Moving.

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i like short shorts

Actually I like long shorts

You know those ones that college kids wear. I’d wear them every day if I could – it gets a bit blowy when it gets under 18 degrees

I think I’m turning into a sun freak. I know this is the oldest point in the world especially if you’ve spent a lifetime in the U K but nice weather makes such a massive difference.

The point is I want to get up and see blue skies and sunshine. And I want to walk around in flip flops and my ruddy long shorts. I thought I wouldn’t retire overseas until at least 40 but as the Jan/Feb/Mar car crash speeds towards me with all of the promise of a massive 3 month turd pie the temptation to leave these emerald shores (emerald must be a shade of grey right?) and set up a finishing school in Mauritius for aspiring poker broadcasters grows ever larger!

Had one of the weirdest situations I’ve ever had playing poker a couple of nights ago. I was ready to finish my session as I was tired and done when this amazing situation developed. A series of big pots meant that these 2 uber fish sitting next to each other had mega stacks. One was playing almost every hand and raising, the other was playing almost every hand and calling and they were properly horrible.

Their stacks were now huge – one had 7 buyins the other had 11 buyins. And I had the god seat, sat immediately to their left with 2 buys ins and a big appetite. It would have been morally disgusting of me to go to bed and leave them with their money.

So I made a new plan. I closed down all of my other tables, moved over to the laptop, collapsed on my sofa and put on a favourite movie.

I spent the next 3 hours ‘chilling out’ and half dozing stirring to answer the ‘bink’ when I had a hand. Turned out my plan was a little bit genius. I won 6 buy ins from my two new best friends – could have even been more if one of them hadn’t sucked out in a big pot at the end and run off having escaped the inevitable clutches of bustedness.

It was an interesting session / night. There’s a fine line playing cash poker between being disciplined and quitting when you planned and not walking away from profitable spots. If I was playing for a living I’d find it a hard balance but the other night was a no brainer unless you hate money of course because this was like finding it lying in the street.

It’s a kind of tragic

“I should warn you,” said the woman taking her place in seat seven, “I’m a bit psychic”.

I looked at Nick who did that thing you do with mates where you roll your eyes at each other without actually moving your eyes just in case the subject of your rollage catches you (she was a big girl, and neither of us were brave enough to risk being seen disputing her magical powers – you know, just in case she put a voodoo hex on us or something).

“Oh. Really?” Nick ventured, “What star sign am I?”

Kim (for t’was her name) stared at Nick for several seconds (no doubt tuning into his aura, or some other bollocks) and then announced: “Cancer”

“Nope” Nick replied (probably as relieved as I was that she’d got it wrong) at which point Kim span round to me (almost catching me rolling my eyes – phew!) and asked, “Are you… a Gemini?” I stared at her blankly, accidentally encouraging another attempt: “Libra?”

“Sadly neither,” I told her, “But do keep trying. I’m sure you’ll get there eventually.”

Luckily Kim didn’t have time to magically guess her way around the rest of the zodiac as we were dealt the first hand of the charity tournament we were at The Empire to play. I was chuffed to see QQ but was in reasonably early position so made it 225 from the 25/50 blinds. I know it kinda gives away that I like my hand but not enough to go nine-ways to the flop, but considering I was sitting with a psychic and three people asking if a flush was better than a yahtzee I thought I’d give it a whirl.

Kim called, and then Nick went all-in. Now Nick is a far superior poker player to me, but even I knew immediately it was AA or KK. With a tear in my eye I released my queens back into the sea, but Kim (and let’s not forget she has ‘The Gift’) called, turning over that power-house of all-in calling hands: A-10o.

Nick looked absolutely chuffed to bits when the ace arrived on the board, and even happier when she pumped her fat little fist into his personal space with a massive “YESSSSSSSSSSSSSSSSS!”

Now I know that it’s EXACTLY this sort of over-celebration that gives Nick a warm feeling deep inside, and I don’t think I’ve ever seen him so happy to give all his chips to a mental woman after only one hand. Nick gave me a look similar in many ways to the rolling-your-eyes-without-rolling-your-eyes one, only this one said, ‘you get the spades, I’ll kill her’.

Nick immediately went for a re-buy (he is so generous when it comes to kids’ charities!) while Kim assured us all that she “knew” the A-10o would win. I wouldn’t say that Nick was steaming, but some local gypsies did hang their carpets over him to give them a good clean.

Pay-back was clearly quite high on Nick’s agenda (just under drinking the open bar dry and consuming his body weight in free deserts) and sure enough he somehow managed to side-step the mystical powers of Kim and get her to double him up with AJ against his AK. Even in defeat Kim couldn’t help herself. “I knew he had me beat”. Suuuuuuuuuuuuuuuuure.

Strangely Kim didn’t manage to utilise her awesome powers to make a comeback, and shortly thereafter shuffled off no doubt to see if her ‘Gift’ stretched to guessing what numbers the roulette table would deliver. I managed to maintain the habit of a lifetime and bust out of the tourney with 88 like the clown I am, while Nick eventually fell foul to a bloke who constantly asked what the blinds were, how many chips did everyone have left, and “what is it to me?” Believe it or not, he was the gimp who won the bloody thing. God I hate poker.

