blonde poker forum

As requested by Tikay here is my report on the Walsall weekend.
 
Firstly thank you to all my backers who were kind enough to stump up some cash for me to play in the GUKPT summer series, although my result was less than satisfying cash wise I know that I played almost entirely at my best and without any cards at all the entire 2 days i made it through to the last 3 tables.
 
At the begining.......When I started playing poker 4 years ago i was torn between luck and skill and like a typical female player when they start out (unless your name in Annette)  i used to play like a real girl and wait for premium hands.
 
This has sometimes worked and playing premium hands certainly helps but when i was card dead i would ante away until my last push when i was so low stacked that even the guys who had been knocked out before me had enough chips to call my all in.
 
In the past, playing a few deep stacks and trying a few bluffs (ohmigod he might call me and i have nothing running through my mind) I got most of my bluffs through. Amazing. Next I moved onto the reraise. This was more daunting as i was risking more chips and as a conservative player I didn't want to go below my starting stack let alone risk any chips unless I had the stone cold nuts. So reraise I did,but just every time I had a set of aces, nut flush or a house, nothing below that would ever make it, top 2 pair? No never - I was a player who couldn't/didn't play poker.
 
As time went on I realised that I was being outplayed on every flop, I would flat call a raise out of position, check the flop and fold to the bet. And yet I still thought I was playing poker. To rectify this situation I stopped flat calling any raises, to avoid a difficult situation I would fold instead. And yet I still thought I was playing poker.
 
And then the learning really started. DTD opened and the structure meant i could play a lot of poker for my money. I started to see a lot of people making a lot of moves and I was stunned at how much was going on at the table. The Notts players certainly know how to bluff and reraise with air and are proud to show their hands, so i got a whole lot of education by just being at the table. Added to that the tuition I got from Paul Jackson (yes for those of you who have not seen me kneeling in front of an effigy of Paul he is one of my poker heros) and i felt braver to face the world of poker and join in.
 
So where for love of the poker god does this fit into Walsall i hear you crying - if you are still reading that is....
 
Over the past 6 months I have been trying out a new version of the game called poker, it includes bluffs, rebluffs, stone cold nuts, creative calls and pre flop raises with less than premium hands - although the regulars at Luton may tell you I was doing that one anyway.
 
A few deepstacks at DTD later, going deep in the £1000 and Sky tourney and I know I am playing poker. I'm getting things through, I'm getting respect at the table and I'm learning that putting Mo Muse on a hand is nigh on impossible, but I can play back at him. Players are helpful, telling me afterwards where I could have improved and for a game that has the emphasis on having the competitive edge it is great that they are so informative! This is all getting stored in the poker playing section of my head to be used next time.
 
Everything they tell me tells me something about them and their play and it's all stored away. I may not be able to operate a lift correctly sometimes but I can remember poker info - it's much more important.
 
So the week before Walsall I am bereft - all my favourite people are off to Vegas, Snatty is squeeling like a teenage girl off on her first date as he plans his satellite fest and tells me excitedly about his venetian suite. The Shrewdies are living it up by the pool and Tikay is awol as he plans a gruelling schedule of playing, reporting, people spotting and train spotting, with a gap for sleeping between hands and while waiting for any form of transportation. Yet to see pics of him sleeping while waiting for a cab but I'm sure they are on the way.
 
So egged on by an awol blonde I put up a staking thread and joy of joys people are kind enough to stake me. Happy days.
 
So armed with Gus Hansens book and a day of watching poker tells on You tube I get ready for the game.
 
Toenails painted? Yes
Legs done? Yes
Bags packed? Yes
 
I used to be superstitous when playing poker and would wear the same earrings, top etc from my last win but I have gone past that now. So when I got to my car to find the warden giving me a ticket I didn't worry. When I got to the launderette and someone had a go at me i didn't worry. When my last client let me down on Saturday I didn't get concerned.None of these were signs of any impending doom at the tourney. When I got to the Village hotel they told me that despite being told I was booked on the 4th floor, I wasn't as they only have 3 floors. At this point the collective incoveniences of the day started to grate a little but never mind - I've had my toenails painted and I'm here to play poker.
 
The Village hotel is clean, has a pool and when I arrived they had laid out the red carpet for me literally, all the way up from the car park to the entrance to the hotel - very nice - I allowed an engagement party couple to also use it when they arrived - very big of me - and I headed for the pool and sauna to relax before the off. After a swim and a pre game snooze I was ready for poker.
 
