allin straight away here, looks very amateurish hehe). So i eventually go allin, first chap folds and as the second guy calls i say "you can ONLY have two overcards and a flush draw"
Well i was right, and it was the only hand that fit because of his playing style (he was tight and was too unlikely to have 1010 or 99, and wouldnt have called the raise with 66). He didnt improve and that is what kept me alive.

Day 2 is my sob story. I have 2/3 of the chips of average so nothing desperate but i will need to open up early, which i did. The very first hand i open for 3000 with K9o on the button since everyone folded. Both the blinds call me which is not what i wanted!

Flop: K98. Lovely jubbly.

BB fires out 4k at me, making the pot 13k (9k + 4k). I decide the best play here is to go allin, with two spades on board it is too dangerous to call or raise small. So i raise for 16k more allin. The sb folds and BB says "I have to call"

He turns over KQ which is great news i guess, the turn is a 10 and river is a jack making him a runner runner straight, sick!! Infact what makes it worse is im left with 500 chips, not enough to make up the SB!!!!

Well time to throw the 500 chips and go home, infact i do. I go allin with 85 to be raised by 77. First card out was a 7 but i fluke a straight on the turn, yeehaw! Well let's not get too excited since i have 2300 chips now. The very next hand (only the third of day 2) i pick up JQ of hearts "All-in". Call, call, call and call. 5 way action, at least it will be worth winning.

Board: K 10 3 2 and...

Yes the Ace, give me those chips!!! Up to 12k now, i cannot believe this lucky comeback, still, since it costs 2700 a cycle i am nSave Noweeding to throw my chips in again. After folding for one round i bung it in with 93 of diamonds from the CO. BB says "your ahead but i call" and he turns over K8 of hearts (but they were soooooooooooted!). We both make full houses but his is stronger and im out of the tournement.

Never mind, for such high expectations i don't cash, but i do make £3500 in the side games which is always nice.

Next stop, Luton!

WCOOP schedule out!

2007-07-10T18:43:00.000+01:00

Well first things first, ive been looking forward to the WCOOP for a while now.

Here is the schedule, ive highlighted tourneys i am playing. I wont be playing anything other than PL/NL holdem and im also away at the end of september for the EPT london.

1	Sep.14	Friday	15:00	NL Hold'em [6-max]	$215
2	Sep.14	Friday	16:30	PL 5-Card Draw	$215
3	Sep.15	Saturday	15:00	PL Omaha [6-max]	$215
4	Sep.15	Saturday	16:30	2-7 Triple Draw	$215
5	Sep.16	Sunday	16:30	NL Hold'em	$530
6	Sep.17	Monday	15:00	PL Omaha w/Rebuys	$320
7	Sep.18	Tuesday	15:00	Limit Hold'em	$215
8	Sep.19	Wednesday	15:00	Limit Omaha H/L	$530
9	Sep.20	Thursday	15:00	NL Hold'em w/Rebuys	$215
10	Sep.21	Friday	15:00	NL Hold'em Match Play	$320
11	Sep.21	Friday	16:30	Razz	$215
12	Sep.22	Saturday	15:00	HORSE	$215
13	Sep.22	Saturday	16:30	PL Hold'em	$530
14	Sep.23	Sunday	16:30	NL Hold'em	$1,050
15	Sep.24	Monday	15:00	7 Card Stud	$320
16	Sep.25	Tuesday	15:00	PL Omaha H/L	$320
17	Sep.26	Wednesday	15:00	NL Hold'em [6-max]	$320
18	Sep.27	Thursday	15:00	7 Card Stud H/L	$530
19	Sep.28	Friday	15:00	PL Omaha	$530
20	Sep.28	Friday	16:30	NL Hold'em Triple Shootout	$530
21	Sep.29	Saturday	15:00	HORSE	$5,200
22	Sep.29	Saturday	16:30	Limit Hold'em	$1,050
23	Sep.30	Sunday	16:30	NL Hold'em Main Event	$2,600

My poker life has been a bit of a bore lately, i went to Walsall last night to play a £15 rebuy just to get back into the live sync. 15th/95 is ok i guess, i wansnt interested in the money, just getting back into live since i havnt played for a while.

Online poker is absoloutly shocking for me, ive withdrawn all my money online for the time being and will just give the odd tourney a shot, im fed up of not making any money online.

Sunday night tourney

2007-07-01T21:42:00.000+01:00

Decided just to play the $300 tourney on betfair tonight, its small field of 150 made it appealing to me.

I have never had a lot of chips, ive just been looking on ways to survive may way through.

Nothing special until the bubble comes. 18 get paid 23 left.

***** Betfair Poker Hand History for Game 224979683 *****
NL Texas Hold'em $300 Buy-in + $20 Entry Fee, Level:12 Blinds(800/1,600-75 ante) - Sunday, July 01, 20:39:58 GMT 2007
Weekly $50k GTD #80885
Table 3 9-max (Real Money)
Seat 6 is the button
Total number of active players : 7
Seat 2: Lambohov ( 30,532 )
Seat 3: hankipanki ( 24,380 )
Seat 5: james5tom ( 29,259 )
Seat 6: swansen ( 50,409 )
Seat 7: DollarDice ( 20,104.50 )
Seat 8: merly ( 31,740 )
Seat 9: pot is back ( 19,615 )
Tourney Level:12 Blinds(800/1,600-75 ante)
hankipanki posts ante [75]
james5tom posts ante [75]
swansen posts ante [75]
pot is back posts ante [75]
DollarDice posts ante [75]
merly posts ante [75]
Lambohov posts ante [75]
DollarDice posts small blind [800]
merly posts big blind [1,600]
** Dealing down cards **
Dealt to DollarDice [ 8h, 9h ]
pot is back folds
Lambohov folds
hankipanki folds
james5tom folds
swansen calls [1,600]
DollarDice calls [800]
merly checks
** Dealing Flop ** [ 7h, 9d, 5c ]
DollarDice bets [5,325]
merly folds
swansen raises to [10,650]
DollarDice folds
Returning uncalled bet [5,325] to swansen
** Hand Conclusion **
swansen wins 15,975 from main pot

