Sorry for the Lack of Updates

Apologies for the lack of recent updates
I'm in the middle of moving house and to be honest haven't any time for poker in between work, tiling, plumbing painting etc etc etc......

Poker in Gibraltar

http://www.cardplayer.com/cpeurope/article/16799

Failure in the Main Event

My success rate in the satellites for the $11k Gtd and $16k Gtd on Betfair is pretty good, qualifying from one in every three satellites I enter. The rate goes up for the 10 seat Gtd satellites which are usually my first attempt at qualification. This gives me pretty good value with an average buy in cost in the $11k Gtd of $36 as opposed to the actual buy in of $82.50, and an average cost for the $16k Gtd of $48 against the full buy in of $109. I'm actually getting in to them for less than half price. Its all the more frustrating then, to find out that my record in the actual Guaranteed tournaments themselves is pretty awful.
Apart from one tournament, where I finished 4th for $880, I have failed to make the money in any of the main events, and the cash I did make was assisted by AA and a double up first hand.
The tournament always seems to go the same way, I lose a couple of early pots, where I stay in with draws, because opponents give me the odds to do so, then I tighten up because I feel I'm below average on chips and blind away for a bit, then a crucial hand comes about, and I have a big decision to make, to either fold and leave a lot of chips behind, or take a gamble. I always seem to take the wrong decision, or if I take the correct decision, lady luck kicks me in the teeth.
Last night I pushed with AK pre-flop from late position to try and steal a few chips, I get called by the BB with AJ and the first card on the flop is a Jack. Today I raised from LP with AQ in a multi-way limped pot and get two callers from the blinds, flop is harmless looking 2 6 T rainbow, its check to me so I push in to steal (definately not the best move I could have made) and BB calls with 66 for a set. I feel I need a little bit of early luck to settle down a bit and get 'in the groove' once I increase my starting stack I can relax and play my normal game, losing early chips makes me edgy and this leads to bad decision making on my behalf.
Maybe its because the buy in is a bit high by my standards and I feel a little uncomfortable, I seem to want to make moves rather than sit back and play the same way as I do in the satellites.
Overall though, I'm enjoying playing, though a little profit would enable me to enjoy it even more, and hopefully I'll get to play live tomorrow in the £5o freeze out.

Satellites

Betfair is slowly becoming a favourite site of mine again after hardly playing there at all following the move to Pokerchamps software.
The mtt structures are good with 15 minute levels and the higher value tournaments also have increased chip counts, allowing more poker to be played. Ive been back on the satellite circuit today, qualifying for the $16k Gtd and the $11K Gtd, via the 10 seat guaranteed satellites which offer overlay in the sat as well as the main tournament.
I Snagged £100 worth of tournament entries for around £15 which is value in anyones book.
Unfortunately the $16k main event didn't go so well, had to fold AQo early doors to a raise and re-raise pre-flop. Never really hit a flop at all as the first break approached and I was struggling with around 1750 from a starting stack of 2500 when I find KK in late position, theres a raise of 3 x BB (300) in front of me which I re-raise to 750, to push out the blinds and I'm heads up with initial raiser, flop is 8d 8s 3d its checked to me, and with two diamonds on the board, I push all in to find myself up against AA and that, as they say, was that.
The $11k Gtd was very similar, AKs first hand for a small pot, then nothing of note until I limped in late position with Ad 3d, two diamonds on the flop gave me some hope, and single opponent made it cheap enough to call until the third diamond hit on the river and I won a pot of around 600.
The joy was short lived however, a couple of hands later I'm all in Pre-Flop with JJ against what turns out to be QQ.
KK v AA in the $16k and JJ v QQ in the $11k, Thems the breaks huh ? still it was an enjoyable if profitless day, with the chance at two big payouts for a relatively small outlay, and there's always tomorrow

