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Author Topic: There and Back Again: A Punter's Tale by Matthew Harris  (Read 146587 times)
Rexas
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« Reply #480 on: December 23, 2013, 04:55:55 PM »


live with/civil union with/play HU4ROLLZZZ : Rehman, Sean Belton, Tomson346432456  ??


He dodged the fun question...

i know right, it took me ages to word that properly too, while i was watching Gill whale around on a final table last night.
Gonna answer it rexas?

Can I just put my answer as you for all three? <3
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« Reply #481 on: December 23, 2013, 04:57:10 PM »

nope i gave yo the 3 choices!
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Rexas
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« Reply #482 on: December 26, 2013, 03:51:18 PM »

Merry Christmas people!

The Christmas period has seen me take a bit of a break from poker. I've played very, very little serious hold em over the last week or so. I flicked it in for the super roller on sky on Sunday, and ended up finishing about five off the money after having a very seesaw stack for the last hour or so, and running very bad when it counted in those BvB shove/call/fold spots. Not very exciting really.

As a result of this break, I'm absolutely buzzing for the event in Southend starting later today. It's a two day deepstack freezout with hopefully a bunch of heroes making an appearance, including our very own kreso al. A bit of run good here would round off the year very nicely.

In terms of poker-related goals for next year, Omaha is definitely going to take a front seat. I've been experimenting with it a little for some time, and following on from the sweat session I had with Lil Dave a few months ago, I've come to really enjoy the challenge that attempting to learn this game is presenting. I'm currently reading through Jeff Hwang's book "Pot Limit Omaha" on Honeybadger's recommendation, and I can tell I'm going to keep coming back to it over the next year. Fantastic strategy guide. With any luck, me and Adiman will be able to pick up this game together and be bumhunting Gholden7 by august.

It's been nice to get home for Christmas. The big family do hasn't happened yet, and I'm not 100% sure that it will, which will be a shame. There are a fair few members of my extended family that only get together a few times a year, and when we do, it often turns into a fantastic occasion. Just about managed to get all the presents sorted out in time, always a bonus, despite needed a last minute trip into Colchester in search of a music shop.

Random Musings of a Young Twat.

I always find it very strange going back to Colchester. I went to school there, and came to know the town very well before I left. Christmas eve was probably the first time I've seen the place in two years, and it proved to be a little nostalgic, not least of all because I ran into a very old friend of mine. I now have very little contact with anyone I knew  from my school years. I never really fitted into the grammar school scene. I wasn't much good at getting my head down and working, which was certainly the norm there. I rarely did homework on time, and once I got a car I spent very little time actually in school. Don't get me wrong, this isn't a sob story about how everyone hated me or how I was miserable all the time, I had a fantastic group of friends and will always have some very fond memories of this chapter of my life. However, when it came to the end of school, I didn't want to go to Uni. I'd just about had enough of the oppression of living life by a bell, and as a rebellious twat by nature, I was sick of level of control I felt like I was under. Typical teenage angst, really, but hey. So, I became one of I believe three people out of my year group that left the school with no real plans to go to university. I had a real job, I was earning real money, had a fantastic girlfriend (ikr).

Very quickly, I came to realise that this wasn't going to last. The friends that I had, and was keeping in contact with, were all at various universities, and very rarely came back. When they did, I often couldn't make the socials, because I was busy at work. I made the decision to split with my girlfriend, since we were basically not going to get to see each other while she was at uni and I was working 65+ hours a week. Over time, I quit the job, moved on to poker, ended up at uni, and still feel like for the most part I'm heading towards where I want to be.

Going back really did make me think, though. Made me wonder what had happened to everyone, where they are now, what they're doing with their lives. I saw a few people I knew who definitely didn't recognise me, which is hardly surprising. I look completely different, probably am completely different, to how I used to be. One person did, though, and she's definitely one of the people I miss the most. Despite how much I disliked school, I kinda would like to go back, if only for a while. In the aftermath of the festive shenanigans, it saddens me a little to realise that I will probably never these people again, some of whom were at least as close as family for the bulk of my re-memorable life. And even if we did meet again, I don't think any of us would be quite the same.

To round off this rather sentimental and completely unstructured post, here's a somewhat phallic gift I got from a Christmas Cracker.

 Click to see full-size image.
« Last Edit: December 26, 2013, 03:57:02 PM by Rexas » Logged

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« Reply #483 on: December 26, 2013, 04:10:59 PM »

Fantastic strategy guide. With any luck, me and Adiman will be able to pick up this game together and be bumhunting Gholden7 by august.

