2011 Rewind

As ever, I am late. A tradition passed down in the Spraggons family tree. 2011 had been and gone. Forgotten about already by most. And here I am in February, doing what most had finished by the first weekend in January. My 2011 Rewind.

Worry not though kind readers! This will be less of a dictation, and more a presentation to you. Below I have cut/copied and pasted my statistics and notable scores for each site I played on.

Online

Stars was a bit of a bitch in 2011 to say the least. I felt I ran way below Expected Value (EV) in some pretty huge hands/situations, and this was confirmed by my stats on Hold'em Manager. It's hard to get an exact idea of how you "ran" over a year playing MTT's because you could run well below EV for every single tournament, and then run pure in the Sunday Million/WCOOP, not lose an all in, and the stats may be scewed and say you ran above EV for the year. I suppose it comes down to them elusive two words, sample size! WAIT! I'm not moaning here, I just want to show some statistics and then justify why they may be low, high, different from last year etc etc. Throughout 2011 on Stars my HEM stats show I ran at 82% of what my EV should have been. How bad that really is I'm not too sure. I have nothing to compare it with, and have not discussed it with anyone. All I know is $18,000 profit on a site that I play my most volume isn't what I was hoping for at the start of the year. I also know that with the huge field sizes Stars have, it is going to be tough to have a great year without running above EV in a number of situations (i.e. Deep in big tournaments) . And I remember just not running good enough deep in a number of big tournaments, where the difference between winning and losing the all in was just huge ($ wise). That's not to say it is all down to me not having as much luck as my opponents. I know I am still a step behind the best players out there. Although my game is ever improving, as it has to stay near the top in this game, I know it needs tweaks to constantly be at the top with the best.

There will be no moaning about running below EVon Party Poker though. I ran good, I played full of confidence, and the weak fields meant for a good year. In 2010 I believe I finished the year with $3,000 profit from Party, so it just shows how "swingy" MTT poker can be. I had what was (until January 2012) my largest ever score, winning the $530 High roller outright for $27,500. I am a little surprised I only played 640 tournaments total for 2011, and will look to play a lot more in 2012. I done enough in them 640 to be ranked 7th for the year, which is nice :)

We all know what happened with Full Tilt Poker last year, so I won't go over all that again. I had a mini heater just before they were closed down, and therefore have quite a large amount of money stuck on there. Because the US Government are involved it's a painfully slow process. Any news about the whole affair has been drip fed to us over the last 6-7 months. News of a Takeover, has raised hopes I will see my money again, but until it is all set in stone, all I can do it wait with everything crossed.


Live

Below is a list of the tournaments I played in 2011 and their Buy-in's.


UKIPT Nottingham -£560 (Total Package value $1500) ^
UKIPT Manchester - £550 (Total Package Value $1500) ^
WPT Barcelona - 3500euro*
WSOP Main Event -$10,000*
Venetian Deepstack - $330 (£210)
Dusk Till Dawn Monte Carlo - £1,090*
DTD Grand Prix - 60euro (£50)*
GSOP Greece - $1650*

*won buy-in/package via on-line satellite, therefore won't be deducted from total profits.
^Pokerstars includes the value of tournament packages won via online satelites in total prize money/profits on Official Poker Rankings. Party Poker does not. The value for the 2 UKIPT packages will therefore be deducted from yearly profits below.

Total = £210
Cashes = 325euro (£270) -- LOL!
Profit/Loss = +£60

2011 Total Profit: $114,576 (+ Live cashes $462) (- $3000 Live Buy-ins) = $112,038 

Wrapping it up:


Overall I can't be disappointed with how 2011 went. I made a large amount of money, doing something that 90% of the time I love doing. I'm my own boss, I play when I want and I have huge freedom from playing poker. It definitely has it's pro's and con's of which the advantages massively outweigh the disadvantages, and I am lucky to be able to play essentially, a card game for a living. 2011 was a little less lucrative than 2010, but I won't be losing any sleep over it.

I was able to Travel to some great places, and stay in some fantastic hotels/resorts, and hope I can continue to qualify for Live tournaments in 2012 and onwards all over the world.

I think this is a good time to give a shout out to a few people that mean a lot to me, and that I would struggle to get by without. Firstly, my parents. After graduating from university in 2007 with a degree in Business Studies, I was just setting out on my poker career. I was making small amounts of money playing tournaments and Single table tournaments. I knew I had the right mind set and ability to be able to do it for a living and was completely in love with the game. They obviously pestered me to get a job and use my degree, and I was forced to send out CV's to get a 'real' job. I come from a Middle Class background, and my Dad worked his arse off to provide me, my brother and sister with a nice house in a nice area, nice holidays and generally a very good quality of life. My Mum done a great job in bringing us all up, and would do absolutely anything for all 3 of us. So seeing me playing a card game for a living was hard for them to take and understand at first. I can imagine telling friends and family, that essentially I gamble for an income was tough when they were asked "what's Ben doing with himself now then?" After the results consistently came rolling in, and they realised that what I was doing wasn't down to luck, and I was making a (reasonably) steady income that was 5 times (or more) as fruitful as what I could be receiving stuck behind a desk (with the bonus of enjoying what I do, not answering to anyone and visiting places I would never usually get the chance to) they became a little less hesitant and have since been nothing but supporting. They always ask how I am getting on, and although my Degree is gathering dust, I know now they are proud of me for being able to do something that I really enjoy. I hope in the near future I am able to repay them with a really nice treat. OK, that's enough about my parents, I love them very much, and wouldn't swap them for the world, but I'm worried about breaking my keyboard as I am getting a little emotional.

Side story: In the middle of writing that, I got a phone call from my Dad saying him and Mum have ran out of petrol on the way to a shopping trip 10 miles down the road. I have to go and bail them out, after being told many times by my Dad I "shouldn't let my petrol run down too low because it drags through all the crap at the bottom of the tank.. yada.. yada!" Was fun using that quote on him whilst passing him the Petrol Can haha! 


OK, I'm starting to wonder why I am doing this, because It's not as if I've won an award, or I've hit a pivotal point in my career to have to start thanking people, but I've started... and as I don't have James Corden in the room to cut me off like he did with Adele at The Brits, I will quickly finish..

My girlfriend Char is just the best. She puts up with a lot from me, and I am going to take this opportunity to thank her for that. She does get the Perks of coming with me on my travels when she can get it off work, but I wouldn't want it any other way.