Well im sure a lot of you are thinking, wow what is he thinking folding this. Well, i am probably up against an overpair which makes me a 2-1 dog, i have the odds to call his raise on the flop...but whats the point, i have

Here is what i think about the hand. Swansen is a solid player who has shown down very strong hands so far. It really looks like he has limped on the button with an absoloute monster. If he has an overpair, i am a 2-1 dog, i have the odds to call but to call an extra 5k i will only have 8k in chips. That is pretty devastating if the turn isn't a 6, 8 or 9.

So i thought i would wait for a better spot.

Soon 21 left and i am pretty short stacked with 16,000 chips (I'm in 19th). I plan on pushing a lot here since a lot of people want to protect their chips and increase their chances of making the money (Of course this is -EV though, the top 3 prizes is where its at)

Well, with my strategy i fall at the last hurdle. I pushed with A9 on the button when i was short, the SB had QQ and i didnt improve. GG

***** Betfair Poker Hand History for Game 224989376 *****
NL Texas Hold'em $300 Buy-in + $20 Entry Fee, Level:13 Blinds(1,000/2,000-100 ante) - Sunday, July 01, 20:58:58 GMT 2007
Weekly $50k GTD #80885
Table 3 9-max (Real Money)
Seat 7 is the button
Total number of active players : 6
Seat 2: Lambohov ( 47,172 )
Seat 3: hankipanki ( 23,080 )
Seat 5: james5tom ( 30,084 )
Seat 6: swansen ( 62,059 )
Seat 7: DollarDice ( 20,704.50 )
Seat 8: merly ( 22,940 )
Tourney Level:13 Blinds(1,000/2,000-100 ante)
Lambohov posts ante [100]
hankipanki posts ante [100]
james5tom posts ante [100]
swansen posts ante [100]
DollarDice posts ante [100]
merly posts ante [100]
merly posts small blind [1,000]
Lambohov posts big blind [2,000]
** Dealing down cards **
Dealt to DollarDice [ 9c, Ad ]
hankipanki folds
james5tom folds
swansen folds
DollarDice goes all-in
DollarDice raises to [20,604.50]
merly goes all-in
merly raises to [22,840]
Lambohov folds
Returning uncalled bet [2,235.50] to merly
** Showdown **
DollarDice shows [ 9c, Ad ]
merly shows [ Qs, Qh ]
** Dealing Flop ** [ Td, 6s, 2c ]
** Dealing Turn ** [ 5h ]
** Dealing River ** [ Qd ]
** Hand Conclusion **
merly wins 43,809 from main pot with three of a kind, Queens

-Dan

Live schedule and more!

2007-06-30T15:38:00.000+01:00

After a trip to bristol to sort out my contract for sponsership i now know that i have a very busy 6 months ahead of me.

I will be playing the following live events:

GUKPT Newcastle (July)
GUKPT Luton (Aug)
GUKPT Plymouth (Sep)
GUKPT London (Oct)
GUKPT Blackpool (Nov)
GUKPT London (Main event - Nov-Dec)
GBPT Leeds (Aug)
GBPT Bristol main event (Oct)
EPT Barcelona (Aug-Sept)
EPT London (Sep)
EPT Bahamas (Jan)

Now for the GUKPT im also being entered into most side events.

As you can tell poker.co.uk are putting a lot of faith into my poker ability. I really appreciate the oppotunities they are giving me, since, i first got my sponsership from winning only a £200 PL tourney and a big online win for $102k (I say only, but with only one live win that is really lucky for me). I guess poker.co.uk didnt expect me to do this well and i dont know how well they think i will do later on this year, they probably expect maybe a final table or two but im pretty sure im going to win something real big soon.

Anyway on other news, my online poker is abissmal after being up about $7000 online for the week i am down $1500. Thats a pretty freaky downswing right there, nothing i am proud of for sure. Unfortunatly its not bad luck either, a combination of playing badly and going up to higher stakes at the wrong time. I think im going to take a break from poker.co.uk for a week or two since i think it is the only site i have really played on for nearly 12 months now apart from the odd tourney on donkeystars.

Time for some low stake heads-up games to get my confidence back!

-Dan

Variance! ARGHGHGHGH

2007-06-27T00:09:00.000+01:00

Ok here pictured isnt my real poker grapher, but probably isnt too far off right now.

After my week break from poker i was desperate to get home to play some HU, which i did.

I played for 6 hours straight earning myself a tasty $5000 playing 500 and 1000 Hu's. I then see the donk at the 2000 game that i had been crushing earlier, well i dunno but i got beat twice. I think i decided to play really poorly all of a sudden. Im pretty fuming right now and i am trying to decide wether to play another when i get a call from my mate asking me if i want to go down the pub WOOHOO! 3 hours later we stagger home and i go against the 10th poker commandment.

Thou shall not drink excessively and play online poker.

Ok well my mate was watching me and i decided to play 2x $500 matches, which i won both SOMEHOW. Anyhow i brag to my friend saying how easy this game is and that i just won an easy $1000 when he points out to me that i played 2x$2000 games. Well i guess im not going to turn on the pc if im this drunk because i couldnt even play the right bloody game. LOL Mis-clickaments!

