Blog #9 - Winner, winner, Chicken for...erm, breakfast??

WOW...so chuffed!! No, I can't draw this one out - straight to the point! In only my 2nd proper live tournament I played the £300 freezeout at 'The Vic' and cashed in 4th place for a fantastic £1560!! Ooh yes!! Thanks you Ladbrokes for the opportunity and for teh buy-in and thank you fellow Grassroot players for teh support!!!

So now the long version of my exploits!

I set off to work around 8am, with my 'poker outfit' packed and did my rare commute into London for a hard days graft...I would tell you what i do, but then I'd have to kill you...yep, you guessed it, civil servant. Then I left work around 5:45 after changing into my less formal and hopefully lucky poker attire, including 'THE T-shirt' and headed off to 'The Vic' full of anticipation...oh and full of coffee and red bull too!

I meet fellow grassrooter whyi in reception and after registering for teh £300 game we had a drink and a chat in the bar, soon to be joined by other grassroot players. Must admit i think that helped to calm the nerves and was good to have some banter about how we had all got through to this stage and a feeling of 'Team Ladbrokes' rather than competitors and egos. Only disappointment was no Ladbrokes poker representatives, but I understand that The Vic has a strict 'No cameras and no filming' policy which would have prevented any filming so understandable. Seems they are very aware of that policy too, as before i knew it, having raised by phone to take a picture of the card area for a 'tweet', the barman in a polite but very firm way told me to put it away...which explains the lack of my tweet picture updates...well that's my excuse and I'm sticking to it!

Anyway, before we knew it, the caller announced it was time for players to take their seats and so we wished each other good luck and found our places...and it was time to see if i could put all my 'studying' to good use.

Unfortunately (or should that be fortunately) the next 6 hours for me were generally quite uneventful...no big hands, no big wins and no big losses. At the first break i had increased my chip stack from teh starting 10k to 16k and was pretty much running average. That was teh situation at every single break up until teh reaching the final table, where i found myself within 1k of teh average chipstack each time.

Having said that i came across Palser, a fellow grassrooter, who went all in with a dwindling chipstack, and finding QQ i had to call and knocked him out...sorry, but had to be done. 

At each break it seemed one or two more grassroot players had been knocked out, except for Baby Face...sorry, we did say our first names, but terrible with real names!!

So, 5 or 6 plus hours later myself and Baby Face found ourselves on teh final table of 10, which from the 56 runners The Vic was only paying to 7...oh dear. During table talk the grassroots promotion came up and what it involved and how fortunate we were and one of teh players on teh final table did try and strike a deal with everyone to take a slice off of teh prize fund to guarantee each place some money, even if only a £10 so that we would secure some cash to top the stage 3 poker winnings. However, a certain Neil Channing said 'no' and so that was that...which at the end of teh day is fair enough and certainly no hard feelings.

Slowly we got down to teh bubble and Neil Channing (who I found to be quite entertaining with his table talk) after losing a hand and a stack of chips went all in (42os...not for teh 1st time either) with his remaining chips. The blinds were 4k/8k and i was in teh big blind so SB called and i matched the all in holding K8 os, which was only around 9k more i think and we checked down to the end, where i won with a pair of 8s (hit on teh turn) and hurray...I WAS IN THE MONEY!

So a quick hand shake and congraulations with baby face and some cheers from whyi and Alvin who had both stayed to watch and support us (MANY THANKS GUYS!!) and teh game carried on.

Eventually babyface was knocked out in 5th place and with a smallish stack on teh SB, the 1st position had raised around 19k so i went all in with KQos (holding less than 10bb...still at 4k/8k) and found myself called against A6os. Thinking back that probably wasn't a good move as a raise, even with only players probably indicated at least Ax and so my hand was slight underdog...but hindsight is such a wonderful thing isn't it? Anyway, hit a K on the flop but then an A came on teh turn and that was the end of me...

