Loose Cannon Club Super Saturday

From David Creasor's emails and the updates from Jimbo's blog (Magical Mystery Poker Tour) it would appear the Loose Cannon is getting busier all the time. With that in mind the Super Saturday running there today would be a good thing for me to attend. Unfortunately I'm too tight to pay someone to do my kitchen so instead of playing poker all day I'll be on all fours trying to remove skirting boards whilst trying to stop the dog taking me from behind.

I live in a fairly new house which is pretty much made of cardboard, but the skirting boards have been fixed to the cardboard wall so well I can't get them off without taking the whole wall away. I tried to take some tiles off the kitchen wall a year ago and found myself down to the breeze blocks. I'm not cut out for this DIY stuff....

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As far as poker goes I've been playing some heads up games on Virgin and PKR with moderate success. My goal is to get my single table graph pointing the right way again, as it's starting to look like the outline of a VW Beetle. I still haven't played my $250 heads up phase game or the $160 final phase on PKR. Game selection is everything to me so I can wait. I know it's not in the right spirit but if I could take the buy ins without playing I would. It's likely I'll come second in the HU for $95 and come 7th in the final phase for nothing. I'm that confident!

(No prizes for guessing the location this time)

This Year's Profits

2009 is looking good so far, although my single table graph isn't looking too impressive. I'm $139 up in cash, $87 down in SNGs and $945 up in MTTs for an overall profit of $997.

I'm in a RakeTheRake $5000 freeroll at 8pm tonight, as it stands there are only 64 players so I should have a shot at quite a nice payout if I can stay off the beer.

I got to the final level of PKR's heads up phase tournaments. If I lose the final I get $95 but if I win I get $380. I will report on my win (hopefully) later on!

Ladbrookes put ten quid in my dormant account to tempt me back, I like free money so I decided to play some heads up matches on there. I've spun it up to 15 quid already. Maybe I'll use that account for my '10 pounds to 10,000 challenge' - It seems all the rage now.

****Update****
I came 10th in the freeroll for $120 when I lost a race on the final table bubble. I played my Phase 4 PKR SNG and won it after two hours, so I'm now through to the final phase of both the heads up and ten handed PKR tournies. I will play the finals next week.

Poker Winnings Spending Record

I read somewhere that you should always buy yourself something so you can say 'Poker bought me that' so with last Thursday's 430 quid* profit I'll make a record of what I spend it on.

Takeaway curry - 25 pounds
Petrol - 50 pounds
A plastic greenhouse - 15 pounds
Two CO alarms - 20 pounds
New hose pipe with bits missing - 40 pounds
Food shopping + Beer - 100 pounds

Running total - 250 pounds spent in three days, and all I've got to show for it is a plastic greenhouse that will probably blow away, a new hosepipe, the knowledge that I wont be poisoned in the night (if I put the CO alarms up) and an ever growing beer belly. I vow to do something more useful with the rest of the money, like enter more poker tournaments.

* I should explain for some unknown reason my pound sign key doesn't work on my computer so I have to say pounds or quid etc. It's the computer as opposed to the keyboard.
Dollar signs work fine.

Nice Score at the Hairy Crapshoot

The Empire Hairy Crapshoot has improved it's format. The four pound entrance fee has gone but the casino now rake 10% from the prize fund, so it's debatable whether the winners are better off. The add on is now worth 2000, so there's a bit more play when the 'real' tournament starts.

I played Thursday night with the usual mix of players :
1. First time live players from Europe who can't shuffle/deal/sort out split pots etc.
2. Hairy, scary looking Eastern Europeans who can't speak without sounding like they want to kill me.
3. Mildly drunk cockney lads on a boys night out playing poker who are all waiting for the last man to get knocked out because he's driving.
4. Regulars who think they own the place, but do know how to work out side pots.

I played my usual too tight too aggressive style and ended the rebuy period with 700 chips from my starting 1000. This is the norm for my style of play. I added on for 20 quid but was still short stacked with blinds going to 150/300 after the break. I used my 2700 chips well and eventually got it all in with pocket eights on a scary fl op of 2,3,6. A lady who looks and talks like she was in the Munsters called me with A2 and for some reason I decided she'd flopped a straight and got up to leave. The board didn't help her and I went to walk away. It was only when a bloke that looks like Peter Stringfellow* told me I'd won that I realised I was still in and sat down again (Note to self, stop being so defeatist).
*Stringfellow is a thinner, scruffier version of the man himself, who says he lives in Leicester Square. I believe him and think he lives near the statue in a cardboard box. A solid player and pleasant bloke when you get to know him, especially as he never asks for loose change for a cup of tea.

