Magical Mystery Poker Tour

WSOP League Week 3

Published on 2010-08-01 06:12:00

Still can't get much going in our league, and sit in lower mid table after 3 fixtures. In truth I don't feel like writing much, but want to keep the blog going to I can dive back in when inspired again without it dying completely. I'm almost certainly heading to Vegas for WSOP 2011, irrespective of whether I win the packages offered by the league, so at least there will be some interesting tournament reports on the distant horizon. I'm also going to try out the new Fox Club in Shaftsbury Avenue,

WSOP League Week 2

Published on 2010-07-18 05:19:00

Nothing happening for me so far in this, but early days I guess. Played tight first 3 levels and chipped down to 4.5k from my 6k start without seeing a hand. Ramped up the aggression after the break to get to 8k before imploding after there was limp for 600 and two callers, so I moved in with K5 from late position and ran into a limped AK from Slider :( That left me with 2k I think, so I was happy to get it in from my next time in the BB when I found JJ in a raised pot. Unfortunately I ran in

Can I get the ball back?

Published on 2010-07-09 06:45:00

I spent a lot of time playing Madden 2001 on the PS2 some eight years ago. Well I think it was Madden 2001 anyway, although it could easily be anything from Madden98 to Madden 2004 given that the games were seemingly identical, and simply repackaged by EA Sports for a little sales boost. Anyhow, I remember if you went to your “go-to guy” with a throw and it was intercepted, the commentator would say something rather unhelpful like “as soon as he threw it, he wanted the ball back”.Since

Midweek Flurry

Published on 2010-07-01 12:23:00

After keeping my head low for the first half of the year, this week saw a veritable flurry of activity on the poker front, as I managed to play Monday, Tuesday and Wednesday.Monday was an online HA cash session at 0.5/1 and I gave Baron and the Nits a trouncing in a virtual home game, leaving with a stack of $700. To be fair I ran extremely good, and hit flops left and right and its hard not to win when that is happening.Tuesday I had dinner booked at Gaucho, but with two hours to kill I sat d

WSOP league - Week 1

Published on 2010-06-26 02:04:00

Our WSOP league for 2011 kicked off on Thursday, with 12 runners making it, out of the 28 strong player pool. Given that the summer fixtures are likely to be hit by players away for their summer holidays I think this was a decent turn out and should grow over time.The league pays daily on the night, but also keeps aside 33% of the buy in towards a Vegas fund which we will play for at the end, for which your final chip stack will be determined by your league points.Due to the small number of runn

Christ Embassy

Published on 2010-06-06 06:31:00

I was accosted last weekend outside McDonalds by some happy religious people with balloons, who thrust some literature into my hands before I could escape.Since I had no newspaper I decided to read it over my Big Mac, and Pastor Chris' words were deeply inspiring, although seemed about as feasible as Bruce Willis and Ben Affleck drilling a hole in that meteor in Armageddon.Pastor Chris takes up the action:"I was in Geneva last summer, and was a little slow noticing that the green man had lit up

Tumbleweed

Published on 2010-05-23 06:49:00

Still nothing to report on the poker front, although hopefully this will change shortly. I'm organising a WSOP league to send some of us to Vegas in 2011 as well as trying to put together a 2k tournament bankroll to hit the local london events at buy ins up to £300. This should be achievable and would be welcome as the bankroll currently sits at zero. I've missed blogging as well, so hopefully an influx of tournaments and the WSOP league should reinvigorate the creative juices as opposed to

Tournie Bug

Published on 2010-04-06 12:25:00

I played the Irish Open main event in both 2007 and 2008, but haven't played for the last 2 years, as I have found myself drifting onto the cash game circuit and spending a huge amount of time on there (with limited success). This Easter, as with last year, I started to get tournament cravings after reading the updates from the tournament. A big well done incidentally to James Mitchell, the Main Event winner, who I have played with a few times in London, although not for a good year or so. I'm s

