A hand that changed your life?

[tikay]

Jeeeeeeeeeezuz - that's what you call top heavy money    ,,,,       50k,100k, 1mill.

Has Mr Dobson retired from poker?

He had some time at Her Majestys Hotel, I think he's out now.

Think he might be a poker dealer somewhere.

Think he was working at the Western for a while, dunno if he still is..

That was the last time I saw him, he definitely had a job at The Western, but that would be a good 5 years ago.

Great idea for a thread, Keith, well done.

Were you at Blue Sq in 2002 when that happened?

[pokerfan]

I wasn't directly involved in this hand, but everyone in the room knew what was going on.
Nail biting stuff, geeg Jen.



Had freerolled in for 30fpps.

[tikay]

I wasn't directly involved in this hand, but everyone in the room knew what was going on.
Nail biting stuff, geeg Jen.



Had freerolled in for 30fpps.

Oh my word!

EPT, Deauville, around 2006 I think, & Jen had got there via the Blue Square "Usual Suspects" thing.

This was on the cash bubble, the two hands were Q-Q & A-K, & the villain was Jon "Texas" Hewston.  Jen lost the hand, & with it a very sizeable chunk of money. Jon had a MONSTER stack but dusted it off very quickly.

Jen & I travelled home via Paris, & Eurostar, & we played Gin Rummy on the train the whole way (whilst John Kabbaj looked on in utter bemusement) for M & M's. I lost a packet.

I cannot explain Jen's jumper, nobody ever could, but it was responsible for her then nick, "Mrs Merton".

What an amazing Lady she is, as chance has it, she did last night's TV show next door with young Snoopy.

[tikay]

Confirmed that photo was Feb 2006.

Quite a list of players cashed, memory city that.

http://pokerdb.thehendonmob.com/event.php?a=r&n=14280

Whatever happened to Peter Roche, not seen him in an age?

[tikay]

Answering my own question, Peter Roche seems to be doing OK, & getting the lot in Marrakech.


http://pokerdb.thehendonmob.com/player.php?a=r&n=202

[kinboshi]

Jen & I travelled home via Paris, & Eurostar, & we played Gin Rummy on the train the whole way (whilst John Kabbaj looked on in utter bemusement) for M & M's. I lost a packet.

Too good.

[MLHMLH]

A8 > KK heads up vs Pete Chara in DTD £300 deepstack back in May 2010.  8 high flop, I called his all in shove over my bet and I turned an Ace.  It changed my life in 2 ways.  Firstly it was the first step to me being able to leave my job (which I disliked).  Secondly it made me believe in fate.  About 2 months before this hand took place we bought a new used car.  When we went to test drive it at the garage, the guy drove it round for us onto the road as we were stood on the pavement watching him.  As the car approached I turned to my husband and said "well we have to buy it, look at the number plate".  The reg of the car was AC08 KJK.  We did buy the car (not because of that!).  Only when we had walked to the car in the DTD car park early in the morning on the day of my deepstack win did one of our friends point out that the reg number of the car was almost identical to the final heads up hand.  Not sure whether it was fate or whether it was just a tad weird!

[EvilPie]

Jen & I travelled home via Paris, & Eurostar, & we played Gin Rummy on the train the whole way (whilst John Kabbaj looked on in utter bemusement) for M & M's. I lost a packet.

Too good.

[Ironside]

I wasn't directly involved in this hand, but everyone in the room knew what was going on.
Nail biting stuff, geeg Jen.



Had freerolled in for 30fpps.

Oh my word!

EPT, Deauville, around 2006 I think, & Jen had got there via the Blue Square "Usual Suspects" thing.

This was on the cash bubble, the two hands were Q-Q & A-K, & the villain was Jon "Texas" Hewston.  Jen lost the hand, & with it a very sizeable chunk of money. Jon had a MONSTER stack but dusted it off very quickly.

Jen & I travelled home via Paris, & Eurostar, & we played Gin Rummy on the train the whole way (whilst John Kabbaj looked on in utter bemusement) for M & M's. I lost a packet.

I cannot explain Jen's jumper, nobody ever could, but it was responsible for her then nick, "Mrs Merton".

What an amazing Lady she is, as chance has it, she did last night's TV show next door with young Snoopy.

its a cardigan not a jumper

[dino1980]

Excuse the essay, for the tl:dr brigade there are cliffs at the bottom.

