blonde poker forum

Hi Blonde Staking Forum.

My name is Phill and I'm selling action for the following mixed game events at  the EPT Prague Festival.

I feel I am decently plusEV in these tournaments, but as it is kind of hard to prove that as it is mixed games, so you will be taking that a bit on my word. Also I believe it is my first time selling on Blonde then I am selling for these at face value.

9 December - HORSE €550
12 December Limit Holdem €330 turbo
13 December Razz €550
14 December Stud 8 or better €550
15 December 7 Card Stud €550
16 December 2-7 Triple Draw €550

1% is €30.80 or £26 (per xe.com)

Selling up to 40%

You can send to bergeroo (Germany) on Stars. I can take UK bank xfer (PM me for details), I could also take a bit on Skrill. I can buy in through Stars as they made me move my account to Germany, so would prefer not to receive actual cash in Prague if poss but it could work ok.

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550 is a nice price point for these events as most of the time the buy in is too low for most of the top crushers to play (especially as there are also 5k mixed events), but other Holdem and PLO specialists will just hop in if there isn't another tournament on that day that they want to play. I will game select the fields in these by checking out the lineup in level one/two before hopping in. Some recent Stars events have had small fields but I don't expect that here in Prague. If the field is too small/too tough I will skip and refund.

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About me
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I've played poker for a living for over eight years. Perhaps unusually, in that time I've never been backed. In most of that time I've played NLH tournaments but I've always enjoyed mixed games. Initially I made an effort to learn all the games and in recent times I've been making a concerted effort to work on the games in the 8 game rotation. Bizarrely when I 'went pro' as a poker player I did this playing Limit Holdem - a strange and undoubtedly poor decision. So I played a lot of Limit games initially, both in California and also online. Of course I soon realised that there was a lot more action in NLH so switched over to that.

Truthfully I've not had a great last couple of years and haven't had any big scores in recent times. These days I play quite a bit on kind of off brand/more obscure sites and lower than I used to. In the past I've kept my own action for this kind of buyin/tournament but I just don't have the bankroll right now to do that

In the past I've finished second in a WCOOP (mixed Holdem), finalled a SCOOP-M, finalled the Sunday Warm Up twice, Million once, 17th in the Sunday 10 Million. Four PocketFives Triple Crowns and well over 3m in online cashes and won several hundred tournaments online
http://www.pocketfives.com/profiles/bergeroo/ - note several of the usernames I use these days are not listed on there.

I've played a lot of tournaments and am very aware of ICM. ICM is interesting and a bit different in Limit tournaments and split pot games. I think I've played enough Limit tournaments now to adapt to this. I've also studied and thought about ICM spots in these games.

For the mixed games I've mostly played them as cash games. Sadly these days the MTT schedule for mixed games online is poor and I don't play them much as I generally have too many other tables to concentrate. Fwiw today I decided to play both the $27 HORSE and $27 8 game on Stars which as now the biggest daily mixed games and ended up with a second and a third from fields of 45 and 50 off one bullet. I will play them both again tomorrow. Winamax have also very recently introduced Stud and Draw games so I've been dabbling over there but the rake is very high.

Now I feel very comfortable in playing Stud games in a live setting, card handling and board reading etc. In two trips to Austria this year I logged a number of hours in the 7 Card Stud cash games. I also played mixed cash games in my trip to Vegas this year, but was too late for the tournaments. I finished 5th in a 550 HORSE tournament at EPT Barcelona in August as you can see from my Hendon Mob page
http://pokerdb.thehendonmob.com/player.php?a=r&n=111949

This is basically the same as the tournament will be in Prague. I found the field varied, with some strong players and some players who were very weak in one or more games or just Holdem players who busted that days event and hopped in. Importantly I felt comfortable throughout the tournament, think I played the bubble and final well. Of course looking back I made some mistakes, missing a bet here or losing a bet there, but I was happy with how I played and gave myself a shot to finish in the top three.

In draw games I feel my live play is a bit weaker (despite 2-7 Triple Draw being possibly my favourite game), as I just haven't played it live very much. I played it a bit in 8 game mixed and did play a tournament in Vienna a few months back. But I'm still improving in the card handling/reading aspect in live draw games.

I've played many many hours of live Limit Holdem in the US, mostly in California.

With regards to studying I think I've seen most of the training videos that are available on these games. Right from the brand new ones on Run It Once, back to the old school ones from Deuces Cracked. I've also read books that are available on the games. I've watched cards up final tables of WSOP events and WCOOP/SCOOP events.