Prime

Published on 2010-02-25 12:53:00

Primes are good. I have 77 in my hand. Two, a pair, a duo of primes. Two is prime. Two primes together. A 7 on the flop gives me a set, and three primes. The prime 5 on the flop pairs on the river and I have a house. My heart beats in a slow rhythm as all is right in the world – I measure out a bet. £29 should do the trick into the pot of £31. It will cost Nemo a prime number to call and he does so. A nice pot of £89 is taken down. I was late for the game. It took me fifteen minutes to leav

Finally a live win

Published on 2010-02-20 04:52:00

Well I finally generated a positive result for the year in a live cash game, winning £610 in the last encounter. One noticeable aspect of the game though, were that people have had a general perception change, in terms of what they are willing to stake in the game. I felt a significant proportion of the players will stake £1k every time they sit down and a couple of guys a lot more than that, thus making it very big for a £1/£2 game. For a person who is only willing to risk £500 at any giv

Where's Wally?

Published on 2010-02-18 08:05:00

After my drunken street fracas before Christmas I have understandably been attempting to keep a low profile in the neighbourhood. The Baron however, made a wry observation that this might prove difficult given that I am essentially a red man with white hair in a predominantly black London community. Whilst the Baron cheekily alludes to my prematurely grey hair and “Irish” complexion when I have a hangover, he has a fair point. I remember enjoying the “Where’s Wally” books as a kid,

How to write off a weekend

Published on 2010-01-11 04:38:00

Well that weekend wasn't much fun. The cash game on Friday night went on continuously till midday on Saturday, and since I'm an old fogie these days I didn't see much daylight between then and this morning. In fact I'm surprised I made it out of LC at all - I was passed out on the sofa at midday, and Smalls decided to revive me not by smelling salts or water, but by cramming an After Eight mint into my mouth.I woke up at 6pm on Saturday, and after making it in front of the TV for 3 hours, I re

Mindset

Published on 2010-01-07 08:07:00

I played abysmally in my first outing of 2009 (edit! 2010), ending with a £458 loss in the cash game and I probably deserved a four figure loss, but a late Omaha rally in the early hours saved my pods. I unfathomably got it into my head that calling an all in from The Baron with KQ was a good idea, and couldn't deliver a beat to AK in a £500 pot. I also burned a stack with top pair no kicker, and had about three big river bluffs picked off by Nemo. The one time I saw a mighty pair KK in the ho

Redknapp Alert

Published on 2010-01-04 11:03:00

Following my rant this morning, someone has just alerted me that Thomas Cook have just launched an advert featuring the Redknapps. Good grief - this is cringe worthy. My favourite part is Jamie extricating himself from a sand hazard clad only in a pair of jeans. Show me a golf club that allows that attire.Sigh - admittedly it takes little to irritate me but 2010 has got off to a poor start.http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=2Z23jLO1Yk0

The New Year

Published on 2010-01-04 04:00:00

New Year, for me, inevitably conjures images of a smiling Phil Taylor. I will grudgingly admit the man is a class apart in terms of darts prowess, but I can’t stand the man and it always gets my year off on the wrong foot.The 2010 edition of the PT show contained all the usual irritants:- Ludicrous over the top montages from Sky. One even featured an African witch doctor loudly proclaiming from the top of a London building the arrival of the king, at the end of which, Taylor waddles into shot.

More Run Good

Published on 2010-01-01 12:41:00

I don't have time to write much, but I ran extremely well yet again in the final cash game of 2009 in the Loose Cannon on Wednesday night. A win in the region of £1,500 was generated mostly by a couple of lucky hands:Hand1Nemo raises to £15 UTG, I make it £50 with 4d2d. Smalls makes it £200 next to act, Nemo calls, I attempt to sandwich them by shoving for circa £700. Smalls has AA though and obviously calls. Nemo passes AK. I hit 2 pair on the board to undeservedly take down £1500 in

Festive Cheer

Published on 2009-12-23 07:54:00

I had another big score last night at the Loose Cannon, winning £1800 in the £1/£2 game in a long session. It could have been a lot different though, I was £400 down after losing a QQ v AK encounter against Nemo. Shortly afterwards I found myself staring nervously at the felt after 5 betting £400 all in with 46off against the same player. Fortunately Nemo found a pass, or otherwise I would have been in the taxi home. From there I never looked back, building my stack as I played far more

Home Game Hat-trick

Published on 2009-12-14 05:59:00

The home game I hosted this weekend was a marathon, lasting from 11am Saturday till 7am Sunday morning. I had a stormer, winning the £40 warm up event, the £50 heads up tournament as well as the £100 main event. We had 12-17 runners for each event, so I guess in terms of achievement this must rank right up there, as the fields were tough. I drew a blank unfortunately in the Omaha, busting about 7th, as my KK55 was no good on a 645K board to Hass’ flopped nut straight. In fact, this spot is

What was that all about?