My elder brother Craig is always great to have with me when I go away. He has come with me to Vegas the last 4 summers, and often stands railing me when I'm in a tournament. It's love having him with me, and I will always remember our trips to Vegas. He's one of my best friends, and we always have a great laugh, usually on someone else's expense because they vaguely look like a celebrity or someone we know haha!

Poker aside, I have to mention my Big sister too, Cara. She is super caring like my Mum and She has always looked out for me and Craig and I love her very much too.

Back on the poker track, I have to mention a good friend of mine Liam Dolman. I am often talking to him on MSN during an online grind, and many times he has stopped me from tilting whilst in a tournament, kept me company and made me laugh speaking his normal rubbish haha.

I don't really speak to people about poker, unlike most Regs. There is one person who is an exception to this though, who I met up with in Vegas a few years ago. James 'Jimbomber' Finnigan. He's a great lad and was willing to help me when I was first getting started, he used to crush in the old Paradise Poker days, and I am sure he will be crushing again very soon. All of the old Paradise crew deserve a mention: Hammer, Sprout, Dempsey, Spaggy May.

That's it, apologies if you thought that last bit was soppy drivel but I felt it was a good time to mention these people that have helped me throughout my Poker Career. There are many more Top Beavers that I love to bits outside of poker (Seaweed, Eddy etc) but I'll save that for when I win an EPT or a WSOP Bracelet ;)

I've made a little slideshow of a few of the places I went to in 2011. See you soon! x

WPT Dublin Trip Report (Jan 2012)

NEW: Glossary of Terms: Confused about an Acronym or Poker Term? Click Here!

The next stop on my rather lucrative lame Live Poker travels was Ireland, for the WPT Dublin. I had been to Galway (West Ireland) a couple of years ago for a UKIPT event, which took the same tone as many of my Live Tournament experiences and ended on Day 2, near the money, in an ugly manor. Don't worry, I won't go there. In between that trip and this trip I had lost my Dublin V Plates on a stag do, which also ended in an ugly manor. A very different kind, but again, I won't go there!

My +1 was once again my beautiful girlfriend Char. We flew out from London Luton, and arrived, lunch time at The CityWest Hotel. The Hotel was grand with a golf course, vast grounds, and an old vintage style building and décor. It seemed a nice place to stay for the next 4 nights.

We had our complimentary glass of champagne (I usually hate the stuff, but it was ok) had dinner, got used to our surroundings, and finally hit the hey. I watched a training video that I had downloaded onto my iPad in bed. Fail to Prepare, Prepare to Fail! 


Apologies for the thin "I have an iPad brag". I was lucky enough to win it in a twitter competition before Christmas. They're so good! (bold, italic, enlarged AND underlined to express my point!) They are great to have at the poker table too. Music, internet, video's/films, games and social media at the slide/tap of a finger. Perfect for preventing the blow-ups! Whether or not I looked a bit of a tool with it at the table, I don't care, it's a great machine. Anyway.. enough of the Apple loving...

Day 1 began on the Thursday. I had a very good sleep, mainly because Char didn't manage to set the alarm correctly (Women!!). This meant that we missed breakfast, so we grabbed lunch before I made my way to the poker room for the 2 o'clock start.  It was just the single day 1 that took place in a big conference room inside the hotel we were staying (as they often are). The Buy-in was 2500 Euro's.

The table looked pretty good to start with. The one empty seat was later taken up by the late Matt Perrins (He's not dead, he was just late). We were 10 handed to start which is always annoying. Especially as I started off in the 8 seat, and they then added a ten seat, meaning seats 1 - 5 had plenty of room and the rest of us were pretty much sitting on the dealers lap.

The WPT structure is deep, as you'd expect. The starting stacks were 30,000. First hand of note was @ 50/100. I had K9dd in the BB, and peel after a middle position (MP) open and a call. The flop was 8JQ with one diamond. SB checked, I thought about leading, but checked, and the opener checked back. Turn was the Jd, SB checked, I lead for just over half pot, the original raiser folded and the SB called. The turn was the 8d, giving me the K high flush, but making the board a rather ugly 8JQJ8. I was confident the SB didn't have a boat after checking to me again. Most likely he had a Q or AT kind of hand, so I made a thin value bet, and he thought for a while before folding.

At the next level (75/150) from UTG+2 the guy 2 to my right (1 to the left of Perrins) opened to 450, and I called in position with KJss. The flop came down ATT one spade, He c-bet, I decided to float, and called. Turn was an ace, and I made a small bet, under half pot when he checked to me, and it took it down.

We came back after the first break and the blinds were at 100/200. Nothing much had happened at the table.  Seat 6 (The guy from the previous hand) opened to 525, Seat 7 3-bet to 1400. Seat 6 had been one of the more active players at the table, and Seat 7 had 3-bet on more than one occasion previously, I look down at KTss and decide it's a pretty good spot to 4bet. I make it 3500. I should mention, Seat 6 had previously bluffed down to around 15k, in a spot where it was pretty obvious his opponent had it. Expecting it to go through a very large amount of the time, after a while in the tank Seat 6 made a 5 bet to ~7200, Seat 7 let go, and obviously so did I. Oops!

After that hand it seemed I didn't get much credit at the table, during 100/200 and 100/200/25 I opened and then folded to a 3bet a couple of time, I failed with 2 c-bets and, then 3-bet the button vs Perrins and he 4-bet me back, and I let it go. I think I had a pretty hand vs Perrins, and should have just flatted and played the pot in position, no biggy though, I had not had a pair yet (except 33 which I had to fold pre, 3 on flop obv) and was confident I could get paid when I had the goods.

After those 2 bad levels, I returned to the table at 150/300/25. Straight away things were looking up, as I looked down at 77. I peeled from the button after UTG opened. The flop brought AKJ though, and I folded to his C-Bet.

The next hand of note was when it folded to Perrins who opened the button. I was the BB to his Button as the  guy in Seat 6 had been moved tables, and we were now 9 handed. I defended with Ac8x. Perrins had been having a tough time at the table and was down to 14k, I wasn't doing much better with around 17k. Flop came KJ9cc, I check expecting a C-Bet and am ready to give up the hand, but he checks back. An odd check on that wet board. Turn was a small club, which I decided to lead, having the Nut flush draw. He called, and the river was the Ts making the board: KJ9cc4cTs. I missed my Club draw, but had to have a stab and bet just over half pot and he tank folded. That made it 1-1 after he 4bet me earlier :)

With 1 minute left on the clock before the break, and blinds at 2/400/50 I find AK UTG and open to 900, UTG+1 (A middle aged Irish man, who seemed quite aggressive pre flop, making a few 3-bets, but seemed more of a casual player) made it 2400. I started the hand with 18k, he had me covered, and I decided I wasn't going to be folding this hand. I made it 5600. And after a little while in the tank, he folded.