Shuffle up and deal

Oh.... and GL today
« Last Edit: December 26, 2013, 04:12:35 PM by Derbylad » Logged
Eso Kral
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« Reply #484 on: December 26, 2013, 05:42:12 PM »

Unfortunately I won't be bowling around in the comp at Saafend as I shall be balling in the Dtd online leg.

Glgl though bud.
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Andrew Charles Blacklock - Lived for those he loved and those he loved remember.
Rexas
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« Reply #485 on: December 26, 2013, 06:01:32 PM »

What happens when you bust before the first break? Wink
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« Reply #486 on: December 26, 2013, 06:25:39 PM »

What happens when you bust before the first break? Wink
Then I may have to resort to coming down the road and watching you in the cash game having bust both bullets and walked away from the table talking to yourself Wink

Which leg of the deepstack you in for? Saturday?

GL today though mate!
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« Reply #487 on: December 26, 2013, 07:59:37 PM »

What happens when you bust before the first break? Wink
Then I may have to resort to coming down the road and watching you in the cash game having bust both bullets and walked away from the table talking to yourself Wink

Which leg of the deepstack you in for? Saturday?

GL today though mate!

Did Matt like to mumble to himself while walking away from the table ? Ahhhhhhhh, can remember now , I saw it a few times . Not only walking away mumbling but kicking the toilet doors at DTD is one of the highlight! Lol
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Rexas
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« Reply #488 on: December 26, 2013, 10:48:41 PM »

Sigh... Must sort out this reputation, it's deserved and it's not good :p

Currently on my second bullet, but I've actually won a few hands this time around so it's looking ok. In a pretty bad seat, but trying to make the most of it.
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« Reply #489 on: December 27, 2013, 01:11:27 AM »

Bowling around in Southend, been sat on about a half average stack for ages, blinds have just put me into the sub 20bbs category. Time to spin and win Smiley
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« Reply #490 on: December 28, 2013, 01:58:13 PM »

Poker Updates

Southend was a total disaster. Failed to make any sort of value hand for most of the day, managed to make three kings and get shoved into by 9high which was nice, but overall found basically no hands and basically no spots. Bust out in the second to last level of Day 1, and came home.

Got up the next day, decided to lounge about for a bit catching up on some quality ps3 time, since she's feeling a bit self conscious at the thought of the new PS4 being better in every way. Anyway, we get a phone call after an hour or so explaining that the family do that was supposed to be happening this weekend has been moved to New Years Eve, giving me a free weekend. Half an hour later I was showered, packed, and on the road to the DTD 500 with a staking thread running. I'll paste the trip report from that thread to here, suffice it to say that I made day 2 with over the average stack after a very swingy day. I trialed a couple of game tweaks which I felt really comfortable with, just got to air out the slightly too thin bets and the occasional FPS spew everywhere moments now. I can only remember making three 3bets through the whole day, felt mildly Canadian by the end of it.

I've recently been approaching these sorts of tournaments with a slightly different mindset, of a much more small ball-y style. Properly went for this yesterday, played loads of pots with a bunch of hands, with some mixed results. Certainly feel like I made some very bad decisions in the middle of the day, and there are a fair few hands worthy of note.

The first such hand involved us calling a raise to 500 @ 100/200 with   . The button, a somewhat spewy guy who seems to play a lot of the bigger buy in tournaments, three bets to 2200, gets a cold call from the big blind and two more calls, so we flick it in and see a flop five ways of   . BB donk leads for 1100, we call, button dwells for a while and calls. Turn is a brick, BB checks, we bet 5600, and button tank raises to 11,200, leaving himself with about 12k back. We fold, although I am pretty sure this was effectively a bluff (potentially an unknowing one with an overpair), but I don't think this was a situation where we could do much about it. Very strange raise imo from this particular player, and a very strange spot.

Anyway, we chipped all the way back up from this low point of just under 20k to around 50k, and called a raise in the cut off with  67. We see a small three bet from the small blind, and two calls. We also call. Flop comes A96 rainbow, checks to us, and we bet 4k (about half pot). At this point of the hand, I feel the small blind will cbet any single A, and check call every pair from 10's up to AA. One of the other players in the pot tended to lead any board on which he flopped some sort of equity, so he was fairly clearly folding, so to my mind I was certain to get one fold, probably to get another, and pretty sure to get a check call and then a check fold on a brick turn from the small blind. We do get one call from the SB, and see a 9 on the turn. In hindsight, this is prolly the worst card to bet, but since the guy was left with a little under a pot sized bet behind, I decided to go with my initial thoughts putting his range on a pair between 10's and AA (against which we only get a call from AA, I do have significant history with this player to be confident of this). So we put him in, and he calls with AA, and we cry in the toilets for a minute or two during the next break.