So thats all good, im up $5000 on 1 night but it unfortunatly goes downhill the next day. I bloody suck right now and cannot beat what i like to call the "deceptive player". You get a lot of them at mid-high stake HU games and i saw a lot of them at barcelona. If you do not treat these players correctly they will sting you. If they have nothing they bet, and often mix up their bet sizes, if they have a big hand they check. Of course if you are not playing well this can get very frustrating as it seems they are getting a lot of good cards.

Well after 3 days of stupid poker i am level, which isnt the end of the world after winning a lot but i might add that i decided to play 5/10nl too.

I built to a stack of 2k when someone didnt believe me when i flopped top set with QQ.

Ok so then i raise with J10 on the button and get a caller from the BB with a big stack.

The flop is a 69Q so i continuate with a $40 bet into $60 which gets raised from $40 to $110. I then call. The turn is a king which brings two spades and two hearts. He checks and i bet $200 when he raises allin for about $1600. Pretty MASSIVE raise but i was loving it.

The river paired the king and he turned 66 which was when i turned my stomache. FACK!

Ok, not much going on in my poker life for the next 10 days or so, but will keep updated on anything interesting (or not so) in my poker life.

Thanks,

Dan

Online suckage

2007-06-13T15:42:00.000+01:00

As soon as i got back from barcelona i played a lot of HU online. I played a lot better than before and this is probably down to confidence.

Infact from June 1st-6th i won abut $20k playing HU (Just $500 and $1000 sng's). I spent the last 3 days giving $6k of this back, so its time for a break from HU online.

Sometimes when i am running well for a month or so i get really bored, since everything is so repetetive! When im bored i play really bad poker, so, for now im going to play lower stakes until i can care about poker.

Im currently sitting at a $4/$8 limit table (full!) to hopefully minimise any losses. Hope all goes well...

Dan

£1000 main event- i got sicked.

2007-06-10T01:50:00.001+01:00

Ok so this £1000 main event is a 15000 chip double chance, lovely this is very deep.

At first i looked at my table and thought it would be tough- was i wrong, with blinds of 25/50 the standard preflop raise was 600-950, crazy eh?

Anyway the only hand i picked up was JJ and i managed to flop the nuts, but the chap wasnt interested. I bluffed off 10k of chips towards the end of the second level and was left woth 5k chips.

On one hand i limped with 99 UTG for 200, after another limper a new player to the table makes it 700, about 4 people call including me.

The flop was 368 with two hearts and everyone checked. The turn brought a 6 which was a second club, i bet 1500 which got raised to 4500 by the original raiser. I must have thought for 5 minutes because i couldnt figure out what was going on; well i figured i was pretty short and had to make a stand which i did, i only had 1600 more than the 4500 raise so i went allin, the original raiser then froze and i smiled. So basically i know he has nothing, infact, the crazy thing is- he folded! WOW how stupid lol.

So i pretty much doulbe up there when i raise in middle position with aces, it comes back to the chap who limped UTG and he re-raised me. This young player is a very good player and i thought he had AK or KK, in which case i just call.

The flop comes 1087 with two diamonds and he announces allin. I INSTANTLY call. He turns over J10 of diamonds, yikes! He is a 60% favourite but i somehow managed to miss all those bullets and doubled up again, this time i have over the average of 21k, i have about 24k.

Anyhow i look over my shoulder and i see a player who is kind of well known with an absoloute monsterous stack, this player is pretty terrible too, but still he had 175k in chips when the average is about 25k. I said to the table that it would be a dream to be moved to the right of him, about 10 seconds later the card room manager announces that the big blind at the table is to be moved, thats me, and its also to the right of this player. UNBELIEVABLE!

So the break soon commences and i have 30300 in chips which is about average, but still this is quite deep since we will be coming back to 400/800 blinds, my plan is to play lots of hands for cheap after this donkey.

FIRST hand back he raises to 2400 and i call with 67 of diamonds, not the strongest of hands but i can certainly crack a hand with this, everyone else folds.

The flop 3d 5d 6c. HOLY S***!

He bets out 5k and i go allin for my 28k, he pretty much instantly calls and flips over AcQh.

Well, i mean, if i want to get my chips in good this is the time, im infact a 89% favourite, also this goes to show what a complete and utter donkey this guy is.

The turn- Qc

The river- As.

Absoloute killer right there, i am absoloutly sickened and leave the casino in disgust. There was only an hour left of play for day 1, that was a good chance to get to a final table for my ranking points. A good finish would get me into the top 10 in europe, but for now i am going to have to settle with my 14th in europe and try again at my next live tourney- in the newcastle GPUKT.

Thanks for reading,

Dan

Midland masters. Day 1 & 2

2007-06-07T05:30:00.000+01:00

Well back to my regular casino, walsall.

First tourney is a £200 freezeout and i am going to see if my new TAG approach is going to work.

To be honest i dont have much to say about the tourney, i picked up a set early on and picked up a lot of small pots to stay just above average for a long time, when the blinds started hitting the 600/1200 stage i was getting slightly short.

After 2 limpers from early position i shoved with 33 since i only had 11 big blinds, everyone passes.

I know have about 19k with 800/1600 blinds when a crazy hand occured.

UTG raises 3x to 4800, im next to act and i shove with AhQh.

The player to my immediate left who has about 30k chips says "call". Well i about crapped myself because this usually means aces lol.

Comes back to the chap UTG who passes quickly, so i turn to my right and say "have you got a pair mate?" He says "yep".

He then confidently flips 44. LOL! What the hell is he thinking, oh well race time.

I smile when the flop comes 89A.

Turn J.