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I'm rambling now and I could talk a lot more about these games and these tournaments. I would be happy to answer any questions.

Importantly I feel like I am proficient at all of these games and am plus ev in these tournaments. In particular I've put quite a bit of effort into improving my Stud8 and Stud games over the past 18 months.

Other stuff/smallprint

I don't really drink much any more. I am to get to each tournament well rested and on time. I will study/train for the specific game the night before and the morning of the tournament. I will play a few NLH tournaments and cash games too whilst I am there but these ones aren't just filler around that, I'm actually looking forward to them the most.

Even though I'm listed as German on Stars, I'm British so there are no taxes. Payouts will be done through Stars or bank. Will use the bank rate back to £ taken from the last day of the festival. In event of a big score I may need a few days to move money around etc if I can't get paid on Stars for some reason.

Thanks for reading.

PS fun fact. Initially I tried to get my post count up on Blonde so I could buy a piece of Stu Rutter's WSOP mixed package. I think the year I finally got enough my post he either didn't sell or he snap sold out, so I never did manage to get a piece!

Tonights tournaments. Obviously the ones I'm selling for are 20x higher buy in!  :o :o

(http://i260.photobucket.com/albums/ii20/bergeroo/horse_zpsx1ak8kda.jpg)

(http://i260.photobucket.com/albums/ii20/bergeroo/8game_zpsxqd2xutv.jpg)

I'll take 10% please

I'll take it all.

If you are willing to free up another 2.5%, I'd certainly take it partly by way of "thank you" for your recent efforts on Fred, but it looks good value in it's own right.

I would pay cash by Bank TX.

Either way, good luck.

I'd love to have a vicarious sweat on non-NLHE action. Happy to take anything between 1% and 2.5% if it becomes available. If not, no worries.

Either way, best of luck and looking forward to the updates.

Powwwwww 10%
Pads 30%
Tikay 2.5%
Longines 2.5%

Tikay and Longines, will sell a little more so you can have a sweat if that's ok with everyone?

If everyone can let me know how you will pay so I can organise moving money if necessary. Tikay will send you a PM shortly. First event is on Friday afternoon.

PMs sent out. Thanks for the interest everyone. Think Pads will be ok with me selling an extra 2.5% to Tikay and Longines.

Will try to take some notes during the downtime/breaks in the tournament and write a little report/summary after each event.

I'll send stars

Missed out on this but good luck, the mixed game MTTs at Prague last year were well run and reasonably good structures.

Thanks Mr H, most appreciated.

Have sent you £65 this morning via Bank TX.

Good value this one, face value, & we get 6 interesting events, & maybe a sweat or two.

Good luck.

Thanks, yeah the games are a pleasure, the dealers are almost always excellent in the different games and the TD is very good.

Received thanks.

Right. I was told by the floorman that this was capped at 24 and I had to be an alternate, but now they are opening up three more tables so I am in. Around 48 runners so far I think.

Would have skipped if I was an alternate as nobody busts for hours in limit games...

Go horse!

Correction. 5 tables so 40 players. Our table is OK but we have one of the likely top 3 players in the field on our direct left infortunately.

Is young Adam Owen playing?

Yeah, I said hi to him before it started and encouraged him to register for a different tournament today but he wouldn't be dissuaded!

He's a Mixed Game beast, but I really like the kid.

Runs his stack up, runs it down again, rinse repeat. Got so much gamble in him.

I didn't cash in the first tournament. I was pretty card dead but also not very happy with how I played, specifically in the O8 rounds.

The next one is in a few days...

Limit Holdem is today. Sadly it is a turbo, but nevertheless I expect at least 20% of the field to register thinking it was no limit, so some value there.

I did cash in the Eureka Main (not in the pack), so some form there if such a thing exists in poker...

Pretty annoying. They capped it at 40. I can't get in. That's no size for a tournament and no announcement of cap. Annoying. Will refund of course.

I am in the razz. Just about to start. 27 seats sold. Currently 48 seats allocated but there are not many tournaments today so I reckon we might fill that. 7 people seated so far and at 36 years of I am comfortably the youngest.

GL man!

33.5k at first break from 20k start which is very decent in a limit tourney. Great table.

