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:
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.
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