Anyway, the evening got MUCH better for us as we headed off to a local ‘club’… but it’s not that kind of blog, so you’ll have to imagine the rest (and don’t forget to imagine LOTS of glitter and some really good high-heeled shoes while you’re at it).

Happy hunting

Rubbish!

I knew I would be crap at keeping things up.  I struggled as a child with yearly diaries lasting longer than January 8th and it appears that when things don’t go so rosy I don’t fancy talking about them – something that hopefully keeping a blog I can address.

So I’ll start with the Sky Poker Tour Grand Final in June that I was so looking forward too – I believe my 10k stack lasted a grand total of 43 minutes. I told myself on my way to DTD to play steady and not to bluff inexperienced players etc etc.  Of course I couldn’t help but try and assert myself as the table captain. After doing in half my stack, I called a raise from a serial raiser and C better with A3 suited.  With a flop of A 2 5 and 1 heart, we both managed to get in all our chips and was amazed to see my oppo turn over 10h 6h.  By the time I had computed that a swift double up was coming my way, 2 hearts hit the turn and river and I was heading for the car park with my head spinning lol. 

July and August have been non starters for me live tournament wise.  I just cant get past level 4 for some reason, I don’t feel like I am playing badly, just not winning those crucial flips or even the 70 / 30’s for that matter!  I don’t worry though, I know things can change quickly and then you think poker is an absolute piece of cake and you are a genius at it.

August has been pretty good for me in online huge runner donkfests.  I try not to play them on a regular basis because going through 2k – 3k runner fields can be brain screwing at times, but on the flip side of that I mostly enjoy them as a blow out.  Last week I came 5th in a 60k GTD for $3,800 then 9th in another for $1,000.  The week before I finalled 3 times in an Omaha $10 rebuy in a row and lost heads up in one of them but a nice couple in K in those too.  It’s all setting me up nicely for a good bankroll to take to Vegas in November for some of the Venetian Deepstack festival!

I’m so so so pleased for James Akenhead making the November 9 in the WSOP.  It is an awesome achievment, if not a little sureal, particularly since being runner up in a massive field last year in Event2 and losing in ridiculous fashion after owning Grant Hinkle heads up.  I can’t wait to rail the final table and the freaky dynamic of having Phil Ivey in the mix too.  I’m not just saying this because James is a mate, but I seriously think he can do something massive here, shortstack or not - no pressure luv!!

I have been invited for the second year running as a guest by Boyle Poker to the International Poker Open in Dublin in October.  It was a great event last year, not only for the very affordable $200, 1,300 runner main event but all the side events that were expertly  run and the european carnival like atmosphere.  It has to be seen to be believed, honestly a great fun and light hearted poker weekend.  Get yourselves there if you can.

Lastly on a rare staking outing for me, I was reading a page on facebook on buying a share of Paul Zimbler in the Poker Million.  I quite fancied a couple of % and clicked on the link to sort it out.  Duely the link didn’t work for some reason so I decided to do it later on in the day.  I forgot, and of course Paul goes and makes the Semi Final in October – well done Paul, GG me!!

In the park…

Poker in the park

Poker in the park happened in Leicester square this week. Hope you made it down – if not you missed out

I think it’s the 3^rd year Bluff have run it and it was as big a success as ever. I have to hand it to them the idea of a poker festival in the centre of town free for the public is a great one. This will sound inane but I had no idea that bit in the middle of Leicester square was so big! It is though you know they had a tonne of marquees in their and still had room for general milling about.

I did a talk in the ‘lecture tent’ which was reasonably intimidating given that I’ve barely ever sat through a lecture let alone given one. I was a big fan of the plinth they gave you to lecture behind – I felt ready to stage a coup. We could have totally taken Leicester square and then together….half the west end…before everyone got a bit tired and stopped for a pint.

My talk was on ‘luck in poker’. Luck fascinates me and I’ve been writing bits and pieces on it for a long time now. It’ll be a book when I get my arse in gear – somewhere around 2013 I reckon. Anyway the talk was filmed and I hope to have it up on my site in a few days so check it out.

I finished my day by powning the special invite donkament – hey they don’t just give away 3^rd place in those things you know! Given that a large part of my talk was about luck/variance in live tournaments I’m not sure I can attach much significance to it…

Speaking of variance I had my worst single session in my online career last week in terms of buy ins lost. It was totally horrific. I’ll save the details for another blog or maybe a column but I played on far far too long something I almost never do. The next day I felt horrendous about it but I’ve learned my lesson. I’ve been winning so easily that I’d got complacent and poker hates it when you do that and gave me the thrashing I deserved!

Anyway I punished myself with a few days off and I’ve been catching up on work and seeing friends. Apart from some writing commitments I’m going to try and take it as easy as I can for the rest of August and get playing again. September has a ton of poker work and other good stuff so will be flat out so I’m gonna try and enjoy whats left of summer.

Hope you get to do some of that.