Our table was soon to be broken, and the blinds were 300/600/75. I had 24,700 and was still yet to have a pair other than my 33 and my 77, I was "crying in" a nice rush.

I found what I was looking for. KK UTG+1. I decide to limp.. joke... I raise it up to 1300, and the Irishman from the previous hand calls. We end up 3 way to the flop after the station in the BB comes along too. Flop comes down: K82 !JACKPOT! BB checks to me, I continue for 2.6k into ~5k. The Irishman flicks it in and the BB goes away. Heads up to the turn, which is a 2, bringing a possible flush draw, but giving me the full house. I bet again around half pot. I think I sized it a little smaller here to keep him interested, but so the pot would be large enough to make a 3/4 pot size shove on the river if need be. He didn't call though, he jammed, and I snapped him off. He showed KQss and was drawing dead. Bit of a cold deck for him after flopping the case K, but hey-ho, I got my double up!

I took some blinds and got moved to a new table. Blinds 400/800/100

I had Dave Shallow 2 to my right (eventual winner), I recognised the player on my direct left, not sure of his name, but quite young, tanned looking, resembled Ronaldo a little bit. I've seen him at a few live events and assumed he was capable. Over the otherside of the table, there was a bald tall lad in his 20's that again I recognised and know is capable. He plays a lot of the UK events, seen him knocking about with Nick Abou Risk (UKIPT two time winner) and that "crew".

I sit down with around 53k, and open 44 1st hand from MP. The button calls. He looked Russian/Eastern European, I later found out he was actually English or Irish but didn't know that at the time. Heads up to the T77 flop. I bet half pot and he didn't take too long in calling. The turn's a rag, (2 or 3 I think) I chk, he bets 5500. I felt it was a float with overs a lot of the time, that would try to take it on the turn, and called. The river was another blank, and I checked to him a second time. He gave up and mucked after I showed my 4's. I see paint as he mucks. It was probably QK or similar. That takes me up to 62k.

No hands of interest happened from then until the end of the day, and I bagged up 64,200. I had played super patient and disciplined throughout the whole of Day 1 and got my reward when I doubled in the KK vs KQs hand. I was very pleased with how I played, making very few mistakes. I went to bed excited for Day 2, and with the feeling that my Live game was improving. I was actually learning from previous experiences.

Day 2

We managed to make breakfast this time, and inside the couple of hours between eating and the start of Day 2, I got ready and looked up my starting table.

It was SHOCKING!

I was in seat 2 (no, no, wait there! It gets even tougher!) I had Ben Vinson on my right in seat 1,  I had a very aggressive French player on my left in seat 3, I had the tournament chip leader 2 to my left (a well known PLO player apparently). The winner of the 2010 Irish Poker Championship was 2 on his left. Sandwiched in between them 2 was another semi-known player, who I forget his name. On the left of the IPC champion was a French young lady, who had had a few good cashes according to her Hendon Mob, and finally on her left was Dermot Blain. A very good Live player who recently final tabled the 2011 WSOP Europe. I doubt there was a tougher table in the whole room for the whole tournament. Everyone knew their onions. Luckily it was the third to be broken!

I find JJ UTG early on, and open to 2200 @ 500/1000/100. The girl on the button makes it 4800 playing 50k and I decide to just call. The flop comes AKx, and end up folding to her turn bet after the flop got checked through.

I get A8o in the Hijack seat and make it 2200. The Agro Frency in seat 3 3bets to 5200. He had just won a nice sized pot versus Vinson, jamming the river and getting a fold. He shortly after that asked me how much I was playing when we were not in a hand. I was confident he would be 3-betting light here a lot of the time, and raise it up to 12,600 expecting to take it there and there.

Being swiftly reminded that my opponent was from France, I was now in a huge pot, out of position with A8o as he had made up the 7400 extra and called my 4-bet. Basically my plan now was damage control, and I was most likely going into shut-down mode. The flop was AKxdd. Trying to assign him a range, I decided betting this flop would take it a good % of the time, and if I get any resistance, then I'm rarely ahead. I bet 9400. Smaller than my 4-bet, but big enough. Or not... he calls. The turn is a Qd making the flush draw get there, I check, he checks. The river is another Q. I see no value in betting my hand, and check after about a minutes thought. He checks behind (thankfully), I flip my A8 ad he shows A7cc. Nice flat! We chop the pot up.

To the delight of most players at the table, it breaks.

I have 55k and am seated at what appears a good table. I recognise one player, Chaz Chattha, who is seated 4 to my right in seat 5. There is a female sponsored by Bodog in seat 6 and a few players wearing badges, suggesting they are satellite qualifiers.

First hand I play I open the button with an ace to 2600 (600/1200/200) and get a hefty looking 3-bet from the SB, a Greek hairy kid with glasses. I let it go.

I chip down after failing to get a steal through, having the blinds go through me, and then this hand: I pick up T7cc and decide to open from EP (my first mistake). I get called by a qualifier in the hijack, who had been playing a lot of pots. Chattha also calls on the button. QTx flop, which I C-bet. Both players call. I check the blank turn, as does the qualifier. Chattha bets half pot, and takes it after a moments thought from the qualifier, he shows AQ.

My stack is heading in the wrong direction. A young lad in a hoodie opens the button playing 17bb and I jam 55 from the BB, he folds. That helps.

I have 37400 going to 8/1600/200

After the break, I get back to see JJ on the button but don't get any takers from the 2 agro kids on my left. Sigh!

I then find QQ in the cutoff. I make it 3400 and the BB defends (the loose qualifier I mentioned earlier). My C-bet on a K33 is enough to take the small pot.

Nice Rush! Back up to 45k @ 800/1600 and gaining some momentum. At this point there was 120 of the 320(ish) that started left.

Hairy Greek boy opens UTG to 3500, it folds to me. KK in the BB! Hello! I re-raise it up to 8800. He asks how much I got and jams after a little time in the tank. I am delighted to call off my 45,000 chips with the second best starting hand in the game, but to my dismay, specky twat has the aces. I brick and I'm a goner.

It happens. It's a cooler, you have to be on the good end of them once or twice to win a tournament. This time I wasn't, maybe next time I will. I'm forever growing in confidence with my Live game, and really enjoyed it. The 30k start stack, and added levels meant I could keep patient and was able to grind it out to put myself in the position to go deep if I had the rub of the green. As I say, maybe next time.

