Thursday, December 22, 2005
Poker sad
Poker really annoys me sometimes - well quite a lot. I've still to learn to cope well with either a bad beat (does anyone?) or a bad decision (either by me or someone else). I had a couple of things go against me last night in one tournament and it lead me to play like a tool until I thought "STOP PLAYING YOU IDIOT!".
If you look at the whole of yesterday, then it wasn't too bad. I increased my bankroll and qualified for Party Poker's Super Tuesday" event (buy-in $162 and prize pool of about $160,000) by coming 2nd out of 112 in a $10 qualifier. Also, I was doing well in a $5 re-buy tournament.
It was that rebuy tournament that did most of the damage to my mood. As I said, I was doing ok. There were 290 people left, it was paying top 243 and I was within the top 100 chipstacks. I was dealt pocket Kings and thought that in order to get in the serious money, I needed to use the cards while I had them. I went for it and was called by pocket aces. These things happen I suppose, and maybe I should have been more wary, but crashing out from an OK position really pissed me off.
I then had my AQ cracked by A5 in the big tournament and crashed out of that too. Christmas would have been pretty good in my household if I'd got that top prize of about $38,000!
Because of these "incidents" I took a bit of a break from poker today to do a bit of Christmas shopping (joy!) and have just sat down to play a few hands now. It's again not looking good!
When I sat down at the first table I was dealt pocket 10s. I've come to refer to these, even before this hand, as the "hand of doom" because I never play them right. I called a blind and hit trips on the flop. I see $$$ but am slightly worried because there is a J on the flop as well, but no flush draw. There's a small raise which I call. The turn makes litle difference, but someone raises the pot. I call and the river is a Q. I'm now worried about the straight so when it gets checked to me, I just check it down. The guy shows trip Js and I'm out half my stack on the first hand. To be honest it could have been more and I'm glad I resisted the urge to re-raise the turn bet!
These things happen I guess. Oh and I've just had another cracker. Someone called my pre-flop raise (I had AK suited) with 8-10 off-suit which hit a straight....shouldn't complain I guess. In the long-run......*sigh*
If you look at the whole of yesterday, then it wasn't too bad. I increased my bankroll and qualified for Party Poker's Super Tuesday" event (buy-in $162 and prize pool of about $160,000) by coming 2nd out of 112 in a $10 qualifier. Also, I was doing well in a $5 re-buy tournament.
It was that rebuy tournament that did most of the damage to my mood. As I said, I was doing ok. There were 290 people left, it was paying top 243 and I was within the top 100 chipstacks. I was dealt pocket Kings and thought that in order to get in the serious money, I needed to use the cards while I had them. I went for it and was called by pocket aces. These things happen I suppose, and maybe I should have been more wary, but crashing out from an OK position really pissed me off.
I then had my AQ cracked by A5 in the big tournament and crashed out of that too. Christmas would have been pretty good in my household if I'd got that top prize of about $38,000!
Because of these "incidents" I took a bit of a break from poker today to do a bit of Christmas shopping (joy!) and have just sat down to play a few hands now. It's again not looking good!
When I sat down at the first table I was dealt pocket 10s. I've come to refer to these, even before this hand, as the "hand of doom" because I never play them right. I called a blind and hit trips on the flop. I see $$$ but am slightly worried because there is a J on the flop as well, but no flush draw. There's a small raise which I call. The turn makes litle difference, but someone raises the pot. I call and the river is a Q. I'm now worried about the straight so when it gets checked to me, I just check it down. The guy shows trip Js and I'm out half my stack on the first hand. To be honest it could have been more and I'm glad I resisted the urge to re-raise the turn bet!
These things happen I guess. Oh and I've just had another cracker. Someone called my pre-flop raise (I had AK suited) with 8-10 off-suit which hit a straight....shouldn't complain I guess. In the long-run......*sigh*
Tuesday, December 20, 2005
Poker mad
I've recently got back into playing poker on-line regularly. I started playing at university, discovering the delights of on-line play in my second year. My site of choice then was VCpoker. It was in my second year that I had my biggest on-line tournament win to date. It was one of the first $10,000 tournaments that they had put one, and one of the biggest on-line tournaments around back then. I won $3000, which helped fund my summer 4 week trip around Eastern Europe.
This time around I've switched to Party Poker, simply because they have been mentioned a lot in the press recently after their big floatation. It's quite obvious looking at the size of the tournaments Party Poker are putting on that the market for on-line poker is a lot larger than it was when I first started playing. At the weekend, for example there are tournaments with prize pools of $500,000 (that means the winner gets about $120,000 - life changing for most!). In January 06 they're planning a $1,000,000 (yes thats £1 million!) tournament. My $3k win is looking pretty pathetic these days, especially as there are loads of tournaments going on that have larger prize pools than that every day!
As for my play at the moment, well I'm doing ok, gradually building my bankroll and sorting out how to play again. Not managed to qualify for one of those big £500k tournaments yet, but one day maybe.....
Oh, if you fancy giving it a go, using the links above to Party Poker will get you a $25 sign-up bonus with your first deposit. Which is nice.
This time around I've switched to Party Poker, simply because they have been mentioned a lot in the press recently after their big floatation. It's quite obvious looking at the size of the tournaments Party Poker are putting on that the market for on-line poker is a lot larger than it was when I first started playing. At the weekend, for example there are tournaments with prize pools of $500,000 (that means the winner gets about $120,000 - life changing for most!). In January 06 they're planning a $1,000,000 (yes thats £1 million!) tournament. My $3k win is looking pretty pathetic these days, especially as there are loads of tournaments going on that have larger prize pools than that every day!
As for my play at the moment, well I'm doing ok, gradually building my bankroll and sorting out how to play again. Not managed to qualify for one of those big £500k tournaments yet, but one day maybe.....
