Well, that was shit

Went into Day 2 third in chips, 63 left with 38 getting paid.

I busted just after the second level started

I don't think I could have done anything different... opinions very welcome. This is pretty much every hand I played.


Blinds started at 2k/4k/ra500

Raise MP to 15k with AQdd, SB defends, only caller.

Flop JQ4 rainbow. SB open jams 30k. Pot was 40k. I call, he's got JQ and holds.

Raise 16k with 99 (standard opens were 15-20k), guy shoves 70k. I fold and he shows AA.

Tight player raises for the first time. I defend BB with A10ss, flop KsQs5d. I check and he bets 15k into 40k pot. He's got about 40k behind I raise him all-in. He calls with K10 and I miss everything. Maybe I should have raised him pre, but I thought he'd be stronger.

Left me with about 13BB, folded to me on the button so I jam AdJd. Blind calls with JJ and I don't hit.

Quick game lol.

Fairly decent week this week.

Went to play comp on Wednesday, gambled with my first bullet, went to re-enter and found out it was a total freezeout with no re-entries So sat down with £60 on the £1-£1 cash and soon turned it into £300 in 90 minutes

Went to the big game at Old Trafford yesterday (Super League Grand Final), unfortunately we lost so left straight away and headed to a nearby casino for a freeroll comp that has unlimited £10 rebuys. (£500 GTD)

Only £2 reg fee as they use training dealers who aren't the best (understatement lol but fair enough, they're new).

Stacked up quite early, didn't rebuy and had 71k at the break. Average was 30k, so didn't think it was worth it paying the £10 add-on for 10k more chips so decided to just ride with my £2 entry fee.

10 minute break so sat down with £50 on the £1-£1 cash. AK first hand, flop was 10JQ! Full double up plus some !

Back in the comp, 38 players left, 6 get paid. Stack was up and down, lost every all-in except 1 but kept building my stack back up, and took 230k onto the final table




Couple of short stacks were soon out and we were in the money with 6 left. £30 min-cash with £180 for first.

6-handed for a bit with chips being passed around, but it was a turbo structure and the average stack was 12BB.

With 4 left we chopped it for £110 each (just under 2nd place prize).

Happy with that for a £2 buy-in!





Heading back there shortly, the Redtooth National finals are on. Not playing that, but the cash tables are VERY fruitful when the Redtoothers are in town!

So I did head back up yesterday to play cash. Up and down most of the day, couldn't hit much.

Had stacks on 2x £1/£1 tables, playing an orbit at each. Couldn't seem to get much going and the 7pm £20 tournament had been going for a bit so decided to take a £40 loss on the cash and play the comp.

Good choice!

Only had 21 runners so a small overlay on the £500 GTD prizepool. 4 places paid. I was the short stack with 5 left but made a good call for 90% of my small stack with 4th pair.

Doubled up soon after the bubble burst, and before long we had it heads-up with pretty even stacks.

Key Hand that pretty much decided the winner:

Effective stacks 400k
Blinds 8k/16k

Raised to 40k on the button with K10

Villain calls.

Flop: 8910

Checks. I bet 50k. Calls

Turn: 2

Checks. I bet 90k. Calls.

River: 6

Check Check.

He shows 47

Next hand he shoves on my crappy BB hand.

My next button I've got 10bb and shove with 89, he calls with Ace high and holds.

Still happy with 2nd and £145.

£255 return over 2 comps for a total of £22 buy-ins is decent enough, especially when I didn't plan to play either of them

Solid running it up there buddy and ul vs the 47....pretty brutal there WTF WAS HE DOING

Played the same Saturday comp in Manchester, £2 entry fee with unlimited £10 rebuys.

Ended up dealing for most of the comp (they had 4 tables and 2 dealers lol), which I don't mind and sometimes play better as I can't get bored and turn into A2CA (@CGPoker )

Played pretty strong and hit some hands early on and had 76k on the break, average 30ish k.

50 entries, few short stacks eliminated after the break and I started building a stack for the final, which we soon hit with 9 left.

7 got paid, bubble went quite quick and we were soon down to 4... for a long time! We were 4 handed for over an hour, which I've not seen in this type of comp, with turbo structure and short stacks, but the chips just kept getting passed around. I was up to 400k, down to 70k, up to 350k. The shortie doubled up every all-in. Someone suggested a deal for around £120 each but 1 guy didn't want to.

