Work getting in the way, but a long week ahead...

Since my last post I've been working pretty much everyday so no time to play any Poker, I hate playing after work, usually too tired to keep a clear thought process so I just tend to not bother. Today I got home, was tired but in the mood to have a little game as I now have 3 days off (w00t!) so decided to dabble in a little $0.50/$1 Fixed Limit 6-Max on stars, it's amazing what people play in these games. I played about 20 hands and up $6 and left but the taster left me wanting more.

I try again just a few minutes ago and found myself on the end of 1 or 2 disappointing rivers to cost me around $10 overall but I've seen enough to want to play it a little more anyway. My FPP's flew up too haha, 2 tabling FL WOOHOO!

Congrats to my boy, Matt Aguilera for reaching SilverStar status on Stars and for some good recent results, we'll likely be hooking up for some MTT fun this week and I will play a bit more FL, perhaps 4 table it as I could feel myself playing looser than I like on 2 just tables.

Fingers crossed for the week!

][v][

Nice day for a gamble....

Today I decided to get out of bed unusually early and get a full day of Poker in, it's not too often I feel like this so I was keen to make the most of it. I head over to Matt's as we Battleship it in a few afterdoon donkaments at around 12pm and we get involved in a little $5 buy-in $5K guarantee on Stars. Somehow out of 1300 runners me and Matt end up on the same table at the beginning but quickly went out seperate ways.

This tournament went really well, I was able to establish reads quickly on all the tables I played, played some good hands, made some inspired calls and eve got stupidly lucky on a few ocassions to set me up for a final table finish. The hand in question I shoved in a serial min-raiser with AJs, he had 50% of my chips and would have been happy for a call but shocking I got 2 calls all-in for more chips than I hand behind, even with the min-raiser called. He had J10s, the other 2 had AA and QQ but amazing I made a flush to stack 3 people and take the chip lead in the tournament.

I wasn't particularly happy with my final table play, all my moves were ill-timed and I ended up coming 7th for a $171. Overall very happy with the performance but let myself down slightly at the end. We jumped straight into the $3 rebuy which I managed to negociate fairly cheaply and got real stacked at one point but ended up losing all my chips in a terrible hand, I've raised UTG with AQs, I believe blinds were 400/800 so I make it 2400 to go with around 40K behind, I get a call from the BB, flop is A, 10, x. I want action here so I make a weak looking probe bet of 2400 again, trying to look like I've raised with JJ-KK and don't like the A, I get a call. I pick up a flush draw on the turn also so pot it this time for 8000 and he calls. The river is a harmless looking off suit 2, he checks and I bet 8000 looking to get a value call, instead he shoves for 6k more and I call, he had A2 and was happy to stack off with it and I get unlucky. That was a wrench but was very happy I convinced him that he was much stronger than he actually was the entire time.

This was about 9pm and I was too tired to play after this point. I also got some free monies thanks to the wonderful African Nations Cup, a £25 treble on Ghana, Morocco and Mali returned a nice £94 and a new pair of shoes for me :-)

Looking forward to playing again tomorrow, either online or the FO at Circus.

Bye for now.

][v][

Things have picked up slightly, love them Satellites!

Well since the last blog i played a little, made a minor cash to break the deadlock and yesterday I was too tired to play anything long-winded but did manage to play a a $39 Turbo Freezeout Satellite for the PokerStars Sunday Million. I've played these before and they are generally very soft but the blinds jump go crazy big towards the end and I just squeezed through when my entire stack was all-in the hand before and I managed to win a side pot to get half the chips back, that extrea hand saw me through, w00t! So that's $215 towards some tournaments. Will let you know how that goes.
LOL DONKAMENTS!

A few days break, nothing changes....

Well I say a break, I wouldn't call working 10 hours+ per day a break at all but its a "ceasing of poker activities". I was looking forward to today as its my day off (although i went to work for 5 hours) and play a couple of tournies, by the time the tournies came around I wasn't particularly thrilled about playing, I just feel tired and lathargic at the moment.

Alas, I played the $2 o8 MTT and the Midnight $20k on Stars, never got going in the o8 but thats not such a massive surprise, however things went interestingly well in the $20k to begin with. Although I got AK 4 times in the first 3 levels and didn't win a pot it wasn't long before I go a stack going, I fast played KK from the BB after a couple limped in, didn't bet like a maniac but managed to take a 1500 pot from A3 on a board of 3, 7,7, 8, 9 and then the very next hand got AQ in position, a guy in middle position limped so I make it 400 to go at 50/100 he calls, flop of A, 7, 8 he makes a small bet, I raise fairly big, he shoves I call, he has A9 and I'm suddenly at 7000 and looking good.

It went Pete-Tong not long after though, a persistant limper made yet another limp, I have the button and 7, 9s so I just raise it to 250 to take pot control, he calls.

