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Saturday, July 25, 2009

Back to the Future

Back on Full Tilt cash tables again trying to refind my Mojo this week.
My old faithfull Poker Tracker 2 kinda gave up the ghost after FTP's recent upgrade, or to be more accurate, the Poker Ace Hud did.
PT Forum gave me a patch to ensure I could still download the HH's bt the HUD didn't work and I guess with PT3 having a built in HUD it wasn't a priority to sort out so I decided to bite the bullet and upgrade.
I am a bit of a Luddite in this respect, I find that every time I have some new software its nothing but trouble until it all eventualy gets sorted out, which is why I never upgraded to PT3 before.
I've had PT2 for ages so its value against the upgrade wasn't worth much and Players whos opinion I respect have told me Holdem Manager was better, so instead of PT3 I opted for Holdem manager.
Anyway, with the new software installed, I'm back on the cash tables. With my FTP Bankroll down under $700 I decided I really had to drop down to 50NL instead of the 100NL I had been playing, I had a little success but couldn't really take it too serious after playing at 100NL so I went back to the 50c/$1 tables and as I write this I'm up abut one buy in today, only 6 more to go to break even :)
There's a new weekly tournament just up the coast at San Roque casino on saturday nights, a work mate Fabio won last weeks €50 rebuy, and not only did he win, he did it without any rebuys and without the add on, well done Fabio.
It was a €50 buy in again this week with just one rebuy or add on available, I was tempted to go up and play but decided to keep my powder dry till next weeks €100 freezeout.
In the meantime I have been playing online qualifiers on FTP for the Poker Series Espana event 2 in Malaga. This is a €1500 + €150 buy in event so I'm trying to satellite in on the cheap, with the extra bonus that there is a €3000 package and I can drive there in an hour so if I do qualify I will have the cash bonus to spend on anything I want, maybe even go back to Vegas on holiday :)

Saturday, July 18, 2009

Vegas Baby !



Well, its been a week since I arrived back from Vegas, and I'm still feeling a little jet-lagged, it was my first time, but I hope it won't be my last.
I travelled courtesy of Mansion Poker to look after the online qualifiers for the WSOP main event, and while in theory that made it a business trip, its hard not to have fun in Vegas, even if you are working.
Craig and I managed to find time to play a few low stakes tournaments and also got involved in the $1/$2 cash games.
I managed a second place in a $70 freezeout at the Mandaly Bay, and Craig went one better, wining a $65 freezeout at Ballys and taking 2nd place in the same tournament two days later.
My cash game was showing a decent profit in the early part of the week I dropped a buy in first hand in a $1/$2 cash game at the Mandalay Bay, dealt KK I reraised from $8 to $25 with one caller, the flop was Q high with no stright or flush draw and we ended up all in before the turn, only for my opponent to show QQ for a flopped set, I did recover a few hands later, again with KK on a flop of KK5, another 5 on the flop gave my opponent a Full house, but my quad kings won the pot and also a 'high hand bonus' of $114 which amounted to about $79 after tax
Then two disasterous hands at the Venetian dropped me two buy ins in quick sucession.
First up I checked my option on the BB in a multi-way limped pot with 8h 9h and saw a flop of T J Q rainbow, with no pre-flop raise I figured my hand was pretty much the nuts and bet it as if it was, at showdown my opponent showed AKo, not a good start.
I reloaded and after about an hour of folding I picked up pocket Aces, my big pre-flop raise thinned down the field to one caller and a flop of A K J looked pretty good to me, the chips went in and my opponent tables QT for a made straight :(
Overall, I still showed a profit, and I think if I went again on holiday, without any work distractions I could definately show a profit in what were unexpectedly soft cash games