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!