Benny G late regged to my left :(

But was moved to the new table after about half an hour :)

Good Luck Man 

Similar stack at the next break which is now around avg. Moved to a more active table now. 49 runnners. 30 left. 9 cash. Mr Owen departed just before the break. It is a slow grind but as the limits get bigger people get shorter and you have chips to play one or two hands through. As a lot of 4th, 5th and 6th can be somewhat automatic in razz you can end up handcuffed by the run out and at its mercy. Let's hope I'm on the right side of that if I get in one of those pots.

A string of untimely bring ins but then a well timed double up when I made a wheel and another pot.

17 left. 9 paid. I have a shade above avg. Really happy with how I've played.

Good Luck

Gogogogo.

Would love to play Razz live, very jealous.

Thanks guys.

16 left redraw. Which is good as I think I had the toughest table.

We busted the other shorty. Breathing space. 11 left.

Won a big pot where we bet it all the way. Now chipleader on the table which is a nice feeling on the bubble. The three bigger stacks are on other table...

Been AWOL all day, so this is a nice surprise.

Hope you can keep it going, GL GL.

3 handed now. 3.5k locked up. Am the shorty though

120k vs 200k vs 700k

Third. Got crippled when I had to call all the way down to 7th then went into the tank. I was basically crippled anyway if I folded so I called and she had made a very good, thin value bet. I think I had to call.

Intense day. Happy.

3560.

Nice job man

,
Lovely job, very well played.

Thanks guys. Stud8 tmrw. I have the latest roi training video and Todd Brunsons chapter in super system 2 lined up to read/watch again beforehand.

Well done!

The good news is that Adam Owen and Benny Glaser are playing the main today!

Very happy with how I played yesterday. In retrospect I should have played looser on my first table as it was very passive and abc. My second table was more active and tricky so I correctly imo started playing much more conservatively. Not raising on third street, even with some very strong hands, so not to bloat the pot and to put my stack at risk. Third table was great, when I managed to acquire a decent stack just before the bubble I began to play way out of line and managed to chip up a lot by putting max pressure on my opponents who knew that I could bust them.

Nine cashed and at the final I came in third, there were two big stacks and some clear blue water between me and 4th place. But the nature of limit tournaments meant that everyone was pretty short. I made a mistake in not directly locking it down and playing very tight when one of the bigger stacks was in the pot vs me because of ICM. I ended up twice wasting a bet in a pot which I could have saved because of this. I managed to adjust but it was a bad twenty minutes and put me back in the pack more. Eventually the shorties started busting and we got four handed with two big stacks and two little stacks.

I managed to bust the fourth place (he seemed a solid razz player) in a somewhat automatic pot and got three handed (1k payjump sweat!) - The two big stacks played very well and I was extremely happy with third place.

Was really tired after due to all of the concentration. Every hand I ordered the low dead cards and repeated them as a mantra to myself in my head until I folded my hand. Amazed how some people didn't even pay attention to this and watched a movie or whatsapped on their phones or whatever.

Didn't cash today in the Stud Hi Lo. Good first table, tougher second table. I outlasted half the field but never managed to acquire chips. Had to make a couple of tough folds on bad runouts which left me short and couldn't spin it up. Played ok. A lot to work on. Made one river bet that was way too thin when my low draw backed into two pair, but he had a bigger two pair which I should have realised and just checked it back. Feel like I ran below expectation in starting hands, I had the bring in a lot, but often couldn't defend it

I'd say it is highly likely I'm not going to play the Stud tournament tomorrow, will refund of course. I'm feeling a bit run down from the casino air, from the smoking in public places and just playing all day. I also haven't put nearly as much time as I wanted into thinking about Stud High, practicing online, reading, watching videos etc. So I expect to take it easy tomorrow in the cuty, maybe play a bit online, watch some Triple Draw videos and play a bit of that too to get ready for Friday.

We are in the draw. It is half triple draw, half nl single draw. Looks like the single  draw rounds will play big so I'm strapping myself in!

Good luck, enjoyed reading this

Best of luck today.

Started on death table with Adam and a German reg. Adam moved to new table, run good! Now have German reg, older French guy, Martin Stasko and two unidentified Asian guys. I think I gotta be happy with the draw.

One of the the Asian guys and the German guy are regs in the 2-7 cash game that runs in Vienna, the only one in Europe I'd wager. Level of experience of the others is unknown.

First break. Back up to start stack after dropping down. Interesting games in that it is kind of dictated to you when you bluff if you end up on river with top pair and/or have seen lots of relevant blockers. I've ended up having to bluff a lot so far and am batting at .500 for them(2/4 I think) which is OK, but my image is somewhat tarnished!