...well the end in that game anyway, but i think the start of grassroots stage 3 as i think i have secured my place in teh next £500 round with my poker play rather than having to hope for a 'social media' wildcard.

SOOOOOOOOO PLEASED & EXCITED!!

And after grabbing a train with babyface from Victoria towards Brighton, where i came off at Gatwick, I rolled home at 6:30am and managed to wake up my son creeping up the stairs...he asked how i had done, so i showed him my wad of newly acquired £50s and his whoop woke the rest of teh family up...and their whoops probably woke next door too!!

And then to get the notice from Ladbrokes later that morning saying that we could keep 100% of our winnings...well, needless to say that after a long daytime sleep we celebrated most of teh weekend!!

Thank you again Ladbrokes and hope both the poker and teh social media side are doing you proud!

Can't wait for teh next game...though don't get ahead of yourself Mr G...you're not a poker pro...YET!!!

Blog #8 - Relighting my fire!

Well, over the last week I've soaked up more poker advice, from poker forums (thanks to those on two plus two) to poker books and some podcasts too. I also, tuned in to watch the live video stream at The Fox for their £25k weekend event and found AceFather / Hazzy in seat number 4 and seemingly picking up where I left off with a distinct lack of playable cards 99% of the time! Hard luck but very jealous that you've picked up a WSOP ticket...well done!

And guess what, following all of that I think I may have rekindled the spark...or is it just coincidence?

When I first started playing online poker all those years ago I played the same types of multiple table tournaments (MTTs) that I do now, at teh same stakes, and month after month found myself making a comfortable profit, especially considering the relatively low level I was playing at.

Then over the last couple of years I had found that my profit was very inconsistent and unfortunately found myself having to top up my online poker account every two or three months with another £100 or so to cover my games.

Looking back now, I'm fairly sure that I was no longer playing poker for the thrill and to win but it had turned into a basic hobby to replace watching crap TV in teh evenings. I've never really been one for TV really, bar a few select programmes (which i know others view as crap as well) it is just a background noise, but with a youngish family you do find the evenings turning into sessions in front of 'teh box' rather than going out and about socialising as you might do as a child free couple. And sure, the wins were nice, but they were more a relief at knowing they would cover my poker entries for teh next few weeks, rather than wins that were perhaps showing development of my poker skills and stepping up to higher levels.Anyway, where was I? Yes, having done lost of recent Poker 'revision', in fact, almost going back to basics, I really do feel that I have rekindled that spark and am again playing poker to win and develop and profit NOT as a hobby. Sure, I know it is early days...it may well just be coincidence on timing, but the way I feel when playing poker recently seems different; more focused, more aware and for now anyway, more profitable!! Something that I think I can genuinely thank the Grassroots promotion by Ladbrokes for, as it has cretainly renewed by interest. Significantly increasing my online balance within a week, through multiple wins (as opposed to one big one off win) whilst playing the same low stake $10 MTTs surely is a good sign...isn't it, or am i just on a lucky streak!!

However, and a big BUT, my winning ways seems to be coming in everything apart from the main poker game of Texas Hold'em!! Thankfully Ladbrokes  have a great range of poker variations, scheduled at good times, with nice guarentees for teh amount of entries, which certainly keeps me a loyal client. This week's winnings include a couple of 1st places in 7 Card Stud & 1 in Razz and a nice handful of other final table top 5 finishes in Omaha and Bounty tournaments as well as some 2nd & 3rd places in Stud and Razz. And currently 14th in Ladbrokes' Poker Social Series leaderboard. BUT not even close in any standard Hold'em Games!!!!

None of this bodes well for tonight's trip to 'The Vic', where I will ply my new found passion in an attempt to get through to teh next round of the Ladbrokes Poker's Grassroots promotion - playing Texas Hold'em...oh dear!

