2 weeks and counting.... (TL;DR)

Hi guys. It's been a couple of weeks since my last post, so i thought it was time i updated what has been going on.

To be honest, not much. Not much in the way of success, big scores, or exciting deep runs anyway. I had a great day which i blogged about in my last post, and since then, well, like i said not much. The 1st Sunday since my last post i was very hungover as, (some of you may be aware) it was my friends birthday, and he had a festival style party, which was a very messy ADS (all day session). So on the Sunday, i decided to not play much, plus it was my brothers birthday, so that was another excuse.

On to the week after. I really couldn't get focused. I was playing tilty. I was spewing off stacks deep in tournaments (nothing new there.. wheyyyy!)  and looking forward for the last tournament of the daily grind to finish so i could go bed. Now i love doing what i do, even though it does mean sitting in front of my computer for long stretches during the week. However from time to time i have days, or periods of days like this, where my motivation is slack. What causes it, i don't know. Bad moods? stress? i'm not sure, but it resulted in bad results, and nothing exciting to write home about for the whole week, and apart from during horrible downswings, that is very rare. But hey-ho! It happens, the best thing, i find, is to have a little break, lower the volume, and go over hand histories and training videos. I was definitely happy to finish on the Thursday night, and was looking forward to enjoying my weekend with my friends, family and girl friend, until I started back on the Sunday.

Last Sunday I came back with that hunger of a big win. It didn't materialise though, and the day was pretty break even. I made a deep run in the Brawl, and ran horrid at the business end. My KQo button raise lost to a Big Blind jam for ~20big blinds with K6o (6 on the river). That crippled me, i then raced out for the rest in 38th. That was the closest i got to the "big score" that day.

The "run goods" weren't really there as much for me this week as they had been 2 weeks prior. When people constantly have the goods against you, and your thin value bets are getting check raise on the river again and again, it affects your confidence. This in turn, makes you question your plays, thin calls, and value bets, which equates to you not playing your A-game. Of course, this is tournament poker, you HAVE to run above expectation to win the tournament. But you also have to play as good a game as you can, preserving chips, and making maximum value from your big hands, for when you do run good enough to go deep. I was questioning myself in certain positions, and although i played infinitely better than last week, I wasn't on top form. The highlight of the (pretty lame) week was a 2nd in the $50 1 rebuy, 1 addon on FTP. It was good for almost $4k. I pretty much bossed the Final table. Had a good seat draw to the left of a competent agro British player. Me being to his left kept him quiet. I got to Heads up with a big chip lead, but doubled him 1st hand AJ vs his AQ. I should have took it down, considering my chip lead at the start, and the fact i felt i had a pretty big edge over him, but i couldn't get it finished. He won the 2 other times i had him all in, and eventually lost A8 to QK. Ah well, happens right?

Okay, that's the recap complete (apart from one tournament which i will touch upon later; involves sickness). One thing i will briefly mention is that i have ditched the Stars Avatar (below). I've always thought that not having an avatar is +EV as opposed to having one, which people remember and identify you with. I tend to remember people by their picture, rather than their name, maybe its just how my memory works, i'm not sure. But anyhow, i finally got around to emailing PokerStars, and asking them to remove it. They have allowed me to put another one up when i want to, but not for now. The old one, by the way, was just a cartoon i made on paint, supposed to be me, but like a retarded version ( i don't have a boss-eye in real life).

As i mentioned earlier, there was a tournament this week, that involved a pretty sick hand. It was the $215 1 rebuy 1 add on qualifier on Stars for a $13k Passport package. (The one i was lucky enough to bink 2 weeks ago). There was 1 package up for grabs, and 2nd paid only $200. We were 3 handed, and i had played very aggressive on the final table, as had the other 2. This was winner take all (pretty much) so you have to do what you can to get all the chips. The Villain was Jaybeastie, a german player, who shows a nice lifetime profit of $90k on officialpokerrankings.com on Stars. He had got the better of me when we were down to 3 handed, mostly blind vs blind, where i whiffed the flop each time, and he raised my C-bet, or 3-bet my check raise. He was very agressive, and seemed pretty competent. I had recently doubled back to the chip lead with 88 vs his AQ, all in on 8Ax flop. The other player had tightened up, as me and JayBeastie had been battling pretty hard. Then this hand occurred:

 PokerStars Game #63433685659: Tournament #403069855, $200+$15 USD Hold'em No Limit - Level XI (400/800) - 2011/06/16 21:51:31 WET [2011/06/16 16:51:31 ET]

Table '403069855 2' 9-max Seat #5 is the button

Seat 5: jaybeastie (37186 in chips)