Three hands from Sunday

An interesting day of poker on Sunday, started off with the 10 seat Gtd satellite to Betfairs $16k Gtd. Software problems stopped the tournament after about 35 minutes, just as I took over the chip lead, but a refund of $32 or double the buy in enabled me to enter the turbo sat to the same tournament on a freeroll.
Qualification from this left me in the $16k for free, and I tried the 1 cent wsope sat next, this again crashed without starting and credited my account with $2.20 or 220 x the buy in.
4th place in a sit and go on poker stars preceded my attempt at the $16k Gtd, but I never really got going and was eliminated before the break gambling with 33 v AQ.
Some interesting hands cropped up during the course of these tournaments, first of all, in the turbo sat. With ten seats available and 11 left in the tournament, I’m sat in 6th place on the button with around 7k in chips, blinds are (from memory) 1000/2000 with a 75 ante.
Two players on the other table have less than 1200, including the next BB, and one guy on our table has 145, less than 2 antes.
Obviously in this situation with any one of three short stacks all in within the next 3 hands, I’m not playing anything at all, and in fact was hoping for pocket rockets, just so I could fold them pre-flop.
The rockets never arrived I folded 2 poor hands and after the BB guy survived, Mr 2 antes was out next hand and I’m safely through.
A similar situation in a 9 handed STT on poker stars, 4 of us left, 3 on around 4k each and the shortstack on about 1200. In this instance I’m willing to take a gamble as the difference between 3rd and 1st makes it worthwhile, I raise from the button with 85o, BB (not the shortstack) calls. Flop is Ts5s2h I lead for 3 BB’s and villain re-raises all in. I cant believe he has flopped a set, no open ended straight draw unless he has 34, so I reckon he’s on a draw, possibly has 2 spades, or more likely Ace 3 or Ace 4 for a gutshot so I call. He has the flush draw and hits on river so I’m out in 4th, but that’s the cost of ‘taking a shot’
Next one is in the $16k Gtd on Betfair, I lost a chunk early on with my usual, ‘he must be bluffing’ thought process, and end up approaching the break after an hour with around half my starting stack of 2500
I limp for 50 in early position with 33, there are about 5 other limpers and the BB raises to 300, I decide to gamble and push all in for about 1200, the other limpers fold and the raiser insta-calls with AQo. The flop is 245 forfeiting his ace and giving me hope, but he hits a three outer on the river, and that’s that.
Three similar hands in very different situations, I would be interested to hear peoples thoughts on.
Maybe I was too rash in the stars stt and the $16k, but I got my money in while ahead and long term that’s +EV
What do you think ?

Sit & Go's

Despite taking a chunk of cash from the 'loss column' for 2007 with 4th place in the $11k Gtd, I'm still in the red for the year.
I've been playing some sit and go tournaments to try to build the profit for the year and get back into the black.
I've stuck to low stakes stuff, $10 buy in with the odd $20, and had some success, including three wins on the trot on Paradise poker $10 STT's
I've also had a few shots at the low level satellites for the wsope on Betfair and still played the Gtd seat satellites to the $11k and $16k Gtd, with rather less success.
I'm actually considering laying off the multi-table tournaments for a while and concentrating on sit and Go's and low stakes cash to try and build the bankroll a bit.
Maybe still try to qualify for the Guaranteed tournaments on Betfair from cash/stt profits (if there are any)
Live games are still showing a profit, and I may try to play a few more live tournaments, the house purchase should be completed this week, so maybe I'll buy a car once all the finances are sorted out, which will allow me to get to a few more games over the border in Spain.
I've still not been tempted onto the live cash tables yet, too many sharks for my liking, inexperienced players and newcomers to live poker seem quite happy to take their chances in live tournaments, but the cash games seem to be filled with the more experienced players and therefore seem to be of little value, easier cash games on-line imho.
All the best to Barretta who's recent elevation into the ranks of the poker pro's appears to be going well, good luck in Vegas mate.

$11k Again

I qualified for the third night in a row for the $11k Gtd on Betfair, and sat down, full of confidence, unfortunately there seem to be as many fish in an $75 buy in tournament as a $5 tournament.
Apologies for posting another hand history, but I really expected better in a tournament which costs $75 to enter.
What makes people want to put their whole tournament on the line on level two of an MTT ? May as well play roulette ! Notwithstanding this kind of play, the $11k and $16k Gtd tournaments on Betfair are becoming my favourites at the moment, especially with the 10 seat gtd Satellite tournaments.
All I can do is take a deep breath and start again.