I was 2nd in chips (by 2000 chips as it turned out!), when I defended a min-raise from the button in the BB with J10ss.

Flop was AJ10 with the Ace of spades. I check Jam and he calls with A8. Turn 6 River 6 (punch). I'm left with 1/2 an ante and bust next hand in 4th for £65.

I'll take it for £2 again, though woulda been nice being the chip leader with 3 left had that hand held.

Played Win The Button comp last night, 25 entries and made the final table again, but finished in 7th with 4 getting paid so no good there.

Fairly decent week this past week, new schedule at my local so tried out a couple of "new" comps.

First up was Wednesday, £20 freezeout, Can't remember much as it was nearly a week ago but we ended up chopping three-ways for £200 each so it went fairly well! I was short stack with 3 left so more than happy to take 2nd place equivalent.




Headed back up on Friday for another £20'er, with a £1k guarantee so pretty assured of an overlay, as well as 10x £31 seats added for finalists. 35 entries in the end, had built up a nice stack, picked some good spots and just played solidly. Lost chunks with 13 left though, so nitted up until the final table to get the £31 seat.

Went onto the final table with 18,000 (average was 45k), shoved the first hand with K9hh, called by JQcc... flop was 34567!!

The next hand I had KQss so shoved again and everyone folded.

Very next hand I'm UTG with AQos, so I shove again, this time getting called by A8os and held so got a nice double up and was around average stack now. Won a couple of more smaller pots and had 65k before calling an 18bb button shove with AQ. Could maybe have folded it but I wanted a big stack so didn't he had JJ and held.

Bust soon after in 9th for no cash but a £31 seat to a £1.5k GTD comp which I'll use in a couple of weeks.





Yesterday was a £!6 NLHE/PLO 4/5/6 ROE comp with unlimited £10 rebuys. Been wanting to play this as I've never played a live Omaha comp before so could be fun/interesting.

Only got 16 runners and of course 7-max tables. Most players picked 5/6 PLO so we rarely had a 4 card Omaha hand which just makes the game active! Doubled up quite early on hitting quads in an Omaha 5 hand and then had a good Hold'em round so didn't have to rebuy and just took a 10k add-on for £10. Hit a straight flush as well during the night, ended up on the 7-handed final just about joint 2nd in chips. 3 getting paid £110 min-cash.




Took a big hit not long in on a 6 card Omaha hand. Flop is 887, short stack pots it... I've got 87! I raise it to get the rest of his chips in and he calls. He's got an 8 of course but with an A, K and a Q. He hits the Queen and doubles.

I then flop the nut straight, pot it twice, and have to check behind on a river that pairs the board, he filled up of course. #IHate6cardOmaha!

Ended up bubbling after flopping 2nd set on a very dry board. Gutted to bubble, but it's a fun comp obviously filled with lots of variance, especially with everyone picking to play 6-card!

But overall, played 3 comps and final tabled all 3, £200 plus a £31 seat could be more but happy. Also final tabled I think 9 of last 10 comps and cashed in most of them so pretty happy with how I'm playing at the minute.

Challenge Update

Just peeking over the $2k mark, heading towards half-way but not as good as I'd hoped to be at this stage.




2 months left of the challenge, may play a comp tonight, but if not then it will be Wednesday in the 2nd "Manchester Meltdown", the £25 2-day comp with £8k GTD which I was third in chips in on Day 2 last month and should really have turned into some profit but failed to do so. So aiming to hit Day 2 again this time on Wednesday!

Decent week again this week

Played the "Manchester Meltdown" last Wednesday. Really crazy couple of hands completely did me over, Going into the last level before the break (and end of re-entry period), I was probably chip leader with 60k+, the average was 20k. I had just knocked out the player to my left and a new player sat down with the 15k starting stack.

First hand I've got 63 UTG which is my favourite hand so of course I raise. Blinds 250/500 so I just 3x it. New guy (NG) calls, folded round to SB who shoves for 20k. I fold and NG calls. SB shows QQ, NG shows J5.