River 4.

It was 20 minutes before the day was over, how painful, i finish 21st and storm out of the casino. Not happy!

Well day 2 is next, the £300 double chance freezeout, again i play pretty tight and after 2 hours i still have my starting stack which is fine. After some cool maneouvering i climb to about 20k in chips when i get AA UTG. Yep for once i decided to limp and the guy 3 seats after me says "All-in" Fine, but the blinds are 400/800 and he has 16000 chips. All pass to me and he flips AK. Im pretty sure he said Merry Christmas. My AA held up and i had quite a large stack.

Its getting late into the tourney and i have been with the same few people as when i started, including two tight players that give away what they have depending on their bet sizes preflop.

On one hand the chap to my right raised about 2.5BB so i just assumed he was weak, i was on the button so put in about 1/4 of my stack with 56. I was absoloutly confident he would fold right here, the blinds were high...any move meant all of your stack but he then announced a minimum raise. Oh god, its great relying on your reads isnt it. I spend a lot of time and announce to the table im laying down Queens (hehe).

Well the other player who i said makes his raises compared to his strength raises just 3xBB in early position (this player im even more sure) So i look down at 55 in the SB and push about 5x his bet, the blinds were super high and this was really worth it, also there is only about 30 minutes until the day is over so it would be really nice to take this down. He passes immediatly whilst flipping 99. Lovely :)

Well the first day of the double chance is over and with only 23 left, i have 60,900 chips and the average is about 31k so im doing good.

Final table here i come!

I hate stars

2007-06-03T21:25:00.000+01:00

After playing a couple hands badly i get myself down to 70k or so in chips, a lucksack has raised about 3 hands in a row showing KK xx and K6. So on the fourth time he raises i triple his bet with 99.

He re-raises and i call, he has KK again!

His hand holds and i bubble. Top 270 paid and i come 273rd, nice!

Stars tourney going well!

2007-06-03T19:22:00.001+01:00

Your current position is 5 out of 1045

I took down a huge pot with QQ. I thought there was a chance he had JJ too *phew*

PokerStars Game #10251016727: Tournament #51167608, $200+$15 Hold'em No Limit - Level VI (300/600) - 2007/06/03 - 14:19:36 (ET)
Table '51167608 148' 9-max Seat #8 is the button
Seat 1: danistheking (35670 in chips)
Seat 2: mrvogt (12950 in chips)
Seat 3: champQ (12355 in chips)
Seat 4: wild_man_187 (25725 in chips)
Seat 5: Mitchdubai (15975 in chips)
Seat 6: semifull (20325 in chips)
Seat 7: RAYNEE. (8575 in chips)
Seat 8: Akab (15700 in chips)
Seat 9: Golden_sun (20350 in chips)
Golden_sun: posts small blind 300
danistheking: posts big blind 600
*** HOLE CARDS ***
Dealt to danistheking [Qs Qc]
mrvogt: folds
champQ: calls 600
wild_man_187: raises 1200 to 1800
Mitchdubai: folds
semifull: folds
RAYNEE.: folds
Akab: folds
Golden_sun: folds
danistheking: raises 3600 to 5400
champQ: folds
wild_man_187: calls 3600
*** FLOP *** [Jd 4s 6c]
danistheking: bets 6000
wild_man_187: raises 14325 to 20325 and is all-in
danistheking: calls 14325
*** TURN *** [Jd 4s 6c] [Qd]
*** RIVER *** [Jd 4s 6c Qd] [6h]
*** SHOW DOWN ***
danistheking: shows [Qs Qc] (a full house, Queens full of Sixes)
wild_man_187: shows [Jh Ah] (two pair, Jacks and Sixes)
danistheking collected 52350 from pot
*** SUMMARY ***
Total pot 52350 | Rake 0
Board [Jd 4s 6c Qd 6h]
Seat 1: danistheking (big blind) showed [Qs Qc] and won (52350) with a full house, Queens full of Sixes
Seat 2: mrvogt folded before Flop (didn't bet)
Seat 3: champQ folded before Flop
Seat 4: wild_man_187 showed [Jh Ah] and lost with two pair, Jacks and Sixes
Seat 5: Mitchdubai folded before Flop (didn't bet)
Seat 6: semifull folded before Flop (didn't bet)
Seat 7: RAYNEE. folded before Flop (didn't bet)
Seat 8: Akab (button) folded before Flop (didn't bet)
Seat 9: Golden_sun (small blind) folded before Flop

PHEW!!!!!!!!! I have a great stack now, im also plodding along with 11k chips, just above average in the party $300k tourney.

My new tighter approach is playing good, i dont know why i bother LAG at times.

The $480 tourney on poker.co.uk

2007-06-03T16:42:00.001+01:00

Down to the last 5 and i came across this crucial hand when i was short stacked.

Seat 1: luc_scrote (2685.00)
Seat 3: Big Brad (9702.00)
Seat 4: ingevoldw (11941.00)
Seat 5: Golf_Flop (5761.00)
Seat 6: gtrebbi23 (2411.00)
luc_scrote post SB 75.00
Big Brad post BB 150.00
** Deal **
luc_scrote [Jd, Kd]
Big Brad [N/A, N/A]
ingevoldw [N/A, N/A]
Golf_Flop [N/A, N/A]
gtrebbi23 [N/A, N/A]
*** Bet Round 1 ***
ingevoldw Fold
Golf_Flop Fold
gtrebbi23 Fold
luc_scrote Raise to 450.00
Big Brad Call 450.00
*** Flop(Board): *** : [As, 10c, Ad]
*** Bet Round 2 ***
luc_scrote Check
Big Brad Bet 450.00
luc_scrote Call 450.00
*** Turn(Board): *** : [As, 10c, Ad, 8c]
*** Bet Round 3 ***
luc_scrote Check
Big Brad Check
*** River(Board): *** : [As, 10c, Ad, 8c, 4s]
*** Bet Round 4 ***
luc_scrote Check
Big Brad Bet 900.00
luc_scrote Call 900.00
*** Showdown *** : Rake: 0.00 Total Pot: 3600.00
luc_scrote [Jd, Kd] Pair of aces, king kicker Win: 3600.00
Big Brad [7d, 6d] Pair of aces Win: 0.00

Last 3: I am on 7000 chips compared to 12k and 13k, these two players are quite weak and i should be able to climb to 10k soon.

