In which I play MiniFTOPS Razz...

So Mulhuzz, why Razz?

Thanks for asking! Basically, I love Razz for the following reasons:

• It is a limit game, and limit games are super fun because there are so many people that simply don't understand the importance of saving bets or showdown value. They also don't understand the importance of simulated all in situations, but more on that later.
• Razz is a great game for strategy and requires far more thought than playing Hold Em, whether FL or NL. It is therefore, for me, more fun.
• I have a bigger edge in Razz than I do in Hold Em for lots of reasons. The chief of these being that I manage to avoid logic knots in Razz more than I do in Hold Em. This is because the average Hold Em player is, well, average, and the average Razz player is, well, terrible. This means that you can play Razz to a semi-decent standard and still be exceptional value in a game. Translation: there's a lot of dead money in Razz.

Why mini-FTOPS?

I played the $30+$3 mini-FTOPS Razz event because Andy 'KQ4EVA' Blair offered to stake me for it because I'd railed him as he crrrrrrrushed the Full Tilt nightly $2k Guaranteed Razz and repeatedly commented on how bad the players were. Obviously he only managed third because, well, blind squirrels and nuts, but the nice $800 cash from $24 was enough for him to spare me the $33 entry for this.


I haven't played Razz tournaments in years, except as part of the HORSE mix or so, but used to play a decent amount of Razz cash and still do, although the volume is somewhat lower than it used to be.

Anyway, to the tournament!

I set myself up in the office and connected the laptop to the big screen so I could rail a few other mini-FTOPS events whilst also concentrating fully on Razz. The game began at 3am here, so I was helpfully joined by my housemate to keep me company. Joerg is probably the best mixed game player I know, so it was great to have him for a line check from time to time (e.g. do I check-raise here or simply bet and hope to be raised?, etc). I'd also had a skype conversation earlier that day with one of the biggest FL pros in the world and we talked a little about strategy and such so I was feeling really well prepared.


Two hands in and I'd won my first pot (winning 3 more bets than I should have done!) and Joerg commented 'ok, this tournament is as good as shipped!'. Oh man I wish that were true! With over 1200 runners there was a lot to play for. For the first two hours I basically played perfect and built 3k starting chips up to 9.5k and I was really bossing the table. I also had a nice hand where i made the nuts (A-5) and the table idiot (having called with a semi ok draw on two streets made perfect-almost-perfect to end up with A234-6 - the second nuts, so I caught like 7 more bets than I should have done in that hand because we end up capping it on 7th of course.

Where it all goes wrong...

I'd love to show you hand histories and so but for some reason they don't save on my work laptop so I can't. I get massively coolered in a huge pot against a retard (a 5k pot when the average is also 5k at 200/400) when some guy finds his miracle one out deuce on 7th when he was basically drawing dead against my made nut 7. Somehow he manages to find the 65-low on the end though, somewhat improving his 965 made....sigh.


From then on out, I go completely card dead and then lose two more crucial pots as at least a 72% favourite. In my exit hand the guy doens't understand the concept of simulated all in at 300/600 where I have 1800 and get 3 small bets in on third and the rest in on 4th (this is what simulated all in means, I'm never, ever, ever, ever, folding) with 2357 and can't hold against 9357. I had the dude basically completely board locked but he managed to get there of course.

A Word on Limit Tournaments...

In limit tournaments, the midstages are by far the most important. At some point you'll play a pot for stacks because the average will almost never deviate from 8-10 Big Bets and you have to run good to survive in the middle stages. I felt I played pretty perfect (threw away one more bet than I needed to in one spot to be honest which was the only mistake I made) and the fact that i very quickly got to 2x or 3x the average meant that when I got coolered I still had a stack to get back into the game. Unfortunately, it wasn't to be and I busted in 568th spot someway off the bubble.


I did, however, outlast most of the FTP Red Pros, including David Singer which won Pads £100 because he's backed me against anyone in the field and his mate picked Singer. Unlucky, I crush Singer at Razz! :D :D :D At least someone won something from this tournament.

Now What?

I'm going to play more Razz because I'd forgotten two things:


1. How much I love the game and how much fun I have playing it.


2. How much of an edge I have against your average Razztard.


That's all for now folks, thanks for reading and thanks also to GeoKing, SamJ, Google and co for the rail. Sorry i couldn't give you a better sweat.