Walsall is famous for it's on time starts and it didn't let us down, the start time came and went and we sat and enjoyed a pre match dinner while the staff discussed whether to set out the tables and put the chip stacks out in readiness for the game. The staff there are really great and I think part of the delay was due to the satellite for the game which hadn't finished.
 
Eventually we were off and like one of rookies dogs I came out fast but fell, bluffing away chips like a novice. Damm - as one of my poker buddies said to me today - you can't get away with Gus's moves unless you are Gus. How right he was. Before I slowed down I had gone from 10k to 4k in only a few hands, betting into aces with air, playing wild and fast and generally trying to be Alex Martin or Gus. FAIL.  
 
With my backers on my mind I slowed down and started playing ABC and D poker, mostly ABC but a little of D thrown in for good measure which worked nicely. Simon Trumper came to the table and having raised into his blinds twice he began to bite back a bit. Luckily for me he wasn't in the hand when I tried a ridiculous bluff that got through,but as I looked across at him while I waited for my opponent to fold he had that look on his face that my father had when I used to tell him i was going to my friends to do homework. A resigned 'I'm disappointed and I don't believe you' look. Later on he told me what gave it away for him, thank goodness other players are less studious because what Simon saw was microscopic.
 
I proceeded to play steady, picking my spots and all of a sudden I was up to starting stack again and feeling like I had some messing about chips. With Des Jonas on my table there was a poker diatribe going on between Des and the rest of the table as he talked the players to oblivion. Des had seen me waiting for a payout from the slots of £2k and decided to tell everyone about it and goad me into buying drinks for the table. "I'll buy drinks for the table if you can tell me my name" I replied knowing I was on safe ground. This flumoxed him a bit until the wit known as Dewi sitting in seat 4 piped up with "That shouldn't be a problem as everyone knows your name Tracey". With the triumphant air of the German in the 'Don't tell him Pike' Dads Army scene Des shouted for the waitress and began shouting out the drinks order insisting they order whatever they wanted....
 
Thanks Dewi - hope you enjoyed the Guinness!
 
Tomorrow more on actual poker, pivitol hands of the tourney for me and others and how The Village nearly had a race riot on their hands on Sunday morning...
 
 
 
 
 
 

Nice write up Tracey. nice result on the slots.

Thank you

Great post Trace :)up

+1

I did the clothes thing too a couple of years back, I'm not even supersticious but one of those things I guess lol...soon realised superstition in poker is pointless.

Good report, I like these even when I'm not one of the stakers.

Out of curiosity, (and you can tell me to mind my own business!) but what made you decide the type of staking you did (i.e 100%)? Did you not want to invest any of your win from the £50 at DTD into a bigger piece of yourself?

Look forward to part 2.

Great post Tracey.

where is the rest of it ,come on Tracy get your act together lol.
i`m waiting with anticipation here.
top read ,tell us about the race riot.

Great report Tracey, looking forward to the next installment.

The studiouos and thought out answer is; I've never been a great fan of staking - I've staked and have no problem with it but asking for staking is a different thing entirely. To me it's a begging bowl situation and if I let my stakers down I almost want to pay them back!

I would rather give as good a deal as I can to the stakers as they are taking the risk and use the game as a learning tool/experience and hopefully cash too.

My first answer would be; I copied Frans staking request! It seemed fair.

Great read Tracey

I gave up on the nail polish just didnt work for me...

Try to get out of that mindset Trace.  You're a solid player who is due another big win soon imo.  You're not begging, you have set out a well thought out proposal offering an opportunity for people to have a financial interest in a tournament where you have an edge over the field.   I've bought shares in you before, and that's the reason!  If I had any spare cash at the moment I'd have bought a % of you in Walsall, and if I'm flush next time you're looking for staking, I'll have some then too!

Using the staking boards is a far cry from begging in your case.

Carlsberg don't do tourney reports but if they did...


Top class Ding.

I was just curious because you were seemingly running good after a deep finish in the DTD £1k deepstack and then taking down the £50 at DTD for just shy of £2k I would have thought you would have either bought more of yourself in this event than a 100% stake or even just taken a shot and had all your own action.

Thanks for the kind comments. I was tempted to buy in for the event but it would have been wrong of me. My thoughts are...