Flop 1055 and NG doubles up. SB is pissed off

Next hand I'm BB. NG limps, and a couple more limps before the button shoves his last 5k (previous hands SB), I reshove with AJ. NG calls and everyone else folds. Button has A5, NG has 106...

Flop J26 Turn 9 River 10

NG now has big chip lead and I'm down to just above average.

Next hand I'm SB with 88. Mid position raiser opens 3x. All fold except me and NG who's in the BB.

Flop 792.

BB and me both check, original raiser bets 1500 (1/3 of the pot), the bet looks weak so I raise to 6k. NG calls and OR folds.

Turn 10. I jam my remaining 16k in and NG snap calls... and turns over A5

River A

Crazy crazy hands. I never berate other players play but like, I just don't understand.

Anyway, that was that...

------------------------------------------------------------------------------------

Sunday, back to the ROE nlhe - 4/5/6 Omaha with unlimited £10 rebuys + addon. Bubbled it last week after making a bad call and getting pissed off with myself, big mistake I shouldn't have made.

Made up for it this week though, took 1 rebuy and the add-on so total outlay of £36. Took it down for £210, pretty happy with it only being the second time I've played Omaha live.

I'm not much of an Omaha player, but made a couple of folds with only 3/4 players left. Not sure if I'm being too nitty, so any advice from Omaha players would be welcome.

First hand the flop is

A710

I've got 899610K.

Short stack pots it and the big stack calls. Short stack has got less than a pot bet behind. I fold. Maybe standard I'm not sure?

--------------------------------------

Second one and again it's 6-card Omaha.

flop 1085

I've got 1010 but not much else. Short stack pots it, and big stack re-pots it. I've got the nuts atm but is it just to wet of a board to be getting involved with? The TD was stood behind me and looking at my cards and stuff, I folded and looked at him and he made a big cringey face lol. Short stack folded so didn't see the outcome but with no-redraws the fold is right? Actually I think I had a gutshot to the smaller straight but I need brick brick here? If I do decide to play do I call or raise it to get it in?


Ended up winning so in this instance it worked out but in general?

It really is a fun comp and looking forward to playing it regularly.


---------------------------------------

So that was Sunday, and last night I played the £20+£6+£10 bounty comp. No guarantee but the top 6 players get a £36 seat to Thursday £2.5k GTD comp.

It was really quiet for some reason, never seen it this quiet, maybe the cold is keeping away?

Anyway it only got 12 runners so the pot was pretty small at £240 (Plus bounties). Top 2 getting paid £170 and £70.

We were on the "final table" after the break due to the low runners and I was just about chip leader with 8 left having knocked 3 people out already so pretty much free-rolling (flopped a set against an up-and-down and top pair - 3 way all in)




Took a while to get down to 6 due to the "free seat" bubble, I doubled up one guy calling his all-in with A5 on a 678 flop. He had 99 and held, was a decent pot as well but don't think I'm ever folding there.

A couple of short stacks who were holding on for the free seat were soon out and we were 3-handed. I was 2nd in chips and we agreed to take £30 off first to pay 3rd so payouts were now £140, £70, £30.

The other two got into a battle and the big stack knocked him out so we're heads-up with him more than 3-1 to my stack. With 3/4 players left I did start thinking about getting back-to-back wins. Something I've never done, not on 2 consecutive days anyway, but it was now my target! He was quite a tight player so I turned the aggression up and started picking up chips. It was quite a fun heads-up and I got up to just under half the chips before the key hand happened...

I'm big blind and he open shoves the button with A7, I snap with A8.

Flop comes A7Q

Turn J so I've got a nice amount of outs!

River 3

After a count he had me covered by just 15k chips urghhh and so the back-to-back dream is over!

In total I took 4 bounties for £40 + £70 cash + £36 seat so not a bad night all told, and as always it's only the cash that counts towards the challenge so a total of: £280 for the 2 days

Added to the total (£280 into USD is $347)...






So pretty much half-way, but with a recent run of good form, plus decent winnings to play with, and also a couple of £30+ seats to use in bigger comps, I'd like to think I can make a big dent towards $5k before the end of the year!

Guessing you haven't been playing like A2CA to get these decent wins? Come on man you can do it!

Ha I've been playing properly tbf! Went through a phase of playing stupid but think I'm over it

Got a chance this weekend of a decent score and really crushing this challenge!