However, always one who looks for the positive, so I really am looking forward to the tomorrow night's challenge and meeting up with other Grassroots Players, who although I'm up against them I do wish them good luck too! Just not if heads up against me! Not sure if Ladbrokes and their film crew will be on-site too...but I'll be teh one in my infamous T-shirt, which I hope will be luckier than the last time Iwore it...finishing 13th, unlucky for me!

Signing off for now...and hoping my next blog will be one citing success!!! Having said that, I am also a realist as well as an optimist!!! So, failing that I'll be expanding on my blog stats...429 page views, viewed as far away as Spain and USA with 19% of views via an iPhone...I really don't understand any of the other stats so that is actually it...oops!!

But hey Ladbrokes...surely if i don't cash then all of the blogging, tweets, facebook updates and don't forget 'THE' T-shirt is worth a wildcard through to stage 3 isn't it?

Blog #7 - Annie Duke's tips

Friday 1st June, and i was back in London for a 3 hour meeting; grrr the pain of a commute into London Victoria which is so different to my normal routine of a simple commuting downstairs to log-in as I'm a home based worker! I know, very lucky!!

However, the end of teh meeting and teh commute back home was made instantly better by looking at my phone when the meeting had finished and seeing missed calls and a voice message...knowing Ladbrokes were due to notify #LPGR2012 players for round 2 i was full of anticipation. So I returned teh call, spoke to a guy called Arran and he confirmed what I'd been hoping for - round 2 beckons! Big smile and well chuffed! So then I broke the news to family, friends and followers via facebook and twitter and was greeted with lots of 'well dones' and 'good lucks'. Thanks for all teh support!

However, no poker for a few days as out celebrating a friends birthday, then recovering, then jubilee party bbq (mainly dry...weather not alcohol), then recovering, and off to relatives, but driving so hope to get back online to play some more poker. Well actually to see if i can put Annie Duke's Poker Single ebook "The Middle Zone" to good use, as I've just finished it. A good read indeed for such a small pricetag. 

A very nice concept of offering advice on an individual area of poker in one concise bookette, rather than being part of a huge volume, that may get under read or overlooked amongst all teh other information. This is the first one, hopefully there will be more and it covered an area I have struggled consistently with in my game and depsite trying different strategies, none seemed to work well. The advice presented was very readable, easy to take in, made sense and you could see how you could put it into practise. Well done Annie and co-writer John Vorhaus, look forward to teh next one. Actually, having seen Annie Duke on teh Apprentice and being robbed of the title in my opinion, I have become somewhat of a fan and am fully expecting to have the kids get me 'Decide to play great poker' for Father's Day...sure beats novelty socks and chocolate by a mile!!

Other good reads are actually from blogs of other #LPGR2012 competitors. Rodders77's account of his win in round 1 was a good read and interesting...a bit of competition for the wildcard through to round 3 maybe. And I have liked Hazzy's/AceFather's updates of his recent exploits, with 5 figure wins -  seemingly on a regular enough basis to make that transition to a pro. He's my bet for teh final anyway!

So teh next decision is where to play my £300 game, seems to be a choice of two venues. It's either Fox Poker Club in a £25k 2 day event, where looking at previous events there are likely to be 110-120 entries, which pays 12 places. Alternatively it is the The Vic's £15k evening event, where after phoning them up they think they'll have around 60+ entries, which would pay down to about 10. The feedback seems to be that the Fox's structure is more suited (slower and bigger starting stack - 20,000 chips and 45 min blinds) to teh 'novice', compared with The Vic's structure (10,000 chips and 30 min blinds). But the Fox's freezeout is actually not a freezeout in my book as you can re-enter, whereas The Vic's is a pure freezeout! However, surely I have more chance with significantly less competitors at The Vic? 60 entries pays 10 compared with 120 entries pays 12?

So, my choice keeps drifting between the two, however, I think I'll be going for the ... erm, in the middle zone, trying to take myself out of that awful place!  Ok have made my mind up...

...will let you know in my next blog!!