I get moved tables after chipping back up to about 40/45k, and instantly lose a pot where a lady shoves a flop over my cbet for quite a bit, and we make a pretty loose call with one pair feeling confident that she most likely has a draw. She, unfortunately, did not. Cue sobbing in toilets.

We very quickly end up in a pot with Gascoigne senior, where we call in a limped pot with 22 otb, and see a flop of  Two Clubs three clubs . Checks to us, we lead for 2k out of roughly 22, Ian check raises to 8k, we move in, he calls, he has   and we conveniently bink a   for a full double. In the next hour or so we continue to chip up, losing a reasonable pot to Shola but continuing to win loads of small ones to stay reasonably comfortable. Then, we open AJos and get calls from Greek Jack and the BB, who is playing about 20bbs. Flop comes Axxhh, the BB shoves his 18bbs, we call, he has   (that hand was getting around a lot, for some reason) and makes a flush ott. We wail in the toilets  (I'm a sucker for a terrible pun).

We go back to chipping up, get ourselves back up to about the 50k mark, and play a hand with the Q4 guy from earlier where we flat our button. We float the cbet on  three clubs with a gutshot and two overs, fail to improve on the turn but pick up a ninja on the guy when he bets 6.5k so call anyway, river comes the  , he bets 8k and we jam. He folds, and we hit around the 75k mark. We sit back and watch Shola win the lot for a while, and then call one of her raises with A10, along with Greek Jack and one other. Flop comes   . Checks to us, and we lead for a little over half pot. Jack calls, others fold. Turn is a brick, we check, Jack checks. River is a brick, we check, Jack shoves 30k. We dwell for some time and decide to make the call, and Jack turns over   to get us properly going in the tournament with a level and a half left to play.

In all, we won absolutely loads of small pots throughout the day, made some pretty poor decisions to cost us a fair few chips at times, but were able to pull it back. Certainly not my best day, but I was lucky enough to find some good hands and good spots when it counted, and played pretty well towards the latter half of the day to bag 125k. GL us!
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« Reply #491 on: December 30, 2013, 04:19:06 AM »

STOP MOANING AND MUMBLING OR STOP PLAYING POKER , PLEASE!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!
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« Reply #492 on: January 02, 2014, 09:37:24 PM »

you whooooooo, anyone at home?
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« Reply #493 on: January 04, 2014, 04:50:55 PM »

Well, the 500 weekend was a disaster. I've been a little under it for the last few months and it's starting to hit my bank balance pretty hard, and I certainly feel like I put way too much into having a weekend where I at least cashed one of the three tournaments I played. As a result, I don't think I played my best, and I certainly let it get to me, so I would like to apologise to those affected for behaving like a tit. Effectively what happened is I ran bad in Omaha, lost 3 flips on day two of the 500, and lost another 3 flips (one for the chip lead in the tournament) in the "incredible" 100. Nothing special, but it sorta ended up being accumulated frustration of the last few months which have seen me lose an awful, awful lot of key AIPF situations.

The Omaha game was a strange one. I thoroughly enjoyed it despite losing, and made a real effort to keep in a decent frame of mind. Lost with AA44 to A378 after I potted pre and jammed a Q36 rainbow board. Lost to a guy who jammed a flop blind where i flopped the third nut flush, when he flopped the second nut flush. Lost a few others with draws/reasonable hands to cash out a pretty heavy loser, but as I said, was able to keep calm and genuinely enjoy the game regardless.

Decided to go and play the Luton deepstack. I've never been to that genting before, despite the cardroom manager telling me to come down. So, I finally found a free weekend and went for it.

Very glad I did too. The place is fantastic, very well run, dealers and bar staff are very professional, atmosphere is great, tournament is great... What more do you want? Also, I FOUND JOHN BLACK! This alone made the trip worth it, and very nearly ended up being fuelled by jagermeister. Why do I have to drive everywhere... Also met the great welsh wizard that is Pinchop. Unfortunately, he didn't tell me he was a massive nit until he had quartered my stack, buy hey ho. Have a trip report...

