Keys To The Kingdom - January Roundup

Keys To The Kingdom - January Roundup

Monday, 31 January 2011 | 1 comment Tweet

First of all congrats to James Keys on finishing 2nd in the Aussie Millions Main Event for a cool $1.1m, was pretty disgustingly unlucky not to win it, the other guy held all in with A6 vs QJ on T8x and AQ vs KQhh on Th9hx to stay in it then got it in for pretty much the lot with K4 vs James' 73 on 753K and the guy binks a 4 on the river to win it.

I had 5% so the $55k makes January my biggest month by far and puts me comfortably rolled for the ipoker $500 HUSNGs and 5/10 cash games but I don't plan to be playing that much higher than my usual $220 average buyin simply because the cash is there. I'm pretty comfortable grinding out ~8k/month playing the games I am already. I'll be playing a couple of EPTs which i'll sell pieces for and probably most of the GUKPTs now too so the schedule is looking pretty packed for the next few months.

Results for January were below what I was expecting but then again I don't think that I've played particularly well. Playing too many tables, playing super turbos raked at 5% and playing tired/when I'm not really feeling it is gunna add up to a breakeven month but I hit my volume target so shipped $3865 in bonuses.

Live cash games were definitely the most sucessful arena for me, finished +£3k for the month with a session of 1/2 and two at both 2/5 and 5/10 holdem. I always used to find live holdem cash pretty boring but I've felt like I've had a considerable edge in every session and been running alright so I expect to play a fair amount of live holdem cash this year and hopefully I can keep finding soft games.

Taking is easy for a couple of weeks then heading to UKIPT Nottingham on February 12th for what promises to be an amazing homecoming for James Keys with pretty much everyone on the UK circuit in nottingham that weekend. I don't really expect to remember much!

January:

Games: 1039
HUSNGs +$15
Live cash +£3k
Staking +$55k
Bonuses +$3865
2011 Total: $63,633

The Firm and An Interesting Proposition

The Firm and An Interesting Proposition

Friday, 28 January 2011 | 1 comment Tweet

Those of you that follow Dave Nicholsons blog (lildaveslife.blogspot.com) have probably already heard about The Firm but I've decided to join the site too as a coach for SNGs, anything from heads up to 180mans up to $500 buyins. I should have a few students lined up so looking forward to that since coaching is something that I've wanted to get into more seriously for a while now. All the info about free coaching when you make an account on an affiliate site, staking or buyin a piece of The Firm pros check out www.thefirmpoker.com

Had another 5/10 shot at DTD last weekend which went pretty well finishing +£3.2k for the trip but did most of that getting impatient waiting for games online which got me into sitting super turbos and when you run bad in those you can do a lot of money pretty quick. Haven't really been playing great and I've fallen off the ipoker total profit leaderboard which really sucks but it should motivate me more to get back on there.

The interesting proposition is that Rob Yong (owner of DTD) offered me 3 to 1 on a heads up match for half my roll. Rob doesn't know what that number is so I guess it would be pretty easy to angleshoot and get the match for whatever amount I wanted really within a realistic range given that he's seen me play 5/10 and a number of £1k events. It'd work out about £10k but I'm obv not allowed to sell any or the deal is off. I'm not sure if I'm gunna do it but if the offer still stands I'll probably make a decision at DTD this weekend and it'll be played over the UKIPT Nottingham weekend

Nothing planned on the live poker front until UKIPT Notts on February 11th so just taking it easy back in Sheffield 'till then but possibly apartment hunting for next year but we'll see what happens with that.

Also gl to James Keys at the Aussie Million final table tonight starting in about an hour, I have 5% so win please?

Dan

DTD Deepstack and Shot Taking

DTD Deepstack and Shot Taking

Thursday, 13 January 2011 | 2 comments Tweet

Went to the £336 Deepstack at DTD in Nottingham this weekend with the intention of getting into the 5/10 cash game that runs there over that weekend. From what I've heard its a pretty soft spot so I was looking forward to getting involved. Unfortunately I managed to be first on the list for 2 days and didn't get in 'till Sunday but in the meantime managed to run uf £2.8k playing 2/5. The actual tournament itself went pretty standard, 5 or so levels in I run 99 into QQ vs a button 3bet over a super wide MP opener.

I played the £150 freezeout on the Sunday afternoon and was sat to the right of Willie Tann which was pretty awesome. He's always full of stories from his crazy up and down career which kinda distracted me from the tournament a little bit but its usually a refreshing change to get some old school wisdom. I'm really not one to shun the old school players as much as some of the younger guys so that was a very interesting and very long conversation

Finally got in the 5/10 game which was probably the best game I've ever played in for general table talk and everyone was full of stories about Vegas last summer which makes me wanna go even more now that I'm finally 21. The lineup was way tougher than it was on the friday and saturday but I felt like it was still a decent spot and it was the first time playing in Robbies Room at DTD so it was pretty cool despite dropping £3.3k. I ran and played pretty bad with the highlight being limping KK UTG, fish making it £80 on the button SB calls I make it £310, raiser calls and flatter folds. Flop is a gross AJT and I lead for £375 and got tank called. Turn was a J and I spaz jammed £1.3k and got snapped off by AT.

