Back in Notts...

[zerofive]

Poker updates....

Aside from a few online punts I've not been playing live recently which is a refreshing change.
I finish contracting as a Business Analyst on the 27th September and then it's straight back to Loughborough that weekend for the dreaded finalist year.

It was interesting to read Alex's wright up of Barca stating that while he had everything around him he still had those demons in his head from something that can be so addictive, and i think that's a situation for a lot of us, so it's been nice to try and switch off for a while. Despite this, i know that i'll still find myself grinding in Nottingham a lot in finalist year and truthfully it's one of the things i'm looking forward to about going back; hopefully i continue to run good in the Nandos flips.

One of the things I've missed through only playing online lately is Live tournaments which gives full credit to Dusk for having what's likely the best tournament structure in the country, especially considering the constant guarantees. I still find it funny that you can regularly walk into a card room in the UK and find somebody that you've previously played against and i found it even stranger for players in London to recognize me from Notts.

Some life news...

I've got through to the fast track for the graduate scheme of the company I've been working for throughout this year, so hopefully i perform well at the forthcoming stages. My dissertation is set to be in Neuromarketing, also operating for the same company.

I've been asked to coach basketball in Final year which i'm pretty happy about. It's nice to have achievements recognized and it's always in good spirits to give back to the game that i used to play so often. I actually did get through to play for Hammersmith this year in London but turned it down due to the work commitments and the times of training and games.

One of the more funny things to come is driving again. I've not had my car in London and therefore haven't drove in about a year and 4 months, so it'll be interesting to see whether my muscle and cognitive memory can still work it out, or whether i spend the next few weeks stalling away and getting people waving at me with only 20% of their fingers.

Anyway, my next trip report should hopefully be my return to Dusk / Gala with hopefully some Degen stories for the diary.

I recognise that 20% statistic

Sick work with the coaching gig, lad. You'll have to use your new status to sneak me into the Loughborough gym.

Looking forward to Nando's flips/diary merging. Feels like ages since you were a DTD reg.

[Derbylad]

Poker updates....

Aside from a few online punts I've not been playing live recently which is a refreshing change.
I finish contracting as a Business Analyst on the 27th September and then it's straight back to Loughborough that weekend for the dreaded finalist year.

It was interesting to read Alex's wright up of Barca stating that while he had everything around him he still had those demons in his head from something that can be so addictive, and i think that's a situation for a lot of us, so it's been nice to try and switch off for a while. Despite this, i know that i'll still find myself grinding in Nottingham a lot in finalist year and truthfully it's one of the things i'm looking forward to about going back; hopefully i continue to run good in the Nandos flips.

One of the things I've missed through only playing online lately is Live tournaments which gives full credit to Dusk for having what's likely the best tournament structure in the country, especially considering the constant guarantees. I still find it funny that you can regularly walk into a card room in the UK and find somebody that you've previously played against and i found it even stranger for players in London to recognize me from Notts.

Some life news...

I've got through to the fast track for the graduate scheme of the company I've been working for throughout this year, so hopefully i perform well at the forthcoming stages. My dissertation is set to be in Neuromarketing, also operating for the same company.

I've been asked to coach basketball in Final year which i'm pretty happy about. It's nice to have achievements recognized and it's always in good spirits to give back to the game that i used to play so often. I actually did get through to play for Hammersmith this year in London but turned it down due to the work commitments and the times of training and games.

One of the more funny things to come is driving again. I've not had my car in London and therefore haven't drove in about a year and 4 months, so it'll be interesting to see whether my muscle and cognitive memory can still work it out, or whether i spend the next few weeks stalling away and getting people waving at me with only 20% of their fingers.

Anyway, my next trip report should hopefully be my return to Dusk / Gala with hopefully some Degen stories for the diary.

I recognise that 20% statistic

Sick work with the coaching gig, lad. You'll have to use your new status to sneak me into the Loughborough gym.

Looking forward to Nando's flips/diary merging. Feels like ages since you were a DTD reg.

Haha it was some time ago, but it was a pretty memorable quote.
Looking forward to it. The two most used cards will soon become the DTD black card and the new and improved Nandos loyalty card, hopefully the bank card not so much (running GHolden at flips since 1991).

[Derbylad]

So as of last Sunday I've returned from London to Loughborough to finish off my Final year at University.
I've so far played twice this week and the game in London and the amount I've been playing online has started to pay dividends in my overall decision making.