Play well – run better.

Rich and Nick Podcast – Show 6

Incessant, dumb news being the hot topic of Rich And Nick’s new podcast episode, aka Show 6. Which, far from being incessant and dumb, will take up only 35 minutes of your busy schedule this month, and enlighten you. Especially when it comes to ways of entertaining yourself in garden centres.

But don’t just take our word for it – listen! And enjoy the boys’ discussions about:

• Las Vegas
• Garden Centres
• The Tube strike
• Chuck Norris
• Unfortunate names
• The Guinness Book of Records
• News, and Nick’s problem with it
• Question Time, and Rich’s problem with it
• Newsreaders Rich and Nick would like to do

So there you go. Sorry that there’s no quirky human interest story at the end of it. Unless you count Nick talking about how lovely Krishnan Guru-Murthy is, that is.

Podcast: Play in new window | Download (32.8MB)

A year recap and a new direction.

Check Out Brian’s Online Training Site – CardRunners

Busy…

I have been really busy the past week with a bunch of personal stuff so I haven’t played too many hands.  I only have put in 3000 hands this month which is way way under the number of hands I have played the past few monhts.  I have made the most of the hands I have played and am up 350k.  

I have been doing really well getting in hands of mixed games and am on track to reach my goal of playing 10k hands of mixed games this month.  I have been playing 20/40 and 40/80 mixed when the big PLO games are dead.

My results aren’t great.  I am losing at -2.5 bb/100 in the stud games and I am losing at limit O8 as well.  Its a very big project to learn these games and I am not very focused when I play.  I don’t pay attention as I should and am not taking it serously enough.  It doesn’t really hurt to lose so I don’t strive to get better.  I just do what feels right and if I lose I don’t think twice about it.  

It’s really tough to take the mixed games seriously when I am also playing larger PLO.  I try to but I never review hands or think about my play.  I just mindlessly press buttons.  Hopefully I can get a bit more focused when I play.

Anyways here are some big pots from the month.

Sucking out vs a straight.

http://weaktight.com/1383980

A good side of a cooler when I held the nut flush vs my opponenets 2nd nut flush.

http://weaktight.com/1383981

A dry overpair holding up vs a very nice draw.

http://weaktight.com/1383982

A hero call gone wrong.  I love when people post their hero calls and are correct, because they never seem to post hands like these where they are drawing dead.

http://weaktight.com/1383983

Check Out Brian’s Online Training Site – CardRunners

OmaHA

I’ve been playing a lot of poker lately

It’s weird it comes and goes for me but for some reason at the moment I’m loving it.

Lately I’ve had a couple of all night sessions. Which in my ridiculous world means until 7am or later. On both occasions I’ve been winning and the games have been ridiculously good.

Omaha on the weekends is crazy.  The more solid regulars often don’t play the weekend evenings – which I think is a huge error. I understand that they probably want to have social lives or something but if I was trying to earn my living playing online poker I’d make my weekend Tuesday and Wednesday or something because there are just so many drunken gamblers on the weekend – god love em.

I’ve been running well since Vegas and playing pretty well to. My results are great – I’m beating 1/2 PLO for 11bb/100 over almost 20k hands. (for those of you not from planet poker anything over 4 is great – 11 is really killing it)

This win rate is really high and not sustainable BUT I do think it’s a realistic win rate for me in the games I’ve been playing on a weekend night.

I’m getting to the point where I’m taking shots at 2/4 games. Of course the problem with Omaha (like life) is just when you think you’ve got it licked it’ll make you look a fool. I’ll keep you posted!

I’ve been trying to regulate my sleep patterns recently and finding it a real challenge. I’ve always been a night owl which is never going to change but I have no regular sleep schedule and it definitely impacts me and how much energy I have during the day. The worst thing is when I pull an all nighter for no particular reason other than I fancy it…. Actually wait that’s not true.

I love it too much. I love the feeling when it’s so late that you’re head hurts a little and your eyes hurt a lot. First light is breeching the curtains and the sounds of traffic are just beginning. The world is still asleep but I’m playing. And I’m in flow. Too tired for proper conscious thought but my unconscious brain has long since taken over. My numbed brain only occasionally punctured by the adrenalin of a big pot. And the money is racking up because I’m running good and I may be tired but I’m still together where others are tilting or were never together in the first place. And in a few minutes I’ll get breakfast and sleep while others wake and do whatever regular people do ….

…

Sorry – you lost me for a moment there!

Hope you’re having fun too play well and run better.

August

Well here it is, August 2009 and my list of many many many things to do before the end of the summer is nowhere even near cracked! Getting back from the WSOP always makes it hard for me to focus on things in ‘real life’ – you know, like work and taxes and overdue library books. So instead of settling in and cracking on with the mountain of paperwork, I decided to spend 5 days camping in a field with my friends at a music festival. I’m convinced I made the right decision there. What probably wasn’t such a great choice was turning around to come back to the States not even 2 weeks after I finally managed to drag myself to the UK. So here I am, and the sun is shining and there are far more fun things to do than work…… I think I may go and play poker!