It's the Dusk till Dawn Grand Prix Poker Tour, which I wasn't originally going to play as I disagree with the way it's structured now ($109 day 1's, roughly 12% of the field make it to Day 2, but you can buy direct into Day 2 for £550 for 100BB, with 33% of Day 2 players being paid - this only benefits those with the bigger bankrolls who can buy into Day 2, if you play Day 1 I think I worked it out that you have to finish in the top 4% to min-cash whereas Day 2 only have to finish in the Top 33%)

Anyway, Dusk Till Dawn asked me yesterday to be a bounty in an online Day 1 for it, whoever knocks me out gets their $109 buy-in back, and of course they buy me into the comp. Of course I agreed to the freebie , and got tagged from none over than Simon Trumper




Anyway, so played last night Online Day 1, 100k starting stacks (200bb), took few early hits but then tightened due to not wanting to go out too early as the bounty

But then this hand happened in the 2nd level (Blinds 600/1200), effective stacks 85kish

I 2.5x it in mid-position with 89

Late position guy min-clicks it back and folded round to me. I call.

Flop 10JQ

I check-raise his 5k bet to 20k. He tank-jams.

He can easily have AK after 3-betting, but he's also got AQ, KQ, AJ, 1010-AA in his shoving range here so I call.

He shows KK. He bricks and I get a nice double.

So I now have the early chip lead... and never relinquish it!

And after 16 levels...





Although Day 1 blinds end on 8000/16000/2000a, they roll back to 3k/6k for Day 2!

So I'm heading to Nottingham on Sunday with 150bb. The min-cash is £500 with at least £30k for 1st!

Can I borrow everyone's OneTime please

So went to Dusk Till Dawn on Sunday for Day 2 of the Grand Prix Poker Tour. The figures were something like 2,700 total entries, 470 made Day 2 and 135 were getting paid.

Was quite a grind, started with 900k.




Got up to a million, down to 700k, back up to 1.1million making a good call with third pair. Also seemed to keep getting moved to outer tables so my table was breaking all the time, think I was on 8 different tables throughout the day.

Day 2 started at 12pm and we were hand for hand on the bubble at 6.30pm.

With a £500 min-cash, it took a while and the bubble finally burst at 7.30pm!





Each hand was taking 6-10 minutes, I barely looked at my cards during this time and just went walking around the casino talking to people I know!

I doubled up soon after the bubble burst and sitting around average with 2million chips.




There were pay jumps every 18 people at the start, not the best pic but these were the payouts.




Knockouts were coming quite quick now and as we got to 80 players left I was really eyeing up finishing in the Top 50, only an extra £150 cash but with a £550 seat added as well to play in a big comp such as WPT events at the club. I did double up at this point calling an all-in with 77 against AK and holding.

After all was said and done, ended up finishing in the Top 45 at around 11pm, cashing for £1,250 plus a £550 seat.

My bustout hand, I maybe didn't have to go with it. Guy who was shoving quite a lot and raising, and winning uncontested pots had min-raised, I call from the BB with Q5. Flop comes 1052, so I shipped my remaining 8BB and he snapped with QQ ugh!

The structure wasn't great tbh, average stack at 15BB for most of the Day 2, with a lot of preflop all-in play.

But very happy off a freebie! £1,250 converted is $1,552, so a very nice bump up towards my $5k target!




6 weeks to win $950. Can be done!

Nice on Ash! Good luck for hitting the rest of your target!

Thanks Keri

Didn't do much last week. Played in a freeroll with £5 re-buys last Tuesday, rebought once and took the add-on, made the final table and had 1/4 of the chips at one point but just couldn't get any of my hands to hold and finished in 6th for no money.

Played the ROE on Sunday, rebought a couple of times but couldn't get anything going.

One big hand just before the break, got it in pre with Aces doubled suited, KQ and with 10J suited (6 card Omaha). Called by another hand who had aces but not much else. 2 hearts on the flop with a pair and straight draw (I had the nut flush draw) - I had the hearts, club and spades covered, villain had the A4 of diamonds. Runner runner diamonds for pretty much the only hand he could have beat me with. Would have had a nice stack but alas not to be.

