How you became good at poker... a LOL Donkaments tale

I've been playing poker for over 5 years now. it's strange, it still seems like a fairly new addition to my life, I'm sure it does for most people, it would be even weirder to imagine what I'd of been doing during the time I spent playing it. But what I pondered to myself today as I reflected upon the things that I've done in poker was... 'when did I become good?'

Before Kev B can get in and say "what do you mean, when? You're still shite!" let's call it 'when did I become significantly better?' then. I tried to pinpoint to a single instance than made me change the way I thought and played the game, but this isn't true. I can say with certainty that there were certain things that positively influenced me more than others for certain, i'll touch on those later though.

So, I guess to try and piece together this little poker journey I have to go right back to the beginning. December 2004 and Mr Matt Aguilera is chilling at my place and we're bored of playing Pro Evolution Soccer for the night and he is channel hopping, skips to I believe it was channel 123 on Sky Digital at the time and put on Challenge TV... "whats this shit?" I asked. I got a long story about how good Poker was and how he'd been playing it in secret for a little while and going to a local game (Stoke Poker).

I immediately dismissed him, labelled him a degenerate scum-bag as i've never approved of gambling. At this stage in my life I hadn't been to a casino in my life so I surprised myself by how drawn in to the TV I was. It was the 2003 WSOP final, I sat there watched Moneymaker win it and I was hooked. I arranged with Matt to go to Stoke Poker the following week, I guess it all changed for me after that, I became a 'social gambler'. Stoke Poker quickly became a Friday/saturday night weekly event to look forward to each and every week, the worst thing for me I think was doing rather well in my 1st game there, I came 3rd and cashed... last time I did for a while though LOL!

So my instant success had me believing I was considerably better than I could have realised at the time, I think it was a really long time before I cashed again at Stoke Poker and for a friendly little game there were a hell of a lot of good players there now I look back at it. I got very annoyed with it at one point, I used to sit there and try to figure out why I wasn't winning, blaming everyone but me, I recall one week I really layed into Steve when he made a bit of a hero river call against me and caught my bluff, I was a right mard arse but i guess that's the competitive nature in me, i hate to lose at anything, this made me a bit of a twat at the time but served me well later on.

So gradually I grew out of the bad habits I had at the start, like playing K9 and Q10 every time I was dealt them without fail and really tightened up.... it was really needed though to be fair, I can remember thinking Rob Ho was one of the tightest players on the planet at the time.... oh how wrong I was LOL. So I read a few books, particulary the 1st two Harrington books and that really altered my game tremendously. A stand out memory for me was in the event that was organised by Danny Gelboy that saw a number of preliminary single table games at his house and a final table to be played at Stoke Poker. I qualified for the final table and was doing quite well, although it wasn't to be, but the stand out memory for me was in a hand with Claire Ward... now anyone who has played Claire will know she is textbook solid, so he raises have to be respected. Well i somehow found it in myself to lay down AK preflop to Claire in a particular hand and I showed it....

OK, big deal.... but at the time it was. I'd never layed a hand like that down before in a tournament, her face was of shock and I never got to see her hand, but whether I was beaten or not I think i got a bit of respect for that, it had shown some progression in my game, a deeper thought process, I often recall that hand for some reason, it seemed pivotal. Soon after that I started to cash a little more often, including a couple of wins at Stoke Poker and I was feeling a hell of alot more in control of a game. It wasn't long after this that a few Stoke Poker folks decided to step into something bigger and we started to attend the £10 rebuy Friday night at Stoke Stanley's. Sadly for reasons I won't go into on a blog, this venture led to a downfall at Stoke Poker which was very sad and a great game was lost, but it opened a door to a more lucartive game.

I think our little team which consisted of myself, Matt A, Rob Ho, Kev, Jue and Rob Ho, really slided into that game very quickly, i think we the 1st of alot of the new breed there that really gave the old-guard a headache, i think we were all pretty successful there off the bat, I remember Matt and Rob particularly getting some good results there almost immediately. I made many final tables at Stanley's including a 3-way chop at final for a £1000 a piece almost, that was a night with 130 runners! Those were the days, it was the best game in town for sure but sadly I never won a £10 rebuy tournament outright, but did win a couple at the new Stanley's that were freezeouts but for smaller prizes.