Usual Brits in this. Adam,Benny and Ted.

From my vantage point I see Stato with a nice stack in the main with the bubble just broken.

Busted 12th. 7 paid. I thought I played my best today. Proud of myself. Just loat a couple of gands in a row at the end. Will write more later and do the figures..

Damn autocorrect.

Was a good tourney, very mixed field. Ran well with draws early but worse later. One triple draw hand cost me a lot of my stack when I called it down with 2347, drawing one one each street and bricking each time.

One single draw hand I would change. I open 2358T from co to 2800 at 600/1200 off a stack of 32k. New player at the the table for whom I had  limited info but seemed competent three bets to 9k. I have good stack size to shove but that seems like it would be a spew with no real info on villain. Maybe I should just fold but I have a breakable ten in position and folding just seems superweak and i feel like i will get run over if i play like that, so I called. He pats quickly, so I think I have to break as if I pat then I could have 0% equity. I draw another deuce. He checks quickly and really I should bluff, if I'm going to bluff, this should be the card. I could shove or bet smaller but I just got a really bad vibe.

I think most people over bluff in my position here, I just got the feeling he was going to snap me off but I was struggling in that i didn't have any hands I'd played with him to draw info from.

I still had a workable stack if I give up and yeah in retrospect I obviously wish I'd pulled the trigger as he showed up with a slightly worse ten than I broke.

Felt like a really tough spot and now I feel like I didn't have the heart to fire that bluff. I had bluffed quite a bit previously but he wasn't at the table. His play was very straightforward and exploitable but probably works vs most unknowns.

A bit later on I saw him make a tough/close call with a nine in a biggish pot(where he lost) so that made me feel a bit better. I guess I got a feeling, a tell of sorts that was wrong or maybe I talked myself into thinking I had one as I didn't want to bluff most or all of my stack...

Just wanted to say I've really enjoyed this little sweat.

Good, honest updates make all the difference.

I'm not mad keen on all the "he made a bad call" stuff, but you pitched it perfectly.

Would certainly invest again.

Thank you Tikay!

Leaving Prague now.

Figures
Cashes 3560
refunds 880
Total 4440
1% €44.40

I think I need to the bank transfer people to send me their details as I don't think it records where the money came in from on my account. I will do these Monday lunchtime at xe rate.

For the online buy ins, I may have to move money around or get some more money on Stars, there might be a play through requirement for Stars transfers. If anyone can take anything other than Stars (ie Party), then I can probably get it to you quicker. I anticipate it will all be done on Tuesday latest but hopefully long before and maybe I can sort/most all of it tomorrow...

Will write more later. I appreciate it very much that people bought a piece of me.

I can take transfer anywhere, whatever's easiest for you, solid trip, well played.

POWWWWWWWW 10% €444
Tikay 2.5% €111
Longines 2.5% €111
Pads 30% €1332

 :)up

Thanks Phill, really enjoyed the updates.

Morning Phill,

Bank details sent.

Sounds an interesting format, What were the blind and ante structures for it? Are they available anywhere?

Hi yeah, actually they just ran the same blinds for each game but with antes in the NL 2-7. Six hands of each. Now of course you have four streets of betting in the Limit Triple Draw and two in the Single Draw, but I still think the Single Draw played bigger because of course you can bet whatever amount you want and go all in, so the blinds should have been a bit smaller. I mentioned it to Adam O at the start and he said "Well Single Draw can play as big as you want it" and gave me a cheeky grin...

MOney sent to POWWWWWW on Party
832 euros sent to Pads on Stars. I owe him 500 which I will arrange tomorrow.

Longines is the last one. All my money is in euros, so just trying to trade for some £ without getting vigged (can't withdraw from stars in £ now without getting vigged 3%, cheers Stars) and have a few withdrawals pending, hopefully one will come through tmrw, if not I will just get someone else to send for me

Cash safely received, thanks Phill.

Enjoyed that.

You doing Vegas & the WSOP in 2017? Reserve me a piece if so, please, would be a great investment.

All transfers done. Thanks very much for investing and giving me the opportunity to play. I was happy with the effort I put in and the preparation I made and I hope to learn from the mistakes I made and use them to get better at each game

Tikay - I have no idea if I'm going to go to Vegas. I'd like to and if I do I will sell some action on here for sure, but it seems a long way off... need to put a lot of work in a build my roll up first. Would be delighted to reserve you a piece if I do, I also expect I will play some of the SCOOPs in May.

Received on Party, gg mate.