Players start the tournament with 30,000 chips at 25/50. As always, things started pretty slowly, with everyone (including myself) getting acclimatized to the place and settling in for what will hopefully be a long stint at the felt. By 50/100, I've ground my way up to 35k after a making a small move against a rather telegraphed bluff. Middle position opens to 150, and button (who has been ridic active, clicking buttons all over the place and has to not raise a button) makes it 325. I look down at AQ in the small, and do a raise to 1k. Button calls. Flop comes down K52 rainbow, and I c-bet 1200. Pretty much as soon as my chips have hit the felt, its made 3k, and I don't have to look up to know that a stare down has begun. I make it 7k, am told how nice it must be to have AA, and win the pot. So, at 50/100, the same guy opens utg to 200. We call with JJ, and a bunch of other people call, leading to a 5/6 way flop of J810. Checks to us, and we lead for 600. One call, and Pinchop makes it 1500 from the btn. We call, other guy folds. Turn bricks, we check, Pinchop bets 7k. Sorta wish I'd known it was him at this point, but decide to absolutely hate my life and call. Really not sure what to do, pretty gay spot. Anyway, river bricks, we check, he bets 11k, we sorta have to after calling the turn given this sizing, and are shown Q9 for the joint, putting me down to about 14k. We then insta brick a straight flush draw on Q24 and lose 6k vs 99, taking us into the first break with 8k.

Over the next few levels, I get my stack over the line a few times in good spots (turned the nut flush draw on J458, for example) and sorta bully my way up to 16k. Then get moved tables, win a few semi-decent pots with simple c-bets and betting when checked to with some sort of equity, and get up to 25k. Then, at 300/600, two players limp the cut off and hijack. On the button, I look down at 63, and make it 2k to go. Get called by the SB, and both limpers. Not exactly loving life, but I decided that I'd rather be lucky than good and flop the nut straight on 245 rainbow. Checks to me, I cbet 3.5k, SB calls, hijack calls, cut off jams 30k, I call, fold, fold. Hold against 57 for a big pot to put us back to about the average stack.

I continue to win a bunch of pots simply by being in position and/or having the betting lead, including one very fun one where I have KQ otb facing a early ish position open. I call, BB completes, and the flop comes j94 rainbow. BB checks, OR makes cbets and we call, BB folds. Turn is another J, OR checks, we bet 4800. He tanks past the point where I think he really has anything, and makes it 11k with about the same amount behind. We jam pretty quickly, he mucks, we win the money. Also managed to knock a guy out with QQ to A5hh on 9549hh. Heading towards the last break, I chip up to 80k or so, then lose a few small ones plus a bigger one when I call a jam with 99 and fail to hold vs K6 to put me down to about 50k. Pretty soon after, I find JJ and manage a full double vs 99, and then win a flip with AK into 10s to comfortably break the 100k mark. Nothing of note really happens until the end of the day, leading to a total of 125,700 bagged coming back to 1k/2k tomorrow, with the average being about 100k.

As previously said though, I thought the venue was fantastic, and some of the characters more so. Had a lovely one when I was short at the start of the day, where a guy who's new to the table opens UTG, I three bet tens, Pinchop cold 4's, utg 5 bets, we fold, and Pinchop tanks. Utg then tells him that when he folds, he can see the 4. Pinchop says he'd love to see that, folds AK, and some great table banter ensues when utg duly turns over the 4. Also managed to have a great chat with a guy (who I unfortunately felted a little while later) about how I looked exactly like a guy he'd been to school with. Generally had a pretty good day, looking forward to another (#thin) day two!
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« Reply #494 on: January 05, 2014, 11:21:41 PM »

Well, unfortunately, it looks like our time in this game is coming to a close, at least for the time being. Had another disastrous day two of lost flips, missed draws, failed bluffs and generally second best hands. Came home reasonably positive despite this and regged a Sunday schedule, running as bad as I ever have. Currently got one left, but it's getting to the stage where as soon as the cards get turned over I'm pretty much dead. Hopefully going to do a Goulder and bink 15k after a diary moan, but I suppose the coming few months will tell.

In other news, back at uni tomorrow. Got a bunch of deadlines due the week after the GPS, and then a small break before the second term properly starts. I've been meaning to start/restart writing a book for a while now, and the last few fairly long drives to and from lboro have been spent thinking about where to go with this. Need to work out a few character names and setting details as yet, but I'm pretty sure fingers will be going to keys within the next few weeks after uni has calmed down.

Question - Aside from the Nash charts, has anyone got any recommended reading/viewing on short stack shove/fold/call ranges?
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