Upping Sticks to Barca

Upping Sticks to Barca

Wednesday, 10 August 2011 | 3 comments Tweet

Yep its been about 6 weeks since the last blog so cliffs from then:

Jakes birthday at Marqee - best night out in Vegas hands down

Main Event - bust 40 from the bubble AA < 99

Chill for my last week in Vegas - didn't play any poker, just looking forward to getting back to the online grind after 7 weeks off.

I was pretty happy to be back after 7 weeks in the madness of Vegas. Getting back on the HUSNG grind was the #1 priority after seeing family and friends in the first couple of days that I was back. Somehow the screen on my laptop broke on the flight leaving me having to play on another laptop with no HEM which was pretty tilting. Definitely never going to do that again, it would have been a better idea to just not play! I did pretty badly and never found my flow. Seven weeks out of the games definitely didn't help either but I didn't play great and ended up dropping some bean on Stars.

With morale pretty low I decided to take a trip to Leeds to see lildave and Sykes and join in with some of the Leeds live games. I played a couple of times in the 2/5 holdem game and came out winning about £1k pretty much all in non-showdown pots which was a pretty good result. I had my head back in the game and started turning it around online too so the trip was a success.

From Leeds I went to the Deepstack weekend at DTD in Nottingham. Ended up entering on both start days - both days I built a good stack but couldn't win a big flip in the last level the first day and ran KQcc into AA on 942cc in a 3bet pot and failed to do a get there second day - again in the last level of the day.

Heard some really sad news in Nottingham too - Tim Blake who plays a lot at DTD had a stroke at his hotel the morning of the tournament and is still in hospital in Nottingham. All the best to him, hope to see you back at DTD soon!

Since then I've been crushing pretty hard online - back on my own laptop with my awesome HUD and besides brief stints I've been in the zooooooone putting up a 14.5% ROI

Now onto the main event - moving to Barca!

I leave on Sunday, going back to the No Worries Villa to help with another heads up SNG boot camp along with stars reg FrankThomas8 and FTP/Lock reg RaisedByJews. During the week we'll also be house hunting and I'll be in Barcelona for the forseeable future. We're winging it a little but just turning up and looking for a place to stay when we get there but we'll be able to stay at the villa for as long as we need to most likely so even if it drags on and we knock in some money staying there I really wanna find the right place so it'll be worth the extra time and expense.

I've spent a lot of this week learning some Spanish. The first 3 days have gone really well - definitely getting to grips with it faster than I thought I would and its nice to be learning something new that isn't to do with poker! Definitely going to put a lot of hours into learning the language mainly because I'd rather not be treated like another tourist when I'm there and it'll also be useful for future trips to South America.

If all goes to plan my next update will be from sunny Barca

Buena Suerte

Vegas Volume 2

Vegas Volume 2

Friday, 1 July 2011 | 1 comment Tweet

Decisions decisions...at first I came to Vegas intending to play a ton of cash games and after seeing the standard in a couple of WSOP events decided to really get my head down and play as many tournaments as I could. I've succumbed to laziness though and midday starts just aren't really working out for me so its just been solidly cash games this week.

My results have been pretty good - I've not been keeping accurate records but I estimate to be winning ~8k in cash games for the trip which nicely complements my earlier tournament score

The downside is that I've been running horrific at every game that isn't poker. Pretty much anyone that spoke to me in the last week got their dinner paid for at least once and my roommate god modes me in flips every day so its been an expensive week.

On a much more positive note last Sunday I went to ECD (Electric Daisy Carnival) at the speedway in Vegas. Its a Trance/House/Dubstep festival and the atmosphere was pretty incredible. Headliners on the Sunday were Swedish House Mafia and Laidback Luke and its hands down the best House gig I've ever been to (which in fairness isn't many). Laidback Luke absolutely killed it - his EDC set is available to download here and is definitely worth a listen!

http://www.ienlive.com/music/laidbackluke-live-set-electric-daisy-carnival-las-vegas-6-26-2011/

Heading to Marquee at Cosmopolitan tomorrow for Gavz' birthday then having a day off before playing a few Venetians next week and then the Main Event next weekend. Its looking like the 2 weeks that I'm staying for after the series are gunna be pretty chill so this week is gunna be full on - hopefully the poker keeps going well and this week doesn't break the bank!

Vegas Volume 1

Vegas Volume 1

Saturday, 25 June 2011 | No comment yet Tweet

So heres little old me under the bright lights of Las Vegas. It turns out that this city is everything that you'd expect it to be. Its as impressive, exciting and buzzing as you'd expect it to be but its also as sleezy and money-mad so you'd expect. I'd say overall its a great place to be but I certainly couldn't live here. Its so easy to get caught up in the extravagence of it all that you end up burning through money pretty quick. Luckily the games are another level of soft so you can recoup it pretty quick!

The first couple of weeks in Vegas I was staying at Vdara which is in a development called City Centre. The Aria casino is the main building there which looks pretty awesome when its all lit up

Poker for the first week was pretty good. It was a nice change to be able to roll out of bed, go across the road and find a good 5/10 game rather than having to get on a train to Nottingham! I got off to a pretty good start playing cash, was winning ~$5k but a few tilted post-tournament bust sessions put pay to that. Discipline is certainly something that is easier to lose in Vegas than it is anywhere else.