I got to the final two tables with a mixture of luck, solid play and luck. My key all in hand to get me to the final table was my Ten Eight suited against a baseball capped Russian lad with pocket nines. He was dealing and looked fairly sick when he dealt an eight on the flop and another on the turn to more or less triple me up.

One incident I'm not proud of involved a meek looking bloke and one of the semi drunk lads. The meek looking bloke went all in to a big bet by the semi drunk. For some reason the semi drunk thought everyone had folded and threw his cards face down into the middle of the table. The cards didn't quite hit the muck but he clearly threw his cards away. The meek bloke protested (quietly) when the semi drunk grabbed his cards back at which point the Russians and everyone else started arguing. I joined in and got quite irate with the Russians, most of whom were just hanging around the card room. I shouldn't have got involved as I wasn't even in the hand, but I felt like sticking up for the meek bloke so I said my piece. It's only when all the Russians left the card room for about ten minutes I thought they may be making plans to kill me and decided I would keep my mouth shut next time.

The final table came and it was push or fold time for most people. I was unlucky for the seat draw then lucky with my cards and others being bust out. We got down to three, Ivan the deadly Russian, Oz the uncharacteristically quiet Australian and I. Oz had about 70k, I had 22K and Ivan had about 20K. The blinds were 6k and 12k so we chopped it for what I think was a good deal. Ivan and I got 470, Oz got 700. The prizes were 340, 500 and 900 and there was a good chance I would have got third, so the extra 140 quid was nice.
What I don't like is The Empire don't manage the deals so the players have to sort it out themselves. I came third on a high card so I had to march the other two to the cash desk and hope they were men of honour and would hand over the money owed. They did, but I'd prefer not to have to do that as I can see it turning ugly eventually.

So to recap, last week I earned £644 extra after tax for doing 41 extra hours, a knackering 81 hour week. My earn rate was £15.70 an hour. If I'd played poker all week at Thursday night's earn rate of £105 an hour I would be banking £4305! Wow.

Good news - my multi table money is in profit for the first time since my WSOP side event busto. Let's see how long that lasts!

Profit / (Loss) - Both live and online
Cash - $770
Single Tables - $1214
Multi Tables - $32
Total - $2016

The Poker Player's Prayer

Our Father, who passed ace-seven,
Hi-lo be thy game.
Thy king will come,
Thy pot be won,
On a bluff as it is with sevens.
Give us this day, they'll be drawing dead,
And forgive us our tiltraises,
As we forgive those that tiltraise against us,
And lead us not into frustration,
But deliver us from Verbal.
For thine is the flop,
The turn and the river,
For ever and ever,
All-in.

I'm as religious as a fish but this is good.
Courtesy of Jackinbeat. Fine work.

The Ups and Downs of Buying in Short

Whilst the wife was watching Strictly Come Dancing at the O2 I slid off to The Empire in Leicester Square for a bit of £1/2 NL Hold 'em. I played for two hours, and it was looking bad after I donked off £60 on my second hand on the table when I completed the small blind with 58o, hit a five on the raggy flop, stuck £20 in there then stupidly called an all in to someone with a set. Glad I only had 60 quid on the table...

I bought in for another £60 and tightened up, eventually I flopping a set with KK in the hole & managing to get it all in against someone who tried to muscle me with his KQo. His line when I caled was 'If you've got ace king you've got me.' He seemed quite upset when I showed him he was drawing practically dead. Needless to say I doubled up and wished I had more than 60 quid on the table...

During the session I had a few hands here and there, but didn't get paid off with them as my image was too tight, and I feared being outdrawn so I bet and raised too much.
At one point I folded Queens preflop to a raise, call and re raise because the re raise was from a super tight player and it felt like aces. The fact that he did have aces made me feel life a poker god for a few minutes. I finished £70 up for the session which helps me forget that in general I am a no limit fish of the highest order.

Profit / (Loss) - Both live and online
Cash - $771
Single Tables - $1245
Multi Tables - ($824)
Total - $1192