Big stacks went at it ALL-IN on a flop of 345 66vsJJ and JJ holds.

I finish 3rd for $1200. Lots of up and downs.

Next up, the party $215 and stars $215.

Sunday tourneys!

2007-06-03T16:09:00.000+01:00

Well someone asked me to make a blog entry about me and my internet poker. So tonight i am going to enter a few tourneys such as the $480 tourney on poker.co.uk, $215 on party, $215 on stars and maybe a few others.

Ive already played two $500 heads up today and lost them both, the first was against a good player and the second was against a complete retard that nearly put me on tilt. Goddamnit, oh well i won about $7k last night at $500 and $1000 heads-ups.

Oh btw i hope you all like the new layout, its more clear and fits a lot more text on screen.

The $480 tourney on poker.co.uk is already down to the last 6 with last 3 getting paid, not a big tourney but ive played well so far, taking a very tight approach which has worked well, the standard of players is very low!

Ill update later on how i do.

Dan

The final.

2007-05-30T13:13:00.000+01:00

Ok so ive had to catch up on a few entries after my flight home so im going to make this short and sweet.

Firstly me and jeff did an even chop so we were playing for pride. I came into this game with a totally different attitude, it felt like i didnt care but lets see what happens.

I have one hand to note from the whole game. Yes, 1.

The pots were all very small until i limped with J7.

The flop came KQ2 and we both checked

The turn brought the 10 of spades (a second spade). He checked so i thought this was an easy chance to take down the pot with a 500 bet, jeff checked raised me which didnt make sense at all, i then re-raise putting about 5000 into the middle, i was shocked when jeff called, i thought he had two pair or something. The river brought the 9, my straight woohoo! But Jeff then bets 4500 at me, now the river has brought a possible flush, i ran through my mind of the possibilities and realised jeff could have spiked a flush, but the bet was too small to pass, he could be value betting his straight so i call with the great pot odds.

He turns 72s and im now short stacked.

In the end i fire my last 4000 chips in with J10 and jeff calls with K8s and hits a flush, good game and congratulations to jeff, the world heads up champion of 2007.

I will be back next year, next stop is the midlands meltdown at walsall.

Semi-finals.

2007-05-30T13:04:00.001+01:00

This is my big game. If i lose this i end up with either 20 or 30k. If i win, i will probably end up in the final with Jeff Kimber and do an even chop for 90k each.

After a slow start i win lots of small pots including this one:

Me: 22.

I limp, opponent raises and i call in position.

Flop K33. Check Check
Turn 4. Check Check
River 8. Check and i bet 500 for value hoping he calls me with A high and he raises to 1500 so i call and he shows Q5 :).

About 1h30 into the game this pot arose.

I limp with 310. Opponent checks.

Flop 234. Opponent bets and i call.
Turn 2. Opponent bets big and i call again.
River 9. Opponent bets 4500! I hesitate and then call.

He turns Q5 once again.

This player was quite crazy at times but i had a read on him for sure.

At this point i had around 24k in chips and my opponent had been making some unorthadox raises.

He limps and i look at As10s so i raise to about 2100. My opponent now makes a fuss, walks around the table and announces allin. Ok so i thought about this for a bit, i knew he was weak but i wasnt sure if As10s is the kinda of hand i want to see his hand with since it isnt a massive favourite over many hands. Anyhow i call and he flips 7s4s. Flop 7xx he wins.

Im down to a miserable 8k in chips and shortly go allin with A3 because the blinds are now 500/1000. He calls and turns KK! How bad do i run!?!?!

Flop 245. Lol. Maybe i run good eh?

After taking a few small pots its almost back to level again!

I find 1010 on the button and limp. My opponent announces all-in. I pretty much instantly call, i think i might have said call before he said all-in im not sure. He turns over A7 and the board doesnt help him, it was a pretty good game i must say, we were up and down with our chips stacks like nothing else. GG.

Just before i go back to the hotel i watch my friend Jeff Kimber in the other semi's. It was over very fast when jeff checked 93 in the BB to see a flop of 933. His opponent was very unfortunate to have J3 but hey, thats poker and that also means that i get an even chop for the Main prize.

The BIG game.

2007-05-27T20:18:00.001+01:00

Quarter final match-up.

Dan carter vs Dave "The devilfish" Ulliot.

The match was scheduled to start at 3:30pm, well that was never going to happen so i ended up having something to eat, talking to micky werning at the bar, having a few interviews and then finally watch devilfish on the piano for about 30 minutes.

Finally things got started and i was going to take a slow and steady approach to see how the devil wanted to do things. I very quickly dropped to 16k or so because i couldnt pick up a hand.
One hand to note was when i picked up K9 in the BB, i called 400 more with the blinds at 100/200.

The flop came Kd8c3c. I checked, the devil bet 800 and i made it 2400 to go. He pondered and called, after this call my intentions were to slow down since i was out of position with a mediocre hand, the turn paired the 3 and the river paired the 8, both streets were checked down and devil turned 1010. He was not happy at all i had hit a 3 outter! But a decent amount of money went in after the flop.