Published on 2009-12-04 03:10:00

Have patchy memory of chasing some guy round a parked car covered in blood at 3am - haven't ran so fast in ages. Some dude then turned up on a push bike and told us to go home which we did. Not making the best impression at my new job with a big gash above my left eye on my fourth day :(It's not been a good week on the poker front. Played badly online and lost $550 in the cash game. Played badly in the live cash game and lost £800. Might take a break before the big home game in a week, as

Vegas - Final Day

Published on 2009-11-28 22:24:00

Another pretty unproductive day today on the poker front. Wandered downstairs a little after 10:30 and bought into the $60 tournament late, which impressively lasted one hand.I call a raise to 600 with 88 on the button. Flop arrives 578 rainbow. He bets 1300, I shove for 3900 total and he calls with 99. River is a 6 to fill his gutshot. A fine start to the day.After hitting the saki at lunchtime I posted a 3 hour cash session. The table was very tight and I had no holdings. There was good compan

Vegas - Big Blind Special

Published on 2009-11-27 18:14:00

Wandered down to the poker room at 8am this morning but there was no cash game going so had to enter the $60 tournament. I was down to 250 chips at the 200-400 level at one point, but managed to spin back up to 5k before knocking myself stealing the rock's BB from the SB with 84off and running into AJ. As a result of that I only was able to play one hour at the cash table before the Spa, but a very productive hour it was, with a $520 profit.Key Hand:I am up to $400 from $300 start and the button

Vegas - Quote of the Week

Published on 2009-11-27 10:32:00

Didn't play much poker at all yesterday - just the 7pm Planet Hollywood tournament. It transpired I wasted 5 hours playing Pai Gow with Shazbo, a game which seems to tilt me quite badly, before sitting at the Texas Holdem Bonus game. Shazbo won $1k+ at that as usual :)I'm going to try and put some hours in today, starting with a morning cash session and finishing with the Treasure Island deeper stacked bounty event tonight. Investors in the deep stack events will have noticed that I have been wo

Vegas - Running Hot on Moonshine

Published on 2009-11-26 09:02:00

Found myself plonked next to a couple of guys from Oklahoma last night. I was being educated in the production of moonshine, and how adding apple pie mix to it took the edge off and made it a fine afternoon beverage. Unfortunately, just as I was doing a good impression of a willing student my malibu and pineapple arrived."Hey! What you got there my English brother?""Umm - malibu""Oh. Ma wife drinks that" :(Ran super hot last night in two cash sessions, for a total of $750 profit. The tables cont

Vegas - Cash Bounce

Published on 2009-11-25 16:45:00

Played a 4 hour cash session waiting for Shazbo's flight to arrive and had a mini recovery. After a pep talk from the guys I went down with the idea of value betting and not doing anything adventurous.I promptly lost $200 in the first 5 minutes representing the flush when the other guy had.....errr....a flush. I then switched to power raising in position which lost me a fair bit more. For example 5 limpers, I make it $25 on the button with 55 and get 4 callers :( The first to act then bets $150

Vegas - Nit-rolled

Published on 2009-11-24 23:40:00

Just got nit-rolled so badly. It was so ridiculous it was amusing rather than annoying. I resisted the urge to go to sleep early and entered the 7pm Planet Hollywood tournament. $80 buy in gets you 4.5k in chips, and a decent clock for an hour and a half before it goes nuts. There were only 20 runners though, so top four paid I think and I busted 6th.The start was plain sailing as I took my stack up to 8k with little risk and made the final table, a little below average.Blinds were at this stage