So I was into the live poker scene, winning money, spoiling myself with big TV's, a 24 inch Monitor for my computer for some serious online action, a brand new Computer to boot and most importantly..... a trip to Las Vegas and the WSOP 06. So yeah, within 18 months I was going from playing a small but friendly and competitive local game to the biggest game in the world.... seems kinda stupid when you look at it like that, but really it wasn't, it was a fairly logical next step. I had originally intended to go with Matt A but he decided a new guitar, new Xbox 360 and a TV was better than a holiday of a lifetime... I however had my heart set so decided to go it alone anyway.

So I book at in Flamingo, put $1500 aside to buy-in for the cheapest NL event and also bought a $300 seat at mandalay bay for a UFC event that was on at the time, to really make the most of being there. 1st night there was memorable to say the least, I crashed in my room after unpacking for a few hours as I'd not slept for 2 days then proceeded to go to the Flamingo card room at around 6pm for a little bit of cash... a few hours then bed I said, uhuh, not to be. Next time I checked my watch it was 6am and I was a whopping $20 up but had more fun than I'd had in ages. I had the bug real fucking bad there and then.

So I had been there for 3 days and going well in cash games but had not really played any tournament poker prior to the WSOp event, perhaps a mistake but on day 4 it was the big day. Nervous as hell putting £750ish of my hard earned into what was in retrospect a massive gamble, whilst the clock was 60mins starting with 25/25 we only had 1500 in chips and one of the most memorable hands I ever played came on the very 1st hand. It folded round to the SB (how often does that happen in level 1 of a Stoke donkament folks?) and he 150 to go, I look down at JJ. I immediately didn't like this, I wanted better or a fold, something easy but I was on auto-pilot, I re-popped it to 450 and he flat called. So here I am in the biggest game of my life and I already have 1/3 of my chips in the pot on the 1st hand LOL. The flop comes Queen High and he checks and I check behind. The turn comes a blank and i bet 400 and he folds saying he had AK, seems reasonable and i was delighted to get some chips under my belt.

I was doing very well, whilst not felting anyone I got my stack up to around 4000ish and our table broke, I was moved to a table that contained 2 people I recognised. One was Paul Sexton, a guy I'd seen on the WSOP previously who has a famous poker playing brother and father... but also 2 seats to my right was none other than Phil 'The Unibomber' Laak. That was pretty awesome for me, whilst I didn't play a hand directly with Laak at any point he seemed very curious about what I was playing often asking to see my cards and what not. I ran a few bluffs that day and was often shown what they were folding, I couldn't believe it alot of the time, folding top pairs isn't really the norm in Stoke. I got eliminated after nearly (I say nearly in the loosest possible terms) getting someone to lay down AA to my Top pair in a 3 way hand but it wasn't to be. I was out 6 hours after, having beaten 2/3's of the biggest field in WSOP history at that point, I was pleased with how it went but kinda relieved in a way that it was over. I was emotionally and physically drained and wanted to go to my room sharpish LOL.

I came back from Vegas and I played at the Grosvenor the very same night, brimming with confidence, I felt invincible. Now, going to Vegas doesn't autotmatically make you better than the local crowd and that wasn't what I was trying to imply, but I felt my game had moved on, I'd seen a different way to play the game and I was forever changed by my attendence at the WSOP 06, no doubt that is the single biggest influence on my game ever. Shortly after coming back I had a very consistent string of Final Table appearances at Grosvenor and Stanleys and things were going exceptionally well. Sadly for me things got in the way, a mis-hap in poker with a group of friends, my work committments and a person relationship i had at the time put a stop to me playing so often and I almost fell out of the game completely.

I don't think i've ever really recovered from that period, shortly after that came the Grosvenor banning incident and that has really put an end to any aspirations of playing live tournament poker in the UK ever again. That said there is a positive, it made my online game stronger but I long to play in the big casinos again, I miss the interaction, the somewhat easier wins and the rush of live final-table poker. Maybe one day it will come good.

But folks, what experiences made you better at the game? Can you point to your development at one particular instance or was it a series of them. I'd love to know.

Ciao Ciao
Matt

A little card room review - The Loose Cannon - London

Last Thursday night was the tri-monthly PokerStars staff event at Loose Cannon in London. This was my 1st time going to either a staff event or the venue itself so it seemed like a great excuse to kill 2 birds with 1 stone despite the late night offering and being up early for work the next day.For those who are unfamilar with Loose Cannon, it's found on Cannon Street in Westminster (hence the name...) but is not a dedicate Poker Venue, it's also a sports bar and accomplishes both traits rather well. It's a trendy building once you get inside, lots of well lit brick arches, very London (if that makes sense), card room magic features as standard and it houses some really comfortable tables with very plush, thick rail padding.