1) Pure bankroll managment - it's still 25% of any potential bank roll if the money I won at DTD went into a poker account. As it is any money won goes into the bank account to keep the bank manager at bay. To give an example of this - on the internet I grind away with £10 PLO sit and goes mainly, I'm not a big player.

2) I'm self employed and dependent on clients coming in to pay me. I have a set amount of outgoings each month both personal but mostly business and there are times where it can be too tight to mention. Summer can be a quiet time for me as the school holidays means people are away, eating more healthily - less carbs and generally don't need to come and see me so often.

3) I run better with a deeper stack game but mainly these are (apart from APAT) bigger buy ins. Had I thought about Walsall earlier I would have tried to satt in with Blue Square but it was all a bit last minute.

4) I'm thinking of playing more at DTD during the week due to the structure - it's an hour from me and I have to factor in fuel and leaving work early - but I seem to run quite well there.

5) I have never not qualified through a satt for the DTD big stack so I will also be concentrating on those. Rather than spend £75 on a game at Luton I'll spend it on satts and see what happens.

6) The problem with limited bankroll is you need to spend it effectively. By spending on satts you play less live games and that can also be a disadvantage. Catch 22!

That was great read...thanks. Looking forward to part 2.

Trace, you take a lot of teasing on here, but you talk a lot of sense as well. Good to see someone so honest with themselves.

Good read

Never mind all that - I'm pretty sure that in my PM I said my staking money was for slots and not poker.

If I didn't say that then I think it was pretty obvious that's what I meant.

Plz transfer monies to me on Blonde kthanksbye :)

Also, slots report as well - including full details of nudges, bonus multipliers and free spins.

Great Penmanship,  Penwomanship, ty kep up the good work.

Tracey is a good writer and better player IMHO. Second in a festival main event and numerous cashes speak for themselves.

Nice read, well done ding, I never realised I gave your name/game away, my apologies ;) guinness waz good ta :)up

So back to the poker and I’m loving my table.


I like being the only woman at the table, I find it easier to play somehow but I have one lady to my right and I have no idea how she is playing. I find it best to be chatty, keep on their good side and hopefully wave them goodbye when they get knocked out. I have already bet into her aces big time, but she is playing fairly timid and I have called her on every street with my flush draw/straight draw and lost more. It was cheap to call and after loosing against her Aces I was too gun shy to raise. I will remember that for next time, not to be gun shy, looking at her 2 pairs I think I could have got her off but we will never know.  I’m not sure she was taking odds into consideration and may have just called thinking she had the best hand – which she did so I may have lost the minimum on this hand.

I was pleased to see Lucy Rokash playing, I have respect for her game and I think she can act as a reminder to the guys who think gender is important that women can have game. Controversy at her table as raised voices, people standing up and “Ruing Ruling” being shouted out by the dealer and players. With everyone shouting at once it was difficult to hear what the problem was but as Lucy didn’t feel she was completely vindicated she looked towards our table.

Simon Trumper bent his head down and tried to look inconspicuous, he didn’t want to get involved but Lucy marched over and asked Simon to confirm her thoughts on the matter. He agreed she was in the right and with that she marched back, feeling better that Simon had backed her up, and continued playing. Mathilde, Simons beautiful girlfriend, is in Paris for a few days and when Simon came back the WSOP he realised he could/should have stayed there for another week. Mathilde encouraged him to play more poker hence his appearance at Walsall. Her only advice was “play poker and don’t watch the card room, don’t get involved.” When you run what is arguably the best card room in the country it’s difficult not to get involved. But as Simon said as he sat down at the table, how hard is it to start a game on time?

So Des is doing his normal “What did you have in that hand” routine after every round and the table is guessing the winning hands. I find this incredibly useful. I think, but I may be wrong, that players guessing the winning hand indicates what their perception of the player is like but also what they would have laid down to so you can get an idea of who to push and how to avoid.

One thing I learnt at Paul Jacksons knee was ‘your betting should tell a story’ and some of the best calls are made when it just doesn’t add up. I folded at DTD in the £1000 to a massive overbet which just didn’t add up, along with the way he threw his chips in. But despite my best instincts I folded middle pair and was bullied off the hand. So I make sure in any bluff that I am telling the right story.