I did manage a decent cash in a WSOP event though coming 12th in the $2.5k 6max for $34k which covers most of my tournament buyins for the trip so as long as I don't knock in a ton of money playing cash games it'll be tough for me to have a losing Vegas which is nice!

Apart from the 12th its been bricks everywhere in tournaments but I feel like I've played well, just haven't had any breaks in the other tournaments. There are still six to go though, three of which I'm pretty psyched for. Theres the $2.5k Venetian on Monday, the $5k Venetian Main Event and the $10k WSOP Main Event.

Our stay at Vdara ended a few nights ago so myself and Luke (LFmagic) decided to stay at Bellagio for the remainder of the trip so we're grinding cash games here pretty hard to qualify for the poker room rate which would knock chunks off our hotel bill and the games are soft too so its a win win.

The restaurants here in Vegas have been incredible despite the ridiculously huge portion sizes. I've yet to see anyone complete 3 courses - not sure its even possible outside a sushi place. Went to Tau Asian Bistro at The Venetian with lildave and some of his housemates. The chef's taster menu was probably the best meal I've ever eaten. There are also a ton of ridiculously good steak places here. Vegas seems to have an obsession with Kobe Beef (japanese steak - apparently they massage the cows which is why its so good!) so its served everywhere but its incredible.

Cash game results at the Bellagio have been really good so far, booked at $4.6k win last night and playing again tonight so hopefully my good run continues!

Here There and Everywhere

Here There and Everywhere

Monday, 13 June 2011 | No comment yet Tweet

It turns out that when you're as good at finding excuses not to do things as I am its pretty hard to come up with a blog post every week. Its certainly not for lack of content - its exactly the opposite. The last 3 weeks have been insane good and theres just too much to write about and with a 3 week gap theres no way I could do it all justice so I'll try to keep it brief.

I was still in Cork for the tail end of the SCOOP which didn't go well, bricked everything which was pretty annoying 'cos the staking package I sold returned $0 but not to worry, WSOP round the corner right? Anyway as I mentioned in the previous post I had to get from Cork to Barcelona which they've made very difficult. Gerard Harraghy decided to be the hero giving me a lift from Cork to Dublin. A train a plane and an automobile later I arrived at the villa in Barcelona for the heads up SNG boot camp.

Barcelona was pretty crazy - I learned loads and crushed for the 2 weeks I could play before Vegas which was cool, also to people that were there were all complete heroes. So many crazy nights out and I absolutely fell in love with Barca. A few of the coaches were US players looking to relocate and there are tentative plans to get a heads up SNG grind house with Pistons87, FrankThomas8 and Raised By Jews plus others in Barcelona which would be awesome - any excuse to travel some more!

The WPT was in town at the same time and since I was reliably informed that it was one of the softest big buyin events out there so I decided to play it. Had a super sigh bust in 20th where young Polish guy with all the chips makes a really spewy 3bet/call from the SB vs my UTG+1 open with 99 < KQs for twice average at 2table. The guy final table bubbles overbet 4balling Q6o into QQ, wp. Still, my first WPT event and first cash, ship the spanish flag on the hendon mob profile.

I was supposed to have a week to chill at home before heading off to Vegas for the World Series but this didn't really happen since I had to get back to Sheffield and move all of my stuff into storage because the lease on my house runs out while I'm in Vegas. Managed to do that and get back down to London to spend the weekend with the family which was nice then it was straight back to London to chill at the PLO grind house the night before the Vegas flight.

Obviously it had to end up at a casino and it was The International this time where we got a pretty ridiculous 6 card PLO game going with myself, Luke Fields, Joejoe Whittaker and Tony Jacobs. Cliffs: Luke runs absolutely golden, doesn't lose a pot for 4 hours and gets the lot.

We meet up with Si Mitchell at the airport and the flight goes smoothly, managed to sleep through most of it which was a result. Vegas deserves many posts all of its own so I'll cut this one here but I'm pretty excited to be hitting the World Series, run good for 7 weeks please?

Dan

SCOOP Bink, UKIPT Cork & Barcelona

SCOOP Bink, UKIPT Cork & Barcelona

Monday, 23 May 2011 | 1 comment Tweet

So far my prediction for May has come through perfectly! I won the SCOOP $16 double chance turbo (luckbox I know) for $35k and the old heads up SNGs have been going alright too although I haven't been chipping away at Will Hills $10k bonus nearly as much as I'd like but anyway - I can't complain!

Far too many people to congratulate on having a sick SCOOP. Jake and Pab get wins too (in proper tournaments obv). Dual final tables for Luke Fields in the $5k and $530 6max PLO a couple of days ago. Ben Martin and Rick Trigg to name just a couple made high final tables too - wpwp

I decided pretty much at the last minute to go to UKIPT Cork which I think was a good decision. The main was pretty gross, played day 1a and won one showdown in 9 hours, ran up a twice average stack though with a ridic number of 3bets, 4bets and cbets getting through. Unfortunately once average stack got a bit short and I needed to win some all ins all we got was a big pile of fail. Someone finally decided to quote "make a stand" by raise/giving it the 5 minute tank/calling off 22 bigs bvb with 66 and 89dd doesn't win flips so that was gg.