Back in the days before the UIGEA, us poker media folk used to get freerolled into a lot of tournaments in return for coverage – of course this still happens  but on a lesser scale.

The absolute peak of this – for me anyway – was a trip to the 2006 Aruba Poker Classic, a $5,000 buy-in tournament in a tropical paradise, yum. As an aside the UIGEA actually passed on the final day of this tournament, so not only was it a watershed in my poker development, but also in poker itself.

At this point I’d be playing poker for about 12 months, mostly in Matt Dale’s free pub poker league in Bath and the odd £20 f/o at Stanleys in Bristol. I had very little online experience, was a losing player at $10 sit and gos and didn’t much care for online poker, to the extent I would go six months without internet when I moved flat soon after. In short, a $500 buy-in would’ve been massive; a $5k was unfathomable.

The hand that changed my life happened about eight hours into day one. I’d had a tough starting table with Nenad Medic and JJ Liu on it and then got moved to the direct left of Matt Hawrilenko. Anyway after six hours I had increased my starting stack by 500 to 10,500, I was glad of the dinner break and read some of Harrington on Hold’em about inflection points, rofl. In the next two hours I got up to 25,000, blinds were now 300-600/75.

I then get moved to a new table, a young Asian kid made it 2,400 utg+2 and I look down at queens (one off the button I think) and make it 7,500. As I wrote at the time, ‘he doesn’t look happy, he counts out his chips and after thinking for a minute re-raises me all-in (he covers). Everything about his body language, his slight over-raise from early position and the counting out of his chips to check he has me covered makes me think he has A-K.’
I then tanked and genuinely considered folding, I had 17,000 at 300/600, which was plenty and I was playing in a massive buy-in, I never thought I’d ever play a tournament with a buy-in anywhere near $5k, no long run, luck will even itself out here. Eventually I nit roll call him and he tables AcKc. The flop was a stomach churning club-club-blank. Fortunately the board bricked it as much as I was and I held.

Although it happened on Day 1 and the bubble didn’t burst till mid-way through Day 2, this was the biggest pot I played in terms of big blinds before making the money. I went on to bust 24th for $14,900, still my biggest live cash and about half-a-year’s salary for a staff writer. I had such a great time, both in terms of the trip (also got to play a $2k Blackjack tournament!), but also in getting to play against and observe players like Cliff Josephy, Taylor Caby, Justin Bonomo, Geeforce and Terry Eischens, that I just immersed myself in poker and did all I could to improve. This was the point at which went from just a casual hobby that I was happy to play and write about until a job on a sports/men’s/some other kind of mag came up, to an aggressive hobby. The kicker to it is I endeavored to qualify for it next year, won a seat in a $500 satellite and cashed again.

Cliffs:
Freerolled into $5k live MTT in 2006 (mbn)
Win race with QQ vs AK midway through Day 1 (wal)
Go on to cash for $14,900 and take poker more seriously

[pleno1]

Very recently actually.

http://www.boomplayer.com/en/poker-hands/Boom/1828756_7A4E74B5FC

8th gtd 10kish, 150kish for 1st.

Have one of the suits covered, thought he had too many outs ott

Also lost JJ v xxhh on xxxhJhxh   when I was 2/10 vs 1/10 in one of the biggest Sunday Millions from last year.

I've really tried to become more of a feature on the live circuit and closeish to the bubble lost AJ v A10 (Brammer) v XX (folded) for nice stack in Prague which hurt alot.

I'm more of a cash grinder, but every time I have a go and get close it has been taken away from me. Hurts quite a lot actually.

[mondatoo]

Very recently actually.

http://www.boomplayer.com/en/poker-hands/Boom/1828756_7A4E74B5FC

8th gtd 10kish, 150kish for 1st.

Have one of the suits covered, thought he had too many outs ott

Also lost JJ v xxhh on xxxhJhxh   when I was 2/10 vs 1/10 in one of the biggest Sunday Millions from last year.

I've really tried to become more of a feature on the live circuit and closeish to the bubble lost AJ v A10 (Brammer) v XX (folded) for nice stack in Prague which hurt alot.

I'm more of a cash grinder, but every time I have a go and get close it has been taken away from me. Hurts quite a lot actually.

O rly

[celtic]

Very recently actually.

http://www.boomplayer.com/en/poker-hands/Boom/1828756_7A4E74B5FC

8th gtd 10kish, 150kish for 1st.