Seat 7: -MortenVM- (24249 in chips)

Seat 8: Spraggs (37565 in chips)

jaybeastie: posts the ante 75

-MortenVM-: posts the ante 75

Spraggs: posts the ante 75

-MortenVM-: posts small blind 400

Spraggs: posts big blind 800

*** HOLE CARDS ***

Dealt to Spraggs [7s 8s]

jaybeastie: raises 800 to 1600

-MortenVM-: folds

Spraggs: calls 800

*** FLOP *** [2c 4s 6h]

Spraggs: checks

jaybeastie: bets 2175

Spraggs: raises 2825 to 5000

jaybeastie: raises 3825 to 8825

Spraggs: raises 27065 to 35890 and is all-in

jaybeastie: calls 26686 and is all-in (SNAP calls)

Uncalled bet (379) returned to Spraggs

*** TURN *** [2c 4s 6h] [2s]

*** RIVER *** [2c 4s 6h 2s] [Kd]

*** SHOW DOWN ***

Spraggs: shows [7s 8s] (a pair of Deuces)

jaybeastie: shows [5c Ac] (a pair of Deuces - Ace kicker)

jaybeastie collected 74847 from pot

*** SUMMARY ***

Total pot 74847 | Rake 0

Board [2c 4s 6h 2s Kd]

Seat 5: jaybeastie (button) showed [5c Ac] and won (74847) with a pair of Deuces

Seat 7: -MortenVM- (small blind) folded before Flop

Seat 8: Spraggs (big blind) showed [7s 8s] and lost with a pair of Deuces

This hand tilted me pretty bad. So much in fact i had to get a cigarette from my stash in my car and have one during the 5 minute break (i've quit for a while now). I decided to flat preflop rather than 3 bet, because he was never folding, so it was a lot better playing small ball, than inflating the pot, or having to 5bet or just let it go. The flop it pretty dry, but hits my range i think. Knowing he was going to C-bet i checked, with the intention of a check raise, expecting it to take the pot, however, i was willing to 4-bet shove, if he 3bet, as i know he was capable of doing this with lots of air-balls. I of course have a hand that i much prefer to shove with, rather than call with, and if he does have a real hand, i still have outs. I went with my plan, and 4bet shoved over his 3bet (which was smaller than i had thought he was going to make it, but it didnt make any real difference) and he called me so quick. When he snapped me that quick i thought over pair or set. Nope! A5! I turn the flush draw too, and miss the absolute world (17 outs on turn), for a pot which pretty much guaranteed the package. He later said he's not folding a double gutter and the ace vs me there, to which i explained he had the middle pin gutshot, not double like he thought. That tilted me even more. Either way he has a hand that as the aggressor getting it in isn't too bad, but calling off so many chips, for a pot with so much equity in my opinion is just bad. I show up with sets, 2 pair, A6 etc so often there, and he's just in horrible shape. Anyway, that was how it went. I lost, he went on to win the package (CALLING 2 barrells out of position with KTo on AxxQ, binking a J on the river and check raising all in and getting the call off AK, well played kid!!) I'm not bitter though ;-)

This again has turned into a long blog post, i do ramble don't I! Anyway, I still have a couple of things i want to mention...

It's 2 weeks until i jet out over the Atlantic to Vegas. Just me and my brother heading out there this year. Usually there's more of us, but lack of funds, have meant its just the Spraggons Duo! I'm going to try and play more poker than i have in the previous years, including the WSOP Main Event and a couple of the Venetian deepstack events. Maybe some cash too. I am thinking about selling some of my action for the Main Event, thing is, on Blondepoker.com, you need 300 posts to do so on their staking forum, and i have only 150 ish. Plus when i ship it, will be nice to just rake in the lot :-) I may play the £340 deep stack at Dusk til Dawn the weekend before i go, to get a little bit more live experience before the big one. One thing for sure is that i can't wait to touch down at McCarran airport, in the beaming heat, with all the exciting possibilities awaiting me. Brits are doing so well at the WSOP this year already, so would be nice to make a deep run at the main event and add to the great results so far.

Today, i am having a day off to catch up on what needs to be caught up on. I'm making a video for a training site, that have asked me to do a sample. If it is any good then i may be picked to be on their MTT training team. Fingers crossed they like the video. It's my first one, so hopefully it's not too rough around the edges. Tonight i'm having a takeaway with Charlotte, it'll be nice to just chill out. On Sunday, it's back to the grind, after a fathers day meal with the family. 