We were meant to go to the Guinness Factory the day after, but I've got a foot injury at the minute which had been aggravated, so we decided to do our own thing. We went to Dublin city centre on the tram, had a Nando's lunch, and sampled the black stuff (well.. I did, Char had a white wine) in a pub. I had the misfortune of having a crackhead girl sit next to me on the tram. I assumed it was just a young girl that didn't yet know the concept of personal space as she almost sat on me when she first sat down. When she turned to me with her gaping eyes and rotten teeth asking me for change, I then realised, she wasn't a young girl, she was a 20 something year-old. A disgusting thing, on something (probably everything), that was quite likely to steal my phone if I didn't put my hand in my pocket, but more likely to either head-butt me or piss herself. She got off at the next stop (thank god) probably a little annoyed at my reply to her question "No, sorry. I don't have any change." (I did, Ha!). Seemed like there was a few weirdo's in the City centre, same with most places I guess.

We made our way back on Sunday. No WPT title just yet, but we had a good trip and I will make a deep run at one of these soon. Mark. My. Words. :)

My next Blog post is in the process of being written up, and is about how my 2011 went. It won't be too long before I have it ready to be posted, so keep an eye out! Should be a good read. Lots of Stats.

Until then, thanks for reading, Ben. x

GSOP Greece Trip and Online Update

It's been over 2 months since I last updated my Blog. The 2 main reasons for this are: Firstly, not much had happened, there were no trip reports and no big scores. Secondly, I got lazy. I was well overdue a post, so here it is! As the Title suggests, it will be about my recent trip to Greece for the GSOP and how I've been getting on on-line since August.

In September I was lucky enough to win a $3500 package to the GSOP in Greece on my first attempt on Party Poker. I was going to make a video replaying the Final table of the qualifier, but am yet to get round to it. I may update the Blog soon, adding that video, because if I remember rightly, I played it pretty well. I think it would make for interesting viewing. The package included buy-in to the main event, travel expenses, and 5 nights all inclusive stay in the 5* resort of Porto Carras (where incidentally i'd stayed when I was younger around 10 or so years ago) for myself and a guest, which was my girlfriend. I'm not 100% sure of the Buy-in, i think it was 1500Euros. All i do is turn up and donk about!

We set off ridonkulously early on the Tuesday morning from my house, as we were flying from Stanstead at 7:20am! My alarm was set at 3:00am, usually my bedtime, and because I was playing FIFA 12 on the PS3 until silly o'clock I was like a zombie until we landed in our next destination; Dusseldorf, Germany. We had to fly Indirect, because that's all there was to offer for our dates. After a short stopover in Germany, a moan from Char about having her moisturiser confiscated because of unexpectantly having to go through customs again, another flight, and a 1 and a half hour coach transfer from Thessaloniki airport we arrived in Halkidiki, Porto Carras. Very nice it was too!

The busy day of travelling, registration and attending the player party was over, and it was Wednesday, the Main Event! The sun was out, the temperature was 25 degrees (Celsius), and after a seeing off a happy Char to the pool and the sunshine, I made it to the tournament area. After a slight delay we were under way, 20,000 starting stack, 1 hour clock, 25/50 blinds, and a table full of young to middle aged men, it didn't look soft considering where we were and the buy-in.

I was keeping it tight early on, as I should be, assessing the table, one player stood out. He was active. Sporting a London 2012 polo shirt, and capable of speaking very fluent English, I at first came to the conclusion he was a Brit. There wasn't much table talk to begin with, so I couldn't really tell, I later found out he was from Denmark. First action came when I squeezed KK and took down a small pot when called by one player with a C-bet on a dry flop. I found AhAs soon after and squeezed again, this time from the SB. I found one caller again, this time the active Dane. The flop came down 679dd. A pretty miserable flop. I felt like he was going to float me on this board so often, and there was far too many turn cards that I don't like, and although I don't like what I did now, I decided to check to him. He bet half pot, and I called. the turn was a diamond (3d I think). I decided to lead to find out if he really wanted to keep telling his story, to try and take it there and then, and also to stop me from being barrelled off the hand. I planned to give up if he showed any more interest in the pot. I lead for a little over half the pot, and he called. the river came a black 8. Really terrible board for my hand now, and I decided to go into check/fold mode, hoping he would check back a hand like A9 etc.. He didn't though, he bet what seemed like a value bet and I folded. He showed the Kd. I didn't quiz him on this, but I'm not too sure why he did. If it was to say he was bluffing, why wouldn't he show both? It was a relatively easy fold on the river, and I really should have just lead 2/3 pot on the flop, and gone from there. No biggy though.

Next level (50/100) I get AKs in the Cut-off and raise to 250. The table had been pretty tight, except for the Dane. The SB, who had recently made an agonising lay down on the river which it turned out he shouldn't have, re-raised it up to 800. My thinking: If I 4 bet to ~2k here and he 5 bets, I have to fold my hand, and I don't want to be doing that with a hand as strong as mine, so I decided to flat for 800, and under rep my hand. The flop comes AAx. He checks, I check. After he checks, I'm confident a large part of his range is a pair like TT-KK, which I'm unlikely to get 3 barrels of value from him on this board, hence why I checked back. Turn was another rag, and I fired 1100 into 1700 when he checked to me, he called quickly. The river again was a brick, and he checked once again, I deliberated for a minute of what my sizing should be (pot: 3900) I ended up betting 3300 and he called it off pretty quickly. I shipped a nice sized pot and was up to 23k.

Nothing exciting happened for the next 2 levels, and I came back from the dinner break with 22k @150/300/25ante. First hand back, I am in the BB with AJo and the Dane raises to 675. It folds to me, and I decide to just call. Flop is J6xhh. I check, he bets half pot, I call. turn is Ks. I check, he fires half pot again. The K is a scare card for me. It is definitely a card that is good for him to double barrel, and knowing he is the most aggressive at the table, and capable of this I call. Now is a good time to mention he got caught triple barrelling a missed flush draw with K2hh a little earlier on. The River is a black 6. I check to him. He fires a little under half the pot (3275). My thinking: The flush draw missed. He wouldn't fire the K turn if he had just a 6, he would most likely check back. He also may not fire the river with just a K, as a 6 could easily be in my range. KJ would probably value bet the river here though. It didn't really add up to me, and there wasn't a whole lot of value hands that fire all 3 streets versus me. So i pulled into Calling Station, and made the call. He had K6hh, for a runner runner full house. I suppose I was right that he whiffed his flush draw!!