Flop 3, 5, 7 . I'm liking that, I bet half the pot, he calls. 9 on the turn now removes the fear of a slow-played overpair, I bet 1100 into the 1500 or so pot, and to my surprise he shoves. Perhaps i could have contemplated what he had here instead of Snap calling as I did (this is probably my single worst attribute right now, need to slow down on deicisions) but you don't get opportunity to fold hands this big very often in such a tournament. I called he had a set of 5's and I'm left very short and bust shortyly after.

I'm not feeling good about my game at the moment at all, I have a desire to play (which I haven't had in months) but I certainly aren't getting the deck to fall for me at all at the moment, it's all very sad and very disappointing right now. I hope it turns around before I lose the enthusiasm again.

Bye for now.

][v][

Nightmare Night online

Well it's going bad, I've played 4 tournaments today and bust in record time in each, 2 x $2 Omaha o8 tournament (see below) and 2 $10 NLHE tournaments, busting on level 1 in all of them. The most recent one was the 23:30 o8 tournament which is more for fun but a final table gives a nice few $'s, then this happened after an early double up.


PokerStars (9 handed) Poker Stars Converter Tool from FlopTurnRiver.com (Format: HTML)



Preflop: Hero is BB with As, Ad, Kc, Ts. SB posts a blind of 15.

UTG calls, 1 fold, MP1 calls, MP2 calls, 4 folds, BB raises, UTG calls, MP1 calls, MP2 raises, Hero calls, UTG calls, MP1 calls.



Flop: Ah, 2d, 8c (4 players)

Hero checks, UTG checks, MP1 checks, MP2 bets, BB raises, UTG folds, MP1 folds, MP2 raises, BB raises, MP2 calls.



Turn: 3h (2 players)



River: 4h (2 players)



Final Pot:



Results in white below:

Hero has As Ad Kc Ts (Low: 8, 4, 3, 2, A | High: three of a kind, aces).

MP2 has Qs 5c 4d Ac (Low: 5, 4, 3, 2, A | High: straight, five high).

Outcome: MP2 wins .


Oh well, last throw of the dice tonight is the Midnight $20K, must run better....... oh and Lee Jones......


FUCK YOU!





UPDATE 00:17 13th Jan

PokerStars Game #14513431759: Tournament #72648561, $10+$1 Hold'em No Limit - Level I (10/20) - 2008/01/12 - 19:14:29 (ET)
Table '72648561 210' 9-max Seat #5 is the button
Seat 1: MattVanDam (2620 in chips)
Seat 2: boatcptn (2820 in chips)
Seat 3: Mr.Poli (4090 in chips)
Seat 4: 2ez4ac (3000 in chips)
Seat 5: freekadaweek (2770 in chips)
Seat 6: Kamor116 (2350 in chips)
Seat 7: cmonreds (1750 in chips)
Seat 8: TonyACE76 (2510 in chips)
Seat 9: dog law (5090 in chips)
Kamor116: posts small blind 10
cmonreds: posts big blind 20
*** HOLE CARDS ***
Dealt to MattVanDam [Tc 8c]
TonyACE76: calls 20
dog law: folds
MattVanDam: raises 35 to 55
boatcptn: folds
Mr.Poli: folds
2ez4ac: calls 55
freekadaweek: folds
Kamor116: folds
cmonreds: calls 35
TonyACE76: calls 35
*** FLOP *** [2s 2c 3c]
cmonreds: checks
TonyACE76: checks
MattVanDam: bets 85
2ez4ac: calls 85
cmonreds: folds
TonyACE76: calls 85
*** TURN *** [2s 2c 3c] [Kh]
TonyACE76: checks
MattVanDam: bets 100
2ez4ac: folds
TonyACE76: raises 100 to 200
MattVanDam: calls 100
*** RIVER *** [2s 2c 3c Kh] [9c]
TonyACE76: bets 200
MattVanDam: raises 780 to 980
TonyACE76: raises 1190 to 2170 and is all-in
MattVanDam: calls 1190
*** SHOW DOWN ***
TonyACE76: shows [Kd Kc] (a full house, Kings full of Deuces)
MattVanDam: shows [Tc 8c] (a flush, Ten high)
TonyACE76 collected 5225 from pot
*** SUMMARY ***
Total pot 5225 | Rake 0
Board [2s 2c 3c Kh 9c]
Seat 1: MattVanDam showed [Tc 8c] and lost with a flush, Ten high
Seat 2: boatcptn folded before Flop (didn't bet)
Seat 3: Mr.Poli folded before Flop (didn't bet)
Seat 4: 2ez4ac folded on the Turn
Seat 5: freekadaweek (button) folded before Flop (didn't bet)
Seat 6: Kamor116 (small blind) folded before Flop
Seat 7: cmonreds (big blind) folded on the Flop
Seat 8: TonyACE76 showed [Kd Kc] and won (5225) with a full house, Kings full of Deuces
Seat 9: dog law folded before Flop (didn't bet)


UPDATE 00:37

At the time of the last post I was down to $100, I've dubled through 3 times to $1700. Lee Jones, you know your plan for me. LET ME WIN!