The cash action was pretty good the whole weekend with 2/5 holdem and 1/2 PLO that was playing like 5/10 running pretty much always. I ended up a 2.3k euro winner after a 1.7k loss the last night playing 2/5/10 PLO 5 handed at a private club in the city centre once the stars games had closed. Really tilting game, pretty much summed up by the first hand where villain peels a 4bet with Q883 and flops 336 vs my AAxx and a few hands later the same guy peels another 4bet with KK76 and I have to bet/fold 458ccd with AAJJsshh

Now I have the fun prospect of attempting to get from Cork to Barcelona. I'm going there for a week for a heads up SNG boot camp run by Pistons87 (Stars) / ftpballerstatus (FTP) and Raised by Jews (FTP). Pistons is a $5k HUSNG sicko so should be a good learning experience. The WPT is in town too so we'll be hitting up some sides and mayyyyyyybe the main, i'll probably play whatever live sats they have and play it if I ping one.

From what I've heard Barcelona has some of the softest cash games in the world and I've definitely got the live cash bug at the moment so looking forward to scouting out some soft games. If I can manage to come back with enough cash for customs to pull me over that'd be awesome

gl guys

Dan

Running Good Live

Running Good Live

Tuesday, 10 May 2011 | No comment yet Tweet

I've had a couple of live trips in May already, first GUKPT Walsall and then the Oxford Cup

GUKPT Walsall was pretty huge for The Firm - Ben Jenkins finalled the Main but ran horrible on the final table and came 6th, Mark McClusly chopped the £200 6max and cashed the £250 re-entry and I won the £100 bounty event for a nice 1st on the old Hendon Mob. The final table of the bounty was pretty funny, 7 paid so everyone was playing ridic tight but I couldn't find many spots because the two guys on my left were limping in ~75% of hands and they were both showing down top 10% hands every time. I was pretty card dead too, probably got 3 jam spots in about 40 hands when average stack was only ~15bbs.

A couple of guys let themselves blind down to <5bbs so I was kinda handcuffed by ICM but once the bubble burst and guys on my right tightened up a bit or their run of cards dried up and in the last 50 hands of the final I was probably all in pre a good 60% of the time. I picked up a few hands but that didn't really matter. There were just so many any 2 jam spots because they were calling so tight so it was pretty much a case of hoovering up all the chips pre.

I was pretty fortunate heads up to get 99 vs 77 20bbs deep and held so took it down for £1700. Nice to finally win one after a couple of seconds in UKIPT and GUKPT sides.

That put me into the Walsall Champion of Champions online £10k freeroll which was pretty strange. We were all supposed to start with different stacks (10k for the main event winner, 4k for side event winners and 2k for some other qualifiers) but we all started with 4k stacks and they cancelled the tournament just after we got in the money with 4 left. Grosvenor ended up doing the right thing though and paying out anyway. I was 2/4 when they pulled the plug so £2.5k I think was a fair payout.

This weekend was the Oxford Cup, the biggest student tournament in the country that The Firm sent a few coaches to since the student market seems pretty lucrative and a good one to get into. It was a £20R that got ~250 runners and generated a £15k prize pool which was a lot more than I was expecting. There was a £50 bounty on all of The Firm coaches so everyone was gunning for me which actually made for some really interesting situations. Gus Hansen was also there - he gave a speech on the Saturday night mainly because he is a huge fan of Richard Dawkins, a pretty well known Atheist and lecturer at Oxford. The talk mainly centred around what in his opinion it takes to be a professional poker player and was pretty interesting although not much of it was new to anyone who reads about the game a fair amount but was worth a listen nonetheless.

The tournament structure was pretty shallow and once it got down to the last 3 tables average was 10bbs. There were quite a few young guys that were competant with shoving ranges etc so I got into a couple of tricky spots but won some flips when I needed to and had JJ vs 77 with 12 left to get a big double up. From then on it was foot on the gas and I never lost a big pot.

Heads up was pretty interesting, we started pretty even with about 18bbs each. I ran pretty well and picked up some hands, jamming lots as expected and eventually got it in with AJ vs QT for the win and obv I'm golden enough to just flop JJx and have him dead on the turn so won that for £3600 and two trophies in two weekends! Congrats to Kate Langshaw who came third too. To have 4 players in and two final table is pretty big for The Firm so keep crushing.

I'm in Leeds at the moment grinding SCOOPs with Jamie Sykes and lil Dave - had a decent run in the $55R last night but couldn't win the flip for twice average with ~200 left.

Heads Up SCOOP tonight thought which should be fun. The structure is excellent with 100bb starting stacks and 10 minute levels. I've always done pretty well in the WCOOP heads up events and this will hopefully be no different

Happy SCOOPing

Dan