On Tuesday myself and Will Lillejord decided to go to Alea to play the 20+4 1r/a as there was £1k added to the prize pool and a fair amount of value to be had.
I was pretty happy with my play staying balanced and managing to pick up an effective stack early on. After winning 2/3 flips i was the CL for the table and what seemed the tournament.
Myself and Will then got put on the same table and we both grinded it out to the FT.
When it got to 7 players a short stack offered a deal of 500 for everyone and play for 1300 while i was CL with 450k. The payout for 1st was 1650 and the top 3 prizes were all above 500. I therefore declined much to some disgruntled looks and some whispering breaths. When we got down to 4 i lost a flip vs the guy who had suggested the deal and was hovering on 200k with 1.8million in play.
After a short break they came back and offered 710 for me and 3rd position and split the rest between 1st and second. 4th prize was 420 and 3rd prize was 660 so i wasn't going to turn it down.

Last night i returned to DTD to witness some pretty brutal hands at 1-1, however locked up around a £200 win. We took an early lead after getting AK in vs two opponents on a K high flush draw board and held.
I was playing pretty well and in a variety of spots extracted value or folds from what i perceived as pretty weak ranges.
There was a pretty interesting hand where i had   and 5 bet a Villain who was intending to limp and then raised to 9 UTG+1 with the straddle on from Fred Wise.
Something just told me he never has it in that position and his stack size allowed him to make an easy fold as he didn't seem the type of player to get it in with anything but KK or AA.
My disgusting hand of the night i've posted to PHA...

http://blondepoker.com/forum/index.php?topic=62334.0

Unsure if i'm playing this weekend yet, i've been feeling a bit ill the past few days so it depends how well I can recover. Damn Freshers Flu.

[redsimon]

Didnt realise they added £1k thought it was £1k gteed. Might pop in next week. Chuckled when you said shortie suggested deal though, cheeky sod

[verndog158]

i do hope you resisted the urge of poker last night and hit up returners FND. wasss sickkk!! much better than tanking for 10mins and folding the nuts

[Derbylad]

i do hope you resisted the urge of poker last night and hit up returners FND. wasss sickkk!! much better than tanking for 10mins and folding the nuts

Confirmed, resisted the urge (hated the queue though). May play tonight though, you about?

[verndog158]

yep, coming down for the xxl i think and some cash potentially. depends on how tired our poor taxi driver rexas is!
chins on the queue, got a queue jump with towers!! never been so sweaty in one place before, worth it though!

[BangBang]

Are you playing the £300 today....?

[Derbylad]

Not playing the 300, just down for some cash. May even go to gala later on.

[Derbylad]

Ended up reg'ing the 150 deepstack yesterday mainly due to the 14k overlay.
I'd spoke to Will and a few others previously and it seemed that the target was 100k which I got to at around level 7, loved my table and was making timed plays and good decisions.
I was therefore pretty bitter when we ended up practically stacking off with on   where villain check jammed the river with   , i can only assume he planned to bluff any river anyway and then just got there. Flipped a 45k stack blind on blind at level 12 two hands before the finish which me and the BB had discussed would do it blind so one of us could have a shot at day two. Hilarious     vs   and the   high miraculously held.

Our night then turned into the epitome of degeneracy where we lost a negligible amount at a 1-1 PLO game; that we pretty much had to make as everyone else was just limping every hand regardless of strength pre flop. We should have got the lot when Duncan plays face up and repots AAxx pre, in hindsight i should have isolated vs his range with my hand but instead we went four ways to the flop for £44 each and see a board of   while i'm holding   , we miraculously all have a piece and get stacks in....The   came on the turn (wiiii) but we couldn't hold on the river. We snap went to Gala when last hands were called at around 3. Mini cliffs was got AA vs KK and won 150 while i witnessed the Fred Wise and Nik Flanagan show unveil.

Tanking the decision to play tonight as i'm still pretty tired from last nights antics, but with 281 runners in the pub poker comp I should probably capitalise on some dorrraaa on the tables.

[tight4better]

while i witnessed the Fred Wise and Nik Flanagan show unveil.

;o

[Derbylad]

To say the least it's been a while. It's been a fair few months off the poker scene lately but after finally finishing my first semester of final year I felt I needed to give the boys a spin.
I've got to say I'm pretty impressed with Dusk for attracting enough players to meet the 'Giant' tournament guarantees they've ran in the past few days, and it's really given the cash game economy a boost as well. I reg'd the super 50 yesterday with a guarantee of about 6k up top which for the buy in is fair to say the best value tournament in the country.
Managed to play pretty well without showdown until i had to check down vs Frankie with  after isolating from the button vs Frankie's open and a weak passive players limp and winning with a pair of 6's. Major brain teaser of the day was this... http://blondepoker.com/forum/index.php?topic=62826.0, still debating how i played it.