So I didn't quite get the result I was looking for my first time in that game but I'll definitely be back and the weekend could have gone a lot worse than breaking even after tournament buyins.

GL all

Dan

A Great Start

A Great Start

Thursday, 6 January 2011 | No comment yet Tweet

So 2011 has started really well despite having a pretty gross -$2.8k day yesterday running $2.2k under EV. I'm still pretty amazed at the standard of play at $350s on iPoker. The fish are certainly worse than the standard $100 game fish. Its been volume all the way the last few days so I'm way ahead of pace for my volume goal of 1k games this month. I'm actually on pace for 1.7k games but with some live ventures I don't think I'll get too close to that.

One of my best mates from secondary school moved to Denmark a few months ago so I really wanna make it to EPT Copenhagen so that I can make the trip over there for a few days, plus Copenhagen would be another sick european city to see. Travel-wise I haven't actually gone to that many places outside the UK for poker. I've been to Ireland a couple of times and to Macau which was insane but I'd like to see more of Europe. Copenhagen, Snowfest in Austria and San Remo would be an awesome combination for the year. Maybe then in the second half of the year I can stop doing my bollocks in on EPTs and actually make some money!

I'm heading to Nottingham tomorrow for 5/10 cash and then the £300 deepstack. Trips to notts are usually pretty good, there have been a few birthdays this week so I guess the drinks are gunna be flowing and with a bit of a gap in the live calendar over Christmas I'd expect a ton of circuit regs to show up to get their fix!

Finally good luck to Dave Burn, Luke Fields, Rick Trigg and any other UK sickos heading to the PCA, bring it home!

New Year and some Continental rungood

New Year and some Continental rungood

Sunday, 2 January 2011 | No comment yet Tweet

As I mentioned at the end of the last blog I'm in Amsterdam for new year which has been really cool. The plan was to chill out and not really play any poker but over the course of the trip myself and Luke Fields (LFmagic on stars and tilt) have been crushing pretty hard. My effort:




Games: 227
Profit: $8575
Rakeback: $887
Avg. Buyin: $171
ROI: 22%

December was a bit of a rough month so its nice to get an $8.5k bankroll boost to be able to play $350s on a regular basis. The games have been super soft as they always are at this time of year with plenty of fish having time off work. I also ran pretty hot which is always appreciated! January 2010 was my biggest month at HUsngs ever and that came in at $14k so I'd be very happy if I can beat that.

I've only got one live event planned for January (DTD £300) so its gunna be a mega online grind and I'm going to attempt to play my biggest volume month ever by a long way. I'm looking to break 1,000 HU sngs which is pretty insane volume playing on a lower traffic network than stars or tilt so hopefully it goes well and the daily slog doesn't get too wearing. Theres a nice rakeback cheque at the end of the volume rainbow anyway so theres another incentive to get on it!

I really wanted to keep away from doing the whole 'Goals for 2011' thing because where I'm at now it could really end anywhere. I could be here in a years time and be in pretty much the same financial situation with another years worth of run bad on the live circuit stories or I could be playing $5ks having binked an EPT so I'm just going to keep the goals as a monthly thing and take it from there. So here goes:

January Goals

Play 1000 HUsngs on ipoker
$8k profit before rakeback
Make the top 10 of the iPoker total profit leaderboard at the end of month

Have a rungood January

Dan

Finally set up a blog!

Finally set up a blog!

| 1 comment Tweet

Only 2 years after I originally intended to set up a poker blog - here it is.

Its probably best to tackle the introductions first. I'm Dan Morgan, a heads up SNG reg on iPoker playing under the name CaptainCalldown. I play mainly the $100 and $200 turbos, but higher if soft spots appear. I've played a decent amount of UK circuit live stuff aswell with mixed results. Yet to bink anything big but I'm happy with my edge in the long run playing £500 and £1k live events, just gotta try and fly on the right side of variance for a few days - if only it were that easy!

I've been playing on The Poker Farms rakeback deal on Will Hill for a while and since the site launch is coming up I thought I'd put myself forward as a blogger. I haven't really seen any regularly updated heads up SNG blogs around so maybe theres a gap in the market! Its definitely an interesting game and one that gets overlooked a bit I think. Heads up cash provides sexy nosebleed stakes action and MTTs provide the heroes binking 6 figure scores. While heads up SNGs lack these there is still money to be made and someones gotta (at least try to) take it so it might as well be me!

Right now I've got everything crossed that the flight backlog is going to clear so that I can catch my flight on the 29th to spend New Year in Amsterdam. I'd say its about a flip right now but the hotel is already paid for and non refundable so even if it takes a ridic train journey to do it I'm getting to Amsterdam for a massive NYE one way or another which means there are probably amusing updates to come

Didn't want to ramble much in the first post so I'll leave this one here and the next update will hopefully be from Amsterdam

All the best
Dan