Walsall report

[Rod Paradise]

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!

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.

[I KNOW IT]

Good read

[AndrewT]

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.

[Steve Swift]

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

[Snatiramas]

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

[Dewi_cool]

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

[Dingdell]

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 off. The flop comes . 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  . He bets, I call. We now have about 1/3 of my stack in the middle and I’m sweating a bit. River  . 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 on a four spade board when I had the . 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.

[littlemissC]

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

[boldie]

Hurry up with part 3 please.

[Kev B]

Great reports Tracey, loving them.

[George2Loose]

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

100% next time??

[Dingdell]

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   against Henrys   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



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   and Tracey leads out for about half the pot. The limper folded and Richard moved all in. Tracey calls and shows her   which is in big trouble to his   . No help and Richard gets a full double up.

My thinking behind this hand is;  I have   , 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  
Connolly  

Flop  

Turn  

River  

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

[TightEnd]

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

[Dingdell]

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.....

[Delboy]

Great Reports Tracey

Thanks