Gl at the tables,


--Huzz

In which I let a colleague do the bragging for me....

Need I say more......?

This video was shot yesterday up on the roof of our offices. Pretty informative too, whilst also being a major brag ;)

Enjoy!

--Huzz

In which I feel like a proper degenerate...

Recap of the weekend...
PokerStrategy.com 'Open' at Gala Casino
This sunday saw 40+ PokerStrategy.com staffers and some 20+ locals and friends of the company take to the felt for our Poker Open generously held at the local casino. I call it a PS.com open, and it kinda was. We'd (well, one of our Poker Experts) had organised the tournament, made it open for all, and demanded that we wear our red PokerStrategy.com T-shirts as a group.

It was like a sea of red and awesome fun. My tournament didn't go too super. I got seated on first table with 4 staffers and was OOP to all of them but banter was superb. I owned a couple of the fish for nice pots before losing a small one BvB vs Arjon one of our Dutch Community Managers. It was then time to move table where I open the button (2k starting chips, 15m clock, basically a shallow super turbo) with A7o to 425 (100/200) and get shoved on by a 1.5k stack (I have 4.2k) from the small blind. I make the standard call but can't hold vs 34s even though I have a straight draw and two overs on the turn. Sigh.

The very next hand, Philippe (cool guy I mentioned in previous blog) and I are drinking away when he shoves and I make the auto-reshove with 33. You need chips in this tournament and I know I'll have to win flips. He tables AK and I can't remain ahead on a 7585 board when the river brings another 8. Which was great, because the Card Room Manager called for it. The bastard!!! But anyway. that's pretty standard the way I run in Gib ;)

Competitive Slots...

Having found myself dumped outta the tournament I catch up with some of the lads who decide a round of competitive slots is in order. The rules are simple. Each player puts £10 in a slot machine, we all press at the same time and whoever is busto first loses and they buy the next round. For the first time in like forever I didn't lose at slots and was showing a healthy £29 profit plus the drink that Hannes bought me! ;)

Competitive Roulette...

Bored with competitive slots, we move on to competitive electronic roulette. Again, I win here by backing number 8 twice in a row at some point to book a healthy £56 profit.

Competitive Blackjack...

Sigh. Not really competitive because I was the only one playing and just to get rid of the £6 I had from roulette in chips. Down £6, needless to say.

Competitive Shortstacking...

We now decide, Graham, Hannes, Joerg and I, to play competitive shortstacking at 100NL. Same rules, whoever is busto first (2 bullets max of £25/time) buys the next round but we can only shove or fold. 

In the first hand I post and it's limped round to the BB who checks. The flop is 345 and I look at my hand to see a beautiful 33 for bottom set. Well, I'm not folding, so I'm defo shipppppppping. I do, to be called in 4 spots by Joerg (64), idiot 1 (69) and idiot two (A6). The pot is over £100. Obviously I'm never winning. 7. BAM. 8. BAM and idiot 1 scoops the entire. I rebuy as does Joerg. Next hand I'm in the BB. Folds to button who limps, SB raises to £4 and I shove £25 with 77. Limper tank calls and raiser says 'I'd have called if you hadn't'. I'm shown K9o by Idiot 1 and the raiser folds his J8o pre. Obviously I can't fade a 9 ball but would have faded Js and 8s. Sigh.

Clifffffs: £50 and a round of drinks down.

More slots...

Made another £20 at slots before calling it an night.

At some point in between...

Had dinner in the casino with all of our Dutch Team (who crussssh at the Stargate slots we have) and a few others. Decent food, great banter.

However....

All this partying has made me iller. I've got a pretty shitty chest right now but I'm fighting through it as I'm going out to dinner with all the CS Team Leads tomorrow night which should be pretty fun. Headed into Spain for the first time....must remember passport and Euro!


That's all for now folks, take it easy!


--huzz

Christmas Party Re-Cap

It's Paaaaaarty Time

Well, what can I say...last night was absolutely epic. I'm tagged in some photos on facebook and I'd recommend flipping through them to see the carnage that developed over the night.