Have one of the suits covered, thought he had too many outs ott

Also lost JJ v xxhh on xxxhJhxh   when I was 2/10 vs 1/10 in one of the biggest Sunday Millions from last year.

I've really tried to become more of a feature on the live circuit and closeish to the bubble lost AJ v A10 (Brammer) v XX (folded) for nice stack in Prgue which hurt alot.

I'm more of a cash grinder, but every time I have a go and get close it has been taken away from me. Hurts quite a lot actually.

Surely this has kept your life the same, and not changed it?

[AlunB]

Very recently actually.

http://www.boomplayer.com/en/poker-hands/Boom/1828756_7A4E74B5FC

8th gtd 10kish, 150kish for 1st.

Have one of the suits covered, thought he had too many outs ott

Also lost JJ v xxhh on xxxhJhxh   when I was 2/10 vs 1/10 in one of the biggest Sunday Millions from last year.

I've really tried to become more of a feature on the live circuit and closeish to the bubble lost AJ v A10 (Brammer) v XX (folded) for nice stack in Prague which hurt alot.

I'm more of a cash grinder, but every time I have a go and get close it has been taken away from me. Hurts quite a lot actually.

<----------- Bad beat thread

[AlunB]

Excuse the essay, for the tl:dr brigade there are cliffs at the bottom.

Back in the days before the UIGEA, us poker media folk used to get freerolled into a lot of tournaments in return for coverage – of course this still happens  but on a lesser scale.

The absolute peak of this – for me anyway – was a trip to the 2006 Aruba Poker Classic, a $5,000 buy-in tournament in a tropical paradise, yum. As an aside the UIGEA actually passed on the final day of this tournament, so not only was it a watershed in my poker development, but also in poker itself.

At this point I’d be playing poker for about 12 months, mostly in Matt Dale’s free pub poker league in Bath and the odd £20 f/o at Stanleys in Bristol. I had very little online experience, was a losing player at $10 sit and gos and didn’t much care for online poker, to the extent I would go six months without internet when I moved flat soon after. In short, a $500 buy-in would’ve been massive; a $5k was unfathomable.

The hand that changed my life happened about eight hours into day one. I’d had a tough starting table with Nenad Medic and JJ Liu on it and then got moved to the direct left of Matt Hawrilenko. Anyway after six hours I had increased my starting stack by 500 to 10,500, I was glad of the dinner break and read some of Harrington on Hold’em about inflection points, rofl. In the next two hours I got up to 25,000, blinds were now 300-600/75.

I then get moved to a new table, a young Asian kid made it 2,400 utg+2 and I look down at queens (one off the button I think) and make it 7,500. As I wrote at the time, ‘he doesn’t look happy, he counts out his chips and after thinking for a minute re-raises me all-in (he covers). Everything about his body language, his slight over-raise from early position and the counting out of his chips to check he has me covered makes me think he has A-K.’
I then tanked and genuinely considered folding, I had 17,000 at 300/600, which was plenty and I was playing in a massive buy-in, I never thought I’d ever play a tournament with a buy-in anywhere near $5k, no long run, luck will even itself out here. Eventually I nit roll call him and he tables AcKc. The flop was a stomach churning club-club-blank. Fortunately the board bricked it as much as I was and I held.

Although it happened on Day 1 and the bubble didn’t burst till mid-way through Day 2, this was the biggest pot I played in terms of big blinds before making the money. I went on to bust 24th for $14,900, still my biggest live cash and about half-a-year’s salary for a staff writer. I had such a great time, both in terms of the trip (also got to play a $2k Blackjack tournament!), but also in getting to play against and observe players like Cliff Josephy, Taylor Caby, Justin Bonomo, Geeforce and Terry Eischens, that I just immersed myself in poker and did all I could to improve. This was the point at which went from just a casual hobby that I was happy to play and write about until a job on a sports/men’s/some other kind of mag came up, to an aggressive hobby. The kicker to it is I endeavored to qualify for it next year, won a seat in a $500 satellite and cashed again.

Cliffs:
Freerolled into $5k live MTT in 2006 (mbn)
Win race with QQ vs AK midway through Day 1 (wal)
Go on to cash for $14,900 and take poker more seriously

I bust this tourney with 44 against KJ. Probably would have won it otherwise.