Very shortly i picked up 1010 on the button, i limped for 300 and the devil made it 1100. I didnt think long and put in 3500. He seemed really frustrated and it took him a long time to call, i can say...i really didnt want him to call, i was just showing him who was boss since he was playing very aggressive preflop.

All of a sudden the chips were even for quite a while, i picked up KK on the button and limped again and ended up seeing a flop. The board came Q high and the devil came out with a bet that i strongly re-raised, he showed bottom pair and passed so that was a nice little booster.

The VERY next hand i pick up AA, the devil limps for 300 and i make it 1200 in total, he calls quite quickly.

Flop: 6c6d3c

BEAUTIFUL!!!!

Well im going to stick to my original game plan and letting devil take the lead, i check but he also checks. That didnt work!

Turn was a 2c. I had to bet now, there is now a club and straight draw on the board, i make a bet of 1500 which gets raised to 4500, well i slow down again for 2 good reasons. One is, if he has a 6 i am paying him off as least as possible and two, if i slow down i look weak and if the devil is bluffing i can entice him to bluff, so i just call.

The river is a Jd. I check and the devil bets 7000! WOW! I think for a few moments and call, the devil says "If you call you must have me" and he holds his cards over the muck whilst i flip my bullets. Now is the break, he wals away very frustrated whilst mumbling "Hes so lucky...aces....blah blah" lol.

After the break i now have a 32k-8k lead and can take a new approach with the increased blinds (200-400) I can steal a lot of small pots to put him under pressure, the devil dwindled to about 6k when i decided to raise to 850 with Q8. The devil calls and the flop comes 8d 7s 2s. The devil comes out firing 4.2k allin!! I think for a moment to see if its worth calling this overbet and think that he cannot be ahead so i call. He turns over 510 of spades for a flush draw.

The turn and river are complete blanks and i have taken the devilfish down!

I dont feel ecstatic after beating him, it just feels kinda weird. That was the shortest match i have played at just over an hour...all others lasted a good 2-3 hours. Im not saying it was an easy win because it wasnt, i guess the timing for my big hands was great.

Please comment on my blog entrys, i enjoy reading them, thanks

-Dan

In the Quarters

2007-05-25T20:21:00.000+01:00

Well i arrive in the casino ready for my 3rd game and i am playing the guy who beat the previous world champion. I quickly drop down to about 11k (like i do in every match!).

I had to make a stand quite early on, i was getting no hands at all! I get A7 in the BB and re-raise his button to about 3.6k leaving about 4.5k behind, the flop came 9102 and i pushed it allin, he INSTANTLY called and fipped QJ which is a bit of a monster i guess. Mickey wernick was behind me calling the cards for the turn and river.

He shouted Three!!! Turn was a 3
He shouted Five of clubs!!! River was a six of clubs. Haha love you long time mickey.

This player from sweden was very aggressive and i was finding him tough, so i just waited around for a hand. On one particular hand i have A6 in the BB and call a raise (he raised every button!).

The flop came 245 and i check-called, i then announced that i will check blind on the turn! He checks when the 5 pairs up.

The river was an 8 and i checked expecting to win it there, but he put in a bet of about 4000 into 4500. I was really puzzled and thought for a long time, i pick up a tell on him as i am about to call(i was going to fold hehe) and decided i better call. He flipped 10 high WOOT!

Very shortly after i called a raise with K5 to see a flop of K55, i check called the flop and then check in the dark again! (Last time i did that i had ace high, i am a genius!) He bet, i hesitated and called, i then checked the river again and put all my chips in when he bet, he thought and folded.

That hand crushed him and gave me a chip lead, i managed to limp raise preflop with QQ and he chucked all his chips in, i instantly call and he only has A10. My hand holds.

Round 4 and i have a player from spain, i learn quickly that he plays very tricky.

I get bluffed off a big pot when i call with A9 in the BB. It comes out JJ9 and i check raise from 500 to 1500. He calls. The turn is a 5, i bet out big and get re-raised a substantial amount, i had no idea what to do and eventually passed, he showed me K10.

I was being bullied and out-played and my chips were running short, just like the previous player so i made a move. I called a raise with 33 and saw a flop of 224, i let him bet, which he did and i raised about 3/4 of my stack. I mean if he has a higher pp when raising every button then gl to him, he folded after about 5 minutes.

The big hand arose when i had about 17.5k in chips.

I was in the BB with QJ, he limped so i raised it up to around 1800 with 200/400 blinds, he thought for a while and called.

The flop brought J32 and i bet out 1800 which got raised to 5000. It took me a good 10 minutes to decide to call, i was unsure what to do. The turn was a 10d and he announced allin once i had checked. I thought for a long time again and called, he turned over 66 and obviously, i was delighted. He was then crippled down to 5k in chips and it took about 40 minutes to knock him out after that.

Im so ecstatic now, devilfish is my likely opponent in the next round which will be on tv and i am guaranteed €11,250 and some lovely european ranking points!

I had a chat with devilfish after-

(Its funny because ever since round 1 we were saying "see you in the quarters") and i said, its great that a 2 brits are in the quarters, but its a shame that you are going out and he said "Im shakin in my boots"

The quarters are played on sunday and i shall update then!

-Dan

http://img231.imageshack.us/img231/6929/img0794jq3.jpg
http://i177.photobucket.com/albums/w238/polar1H/21799_IMG_0795_122_596lo.jpg

Round 2, Fight!