This has to be the tournament where I have had the least number of hands ever. I saw nothing for 2 days and yet had a good run. As I didn’t have any cards at all I had to tell a lot of stories and the check raise was the best way of doing it. Faced with a check raise from a woman wearing a blue flowery dress and pink earrings all of a sudden they were imagining flopped sets, big pocket pairs and nut flushes. Normally that is what I have when I check raise, hoping to look weak and induce a bet, but conversely it can also look strong if you are wearing a flowery dress and frightened to play the other streets so I took the odds away for them to call and they folded. It seemed to work, the guessing game included flopped sets, big pocket pairs and nut flush draws.

Des Jonas had a difficult game, couldn’t really seem to get anywhere and went out looking tired of life. He knew he was beat when an Ace appeared on the flop but called an all in with his pair as there was really nothing else to do but see the rest of the cards. The lady to my right was knocked out with not a lot but she made a move and got caught and all of a sudden there were three blonde women and a random. Chilli, LittlemissC and me.

Although it’s not a gender thing I do like to think that I can play better than some women and it’s good to see the players I respect still there – and some of the nicest female players around.

As for the men – well I am beginning to feel a bit middle aged. There are a lot of guys playing who are young enough to be my sons and part of me wants to get them to respect me because I am old enough to be their mother, but that’s not the way to get respect these days – on or off the table. So it’s the evening grind as more players get knocked out and I study the tournament board telling myself how many people need to go for me to get in the money.

Whenever I play a bigger comp I keep an eye on the runners and when it gets to 120 or so I start to feel more comfortable, as if it's a game at Luton (in the good old days). This way I psychologically feel that this game is nothing big. Later on I start to look at the prize pool and tell myself its worth fighting for and start to up my game and make some moves. This always means I am an average stack and never one of the chip leaders. This is my next area for change, but I’m not telling you how or when….

The bind structure at Walsall with antes becomes quite tasty but soon picks off some of the shorter stacks. Armed with Gus Hansen, disguised nicely in my orange girly handbag as a Maeve Binchy novel, I start to take the antes. I worked out how much each round was worth, bet appropriately to take it down and a lot of folding was going on pre flop. Just like Gus! I used to hate the ante structure, now I love it as I don’t need to see a flop to build my stack, ideal girly scenario! All of a sudden I have above average and then I’m in the top 10. I still only have 30 BB but I’m feeling comfortable and enjoying the game. I am in the zone.

Normally when I say I'm in the zone it all comes to an abrupt end but today I was being brave but not silly. The only fly in my ointment was the boy to my left. I say boy to be condescending. because his friendly grin and friendly chatter as he raised under the gun with less than premium hands (I suspected) was getting under my skin. I am guilty of tilting at the table, not from a hand but from bizarre things like the way someone throws in their chips. Mo Muse tumbles his chips in, almost in slow motion, and the anticipation of waiting for them to fall onto the table was agonising for me, would get me every time. Not now though!

Other tilts would be whistling, eating with the mouth open or other stupid stupid reasons. Tikay has seen this with me time after time and his advice to me before a comp is ‘don’t get involved with them, ignore then and just play your cards’. With this in miond I chatted gaily to the guy to my left, congratulating him on his 1 win at DTD which meant his wife was now ok with him playing poker. WTF? He was married – was he old enough?? Oh yes, the one time he took his hat off I could see he was. Keep you hat on sonny when you so to the cinema you might get a half price ticket. Anyway I’m sure he was a lovely guy but every now and again I just wanted to punch him in the face, I had to be really careful or this guy was going to get all my chips.  

They were going on a cruise to celebrate his wifes birthday using some of the money he won. And he was obviously brimming with confidence, buoyed on by his wife waiting anxiously at home for news of another cash. Useful, thinks I he will be feeling invincible. So I decided to take him down a peg or two. For the 220th time that hour he raised for first position with me in the BB. He was in a perfect place, looked strong from first position against the weak blind of the woman in the flowery dress who has so far folded way too many hands to a first position raise (again something I will be working on).

