May was a great month in my regular competitions at Luton, and I cleared over £5,000 in profit from their competitions alone. Along came the Walsall festival and I decided it was time to spin up some of that profit into a week on the festival circuit. I like the Walsall casino a lot... I chopped a festival event there in February, it's only an hour and a half a way and I can look forward to staying in the 'it's not' hotel as we renamed the 'Quality' Hotel. Joined by seven or so of my Luton regular friends, a fun week was in prospect if not much sleep on the 'its not's' hard beds in their baking hot rooms.Arriving in time to play a super satellite on the Monday afternoon for the £500 freezeout on the Thrusday, I had a great start when I won a seat and played error free poker. When I arrived I decided I would record faithfully all my expenditures during the week to find out for myself how much a week on the circuit costs in total. I'll show you the results in a bit, suffice to say for the time being I was able to put a figure in the positive column to start off with.
Walsall self deal satellites are an experience. Played on the big festival tables one person has to volunteer or be volunteered to deal for the whole table AND play. This is unlike the regular Luton self deals I play on the smaller tables where you have to deal only when it's your button. That first satellite I felt my spidey senses tingling and decided I would make a conscious effort to deal the satellites myself for the remainder of the week. This is tough, concentrate on your game and work out side pots/keep the game flowing etc. I certainly need more practice at it. I had made a decision though that I was determined to stick to: only play the main event if you satellite your way in, so the satellites were a needs must for me.
Why were my spidey senses tingling? Well one player I did not know, and didn't seem to be a Walsall regular either (it being the Walsall regulars who populate these satellites for the most part), was dealing with about 20 players left, 3 seats available. He's in a pot with one opponent and calls a massive bet in relation to his stack with one card to come on a flushing board. If he is chasing the flush he has nothing like the pot odds to do so, yet he now has to deal the river. At that point he quickly riffles the pack and deals. Of course it is the card to make his flush to beat top two pair. No one says anything, no one even notices anything as far as I can tell. I'm not sure anything untoward happened and I'm not in the pot. I keep quiet which caused me some discomfort if truth be told. However we move on and the dealer concerned fails to make a seat.Sad to say that satellite was the highlight of the week. In the four festival competitions, I played 30 45 minute levels of poker. In those 1500 minutes I received the following hands:
A-K once
J-J 3 times, which tripped up twice and got nicely paid both times
A-T suited once where I flopped the nut flush and managed to get three bets out of Matthew Stevens the snooker player when he turned trips
7-7 once
er, that's it
There's no excuse though, I simply have to develop the skills and confidence to steal/bully my way through the bad times and keep myself in contention. Its simply not enough in these strong fields to play premium hands only and hit flops. I thought my tournament game had come on sufficiently to compete regularly at this level, perhaps I need to reassess. Certainly on several occasions when I attempted the steal or to buy a pot I was found out remorselessly. In the meantime it was an education to play in these fields and I was especially impressed with Marc Goodwin (left), Ash Pervaiz and Steve Jelinek, none of whom I had played before.No luck in the other satellites either, including an interesting case in 'deal yourself to bankruptcy' on one with RED DOG where I managed deal him corkers and managed to get myself outdrawn for two buy-ins in quick succession and then on the first hand in the freezeout period! 'Recognising and managing tilt' I said. Huh, time to re-read the article!
As I said earlier, here's the cost to me of a barren Monday to Thursday on a festival week. I returned home on the Friday, sticking to my promise not to buy in to the £1000 direct:
"it's not" Quality Hotel = £280
Tournament buyins = £900 (£100 rebuy, £150 with 1 rebuy, £300 freeze. £500 saved in satellite)
Super Satellite costs = £300 (3 satellites £50, £150, £100 spent, 1 seat secured)
Single Table Satellite = £100
Cash Game Losses = £650 (not part of the plan, see below)
Casino Games = +£50 (perhaps I should take up Blackjack......)
Food/Beverages = £40
Cinema = £6
Petrol = £50
Grand total = £2276 loss
So it was 'spin down' not 'spin up'. You can see that were this to be repeated if one played the festival circuit for a while without a draw, the likellihood of most people being on the circuit for long is quite low without independent wealth or a well paid job that allows you enough time off to play the events properly.
I must say a word about the cash games. Last time I went to Walsall the place was buzzing, six or seven tables on the go at once and great games too... full of reckless gambling. This time? An occasional £50 hold em and a regular £100 Omaha with a horrific line up. What has happened to Walsall cash?
You might ask therefore how I managed to lose £650. Well I had to laugh really..... dealt K-K on the button second hand into a £50 PLH table with £200 in front of me I get it all in pre flop. I knew the guy had A-A after the fourth raise too. Doh! Breaking my rule too and sitting with five Luton lads in a specially convened Dealers Choice game one night I managed to lose the other £450 in typical omaha coups. Not an impressive effort.
These are the hidden costs of festivals.... it's 1am and you are knocked out early from a comp, you don't want to go to a hotel room and your bed and you can't go home, so you sit down in a game you've promised yourself you wouldn't or you sit on the Blackjack for an hour. There is also the 'opportunity cost' of time foregone sitting around waiting for comps to start where normally you would be playing online or working etc. Impossible to put a monetary value on these indirect costs. Unless you go and lose £650 in cash games though.
So back home to Bedfordshire and off to Luton. Guess what? Two final tables in a row on the weekend including one Heads Up chop. £1000 back into the credit column to shorten my stay in poker hospital.
I think this is what the Poker Gods are telling me "give the festivals a miss, stick to the small games you can beat and make comfortable money at"
See you at the next festival no doubt!