I know this has been a pure essay, and i apologise (TL;DR etc..) but i will leave you with one last hand that happened on Party poker last week:

***** Hand History for Game 10543566128 *****
NL Texas Hold'em $33 USD Buy-in Trny: 61269607 Level: 6  Blinds(75/150) - Tuesday, June 07, 16:20:34 BST 2011
Table $7,500 Gtd Rebuy (2260958) Table #1 (Real Money)
Seat 9 is the button
Total number of players : 10/10
Seat 2: AdamK969 ( 16,240 )
Seat 1: AgainstMe777 ( 1,530 )
Seat 6: Decalits3 ( 6,695 )
Seat 10: Flyer9AK ( 14,725 )
Seat 4: Spraggs12345 ( 8,340 )
Seat 3: mcs1963 ( 2,625 )
Seat 7: michi0011 ( 10,085 )
Seat 5: mohnexx ( 6,730 )
Seat 9: nic3_i_lik33 ( 9,505 )
Seat 8: winniehoho ( 2,535 )
Trny: 61269607 Level: 6
Blinds(75/150)
** Dealing down cards **
Dealt to Spraggs12345 [  6h 6d ]
AdamK969 raises [300]
mcs1963 folds
Spraggs12345 calls [300]
mohnexx folds
Decalits3 folds
michi0011 folds
winniehoho folds
nic3_i_lik33 folds
Flyer9AK folds
AgainstMe777 calls [150]
** Dealing Flop ** [ 3h, 6s, 5c ]
AgainstMe777 is all-In  [1,230]
AdamK969 raises [2,460]
Spraggs12345 is all-In  [8,040]
AdamK969 calls [5,580]
** Dealing Turn ** [ 8d ]
** Dealing River ** [ 6c ]
AdamK969 shows [ 8c, 8h ]a full house, Eights full of Sixes.
Spraggs12345 shows [ 6h, 6d ]four of a kind, Sixes.
AgainstMe777 shows [ Ad, 8s ]two pairs, Eights and Sixes.
Spraggs12345 wins 13,620 chips from the side pot 1 with four of a kind, Sixes.
Spraggs12345 wins 4,665 chips from the main pot with four of a kind, Sixes.
Player AgainstMe777 finished in 64.

He binks 1 outer on turn, i re-bink my 1 outer on river Weeeeeeeeeee!!

Have a good weekend.

One Day Like This..

Play this song in the background whilst reading the blog (if you want) great song!

Days like yesterday (2nd June) make you realise the torturous online MTT grind is all worth it in the end. I started the day with a feeling of good things, I even tweeted this: "I might start running at least ok in the business end of tourneys sometime soon. FT bubbled $129 FTP last night, 50r stars night before. Not tonight though, shipping 5 figs tonight.." (https://twitter.com/#!/BenSpraggs)




And yep, the moaning worked! I started off with a 3rd in the early $109 f/o on stars for $2,500. And then binked this badboy:

Not sure if i can take the $13,000 in cash, if not i will play the European Poker Tour (EPT) London or the Pokerstars Caribbean Adventure (PCA), as I'm already in the Main Event (via Party Poker) and also those two are worth $13,750 and $14,500, respectively, so added value. I went to the PCA in Bahamas 2009, and as amazing as the place is, its just so far to go. But I'll have to weigh up my options. 


If that wasn't enough, i then went on to go very deep in the Stars $50 rebuy. After making a debatable 4bet jam with 55 into QQ 4 handed to cripple me, i made a pretty sick comeback, and got 2nd for $8,300. I played pretty bad Heads up, but in my defense i was very tired, short stacked, and he did run pretty good. After spewing 4 handed, i was more than happy.


I really hope this heater continues (i won the 100r the week before i went to Barcelona), because If you want to run good anywhere, its on PokerStars.

Today i'm chilling out, getting life things done, and going somewhere for a meal tonight with Char.

Tomorrow (Saturday) is my friends birthday and he's having a Music Festival style birthday, with lots of friends going, barbeque's, live music and plenty of beverages i should imagine! Hope the weather holds out for it as some are even camping, and i want to get some rays!

Sunday it's my brothers birthday, he's coming over for a BBQ. We don't exchange gifts anymore, because it got to the point, i would give him money, and he would give the same back a month or so later. Plus i take him to Vegas with me every summer, so thats not a bad present!! Although it's a present for me too, as i love having him with me, always my favourite time of the year! I'm hoping he wont mind if i sneak off a little early, as on this heater, i think its time I final tabled a Stars Sunday Major (or two)!

Looking forward to Vegas lots, going to be playing the Main event and a couple of Venetian Deepstack events, but I will talk about that more in the near future. Have a good weekend!