After we bust around 60th with 99 < KQ we managed to get a pretty timid 1-1 PLO going and managed to get some decent table banter and a small win to end the night.
Likely reg'ing the Sundays today and then potentially back to Dusk if we brick the lot. Unsure how busy dusk's cash will be though and the drive from Loughborough gets a little tedious when the games are bad.

[BangBang]

To say the least it's been a while. It's been a fair few months off the poker scene lately but after finally finishing my first semester of final year I felt I needed to give the boys a spin.
I've got to say I'm pretty impressed with Dusk for attracting enough players to meet the 'Giant' tournament guarantees they've ran in the past few days, and it's really given the cash game economy a boost as well. I reg'd the super 50 yesterday with a guarantee of about 6k up top which for the buy in is fair to say the best value tournament in the country.
Managed to play pretty well without showdown until i had to check down vs Frankie with  after isolating from the button vs Frankie's open and a weak passive players limp and winning with a pair of 6's. Major brain teaser of the day was this... http://blondepoker.com/forum/index.php?topic=62826.0, still debating how i played it.

After we bust around 60th with 99 < KQ we managed to get a pretty timid 1-1 PLO going and managed to get some decent table banter and a small win to end the night.
Likely reg'ing the Sundays today and then potentially back to Dusk if we brick the lot. Unsure how busy dusk's cash will be though and the drive from Loughborough gets a little tedious when the games are bad.

Well done on your best finish 

How's it feel to be back up north after a year in the big smoke...? Which do you prefer...?

[Derbylad]

Well done on your best finish  

How's it feel to be back up north after a year in the big smoke...? Which do you prefer...?

About 2-3 degrees colder?
Unfortunately to say i'd grown quite accustom to being a cityboy and the 24 hour games in London were pretty nice.
I couldn't quite keep up the degen sleeping pattern while working though so it's nice to be back to being a student for a while.
The atmosphere of the hippodrome (and the delicious club sandwich) were really nice though, still one of the nicest casinos i've played in décor wise, accept maybe walking into the Ricoh in Cov.

Yesterday we bricked every comp aside waiting out a Mitch in the Omania when 122/124 with 117 paid. Pretty standard routines and just didn't win any crucial flips despite running deep and having effective stacks in the hot 16.50 and 8.80 2x etc...
Decided to flick it in for Dusk at around 11 and beat my personal best in getting there with the 'Sunday traffic'. The drive from Loughborough to Nottingham is actually quite enjoyable if you take the back roads and has the grand total of 0 speed cameras to spoil the fun.

We managed to start a 1-1 PLO which they wanted to turn into a 1-1 DC. I swapped with Sean to 1-1 NLH to let them play, which consequentially broke within half an hour, so i was left with the decision to pick up DC rather than play 50-1. I think i actually had one of my most enjoyable evenings in Dusk despite a tiny loss. Having the chance to learn something new and adopt new tactics just made the night a bit more enjoyable. I think i folded the vast majority of super stud and Padooki for a while but managed to get to grips with hi/lo and super stud by the end. Managed to make a few timed bluffs and got a guy off a chop after bombing the river with the same hand. I definitely need to take a step back and calculate my true equity in a few of the spots but i think in the right line up i could potentially hold my ground and make a profit.

One thing that i did find mildly annoying is when it's the last 3 hands people with shallow stacks from the broken tables coming to effectively spin it up. Now i know there is nothing wrong with the concept in theory but when the consequence is two big stacks getting it in after the short stack limp pots it in the final hand it's pretty unfair on the victims. In my eyes the last 3 hands should only ever be between the active players at the table but i'm sure countless people will disagree with me.

Anyway I'm potentially stopping in Loughborough and Notts for a few days to continue the Xmas Grind. Likely tonight will either be Gala or Riverlights. With the Rob Yong bounty comp on it might attract some people for the cash games.

[Derbylad]

Finally back home for Xmas after a pretty sigh few days of poker. To not bore the world too much it's the standard KK < AA and then a heap of bad beats and lost flips.
I've been attempting to get some sort of consistency going online and play a similar schedule but my HEM graph looks a bit like a car crash for MTT's. Every tournament I've got relatively deep in I seem to bust close to the bubble lately; mainly in spots like this...

http://www.boomplayer.com/en/poker-hands/Boom/6530968_E32FD2B861

The only thing i seem to be running good at lately is Chinese and it has managed to get me out of the hole a bit in the past week.
Yesterday i finally took the time to reg for Winamax after hearing some good things about the eurosites but i think I've got to definitely incorporate some time into my online cash game if i'm going to beat this MTT variance. Fingers crossed i'll get some time away from revision and January exams to try and bink something to fill the Christmas cheer.