Busy week this week but hoping to be playing again at the weekend

Congragulations on the DTD bink, how often do you travel down there/elsewhere to play comps? Also is this ROE comp at Didsbury? I used to play there a lot the tournaments are just gold mines!

Tend to go DTD 4/5 times a year, would like to go more though, will make more of an effort next year. Go to Coventry a bit and will just pick like a random place like Sheffield to go to lol.

Yeah at Didsbury, I tend to do fairly well but numbers aren't the best. I've got 2x £36 tickets in the bank for Thursday and Saturday comp so need to get down there. Playing the Manchester Meltdown there tomorrow as well.

Are you local to the area?

Not played this last week, was rushed into hospital on Friday and only came out late last night. Back on the live poker grind tomorrow!

I used to be local, still comute to Manchester for work! But fewer runners = lower variance and final tables when average stack is super short you get nits not wanting to put it in with worse than TT! I do like the sound of that ROE comp! Good luck with the rest of your challenge!

Thanks @AK-Flush94

Are you still dealing? Which casino?



Small update for this week.

Played the Manchester Meltdown last Wednesday, got past the break with over double average and sitting quite nicely with just over 1 hour of the day left to go, but then had to take a fair bit of medication for a random illness I've been having and after that I couldn't concentrate. Light headed, hands trembling, whole body shaking, felt really hot, just had to get out of there so donked my chips off and left lol.

Went to play the regular Round of Each comp I like on Sunday but it didn't run due to a lack of runners, so decided to stay at the casino and play the Grand Prix Poker Tour online Day 1 on my phone instead.

Good decision! £80 buy-in, and this time you get a min-cash for making it to Day 2, so I lasted the 18 levels, have a min-cash of £250 and will be in Day 2 which is played live at Dusk Till Dawn on 18th December with £30k for the winner, so would be a nice Christmas bonus!

Decent week last week

Last Saturday I played the £15+£6 afternoon comp in Manchester, first time I'd played it. Decent structure and around £400 of overlay. I busted fairly early on with K9 on a K94 flop... villain had 99

It was worth re-entering due to the added value (and not the best players), started chipping up a bit after the break, and got a near triple up without getting to showdown when shoving the turn with my stack being about 1/4 of the pot and everyone folded (I had Jacks and board was Queen high).

Won a nice pot on the final table bubble as a guy shoved 25bb-ish with A8, I called with AK and flopped him dead on a 3-club flop!

Went into the final table roughly 2nd/3rd in chips




7 were getting paid and the bubble soon burst. Couldn't get anything going on the final, every hand felt like it was 52, 73, 84, 103 etc and couldn't do much. Lost a decent percentage calling a 15BB shove with 88 and he had 99. Ended up finished in 5th after shoving with K6 on a 6 high flop, called by the Queen high flush draw who hit his Queen on the river for a bigger 1 pair to bust me.

5/40 for £80




-------------------------------------------

Sunday was time for my weekly Round of Each Hold'em/Omaha (4/5/6) comp which I like playing. It didn't get that many runners this week only about 10 altogether, so again a good chance of overlay with it being £400 GTD, although there were quite a number of rebuys (£10 a time for 5k chips). I rebought and added on so not too bad considering it can be quite crazy, especially in 6-card Omaha!

I won a decent pot just before the break in NLHE, I had Q10 on a KQ9Q9 board. Villain bet big on the river, I shoved and he called with a Jack high flush!

Added on for another 10k chips, and rode the big stack, chipping up and chipping up until I was chip leader 3-handed (and decided to pay the bubble)




We were 3-handed for quite a while, with one guy seemingly not wanting to play any hands (may have been holding on for the decent pay jump from £40 for 3rd to £110 for 2nd), I took out the other guy after flopping pretty much every draw imaginable in 6-card Omaha (up and down wrap, 2 pair, flush draw) and had him drawing dead on the turn.

So now we were heads-up, I had quite the chip advantage. This guy was doing a lot of limping, which I adapted to going along with... Didn't see the need to go too aggressive and get in situations where I'm calling pre=flop shoves with marginal hands. He was allowing me to see cheap flops so was happy with that, this allowed me to hit the second nut flush (jack high with the king and queen out there) when he shoved on me on the turn. I called and he had the 10 high flush so it was all over. Won the comp for the second time in just over a month and with it a nice £250!