1st EVER blog post

I will be trying my hardest to keep my Blog up to date and as interesting as possible, so long as there is demand for it! I will also try to keep poor spelling, typos and punctuation to a minimum. All feedback is welcome, so long as it is constructive (and nice :-p)

OK. So last week (of May) i was lucky enough to be in Barcelona for the WPT Spanish Championship. I qualified online via Party Poker and took my girlfriend with me as she works so hard and gets hardly any time off work. I thought it would be a nice place to go for the 2 of us on our 1st holiday together.

We flew on the Tuesday, (with easyjet which were surprisingly good) and I decided to play Day 1a (Wednesday). I chose 1a as i like to have a break between day 1 and 2 if i make it so i am well rested, also if i didn't make it i could just spend the rest of the time with Charlotte and enjoy the city.

The tournament didn't go to plan, I busted in the last level of Day 1. I have been trying to improve my live game of late. In previous tournaments, i felt like i hadn't played the game which comes so naturally to me when behind a computer. I found it hard to think what i would do in certain situations if i was playing online. I also found it tough to be ballsy and aggressive like i am online, and its such a key factor.

This time it wasn't the case and I feel i am definitely getting better, as a couple of hands i will list below should show.

I was really looking forward to the tournament, and knew if i played my A game, ran well and got good table draws i could go deep. I hoped it would be full of average/bad Spanish players that would make it good value. The buy-in was 3500Euros.

1st table i had a crazy Frenchy on my direct left. I found this out early on when he made a couple of bluffs that got called by a solid Spanish player who was on my direct right. It wasn't a bad table draw, but it could have been better. The tournament had a 30k start stack, and hour levels starting at 50/100, lots of play. My strategy was standard, stay snug, and see cheap pots.

I lost a little pot where i led the flop in 4 way pot with JQo on JTxdd, got 1 call on the button (OTB), I then chk/called 8x turn and folded to an almost pot bet on Tx river. Bit of a gay spot for me, I should have either just folded pre, or led the turn too. This was vs the solid Spaniard. I just felt if he had QK or diamonds he'd take a free card on turn most of the time, so i let it go. He could definitely be value betting AJ, a full house. It would have been a hero call that I didn't need to make. Although i did think about for a good minute, and the french twat on my left called clock. This was only the 2nd level, we had no history and i didnt exactly take that long. I thought to myself what a dick. Didn't say anything though.

That took me down to like 26k, and then this hand came up the last hand before the break:

75/150. Folds to Hi-Jack (weak player, oldish) who makes it 525, C/O (young Spanish player, had a couple of pics taken of him) calls, button folds, SB (solid Spanish man who had seen a lot of cheap pots) calls I look down at J9o in the BB. My image is tight at this point, no 3betting or anything, i felt it was a good spot to squeeze, considering the players involved and my image. I make it 2200, expecting it to get through if the opener folds. He checks his cards and, says something like "i'll let you have it" and folds. The button doesn't fold though. He ponders, checks his cards, and bumps it up to 4700(iirc) SB folds, back to me. I thought if anyone in this hand was capable of a light 4bet to my squeeze it was him. I looked at him for a bit, couldnt get any tells coz i suck at that, and had to stick to what i know. "What is he flatting preflop so deep, and then reraising my squeeze with" i thought. Answer: Not much. By now because the break had started there was a crowd around the table as we were the last hand playing out. I felt If i 5bet here, he is folding so often, And if he does 6 bet, im obv snap folding. so i make it 9k and he ponders and eventually folds, i show J9o and he shows the 75dd. So my read was right. whether i gave something off and he was close to pulling the trigger or not i don't know, but it got through, got the blood pumping, and i won the pot, so i was happy.

Got me to the break above the start stack at 33kish. Not long after that the table broke.

My new table was what i was after, it was crazy. It took me about 30 seconds to discover this, after seeing a couple of limps at 100/200 (no ante) and then this young French lad throw in 2200 OTB, all to fold and him to show a rag (4iirc). There was lots of limping going on. I was happy to be where i was. I had some overweight FTP pro on my direct  right, Mario something, seemed a nice guy. He was raising lots of pots though and showing down some loose opening hands at showdown, but was picking up lots of pots, and hitting the boards hard.