Bad Friday

Well the start to the Poker year has gone sour. I mustered up the effort to play the £10/r at Circus and I was in the mood to play, got a decent table, I'm in position against Lester and the rest of the table is pretty soft. Sadly I'm folding all the wrong hands and playing all the wrong hands, i got through 2 rebuys fairly quickly and pretty much give up right there, I ended up limping in for 100 with 900 chips left with Ah7h, Lester is in and so is the button. Flop is As, 2h, 3h. Looks like a perfect flop. Lester checks and I check hoping that the button will lead and he does for 300, I shove for the last of my chips and he has A3 for 2 pair and I never improve. I decided to cut the fun short there and go home.

I think the problem with that particular comp is that I find it so difficult to stay out of pots as generally people are playing so much thrash I want to mix it up and get in there with them, sadly the chips and the price doesn't equate, I think I'll be missing this one for a little while. I go home somber anyhow and jump OK to Stars, play some small stakes NLHE and win buy-ins for the Nightly $20k (my favourite online MTT) and a tiny $2 Omaha 8o tournament. I bust out of both very quickly, the $20k in the very first hand with an OP v OP scenario that if I was thinking straight I could have got away from, I was oblivious to my TILT.

This is probably a good thing in a way that this happens now and not in a much bigger event later, I've not felt the sting of Stealth-Tilt for a long time, I'd like to think that Tilt barely features or affects my Poker game, tonight it did and I've learned a cheap lession really. I'm very much in the mood to play as much as possible at the moment so want to ride this wave of enthusiasm as when I'm in the mood to play I tend to play my best. I've got a Birthday Party to attend to tomorrow but will see if I can find a nice online game for the evening.

Ciao Ciao

M

Getting things started, hello 2008!

Well, back to blogging we are. For those that haven't read a blog by me before I did used to do a semi-regular blog on Myspace which followed the early days of my Poker journey including my 2006 trip to Las Vegas to play some cash games and the $1000 NLHE event at the WSOP which is still my biggest buyin event to date. You can find these old blogs at www.myspace.com/mattvandam

I think that blog will no longer be updated, the only people involved in Poker on there are scammers and bonus whores, so I'll keep it strictly based here.

I've decided to resurrect the blog for 2 reasons, 1) as a discussion medium, I may even do a video blog from time to time, 2) to track my progress as I try to get back in semi-serious poker. The first 2 years of poker went fairly well for me, I was clear winner playing mostly MTT's and had some juicy scores, the highlight of which was going to Vegas, however it seems that since then i've come across some rough times, I'll pick the ocassional cash but have only won 2 tournaments in the last year and found myself no longer enjoying the casino atmosphere and spending fewer and fewer nights in them. I had big amibitons for 2007 and none of them were realised and I'd easily put 2007 down as the worst year of both my Poker and personal life.

We hope to set things right for 2008, I've got the tournament bug back, more so online but will be playing live more frequently (especially at Dusk Til Dawn I hope and Stoke Circus) and have played enough internet hands at various levels to know how to deal with the inevitable bad beats and down swings. I've a number of Poker and life orientated goals for 2008, I'd like to win enough money to get myself clear of debt (around £6500) and get healthy, both of which would have a tremendously positive impact on my life and both are attainable with a bit of luck and hard work. I'm considering spending a period of the summer in Las Vegas, it's being calling me ever since I left and can't give in for much longer.

OK, so to results. In the past couple of weeks I've begun playing micro stakes on Poker Stars again, starting at 0.02/0.05, made $50 and moved up to $0.05/$0.10 and winning at that level too. I'm trying to keep the cash bankroll seperate from the MTT roll so I deposit £50 in there to play a $40 Satellite for the $500k Sunday Warm-Up which i won but didn't fair too well in the Warm-Up itself. I've played a few Hold'em MTT's gone deep with a couple of insignificant cashes, I've been most pleased with some of the Omaha o8 tournies I've played, as I'm still learning the game I've been playing very small MTT's and SNG's and I'm consistantly cashing, the players appear to be pretty bad in the majority so there maybe be something in this.

Will keep you posted on what's going on, I'm considering the Friday £10/r at Circus tomorrow so a report will be likely. Just on a side note, I'd like to wish Team Vegas (Kev/Jue, Rob, Dan and Chris) all the best on their break over there, I couldn't be more envious and will be keeping my fingers crossed for you all.

Ciao for now.

M