Tuesday I played in a charity tournament at my local. £10 with £10 rebuys (£5 to the pot, £5 to charity) with bounties on all the staff members playing.

Crazy comp as you can imagine, lots of random all-ins with mad hands, very fun! Busted not long after the break, 4-bet jammed with AKss, the tournament director called me with 77. Flop AKQ! Turn 7! River blank!

I think the final table had something like 6 dealers on it?! But a fun comp and over £1k raised for charity so it's all good.

So won a decent £330, converted equals $412 so lets see where that leaves me...





SOOO close! and with exactly 2 weeks left of the challenge!

However!

Tonight I'm playing a £36 comp at my local, via a ticket I won by final tabling another comp a few weeks ago, decent prizepool so will be looking to final table again.

And tomorrow... I'm in Day 2 of the Xmas Grand Prix at Dusk Till Dawn in Nottingham, already guaranteed a £250 min-cash! Hoping to improve on this obviously but I am shortstacked with around 14BB, but even the min-cash puts me so close to the $5k!

This week I also won a $22 satellite on Party Poker into a £165 "Club Championship" event at Dusk Till Dawn the week after Christmas, so will either be playing the PLO event (£10k GTD) or the 6-max (£25k GTD), as well as the evening tournament at the club if I bust... so there's 4 or 5 more comps I'll be playing before the end of the year and the end of the challenge...

LETS DO IT!

I guess this will be my penultimate update for this challenge, as it ends on Saturday!

Got a bit to report on so another good post

The £36 comp I had a ticket for didn't go too well, got down to the final 2 tables (40-odd runners) but not much more, but it was a freebie so no complaints !

--------------------------------

The Sunday before Xmas was Day 2 of the Dusk Till Dawn Grand Prix in Nottingham. All 352 Day 2 players were guaranteed a min-cash of £250. Bit of an odd payout structure though as there wasn't a pay jump until 180 players left, so pretty much half the field. I was short stacked and ended up out in 240th or something so just picked up the min-cash, would have needed a few double-ups to get anywhere.

Still, £250 is £250!




---------------------------------

Didn't play after that as I was in Wales for a short holiday last week and then there was no comps on over Christmas so last night was the return to the felt...

£6 registration fee only with unlimited £5 rebuys. It's a fun little comp, 34 entries total and ended with a £500 prizepool (doubled the £250 guarantee).

It plays a bit crazy for the first 2 hours as you might expect with unlimited rebuys, won and lost a few huge pots, getting lucky and then getting very unlucky!

The first big hand, I raised pre from a 19k stack with

1010 and got a call from both the button and the big blind.

Flop A47

I c-bet small, being cautious with the Ace out there, and both players call.

Turn 10BINGO!!

This time the big blind leads out for 3k (little under pot size), I raise to 7k.
The button then says "Forget your 3k, forget your 7k... I raise to 20k!"

The big blind raises all-in, I'm fist-pumping as I call all-in as does the button.

Big blind turns over 44
Button has AJ

The river wasn't a 4 so a very nice triple up!

However!

I soon lost most of it in this big hand!

The cut-off min-raises and I defend the big blind with the so called "Didsbury Nuts" 64

Maybe it's called that for a reason as the flop comes 235!!

I check-raise him all-in and he calls... with A3BINGO!!

Turn 2
River 2



Ah poker is a crazy game!

-----------------------------------------------------

Anyway, so I took the double add-on and after the break is calms down and you can sort of play proper poker!

Long story short, I finished 3rd out of 34 for £80 (total outlay £26). Fairly happy.

So total amount to add to the running total is £250+£80 = £330 converted = $403. Taking us to....





AAIII AHHHHH!! So close!

I have 2 tournaments max before the end of the year. I'm in Nottingham on Friday for the £165 6-Max Championship at Dusk Till Dawn and if I bust that I'll be playing the evening tournament there. A min-cash in either of them would take me to $5k I think.

If the $ had stayed at the same level to the £ as it was earlier in the year I may have hit it already!

Either way, whatever happens, I'm going to say the challenge is a success!

I will update on Saturday with how it went and close this thread off and also set myself a new one for 2017!

Merry Christmas All!