5 mins in at my new table this hand occurred:

2 limpers in MP (pretty standard at the table) The table nit makes it 600 (3x) OTB, Mario calls, i have 68cc in BB and flick it in, as do the 2 limpers. Flop comes 579cc. BINK! SB chks, I chk, limpers chk to PF raiser, who checks back. Turn is 5x bad card for me obviously, but cant be worried, and i lead just over half pot when checked to. It folds to the button who calls, as does Mario. river Tx. I miss my Flush draw, and i dont like the T, as the nit OTB could easily have TT. Mario checks, i make a bet of just under half pot, 4400 into 9500 i think. It is a blocky value bet that i sometimes make. I think i can def get called by worse, and if i get raised, then im beat basically, barring a redic bluff. The button makes the call, Mario eventually folds. I flip my 68 confidently, expecting to rake in the nice pot, having been called by something like JJ-AA by the nit. Nope, he flips TT, i sit there a little bit shocked, and pissed off, a couple of people at the table, notice he just called, and question why he didnt raise, which he replies he was scared of 55.

Interesting!!! i could have gone broke if the betting went different on the flop i suppose. That deflated me though, and i wondered whether it was going to be one of them days again.

The next interesting hand happened @ the 125/250/25a level

The cutoff opened (he hadn't been at the table too long, hadn't done anything silly, had opened a couple of pots) 3x, Mario Calls in SB, i look down at A9o. I decide to squeeze again, and bump it to 2500. The Raiser had quite a short stack of around 15k i believe, so i know if i bumped it, he had to risk his tourney life or fold. He pondered and folded after 30 seconds. Mario called and led 2k into 6k on an A9x flop. I know how aggressive he is, and knew raising would just be bad, if you show weakness (which can me tough in position) vs players like him, then they will just barrel. I called. Turn was another Rag. He checked to me, I got the feeling he didnt have much, an Ace at best that i may get him to spaz to me on the river, more likely a pair (maybe a PP like 88) or a hand he will try to bluff me with if he thinks i have a hand like TT-KK, which i decided to rep by checking back the turn. The river was another safe card lower than a 9. the pot was 10kish, i had 21kish behind. He led the river for 6k (as i suspected he would). I gave him the pile, and he looked confused for 30 seconds and eventually folded.

I like my line here, i played the player, and made sure i could get him to spaz with air, and maybe pay me off if he actually connected. The original raiser said he may have made an awful read (claimed to fold AK pre lol!)  Mario later claimed to fold J9 (Nice call pre!) and that i played the hand well, although i never told him what i had.

There was another key hand @ 200/400/50a where Mario raised utg i called with 66 and it was 5 way to the flop which came T86hhh. He continued and i was the only caller. Turn came a rag non heart he chkd and i chkd back (not really liking this one bit now, but at the time, i wanted to keep it small in case a heart came on the river, or in case he check shoved,) anyway a heart come on the river, and he put me almost all in (massively over betting the pot i had 20k left, he bet 18k and the pot was around 12k i think). If anyone was capable of a sick bluff here it was him. But how i had played it, he had to think i have Ah in my range. I folded, and he showed 2s4s for a complete bluff. It was pretty rough, and annoying. I later asked him about it, and he said he thought he could get me to fold Kh. I said if i'm calling the flop then i'm not gna fold the river when i hit! I think it was a spot where he just had to do something to win the pot, and didn't even think what i could have. But thats what happens when you play like a passive pussy sometimes, especially against hyper agro South Americans. Pair the board one time there though FFS! anyway, wp Mario, owned me i guess.

Anyway i got moved to another table shortly after, which i hated, I was more than happy at the previous "crazy table", (which it had been called by one of the bloggers updating the progress).

Going into the last level i had grinded back to 30 (from 20k after the 66 hand vs Mario) by 3betting a couple of times and 4betting a German with QQ.

This is where i bust.. (so ashamed of this now i look back at it) blinds @ 300/600/75a

i get dealt 77 in the HJ and make it 1350. My stack was a little below 50BBs. Folds to the BB who had been quite active at the table. He had one of the bigger stacks, probably sitting on 50k+. He bumped it to 3800. Now. I like my hand, and looking back calling is probably the way to go, play a opt in position, failing that, make it 7500-8000 and then fold to 5bet shove.  Nope. Not me. I decided to 4bet shove for 29k, and he snapped me off with QQ and turned me dead.

I had a pure brain fart, and this is definitely one of the things i must sort out in my Live game. whether it was because it was the last level, and i was tired and therefore made a silly decision, i don't know. Either way, it was a bad play on my part. But it happens, sometimes. I need to take a little more time to think about my options in future and be less hasty.

All in all though, i played a good aggressive game. With a little more fortune,m i could easily have run up a good stack early on. There are definitely tweaks that need to be made though.

Sorry for dragging this out for so long, this is my first ever blog post, and like my Live game i need to sort out my leaks!! Feedback on how to present Live hands would be appreciated, am i rambling etc?

Thats it anyway. Got a few things lined up, which i will save for my next post, as well as how my online results have been going. BYE!