That knocked me down to 14k. (@200/400/50ante) A bad timed 3bet steal versus a semi-active player with 56dd on the button, which was 4bet (for half his stack) and I was down to 11.5k. Not going too well.

I grinded away, stole some blinds and was at 13.5k the hand before the break, and the next level up. I get AJss in the cut-off, I make it 875. it folds to my Danish friend in the SB who re-pops it up to 2200. His sizing here is pretty ugly and strong. Unfortunately for me, I had already decided that if he 3bet me I wasn't going to fold my hand. I jammed, and he called. He had KK, and although I turned a J, I couldn't get the suck-out on the river. I was out.

The 1st and the last hand of them 2 levels were the decisive ones. Both with AJ and both vs the same opponent. Perhaps If I was playing my A game, I could have been more aware of his sizing, buts it's always easy to say that in hindsight. He has to fold to my jam half of the time or more to make it a profitable play, and I believe this certain villain does that more than enough.

Another flag on my miserable Hendon Mob database that I won't be getting just yet! Sighhh!

That was the tournament done. Luckily the resort was nice, and I had my girlfriend there to spend the rest of the time with. The sun was out again on the Thursday and we enjoyed the day at the pool and the beach. The weather was a little more British than Greek for the next 2 days though, but we still enjoyed the trip. I got to meet a few players that I play against a lot on-line which was good. It's always nice to see the faces behind the screen names.

On the virtual felt I was on a pretty large break even stretch since August. Not getting any breaks on Stars, I was hoping for a change of fortune for the WCOOP (World Championship of Online Poker) which ran in September. I made a couple of deep runs, but wasn't running god like enough to take anything down, or even final table any of the events i played. The closest I got (or could have got) was in the $530 triple shoot-out where I came 11th, with the top 10 being the day 2 final table.

I was pretty gutted, as I played really well throughout the whole tournament, and was just unable to finish off the guy I was against heads up. He adjusted his game pretty well to be fair to him, and as the blinds went up he had the better of me preflop. I ended up rejamming (first time I had done so) into his AA and my WCOOP title dream was over. A positive to come out of it other than playing really well, was that in the first heat I beat a player called GOTUREAD heads up. Now we had history. In this exact same tournament a year or two ago, we got heads up in the 1st round, and we both flopped straights (his higher than mine) and he slow-rolled me. It really annoyed me at the time, so it was great to get revenge, especially as he had all his bitch mates on the rail giving me shit.

The week before I went away to Greece I made my breakthrough. I consciously made a decision to grind a little less on Stars, and to increase volume on Party Poker and other Euro sites. On the Sunday I got 2nd in the weekly flagship 85Euro (50,000Euro guaranteed). That was good for 4600Euros including bounties:

I then got 1st in the Super Tuesday ($99rebuy) on Party Poker for $10,914, and got 5th in the "Big $109 50k gtd" on Stars for $4450. I took a horrible beat 6 handed for 2/3 chips in play. here is the tweet from when it happened:

BenSpraggs Ben Spraggons 

6 handed, utg raises, utg+1 jams 15bbs, i flat (as chip leader) w/ KK, btn folds, spazzy 2nd stack jams 60+bbs i call, he has QQ, flops Q :(

There was $16,000 for 1st place in that, and 95% of the time when I hold there I go on to win the tournament. So it was a pretty sick bad beat equity wise. But it happens, and I had had a very good week, so I wasn't too disappointed. 

I am back to the grind after returning from Greece, and am playing very well. So hopefully the next big score is just around the corner. Party Poker have an on-line series starting this Sunday coming, so I am hopeful I can go deep in a couple of them, and look to take one down. I've always loved Party Poker, and how I run there, so I'm excited for it.

Last thing i will touch on, is that because of my good week before Greece I was able to officially surpass the $1million tournament winnings milestone. It's always nice to hit milestones, and I'll be grinding away until I get my 2 milly badge!

Good luck at the tables.

WSOP Main Event Report

Hi all, my last post was full of hope, excitement and promise, written from my hotel room a few days before i was set to play the WSOP Main Event. This one will be from my study in Northampton, England. The view from the window and weather are slightly different.

I've been back over a week now, and as you may guess, I'm not in the November 9! For those that read the last post I was buzzing for it, as any poker player should be, especially those partaking in the Main for the 1st time. I was in Day 1c (Saturday) and 'cards went in the air' at midday, I was preregistered and all set. Party Poker had arranged shuttles for players at 11am, but being the baller I am, I decided to pie it off, and get a taxi at half past. I don't travel the loser cruiser at home, so i'm not going to on holiday! Joking! Just made more sense as Craig was coming with me. I turned up sat down at my table in the 'Tan' section of the Amazon room. I was early enough to be there whilst a couple of players were awarded their bracelets in a brief ceremony, bot not keen enough to be the first at the table. It looked good. All other tables around me were full, or had one or two spare seats. Ours only had 5 players! By the time the announcement of "shuffle up and deal" was announced (by Annie Duke i think) we were off at 50/100, 30,000 starting stacks, and half the table was empty. I had 2 older guys to my right, seat 1 being a 65+ year old called spike, I was seat 3, seat 4 was a 30-40 year old Australian, and seat 9 was a South African (I think) who was over 40. I was rubbing my hands. The first 'bad beat' came immediately though. Having had a little introduction with the rest of the table, I grew tired of hearing the dealer say the same joke to whoever was next to sit down, as he handed them their free pair of slipper coupon (they were an official sponsor) he'd say, "That must be the most expensive pair of slippers you've ever bought!" (implying the $10,000 buy-in was for the slippers). I raised a smile the first time, by the 6th time i reached for my ipod! It wasn't there! Great.. I'd left it in the Suite. Craig kindly offered to go back for it, but it seemed like too much hassle. (SPOILER ALERT! >>) This kind of set the tone for the rest of the day. It was lucky I had a pretty good fake laugh for when the other 4 or 5 players arrived at the table!

1st hand I got involved in was when it was folded to me on the button, I look down at AQs. The bb is not there, just the Aussie in the SB. I make it 250, he makes it 650, I call. I obviously didn't want to get into 4 or 5 betting wars this early, and because there was no BB, he could easily have a wide range and feel he has to protect it. Flop comes down 9TJ. He led around half pot, I called. Turn was a 3 he checked, I checked back, and the river was a 7. He again checked after a little thought, I repped it and bet between 1/2 pot and 2/3 pot knowing it'll get AK AQ and a couple of pair hands to fold. He folded and I was headed in the right direction.