***** Betfair Poker Hand History for Game 220871081 *****
NL Texas Hold'em $75 Buy-in + $7.50 Entry Fee, Level:2 Blinds(15/30-(no ante)) - Tuesday, June 19, 20:24:48 GMT 2007
Daily $11k GTD #79339
Table 2 9-max (Real Money)
Seat 9 is the button
Total number of active players : 9
Seat 1: potkiller ( 2,420 )
Seat 2: PUSSYMGNET ( 2,435 )
Seat 3: holker ( 2,330 )
Seat 4: TWoods18 ( 1,895 )
Seat 5: paoulo ( 2,335 )
Seat 6: beanos ( 3,562 )
Seat 7: TMSO.R ( 2,675 )
Seat 8: keeper ( 2,895 )
Seat 9: michaelg2 ( 1,953 )
Tourney Level:2 Blinds(15/30-(no ante))
potkiller posts small blind [15]
PUSSYMGNET posts big blind [30]
** Dealing down cards **
Dealt to holker [ Js, Jd ]
holker raises to [96]
TWoods18 calls [96]
paoulo calls [96]
potkiller calls [81]

** Dealing Flop ** [ 8c, Th, 4c ]

potkiller checks
holker bets [440]
TWoods18 folds
paoulo folds
potkiller goes all-in
potkiller raises to [2,324]
holker calls [1,794]
holker goes all-in
Returning uncalled bet [90] to potkiller

** Showdown **
potkiller shows [ 7c, Ac ] for a flush draw on level 2
holker shows [ Js, Jd ]
** Dealing Turn ** [ Qh ]
** Dealing River ** [ 2c ] obviously
** Hand Conclusion **
potkiller wins 4,882 from main pot with a Flush - What a muppet !!
************ Game 220871081 ends ************

I know that idiots like this will pay off in the long term, and if I keep getting my chips in while I'm ahead, I'll take their cash, but ffs, all in with a flush draw on level 2, when he must know I've hit the flop.
If it happens in a $5 tournament, I'll call him a twat and play another, but after playing for three hours in a satellite just to qualify for this, It really pisses me off.
Ah well, rant over, I'll be back, after all, if the Gauranteed tournamenmts are full of muppets like this, I'll be rich in no time
Thanks for reading, and best of luck at the tables

After the Lord Mayors Show

Well, after the excitement of last nights final table on the Betfair $11k Gtd, today I started full of confidence. (Though half expecting to go to Badbeat city).
I started off with the 10 seat Gtd satellite to Betfairs $16k Gtd but was eliminated in 15th out of 41 runners with A9 v KK on a board of AK995. I guess however I played it, I was going bust on that board.
I tried two tabling on 25c/50c cash tables on Betfair for a while, but my heart wasn't really in it so I quit after 20 minutes up $10 on one table and down $10 on the other.
The 10 seat Gtd satellite to the $11k Gtd was next up, I managed 17th out of 54 before some french numpty called my all in with the nut straight to catch runer runner for a flush, he even had the cheek to type 'bye' as I was eliminated, oh for spectator chat !!
I did qualify for the $11k Gtd eventually via the turbo sat later in the afternoon, and played a £5 headhunter tournament on William Hills at the same time, I made the final table in the headhunter tournament and raised from the button with 66 in a multi-way limped pot, 2nd chip leader calls with T8o (Thats TEN EIGHT OFF-SUIT), well of course he hits with the first card on the flop and I'm out in ninth.
The actual $11k Gtd was a bit of an anti-climax also, I lasted till just before the first break with a stack of around 1700 from a 2500 start, I hit a flop of J72 with QJo on the button and pushed after it was checked round to me, unfortunately someone decided the flush draw was enough to call, he hits, and I'm out.
I'm still pretty pleased with my play at the moment, sometimes lady luck doesn't smile on you, and sometimes she does, but play well, keep positive and keep doing the right things, and I'll end up profitable this year, just like the previous two.
Thanks for reading, stay positive and be lucky.