Next time he raises I flat call. I had Tc 6d off. The flop comes Jh 6s 2d. I have middle pair. As Gus would say that’s almost the nuts and I check the nuts like any woman would do. He predictably bets and I call. Turn  Qs. He bets, I call. We now have about 1/3 of my stack in the middle and I’m sweating a bit. River  Ad. No flush. I bet out about 1/3 of the pot (too weak imo but there was a part of me that still wanted to be in the comp and if he flat called I would still have chips left. He folded. Phew. He said he had a middling pair but he gave up on the end assuming I would call a raise with an ace in my hand.  If the ace hadn’t have come would he have called me?  I don’t know, quite possible as he had made a sick call against me earlier with the 6s on a four spade board when I had the 5s. Thanks for the lesson Gus but I’m not sure my heart or chip stack can take many of those sorts of hands!

So tables are breaking and the table dynamics are constantly changing as new players some in. It’s later in the evening and we are fast becoming a Welsh table, two guys are from Wales, somehow two cars full of Welsh made it over the border, and all of a sudden it’s an international table.

To my left is Henry Griffiths, introduced to me as a cash player from Cardiff. He has a tidy stack and I am expecting him to use it. He does. I was taught to imagine people in their underwear to make me less nervous of them - I didn't do that but I likened him to Jimmy Fricke who played Gus heads up in the Aussie Millions. Although he is not fat like Jimmy Fricke he is a pound or two more than he should be (as am I ) and he is young so I rename him Jimmy in my head and off we go to war.

Gus won against Jimmy and in this made up version of the Aussie Millions in my head it isn’t going to be any different. Jimmy raises my BB about 90% of the time and annoyingly the sight of his stack turns me back into a girly player where I was once brave and fearless. Damm. I try the re-raise, he calls, he bets out on the flop I fold. Another version of playing girly but costing more. This won’t do. The best I can do (sorry Gus) is to raise when he limps (not often) and he almost always folds, at least I get some antes back. If anyone can tell me how to deal with the intimidation of the big stack let me know. He had 56k and I had approx 13k at that stage.

it was really lovely seeing you this wekend Tracey and i was so upset for you when you busted

i had fun chatting in the changing room and in starbucks after a swim at the village too

great report so far

Hurry up with part 3 please.

Great reports Tracey, loving them.

Personally I think Tikay has got more then 20% value from this report so far

100% next time??

The GUKPT draw means last 5 hands before we break and people are switching off, wrapping up their ipods, arranging their lifts back to the hotel and not paying attention. Thanks you Gus – another 5k.

I bink a Jack on my all in with  Ahrt Jc against Henrys  Aspades Qc and I know the poker gods are smiling at me.

So day 1 ends and I have 45,000. I am top 10 – fml – and I am feeling good. For me the last hour of a tournament is the most nerve racking. I want to get through to day 2 and I would be nervous about playing a hand and getting knocked out. Gus (my new best friend) loves the last level of a tourney as it makes it easier to steal, so like my new hero (sorry Paul) I steal a few antes and easily push my chip count up. Poker is quite easy sometimes……it’s a whole new world out there and I love it.

I love the bagging up of chips – best feeling in the world – excited inside but cool on the outside, knowing I’m back tomorrow and I’ve only a short drive back to the hotel and then a good nights sleep.

Luckily for Fran and Tony they followed me back to the hotel and narrowly avoided going on to the M6  (or that could be the other way round….) anyway luckily an early night and we are all back at the hotel by 4am ish. I love the way we all squeel into the car park on a mission to get to bed, and then spend ages talking in the foyer before going up!

I have a little routine after a late game of poker, room service sandwich and a large gin and tonic to make me sleep otherwise I am awake for hours still buzzing from the poker. At reception I find there is no room service and the bar is closed even though I am a resident. FML. I am full of greens drink and redbull – I am as high as a poker player at Luton with cocaine up my nose. I will never sleep. Ok – can I get a late checkout please? No – we have a big group of people coming in the morning and we need all the rooms.  I’ll pay extra for late checkout. No – computer says NO. FML.  So no food, no alcohol, no sleep. Marvellous.

Being the true rebel I am I put the Do Not Disturb notice on the outside and set my alarm for 10.30. Check out is 11, I’ll check out, have breakfast and have a showing in the swimming area. Anything for extra sleep. I start surfing blonde and checking out the players still in, there is a seat redraw tomorrow so I’m not sure who I’m up against yet but I want to get a feel for the players that are left. Tony Phillips can’t sleep either – he’s on line reading the reports. I suspect though it’s not adrenaline but Fran snoring that keeps him awake…

About Tony Philips. What a nice guy, solid player, has some great results and is the sort of guy you cold take home to meet your parents. Fran and Tony make a great railing team, looking out for each other and they also play fair. On day one they were both on the same table at one point and sat close enough to be button vs blinds. To ensure no one thought they were colluding when they folded to each others raises they showed hands, a real disadvantage to them and an advantage to the other players, but as Fran said she felt compelled to, to ensure no one thought they were colluding.