2007-05-25T12:09:00.000+01:00

Round 2 is about to commence, nothing much to say but i have met the chap who i am playing and the game starts on time!

I got off to a terrible start, terrible. Infact after the first blind level i was down to something like 10,000 in chips (20k starting stack). Ive had to let a big pot go when i play a mediocre hand aggressively out of position.

Basically on the river i had top pair on a somewhat scary board of AQJ76 with three hearts, he bet most of my chips and i had to pass taking note of his body language and perhaps a "tell". I think he is very strong here.

Well a few big pots arose here and there such as me playing very aggressively in position on a 952 flop and a Q turn, putting most of my chips in. James atkin and Paul jackson commented at the time that they were sure i had a set, i had king high :D

After the first blind level i did battle very well from 10k in chips to about 31k, just through stealing pots, i realised a few of this guys mistakes and capitalised.

Just when i thought i had this game wrapped up an interesting pot occured.

I limped with AsQd (Blinds 150/300) Now my opponent raised 600 more out of the big blind and i made a mistake by just calling (I think).

Flop: Qc8c3c

He bet out about half the pot(900) and i came over the top for about 2100 more. He then declared that he was all-in and i put my big chips into the pot instantly.

He turned over the nuts and i had to start all over again!

Well i did begin to lose it, and i must say, this game has been up and down like a yoyo. I won a crucial pot when i limped with 94o and got to see a flop of 445, all the chips went flying and he turned over A5. Beautiful.

Very shortly after when i have a chip lead of about 28k-12k i limped with Ac2c and saw a flop of 224. My opponent led out and i smooth called, the turn brought a 9 and my opponent bet strong again. The river, an ace! I have made a boat. My opponent bets about 6k leaving 3k back or so and i think...for about half a second and announce allin, i know he has to call and he does. He turned over J2 for trips and i take the second round down!

This match was a lot harder for me, my opponent was quite aggressive but i got through in the end.

Now it wasnt long until james had to play his match, after 10 minutes i think that he will take it down. Well i was wrong, there were no hands to note because i have never watched a player take so long to make a decision, i mean, he put me on tilt watching. I think the headsup lasted around 4 hours and i know that this guy james was playing was an absoloute card rack towards the end and james had gone card dead! Soul-destroying!!!

Oh well better luck next year james, i have 2 games ahead of me, i win the first i make the money, i win the second im through to the tv stages, woopie!

-Dan

Day 3 in spain.

2007-05-24T03:30:00.002+01:00

Day 3, i have nothing to do today except watch a few of my friends such as james atkin, flushy (James dempsy), micky wernick etc.

Well lets get started on mr atkin, although i attempted to watch his game i was far more interested in a drink and conversation with the legend mr wernick, what a fine sir he is! Anyhow i knew james would win his game easily, he managed to get allin with AK on an A45 board against A10, well played sir!

I played a little bit of cash, decided omaha 5/10pl was a good idea where i donated 300 or so until moved to 2/5nlholdem for a few hands and got a bit back. I think i am not going to play the cash games anymore, im not running good live and the rake is soooo steep (€15 rake on one hand i played in!).

My day has finished in me walking down a few bars and meeting a few of the poker legends such as dave colclough, micky wernick, paul jackson etc and finish getting very drunk.

Tonight has been a very quiet night and i hope tomorrow will be more interesting with my round 2 of my heads up!

Will keep you posted!

Dan

The rain in spain...

2007-05-23T03:39:00.000+01:00

Falls mainly on my table.

Well firstly im going to start with the good news, i made it to the second round of the world heads up championship, yeehaw!

So heres my report on it.

Firstly i arrived early expecting an interview on camera with pete singleton, but we had problems getting into the casino which is a different story...
Anyhow we get in about 30 minutes before my match and i must say, for the first time in a very long time, i felt nervous about poker; maybe more excited than scared. So the seats are tables are drawn and i meet my opponent. First thing i do is shake his hand (which is also the start of picking up tells/body language/what type of person he is), his hand was very cold and sweaty...certainly a lot more than mine, i guess i thought this was a good sign.
When signing the release form i realise he has qualified online which is also good! His chips were stacked in a weird way and he didnt post the blinds properly.

Now lest get onto some poker hands, first hand of note was when i rivered my straight on a A645 flop. Turn was a 9 and river was an 8 to give my 67 the nuts! i bet, he raised and i re-raised for about 3k, i guess this wasnt a huge raise but i still wasnt sure what type of player he was. He had 85 for two pair but i shortly found out he would have probably paid me off for a lot more! This player would chase hard and also bet really aggressive at times that wouldnt make sense, apart from this hand.

Blinds 100/200

Me: 4d6d i limp
Opponent: Check

Flop: Kh Qd Jd

He bets 350 or so and i call.

Turn gives the 9d for my flush.

He now bets 500, so i make it 2100 which i believe is a good sized bet because i think he will call with a 10. He does call.

River Qh.

Board: Kh Qd Jd 9d Qh

As soon as the river hits he shrugs his shoulders, cringes his face and says "EUUUUCHHH!!!" I thought...is this guy serious!!! He now looks at me, smiles, glances at his chips and grabs 5 red chips (5000) and fires it in, i instantly flip over my flush and put it in the muck...he shows 10d2d. WOW!!!! I could have lost a lot of chips on the turn.

One thing led to another when i called a big river bet in a certain pot with bottom pair on a scary board and his chip stack is down to 8k. He then announces to his friend that he needs to go allin soon (which is not true...the blinds are 200 400 and there is plenty of play)

Here is the magic hand:

Me: Limp for 200 on the button with AJo
Opponent: Check

Flop: J85 rainbow.