So the event was pretty cool in itself. PokerStars put on a free bar (all those lovely Bulmers Pear haha!) and a little bit of food and even put on prizes for the event. The structure was simple but not typical, it was 1500 starting chips playing 25/50 with a 15min clock, so it played alot like a sit and go, 2 table shoot out. Basically Stars put prizes from the FPP store up for grades, the winner of each table going to a final to play for a 1st prize of a Wii, 2nd prize of an 8gb IPod and 3rd prize a digital camera. The runner up on each table played for a Nintendo DS, a 2gb Ipod and a mini-chip set.

So my table was alot of girls and a couple of guys all of which had no idea what they were doing (amazing how that can be possible for the world's biggest poker site huh? LOL) but it made for a great fun game. I managed to negociate through the mine field to finish runner up on my table losing a flip with 10,10 vs AJ against the one capable player at the table (Swedish, obv), our table finsihing 1st out of the 10 as I took out 3 players in one hand lol. So it took an good hour before the rest of the field had sorted their games and we had cash games on the side, thank god! I got chatting to a nice Estonian girl at the bar who at been at my table and managed to get her to take my number before jumping into a big of 0.25/0.25 PLO action.

This girl said she'd be my good luck charm... and she was. I bought in for just £10 expecting to donk it off whilst killing time before my final table, I managed to play a little 'Rolf Slotboom' style to build myself a pot, I make a small raise with AKJ9 double suited (not premium but good enough for this game) knowing full way that the button was hyper aggro- and would pot it for me, he obliges and one of the blinds call, i shove my full £10 in and get 2 callers, I hit 2 pair and he misses his flush draw and i take down a nearly £40 pot off the bat. I soon after apologise to the table for bailing but get on my final table. Most at final are either drunk or stupid so this should be easy, right? Well yes it should have been but as usual my donkament poor luck continued...

Without being able to recall all my hands I had 4 spots where I had the money in as a massive favourite and lost everytime, admittedly I ran hella lucky when critically short stacked to triple back up on a rivered gutshot (all-in pre, obv) but bitch that is lady luck eluded my yet again and my Estonian charm had since departed. I ended up finishing 4th on the final so bubbling... typical for me at the moment but a great game for a freebie. sadly I made the mistake of going back on the Omaha table and lost my £40 as quick as I'd won it LOL.

But I'll certain check out Loose Cannon again at some point to see what their own events are like. From my initial experience the dealers were decent ( a reasonable 6/7 out of 10), the cash chips were nice and clunky but tournament chips were generally everything a home game player can buy so that kinda sucks.

I give Loose Cannon a 7/10 score, it has a very Grosvenor Stoke feel to it which makes it relaxing to play at, but I'll re-evaluate this the next time I attend.

A moral quandry of sibling proportions...

I read an interesting post on 2+2 earlier today that really got me thinking. The post was from a user who asked the forum if the fact that he and his wife playing together in a local game (often on the same table) was considered immoral. This really got me thinking as I've often had mixed feelings about this when playing particularly in the Stoke Casino games where this is very common place.

A few interesting points were raised in the article, such as this particular player and his aforementioned wife did not discuss their courtship with other players at the table and the majority of responses agreed they had no obligation to inform the table of this, it only becomes a problem when collusion occurs. That's the moneyshot right there, how hard must it be to not play against your spouse differently than you would against Rob Cook for instance?

It's a subjective matter that's for sure and everyone will feel differently about it which is why it's interesting to discuss. I for one, whilst I don't neccesarily frown upon it could or would never do it myself, the thought of playing competitive poker against a spouse simply doesn't appeal to me in the slightest, it would really affect my enjoyment and my ability to play properly. I think it would be hard for anyone couple to not 'soft play' each other ever so slightly even if their ultimate ambition is to win it for themselves, although there is a case for the opposite in one forum couple (whom i shall not name..... hi dad) whose integrity simply can not be questioned, so I guess it's different wherever you go.

From personal experience, I don't think i've ever played against a pokering couple that I would even consider as competent players (with the exception of the aforementioned) so it beggars the question, can you play in the same game as your spouse and play to a very high standard? If you just play recreationally then it doesn't really matter but if you take your game seriously or even just semi-seriously then i don't think you can. Emotions get in the way, it's simply too hardwired to avoid. I can remember many times that I've seen blokes get their backs up over someone needling their lady for info in a hand, or giving her some verbal probing (ooerr!), but naturally you'd take exception to it, right? So why would you want to put yourself in a situation where your emotions affect 'money decisions'?