The table started filling up, and what seemed like a nice easy table at first turned into a bit of a nightmare. Apestyles (John Van Fleet, a very strong established online player) sat down 3 to my left. An aggressive Asian lad sat on his left, and Jon Tabatabai (A Betfair Pro) sat on his left! Pretty rough! I had the advantage of knowing who they were though, and them thinking I was just some internet kid, who 'luckboxed' a package playing on some Euro site! (uh-humm!) I'd played with Tabatabai a little a year or 2 ago, and Apestyles a little more over the past 2 years. Both knew what they were doing.

The blind levels were 2 hours long, I was in heaven. Not much changed until the 1st break and I was sitting with 32k. I was happy how with it was going.

The table was now full playing 10 handed. The blinds had gone up to 100/200 and after whiffing flop after flop, and continuation bets failing to go through I had fell to 24.5k. It was annoying, but it happens. I was waiting for a nice rush, and to connect with a board or two. There were spots out there that could pay me off.

Seat 10 was new to the table, he hadn't said a word, and looked European to me, could have been wrong though. He hadn't been involved, and i had him down as tight. Under the gun i open JJ to 500, it folds to him on the button, and he 3bets me to 1400, the blinds pass and I flat it. Flop comes 8 hi, a good flop for my hand, but of course, I am not going to go spazzing out vs him, I check/call his C-bet. The turn is an Ace. Terrible card for me, I check and he fires out the same bet he did on the flop. I don't beat much of his range, so i took the safe route and let it go. That knocked me down to 20k and change.

I grinded back up to 27k after flopping a set of 2s on a super dry T42r board against Tabatabai, leading the flop, getting tricky and checking a J turn (felt I could only get 2 streets of value and it may allow him to try and take it away from me) which he checked back, I then fired a  pot on a rag river. He snapped me off so quick, and his face was like, oh, I just got owned by the euro-donk haha. He probably had a medium pocket pair.

The rush didn't last long though, with blinds at 150/300 I got in a pretty sick spot. I was in the SB. UTG, a player I have yet mentioned made it 750, he was tight, and had not got out of line at all. I wasn't overly worried about playing pots with him, but he didn't seem to be the type to go and do anything stupid. It folds to me, and i have 33, and decide to call to set mine, i flick in the 600 extra, and the BB folds. The flop is a sexy AJ3. I check with the intention of check raising, he checks back. The turn comes a K I lead for 950 into 1800. He calls. The river is ugly. It comes another K making the board AJ3 K K. I have a full house, but its a super scary board. I lead the river for value, considering how passive he had played the hand so far. I was still confident I had the best hand and bet 2150 into 3700. I felt he would probably pay me with an Ace, definitely with KQ or QT maybe a hero call with JQ. He didn't call. He raised. He made it over 5k more. I was sick in my mouth a little bit. Considering the label i assigned him, competent, yet relatively tight I came to the conclusion that all I beat that is raising that river is A) a bluff, which vs him is pretty unlikely B) QK which I doubted he even raises. I folded with a big sigh. I was back down to 20k chips.

Not long after, I pick up AA UTG. 1st time i'd seen the aces all tournament, I bump it to 750, and receive calls from seats 8, 9 and 1, Tabatabai, the South African and Spike respectively. Tabatabai had been seeing a lot of flops, and had worked his stack up to 50k at this point. The flop spread 6s7s3h, I c-bet for half pot when checked to, 1500 into 3k, Tabatabai called, South African folded, and Spike called also. The turn was Th. Pretty bad card. 89 now got there, and it made the board even wetter with 2 flush draws out there. Spike checks, I feel I have to bet to protect my hand, as well as gather information, if I check it's going to be so hard to know where I am at if Tabtabai bets behind, and the river is a scare card. There is too many cards I hate to see. I bet again, this time for 3750. Tabatabai ponders for a minute, inside I just want him to fold. He grabs 3 chips and puts them out in front of him, 2x 5k chips and 1x 1k, 11k total. Spike folds, and it's back to me. A decision for my tournament life. And a pretty ugly one. I had under 15k left after my turn bet. I tried to assign him a range. In my opinion, his range here was 2 pairs, sets and combo draws. Spike was sitting on 35-40k to begin the hand, this is important, as if he is semi-bluffing a combo draw, he has to be prepared/worried for what Spike does behind him. I think the fact it was a $10k buy-in had a little bit of an influence on me, he definitely could have been playing on that fact too, eventually I folded. Would I have in a $500? I'm not too sure. Either way, in my view, it was yet another horrible spot that I ended up in. It seemed to be the trend for the day.

I was down to around 11k, things weren't going my way. I was never going to give up though, and confident with my short stack game, I planned on getting a double up, and grinding the rest of the day. My hopes were shot down soon after though. Blinds still at 150/300, Apestyles raised UTG to 750. Spike flatted, and I looked down at   on the button. Apestyles had been opening quite wide from all positions, and was definitely one of the more active at the table. Spike had played few pots, but I wasn't worried about playing post flop vs him, especially in position. I decided to squeeze, to try to take it down now, and also to take the lead in the hand. I made it 2250 on the button. Apestyles let it go quickly after the blinds did so, and the action was back to Spike, who counted out a call. The flop came   . Super safe flop which I was going to C bet when checked to, knowing it would take the pot down a large percentage of the time. Spike checked, I bet 2375 and he called. He'd played pretty passively, I didn't sense any strength and was confident I could get him off of a lot of his range with a shove on pretty much any turn. It came down . Pretty good card to shove, his range would be a lot of mid pairs, considering how he flat/flatted preflop and then check called on a 6 high flop. He checked to me and I pushed my 6500 or so chips into the middle, and was all in. After 10 seconds or so he called. Oh dear. I tabled my AQ, and was drawing dead in my first WSOP main event. He had AK. On reflection I don't mind how I played my bust hand. I think it summed up the whole day up. He could have played the hand differently preflop and I wouldn't have lost a chip, he could have folded the flop and I would have won the pot, that didn't happen though, and the K turn gave him an easy call and sealed my fate. My last 11k in chips went to a very nice old gentleman, but one that had 0 chance of winning or even going deep in the event. I wished the table good luck, shook spikes hand and left. 