Oh, if you fancy giving it a go, using the links above to Party Poker will get you a $25 sign-up bonus with your first deposit. Which is nice.
Monday, December 19, 2005
Happy days
My article from the game against Bishop's Stortford in the FA Trophy, 18th December 2005.
Watching the FA Cup 3rd Round draw the other weekend brought back many memories of last years FA Cup heroics. All City fans will know exactly how Burton felt when their number was matched with Manchester United’s. I can still hear the wonderful phrase: “Manchester United will play …… number 64….”. I didn’t wait for the club’s name to be read out. I was out of my chair celebrating. It was the perfect draw for any team desperate for money: an almost guaranteed sell-out at the largest ground in the country.
I spent the weekend of the match in Manchester, staying in a hotel near Piccadilly station that had been taken over by City fans. Having been out the night before the game, I was feeling a bit worse for wear on Saturday morning but refused to let that affect my enjoyment. After wandering around the centre of Manchester for a bit I headed for the ground relatively early, hoping to beat the rush and to soak up the atmosphere. Not surprisingly, everyone else had had the same idea so the tram was packed on the way to Old Trafford.
We had been allocated the Upper Tier of the East Stand in addition to the usual corner given to away fans. I have to admit to having doubts about our ability to sell 9000 tickets for the long trip up North but I was happily proved wrong. In fact, I’ve heard many stories of City fans having to get tickets for the home end because we didn’t have enough. I don’t remember much about the game itself. I seem to remember spending a lot of time staring at the clock and hoping it would speed up. Also, there were some great chants from the City faithful such as “Have you ever played Brazil?” and “Nil nil to the Exeter!”
After the game, the hotel bar was packed with celebrating fans watching Argyle’s “unfortunate” defeat at home to Everton, followed by the highlights of Manchester United 0 - 0 Exeter City on Sky. Later of course we watched Match of the Day’s highlights of Manchester United 0 – 0 Exeter City. Overkill? I don’t think so!
While the inevitable happened at the replay (we’ve never done too well when featured live on TV), the result didn’t take away from what had been a fantastic few weeks to be a City fan. The club had made a huge amount of money to help secure its short-term future; we had gained national recognition for all the right reasons rather than because of financial problems or imminent relegation; and we had all had a great day out in Manchester.
One of the big talking points about the replay was the decision to keep ticket prices at normal levels. Some argued that we should be cashing in while we had the chance. Others, including myself, thought that the positive publicity generated by keeping ticket prices the same, together with the fact that we had had a big pay-day already and the replay was to be live on TV, meant that there should be no increase. Burton faced a similar decision and opted to significantly raise their prices: from £12/£14 to £25/£30 for adults and from £3/£5 to £20/£25 for children. While it is arguable that the increase for children is a bit steep, having not had the luck to be drawn away, and with no guarantee of a return leg, I think the prices are justifiable.
So good luck to Burton. Hopefully their players will put in the same kind of performance City’s did and get them a replay and an even bigger pay-day up at Old Trafford.
Watching the FA Cup 3rd Round draw the other weekend brought back many memories of last years FA Cup heroics. All City fans will know exactly how Burton felt when their number was matched with Manchester United’s. I can still hear the wonderful phrase: “Manchester United will play …… number 64….”. I didn’t wait for the club’s name to be read out. I was out of my chair celebrating. It was the perfect draw for any team desperate for money: an almost guaranteed sell-out at the largest ground in the country.
I spent the weekend of the match in Manchester, staying in a hotel near Piccadilly station that had been taken over by City fans. Having been out the night before the game, I was feeling a bit worse for wear on Saturday morning but refused to let that affect my enjoyment. After wandering around the centre of Manchester for a bit I headed for the ground relatively early, hoping to beat the rush and to soak up the atmosphere. Not surprisingly, everyone else had had the same idea so the tram was packed on the way to Old Trafford.
We had been allocated the Upper Tier of the East Stand in addition to the usual corner given to away fans. I have to admit to having doubts about our ability to sell 9000 tickets for the long trip up North but I was happily proved wrong. In fact, I’ve heard many stories of City fans having to get tickets for the home end because we didn’t have enough. I don’t remember much about the game itself. I seem to remember spending a lot of time staring at the clock and hoping it would speed up. Also, there were some great chants from the City faithful such as “Have you ever played Brazil?” and “Nil nil to the Exeter!”
After the game, the hotel bar was packed with celebrating fans watching Argyle’s “unfortunate” defeat at home to Everton, followed by the highlights of Manchester United 0 - 0 Exeter City on Sky. Later of course we watched Match of the Day’s highlights of Manchester United 0 – 0 Exeter City. Overkill? I don’t think so!
While the inevitable happened at the replay (we’ve never done too well when featured live on TV), the result didn’t take away from what had been a fantastic few weeks to be a City fan. The club had made a huge amount of money to help secure its short-term future; we had gained national recognition for all the right reasons rather than because of financial problems or imminent relegation; and we had all had a great day out in Manchester.
One of the big talking points about the replay was the decision to keep ticket prices at normal levels. Some argued that we should be cashing in while we had the chance. Others, including myself, thought that the positive publicity generated by keeping ticket prices the same, together with the fact that we had had a big pay-day already and the replay was to be live on TV, meant that there should be no increase. Burton faced a similar decision and opted to significantly raise their prices: from £12/£14 to £25/£30 for adults and from £3/£5 to £20/£25 for children. While it is arguable that the increase for children is a bit steep, having not had the luck to be drawn away, and with no guarantee of a return leg, I think the prices are justifiable.
So good luck to Burton. Hopefully their players will put in the same kind of performance City’s did and get them a replay and an even bigger pay-day up at Old Trafford.