So, what do you think folks.... is it moral or immoral? Is it good for your game or does it not matter? Is it any worse than playing in a game where you have friendships with a large % of the players in the field?

K

Thx

Bai

Matt x

A little bit o' Omaha

So it's the bank holiday weekend, I'm crashing at my sister's in Stoke and I'm bored. So what else is a guy to do? No no, I didn't gatecrash Cobridge lights, I read a poker book (of course!).

Thanks to the PokerStars libary (they have a copy of just about everything worth reading free to borrow) I saw this particular title standing out from the usual Sklansky and Harrington-esque titles and decided it would kill a little boredom on the train and any quiet spots over the weekend. I'm about 1/3 of the way through and I can already say it's a brilliant read and I can't wait to finish it.

I'd consider myself to be an already competent PLO player, infact when I 1st started doing this blog I was mostly playing cheeseburger stakes PLO and was making much more than I was playing Hold'em. Seems like a obvious choice to switch game.... well when I finish this book, I might just do it. The great thing about Omaha is that even now it's still a niche game to most, they're are good Hold'em players to be found on every virtual table and in every casino but hardly any good Omaha players. It attracts gamblers with it's endless possibilities for making hands and big draws and they're is always going to be people with bottomless pockets willing the play the game, whereas in Hold'em it's often the opposite type of player, it seems like a no-brainer doesn't it?

Well having read that 1/3 of Rolf Slotboom's book I was really excited about jumping into a game to kill the boredom of the slow weekend. Now the good thing for a tight walleted guy like me about the Slotboom strategy is that it preaches short stack play and in a manner that is exceptionally +EV. I won't go into details, just read the book if you enjoy PLO, but I punted £50 in PokerPlex on iPoker which was about $70 and was looking to buy into a $20 for about $8 a time (full ring as opposed to 6-Max, this is part of the strategy) however, there are lots of full 6-max tables but very few full ring tables being played. This didn't really suit the strategy I was hoping to employ, but I began with 1 x 6 max table in a $20 game, buying in for $8 and a full ring $50 game buying in for $20.

It started off very well, before I knew it I had more than double through on the 6-max table and was getting lots of great spots on the other table but was getting a little unlucky so missing out on some huge pots where I had invested very little to win 4-5 times my stack. I played for about 90mins and had made about $50 profit and came off as the table had become tight and lots of small stacks which was condusive to my Slotboom strategy.

So after enjoying an afternoon of Soccer Saturday with the day's football drama and more back jokes from Jeff Stelling and hiliarious commentary from Paul Merson, I headed over to Matt A's to watch a live stream of the Stoke game and took my laptop to continue my session. I went much better over there. I couldn't find a table at $50 full ring so I decided to step up the game and play $100 Full Ring PLO, buying in for $35. I had a maniac to my immediate left with $250 at the table, in normal circumstances this might not be great, but for this strategy it was absolutely perfect. The idea being that I simply limp in with a super strong/premium Omaha hand, like AAxx or a double suited rundown hand like 8,9,10, J etc then he will, we get a few calls behind and then the pot is this deep enough for me to shove my stack into and theoretcially get only a call from the maniac and lots of dead money in the pot to give me a massive +EV situation.

It worked to great effect, I ended up doubling through the maniac, then after losing a few $'s I doubled through again with a hand which didn't even emply the strategy, I had bad hand in the SB which I completed which was 10,10, x x, the flop came 10, K, 10 and I led out into it hoping someone had a piece of it, either a big draw or a K they didn't want to let go of. Well, I got raised right back by a guy who limped UTG and I just called. turned was a 9 which was a great card as it completed straight and flush draws, I made a small bet into this to appear weak (like a blocking bet) and I got a strong raise right back at me, I just called again. The river was a J, so all likely draws got their and he bets pot, I shove for about $20 more and I'm called and he has KK for an absolute cooler on his part. Very unlucky for him and quads make me $150 up for the day, so around £100 in real money.

I cashed out for £100 profit on a little afternoon dabble, purely as I don't want to play again until I finish the book, then I'll look to do the same again. A pleasing day and maybe the start of a more serious venture into PLO going forward.

Happy Easter folks.