It took me a while to get over how badly it went. I was gutted that it turned out how it did. After having a cigarette outside to try to calm my frustration (Whilst i was playing there was a heavy rain shower, and I ended up sitting in a wet patch just to top it off!) I remembered that this was tournament poker. You can play perfectly for hours and it not be good enough. It won't be the last time I play that tournament, and I'm sure I will get to have a better crack at it in the future.


I didn't play any other tournaments after the Main Event, I decided to just enjoy the holiday. I arrived back in England on Wednesday 20th July and didn't play anything online until the following Monday. I had a friends wedding reception on the Friday and it was my 25th (QUARTER CENTURY!!) birthday on the Saturday. It was a great weekend all round spent with my girlfriend, friends and family. It was back to business on the Monday though. 


I was keen to get back playing, it had been quite a while since I busted the WSOP main, and after a break it always seems to do my game the world of good. I tweeted this at the start of the day:


 BenSpraggs Ben Spraggons 

Back to the Day job, after a top birthday weekend. Usually ship after a break, so expecting a boom for the next week or so.

It took only 2 full sessions before I was back to winning tournaments. On Tuesday (26th July) I was up until 4:30am playing in the Party Poker $99rebuy $30,000 guaranteed (Super Monday). I was able to chip up around the money bubble, and put pressure on my opponents from then on, especially on the final table bubble. I went in to the final table 2/10, sat snug, and in no time it was 4 handed. When 4th eventually bust, I was left playing a very aggressive Brazillian, and an almost as agressive Russian.  The play was very tough, and at one point we were all 'bang' even. The russian ended up running 88 into the KK of the Brazilian blind vs blind, and we were heads up. I had chipped up before their cooler, and going to heads up we were pretty even. The drop from 1st to second was $5000 with 1st getting $12,777 so it was very important to try to play my A game and get it won. I was able to win the pivotal pot, having called his 3bet preflop with Q9dd, flopping Q9x, he check called my bet, the turn was another Q, he again check called. And he then check called my river jam when it fell another Rag. He had JJ. Next hand it was all over when my Ax held vs his KT. I was very pleased to have closed it out, and to get straight back to winning ways.

Not much else has happened since I've been back, Just tryin to keep the grind going, and waiting to hear whats happening with the Full Tilt situation. My ranking on PocketFives.com is climbing by the week, mainly because US players are unable to play online, but I hope to keep it up and eventually break into the top 10 in the UK for online MTT players. The site also shows that i'm close to having $1million in online cashes. I'm confident that I have over $1million already, but some cashes from satellites and certain sites aren't tracked by Pocketfives, so the milestone is still not official. 

Thats all for now, hope you enjoyed reading about my WSOP experience, good luck at the tables.

Vegas Time! Show me the money

As I sit here, typing this, the time is 07:35am here in VEGAS babyyy! Me and my brother, Craig, arrived at The Palazzo yesterday at 4:00pm local time. This is our 4th summer on the bounce out in Sin City, 5th time total. Love the place. It always feels special stepping outside the airport doors after the long grueling flight, to feel your lungs fill up with the warm, humid air for the first time. This year was no different.

As i mentioned, we are staying at The Palazzo, courtesy of Party Poker. I won my package with them a while ago, and as well as entry into the $10,000 buy in WSOP main event, it included money for flights and a luxurious suite here in The Venetian's sister hotel.

The room is beautiful, spacious, comfortable, over looking the Wynn/Encore hotels, and has a touch of class about it. I have already Tweeted a couple of pics, and will do more, I aim to make a 'Cribs' style TwitVid of the room, to show what we're lucky enough to be dealing with.

I rarely see 10:00am let alone 7:00am back at home, so apart from being excited about seizing all my time whilst here, there is another reason why i am being so 'busy' writing a blog update at half past 7 in the morning. Of course the 10 hour flight takes it out of you a bit, and the fact that you gain another 8 hours back when travelling west across The Atlantic and America, makes for a very long day. We eventually conked out after room service at around 8:00pm local time (4:00am British) and here I am now. I hope i don't struggle to get over the Jet lag too much, I usually don't.

Enough of boring sleep stories, my plans for the rest of the day are as follows:
-Shower
-Grab Tea/Coffee/Croissant
-Register for Venetian $350 tournament
-Laze by pool (weather permitting**)
-[  ] Donk off $ playing really bad Live poker
  [x] Finally get my arse in gear and play some decent poker with real people!!

** Yes! Weather permitting in Vegas, as strange as that sounds, the last day or 2 there have been clouds, rain, even thunder and lightning! Hot, yes, but not the kind of weather i need to make sure i have a better tan than both my brother Craig, and my girlfriend Char (who goes to Ibiza, whilst i a out here).

I play the Main Event on Saturday (day 1c) which i am very excited about. I am hoping to get in some more valuable practice at the tables beforehand. Felling confident about my game, and except for my 34th in a $1500 side event at the WSOP in 2008, i dont feel i have ran great since, and I hope the Main is different. I have a strategy, as most good players should have, and i believe barring, coolers/bad beats etc, i can really do something in this monstrous tournament which potentially could pay 8 to 10 million dollars for 1st place. The structure really benefits the better players, and with 30,000 starting stack and 2 hours blind levels, there's going to be so much play to be able to rape the donkeys of their chippies.

I'm sure i will update my Blog before Saturday though, so for now, that is all i will touch upon for the Main event.

Since my last blog, there has been a lot of trouble for Full Tilt Poker. It's been on national news, so i won't bore you with details, which you are probably already aware of. This is why I haven't updated my Blog until now. I had an amount of $ on there, that i was prepared to lose after "Black Friday" if things did go "tits-up" for them. I had cashed out most of my bankroll, but continued to play there, as the fields were soft, and basically, I like Full Tilt. I ran pretty good the last week or so before the Alderney gambling license issue came up. I won the $163 45k gtd, and made a few other final tables, which obviously seen my bankroll go up quite considerably. I has pending cashouts, as well as another load still in my account when FTP lost its license. This leaves me with a lot of money in limbo. It's such a kick in the bollocks, that after playing some of the best poker, i have ever, and after riding a pretty nasty downswing on FTP for a few months, that when i finally hit my good variance, and ship a couple of good scores, i may not get to see my money . I am still remaining relatively positive, as news of a European takeover, would increase my chances of me seeing my money again a lot, but i'm not going to hold my breath. Expecting to receive it would be silly, and only set me up for more pain, where as this way, if i do manage to get my money back, it will be an absolutely brilliant outcome. I believe the Full Tilt brand has loads of value, as well as rush poker and some of the other gimmick that they have patented, which does make me hopeful, that they will some way or another get back on track. Poker wise, they had it pretty bang on, it's just a massive shame business wise, they were greedy, incompetent pricks (sorry for the language).