When i am playing poker i am in a kind of haze...not paying 100% to everything i guess...im really relaxed. Anyhow my opponent says the magic words "ALLIN" My eyes just lit up...i thought "Is this guy serious?!?!" I insta call and put my big chips in and the cameras come over. He turns over J2.

Thats pretty crazy i think, hes bet 8000 into 800 with a hand that can only get called by something hes losing to but meh, whatever, its his chips, maybe he had to catch a flight on thursday who knows?

Turn and river are blanks and i have made it into round 2!

I hope i have kept you entertained so far, if so, read on and listen to how bad the rest of the day went.

Firstly, since i had won the first round so fast i had enough time to enter the €1100 freezeout which by the way is the first big tourney i have bought myself into for a long time! I sit down at a table and out of the first 5/6 hands i raise preflop and take it down either preflop or post flop. So have already built up some chips. Then an interesting hand arose, about 5 limpers and i am on the button. I make a huge raise with my AKo (Which obv looks a huge steal.) and the guy who limped UTG now makes a raise for 2000 (5k starting stack). He threw it in with an angry manner and i know that he is just fed up of me bullying already, i instantly put my chips in with AK and he calls with his 88...i turn a straight and take the pot down when i river a flush too!

Very shortly the one and only Dave "devilfish" Ulliot joins my table...two to my left. Bloody brilliant! One of the most aggressive successful tourney players in the uk is to my left! I soon realise he really is a faboulous player too...taking some of my chips in the process. Well in spain nearly everyone at the table speaks...well spanish! So it was delightful for someone to speak english, infact he spoke to me quite a bit, well, we talked to each other non stop for about 4 hours hehe.

My chip stack lingered whilst dave was around, he made a re-re-raise against me with K2 (I had 24 but he doesnt know that ;)) which also cost him a lot of chips because another player was trapping with AK. He said "you realise you cost me a lot of chips there". He shortly went out after and i didnt play a hand for about an hour. I was at around 15k in chips which was slightly above the average when a really really nice hand arose:

4-5 limpers all in a row and i look down at bullets. Wow i love this...when you raise here people think you are at it! I shove a 3200 bet with 200/400 blinds. It gets round to the big blind who announces allin (He has 14k in chips!). Everyone gives me a smirk since they all think im at it. He flips over KQ and my aces hold up for a massive pot.
Now there is a swedish guy who has been semi-tight and aggressive with a few chips, he has started to make a few raises at me and ive really been putting him to the tests with re-raises.

I then make possibly one of the stupidest moves in a long time, and am really pissed off with myself.

Top 9 paid, 26 left. Average chips 16k, i have 29k.

Swedish guy limps, i limp with 4c7c on the button, sb folds.

Flop 2c5cJh. Swedish guy bets 1200 i call.

Turn Kh. Swedish guy bets quite big, maybe 5k.

I think shortly and get a massive pile of chips and push them in, swedish chap does the same thing and has only 700 chips left...so we get to see a river and i totally miss, he throws his last few chips in and i have to pass my 7 high for the 60k pot...one guy bursts out laughing and i feel really embarressed!!! I have no chips left and end up going out next hand. Hero to zero eh?!?!

Finally i then donk another 600 at 20/40 limit after losing 800 or so last night...ive yet to win a hand at the cash tables!!! What a disaster

If you have read this far, then i am proud!!! I shall most definitly update tomorrow to see how my buddy james atkin does in his first round, good luck to him!

Dan.

Arriveth in barcelona!

2007-05-22T04:41:00.002+01:00

Alright so i make it to the airport in one piece and meet up with my friend james who i am travelling with, shortly we board the plane and who do we bump into? Micky "the legend" wernick, Dave "El blondie" Colclough and Paul "Action" Jackson. After a short 2 hour flight we arrive in spain.

It wasnt long until we made our way to the casino where we got charged €4.50 to get in (WTF!).

After a few drinks i met up with pete singleton, also a sponsered player by poker.co.uk. Me and james went over to the cash games, they definitly looked juicy and there was plenty to choose from.

2/5PL Omaha
5/10PL Omaha
2/5NL holdem
20/40FL holdem

After a few moments we both thought we could easily crush the limit game, well infact we both played for about 2 hours tops...james took a profit of about 1BB and i was down a miserable 18BB (€680). I didnt win one pot which is kinda depressing, i lost 100 on the first hand with top pair and from there i was just losing blinds...i hardly saw any flops! Jeeze, i hope i can crush these idiots tomorrow!

Well the main event starts tomorrow and i am playing an online qualifier in the first round so i have high expectations. Wish me luck

Dan.

Barcelona around the corner!

2007-05-20T05:04:00.000+01:00

Well i have just got done with the 5th leg of the GPUKT (in which i did miserable) and am now looking forward to the World heads up at Barcelona.

The main event starts on Tuesday and i am flying out this monday coming up.

Heads-up is probably the strongest part of my game since i play it online so much, but have only ever played it live twice!

I must say i can't wait...i wont be playing much poker but it will be nice to get on the beach and enjoy some spanish sun!

Welcome to my blog! (A little about me)

2007-05-20T04:52:00.001+01:00

Well ive always wanted to start a blog, so here i am.

Here i will be posting about live and online, although online stuff is pretty boring so i will concentrate on happenings at live poker festivals.

I started playing poker for fun at the age of 16, i used to enjoy watching my step dad play. I was making money at the game when i was 17 and decided that i would make a living out of it by the time i was 18.

I am sponsored to play live events every month by poker.co.uk which is great. I mainly play in the GPUKT (Grosevenor poker UK tour) but occasionly do other fun stuff.

My blog won't be entirely about poker since i will want to keep my readers interested!