Tony had been playing all day as he won the £300 earlier in the day and then went on to play in this one too. Amazing results and working his way up the GUKPT leader board towards that coveted £20k. I hope he gets it.

So I'm in bed and after a long time of ‘I will never fall asleep, ah I’m falling asleep, let me open my eyes to check, yes I was falling asleep but I’m not now’ moments I eventually fall asleep. What seemed like moments later there was a huge crash bang wallop and I thought there had been a car accident outside. No – I am wrong – it sounds more like an entire troop of drummers, plus carnival floats, plus assorted onlookers are in my bathroom. WTF.

I fling open the curtains – big mistake because it’s bright sunshine outside and I am not only temporarily deaf from the noise but also temporarily blinded from the light.

Oh no – I’m not deaf I can STILL HEAR THEM. It is 10 am on the effing dot and these drummers are outside my window as part of the Asian entertainment carrying on from the engagement party from last night. I try to open the window to tell them to shut up but I can’t open the window. It’s really hot in here but the windows don’t open. Fran tells me later it’s a matter of pressing the button on the handle but I was blind and couldn’t manage it.

The drummers keep drumming, and drumming and drumming and then start some sort of zulu war cry thing as they really get up to speed. Now don’t get me wrong – I appreciate a spectacle and some cultural interaction but not at 10am on a Sunday. Here is a short snippet to give you an idea of what is was like - only in Walsall it was much much louder

YouTube: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=2A0ABi_Z_2I

It is impossible to sleep, I am now grumpy and my eyes are tired, it’s too hot in here and I am in a stinking mood. I get up, pack up and check out.

Over breakfast I meet up with part of the Welsh contingent who on the pretext of being friendly ask me everything about me and my poker playing trying to get a hold on my play. I answer every question as if I were Tikay so they go on to the comp believing that I only shove with less than 2 BB, that I work for Sky and that I am currently in Vegas working. I have decided that confusing the enemy is the best way to go.

A short swim later and a chat with Fran over a Starbucks and we are all raring to go. I am ready to go to war.

My new table draw includes Micky Wernick, chip leader Toby to my immediate left and a very nice man I met in the lift the night before. Ah yes- here comes a lift story. It was Richard Connelly, nice guy and the night before we shared a lift to our rooms. When I ask where he comes from he replies Isle of Man.  “Ah” says I “you must work for Poker Stars then. I’ll be careful of you, you probably will do some horrible outdraw just like the site”. Words of doom people, words of doom.

I have Gus with me and as we shuffle up and deal I am in the zone. Blinds are 1,500/3,000 and Pstars raises my blind to 8,000 from the cut off.

To quote the updates
“Richard Connolly raises from late position after a limper and is called by Tracey Dell on the Big Blind as well as the limper.

Flop comes  Qc 5d 2s and Tracey leads out for about half the pot. The limper folded and Richard moved all in. Tracey calls and shows her  Qh 3d which is in big trouble to his  Kd Kc. No help and Richard gets a full double up.

My thinking behind this hand is;  I have  Qh 3d, Gus would never fold this in a million years. I flat call the extra 5,000. It comes queen high. I bet out 10,000, he pushes all in. I don’t take time to think, he could easily have missed that flop, I am ahead. I call. He has Kings. Oops.

I am felted to 5,200 and push all in with 5 7 diamonds. I receive 3 callers who check it all the way and I catch a flush. I’m back up to just over 27,000. Below average but we’ve lost a few players already – I am the comeback queen.

No more than a few hands later and Richard Connelly takes me to task again. But I have learnt from yesterday not to be concerned having had a beating from the same player in the past. I’m not standing for it and to be honest with the chips I have left I am in shoving mode. Kevs report was:

Dingdell ALL IN..

Richard Connolly raises to 9k on the button, Trace shoves for 11k more, connolly winces but makes the call

Trace  Qs Jh
Connolly  Th Jc

Flop  2h 4d 7s

Turn  7d

River  Ts

That horrible river sends trace to the rail ... so UL.
And that was that. Pstars outdrew me as predicted and off I went to railsville.