I have a couple of hands that I will share with you now. They are from a couple of different tournaments i played and got deep in on FTP, 2 weeks ago. Both hands, are pure instinct/reads based. And at first read, they may seem, a bit different/bad. (I have had them saved for 2 weeks now, and after just rereading them, even i thought twice about posting them, but i know how interesting reading other peoples lines/thoughts on hands can be). The point i am trying to get across, is trust your instincts. I believe my instincts are one of my major strengths in poker, sometimes, they can get me in trouble when they are wrong, but the majority of time (not just in poker, but in life too) people have an instinct about something, and it turns out to be 100% correct.

The 1st hand: $75 6 max tournament. I know villain as a very aggressive player, likes to 3 bet, and try and take pots. We are both deep. I led the turn, for 3 reasons;
-to represent hitting something, its a great card to bluff, and try to take it there
-to not allow him to check back and take a free one for pot control
-to set up a 3bet bomb, if he got tricky and reraised me. (which he did)

Full Tilt Poker Game #31213464909: $17,500 Guarantee (242185386), Table 25 - 120/240 Ante 25 - No Limit Hold'em - 20:17:03 WET - 2011/06/23 [15:17:03 ET - 2011/06/23]
Seat 1: SPRAGGS (16,407)
Seat 2: jimmie23 (20,105)
Seat 3: SlipperPoes (13,081)
Seat 4: aftajvila (5,367)
Seat 5: ronaldgrauer (5,650)
Seat 6: Olorion (16,067)
SPRAGGS antes 25
jimmie23 antes 25
SlipperPoes antes 25
aftajvila antes 25
ronaldgrauer antes 25
Olorion antes 25
SlipperPoes posts the small blind of 120
aftajvila posts the big blind of 240
The button is in seat #2
*** HOLE CARDS ***
Dealt to SPRAGGS [Th 8h]
ronaldgrauer folds
Olorion folds
SPRAGGS raises to 555
jimmie23 raises to 1,325
SlipperPoes folds
aftajvila folds
SPRAGGS has 15 seconds left to act
SPRAGGS calls 770
*** FLOP *** [7c 3c 9d]
SPRAGGS checks
jimmie23 has 15 seconds left to act
jimmie23 bets 1,410
SPRAGGS has 15 seconds left to act
SPRAGGS calls 1,410
*** TURN *** [7c 3c 9d] [9c]
SPRAGGS has 15 seconds left to act
SPRAGGS bets 2,840
jimmie23 has 15 seconds left to act
jimmie23 raises to 5,980
SPRAGGS raises to 13,647, and is all in
jimmie23 folds
Uncalled bet of 7,667 returned to SPRAGGS
SPRAGGS mucks
SPRAGGS wins the pot (17,940)
*** SUMMARY ***
Total pot 17,940 | Rake 0
Board: [7c 3c 9d 9c]
Seat 1: SPRAGGS collected (17,940), mucked
Seat 2: jimmie23 (button) folded on the Turn
Seat 3: SlipperPoes (small blind) folded before the Flop
Seat 4: aftajvila (big blind) folded before the Flop
Seat 5: ronaldgrauer folded before the Flop
Seat 6: Olorion folded before the Flop

Second Hand: $55 6 max MSOP event. Again the Villain is very Lagy, and we are very deep (70bbs effective) His 3bet is small, and in position, i believed i could win the pot a large % of the time. His check raise on the turn, was odd, hence why my instincts kicked in to make the call, and the value bet when checked to on the river (of course making trips helped). However, his turn line was the important part of this hand, as he really wasn't repping much at all. He ended up paying off a small thin(ish) value bet on the river.

Full Tilt Poker Game #31214799597: MSOP Event #40 (238327969), Table 117 - 500/1000 Ante 125 - No Limit Hold'em - 21:26:46 WET - 2011/06/23 [16:26:46 ET - 2011/06/23]
Seat 1: primdisc (96,773)
Seat 2: SPRAGGS (70,150)
Seat 3: i freda i (38,301)
Seat 4: Mo1987 (59,760)
Seat 5: Einzeller (25,204)
Seat 6: PitBoss4001 (49,281)
primdisc antes 125
SPRAGGS antes 125
i freda i antes 125
Mo1987 antes 125
Einzeller antes 125
PitBoss4001 antes 125
PitBoss4001 posts the small blind of 500
primdisc posts the big blind of 1,000
The button is in seat #5
*** HOLE CARDS ***
Dealt to SPRAGGS [9h Kh]
SPRAGGS raises to 2,155
i freda i folds
Mo1987 folds
Einzeller folds
PitBoss4001 folds
primdisc raises to 4,500
SPRAGGS has 15 seconds left to act
SPRAGGS has requested TIME
SPRAGGS calls 2,345
*** FLOP *** [2d Qc 9c]
primdisc bets 6,000
SPRAGGS calls 6,000
*** TURN *** [2d Qc 9c] [7c]
primdisc checks
SPRAGGS bets 6,000
primdisc raises to 16,500
SPRAGGS has 15 seconds left to act
SPRAGGS has requested TIME
SPRAGGS calls 10,500
*** RIVER *** [2d Qc 9c 7c] [9d]
primdisc checks
SPRAGGS has 15 seconds left to act
SPRAGGS bets 22,000
primdisc has 15 seconds left to act
primdisc has requested TIME
primdisc calls 22,000
*** SHOW DOWN ***
SPRAGGS shows [9h Kh] three of a kind, Nines
primdisc mucks
SPRAGGS wins the pot (99,250) with three of a kind, Nines
*** SUMMARY ***
Total pot 99,250 | Rake 0
Board: [2d Qc 9c 7c 9d]
Seat 1: primdisc (big blind) mucked [Kc Ah] - a pair of Nines
Seat 2: SPRAGGS showed [9h Kh] and won (99,250) with three of a kind, Nines
Seat 3: i freda i folded before the Flop
Seat 4: Mo1987 folded before the Flop
Seat 5: Einzeller (button) folded before the Flop
Seat 6: PitBoss4001 (small blind) folded before the Flop

Both hands were made easier by the fact i had a little piece in both, but i think both show instincts are a big part of the game, and you can't go pussyfooting around opponents like these 2 villains or they will run over you.

Will update my trip report soon. Updates will be on Twitter, follow me http://twitter.com/#!/BenSpraggs

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.