All in all a great tourney, what I forget until afterwards is how tired all that poker is. Mentally I am exhausted and frustrated, I want to be still playing, but all I can do is watch the others which is just a punishment for bad poker play.

Would I go again? Of course. Will I be better? Of course. Will I cash? Hmmmm- someone once told me after I won a good comp that ‘Every dog has their day’. He recently won a GUKPT so I guess that’s true.

Its winning consistently that makes you a player to be reckoned with and consistency is my aim. I may have to grind, I may have to dance and like any pole dancer I will accept tips. Any help, advice, or card marking ideas you have please let me know and one day I will be posting a picture of me and my trophy.

Thanks for supporting and backing me x

fantastic reports, thanks

Just don't get this at all though

My thinking behind this hand is;  I have Q3, Gus would never fold this in a million years. I flat call the extra 5,000.

and then you ask a question on the flop, he gives you an answer and you ignore it? He might have missed, but its all of your chips on it


Anyway, very well done to get so far when card-dead. You'll take one of these soon

Completely agree - what I also said was 'I don’t take time to think' which was the problem.....

Great Reports Tracey

Thanks

It was great to see you too! I think we should do more road trips!

Loving your work Trace.  Turn this into a long running diary thread please!

Oh no but thanks, but obv if anyone wants to stake me into the WSOP I'll start booking my flight!

+1

we had it practically in the bag with Des at Walsall last year iirc, until the running man ruined it all!

you did as well. you were 1/2 way through filming your celeb interviews when it all kicked off. soooo close

Ah yes the running man. When Claw said the running man I assumed she meant Kinboshi. Normally we can blame him for everything.

Awesome report Tracey - you can charge Tikay a chunky premium for the next staking.

excellent write up, very best of luck in the next one

I agree, write more and more and more.

Steve

let's blame him too.  nevermind, Des is probably just saving the pennies so we can do it full VIP style next year :)up

I was meaning to have a chat with you at Walsall but was unsure who you were it's only reading your comments on your blue flowery dress that I now know who you are.
BTW this report is excellent. :)up
I pretty much had a similar tourney to you but I could never put so eloquently.
Keep up the good work.

Andrew

gr8 report tracey, well written and full of character .

from a critical standpoint, i think you put way too much emphasis on your blind defence , its pretty tough for anyone (including gus) to play shit out of position. vbol in future, pretty certain a big score is on the horizon. 

Really enjoyed reading your trip report Tracey, im sure a big win is not too far in the future x

What does vbol mean? (very bloody obvious limp?)

not sure, but presume 'very best of luck' ???

that makes more sense.

A+
Best trip report I have read on teh internets this year.

Loved the trip report and it was a great pleasure to stake you, so don't be afraid to post more requests in future!

Great report Tracey, I'm just sorry there's no final table episode.

On a side-note, I really do think that everyone who is staked should post some kind of trip report as a courtesy to their stakers.

On occasions where I've been stake I've sent the stakers a PM afterwards.  I agree that people should be able to see how wisely (or otherwise!) their dosh has been put to use!  From the other perspective, when I've bought shares, I've appreciated getting something back in the form of a short tournament report, if not any money yet!

Thanks for the kind words Tracey and very unlucky in the tournament!! See you soon at DTD!!

Tony Phillips

Great report

WTF, is this a massive level?

How is nobody actually going to be nice and tell her that defending T6os to an UTG raise and cold calling a raise with Q3 when someone has limped before the raiser is gonna be a MASSIVE LOSING PLAY. You cannot play these hands profitably, and im pretty sure Paul Jackson would cringe at the hands if he read them.

I mean its a nice report to read but these are mistakes that anyone playing poker 2days wouldnt make. Going from being tight to attempting to play trash out of position is one of the most ridiculous transitions i have ever heard. Take my advice and just 3 bet or fold trash hands pre oop. Attempting to play them postflop is just suicidal. Gl

Hi Dubai - thank for reading my report. i don't think anyone would disagree with you - including myself - that the trash plays were trash but no it's not a level - people enjoyed the report and were parising that i think - not the play!

I think you'll find that i myself didn't defend any of my plays - and having now got to the end of the book Gus himself says "don't play these at home"!

Playing trash is definitely not something I should be doing, certainly not in defence of blinds. This is what we all find so fascinating about poker, we learn and relearn as new players come in and we adjust. i tried something which wasn't right and lost the game, I've hopefully learnt.

I hope the horrendous plays didn't spoil your enjoyment of the rest of the report, it wasn't all about poker.
I'm Tracey btw - or Dingdell - or sometimes nit or muppet - and probably lots of other things - but never her or she, it's as if I'm not here!

Tracey

For once Dave was actually being genuine Tracey, he did like the report but as a poker player felt the need to comment on the hands, he pointed me in the direction of this thread as i had missed it. I loved your writing style, please do more of the same it was great! I have to agree with his analysis of the hands though!

I'm sure Dubai was being genuine - 'wtf is this a massive level' tells me this! I agree with him totally. But this is a cooey wooey thread and not a hand analysis board thread.... and I've already said they were not good plays.

[x[ I'm pissed of with myself.

• I'll get over with it. 
• I dislike being callled she.

I've asked for lots of help on this thread about ideas for certain plays and I would love help with those, but 'she played shit' is not that helpful to me when I already knew it.  ;)

 

Take my advice and just 3 bet or fold trash hands pre oop. Attempting to play them postflop is just suicidal.


I didnt say she played shit, i actually posted invaluable advice for her.

Gl to her in the future

Very adult Dubai - thank you. Guess we have to know our audiences.

did you decide to experiment with this new gus hansen style before or after you got staked?

Im not the one who is somehow offended by being called "her"???

Maybe im not adult enough to be insecure just yet, c'est la vie.

it's nothing to do with insecurity, it's manners and common courtesy.

Its absolutely ridiculous and just a typical female view. As if any "non female" would be offended by being called him

You both referred to Kin as 'him' here i don't see the difference.

really?

Lol - I didn't play entirely ala 'Gus' although his way of thinking through the hands certainly gave me more confidence and as I said in my report I really didn't get any hands at all - ever - so i was really pleased to get as far as I did and I think the Gus book certainly helped int hat way..
I was intending all along to play with more confidence and a bit more creative play and this was based on both reading more about poker and taking advice from other players.

I certainly wasn't going to play any differently with other peoples money - in fact in my report I mention the fact i was mindful of that and slowed down.

i dont get it either to be fair. what's the difference?

+1

is it one of those like the Mobo awards is fine but Mowo awards would cause uproar type things?

I surprised I really need to explain the difference but if I do.....

In his post, Dubai at no point introduced Trace as the subject of the 'she' 'her' whatever he later used.  That is the context in which those words are usually used.  Of course it would be ridiculous if instead of saying 'he' 'she' 'him' her' when referring to someone one always used their name.  In the case of Dubai's first post, had he referred to Trace by name in the first instance, it would have been perfectly acceptable etiquette to use 'she' 'her' throughout the rest of the post.

In the example Flushy has quoted, Kinboshi had already been introduced by name, so it was clear who the 'he' 'him' was referrring to.

is the thread a level now?

pretty obv from context who the pronoun is referring to. htf can anyone take offence?

But surely we (all the current blonde readers logged in and future ones reading the thread) knew who he (Dubai) was talking about when he ( Dubai) said she (Dingdell)

This


Or that

fyp ;)

Claw is absolutely correct. She knows this because she is a woman. I know this because I understand women. People who don't get this don't understand women. Such people prob have little or no sex.

Short concise sentences in two lines.

Well done Mantis.

Nah, the tone was poor, it came across like someone butting into a conversation and criticising the person who started it without acknowledging they were actually there.

Quite probably that's not how it was meant, but it's how it read.

Difficult things words. Especially when written. English is a language that uses tone a lot when we speak. That tone is hard to translate into words sometimes......... I loved your visit report Tracey. As regards advice, I rarely give any. Play your game. Play it your way and sod everybody else......

Yeah but when your charging 1.4 you owe your backers a cerain amount of respect. Spewing chips with trash hands oop is fine on your own dime but not other peoples imo.

I disagree, you back someone let them play, i am much happier backing someone who tries and fails because at least i know they are getting better.

This. If you play differently cos you're being backed then the backers aren;t actually getting what they paid for

It's not like she Tracey tried to play those hands badly and lose chips. Just something bad that didnt work

I agree! People chose to back you based on you as a person and or your game, if you change it then that is a far bigger crime than being caught with your pants down making any agggresive move!