It starts when one of my flatmates and I meet a couple of friends at home, get picked up and arrive at the Caleta Hotel, a hotel I know well from my interview out here. We're greeted in reception with Champagne and mingle eating fingerfood for a while before we're seated. They run out of Champagne at one point, so it's straight onto the rum and cokes for me.

I'm dressed in a suit without a tie, as are most of the blokes, and the women are mostly wearing cocktail dresses or so. There's an air of sophistication around the whole affair and rapidly (post wine with dinner) the sophistication turns to pure hedonism and debauchery. 

Pre party, all the talk had been about the seating plan that had been made for us and everyone was trying to work out what the best tables might look like. As it happens, I end up drawing a pretty sweet table with Nicola (our senior HR person and really nice/friendly/find better adjective), her husband, Cristi (Romanian CSR and cracking lad), Johannes (Pads' future boss who is awesomely degen) and Anett (Finance something or other, I don't really understand, but also class banter) and Phillipe (QA Team Lad and one of the coolest guys I've ever met tbh) and his missus amongst others.

I get through a couple of glasses of wine at the table whilst waiting for dinner to be served and am chatting with away and generally having a good. time. By the time dinner is served everything is in full swing (even the obligatory speech from the CEO has been made!) and I'm having whales of times.

But then....

As I'm tucking into the food, which, to be honest, was average for me (great for those that didn't order Turkey tbh) my face explodes and my tooth begins a war of attrition. It is desperate to ruin this party for me and I'm in hellish amounts of pain. Not to be beaten, I calmly move to reception and ask them to call me a cab. 15 minutes later I'm back at my apartment and having asked the driver to wait, return before dessert with Ibuprofen and Neurofen in tow. I throw a couple of those down my throat washed down with another glass of wine.

Health Notice:

This is not super recommended. paracetamol and alcohol is generally ok (think what you do when you're hungover...take paracetamol) but ibuprofen and alcohol can be really bad because it can cut your stomach up, thus making it far easier for you to ingest the alcohol.

Back to the plot....

I decide to pass on dessert (which did look good) because there was no way I was going to give my tooth another opportunity to ruin me and about 30minutes later I feel no pain whatsoever in my mouth. I mingle with lots of people, mainly with Daniel (Editorial) and David (Content/Education) and we're having insane fun. By the time dinner is over, the fun really begins. Hard liquor is now the order of the day and I move back to rum and cokes from wine. In ordering two at a time I tell people that I'm using rum as a tranquiliser, because I don't want my tooth to get back in the game. In truth, that's pretty much how it was. And I don't like queuing at the bar. Once Graham (Education), Joerg (B2B, flatmate) and I find a secret bar upstairs I switch back to ordering one at a time because there's no queue ;).

From here on out....

It would be impossible to recount everything that happened. Let's just say that the party was epic and ended at around 2:00am before everyone piled back into taxis and made our way to Ocean Village where a) the casino, b) Savannah's (club) and c) my appartment are. At first we end up in the casino because it's generally considered to be 'too early' to go clubbing so we have a couple more rum and cokes and such at the bar. Melvin (Community Manager for Dutch, insane good dancer, hero) runs sick good at the slots so we keep drinking. We decide, between the two of us, that we'd like to go to Savannah's now, so we finish up drinking and leave for the club. This is at about 4am.

I know this because...

We arrive at Savannah's to see a ridic queue and a packed out (mainly men) club (glass fronted so we can see inside). We wait for about 5-10 minutes but the bouncers are really shit at not letting people cut into the front of the queue so don't move anywhere and we find out that for some reason they'd like to charge £10 for entry, when it's usually £5. Fuck that for a game of soldiers, we decide, and head back to the Casino (about 1 minute away) where we can't get in. They shut the doors at 4am and won't let anyone else in. Completely ridiculous policy, but whatever. We then headed to another bar and had a couple of drinks but there wasn't really much going on so decide to head home. On the way, Melvin almost decides to head to the office to play poker. He had the idea of playing $5k NL HU for a spin up but in the end doesn't. *Phew*

When I get home...

I almost play the MiniFTOPS Stud H/L event because I see it's starting in ten minutes (and Pads even offered a stake!) but decide against it because 'you don't realise how fucked I am Pads, I'd be dead money'. I then fall asleep. Saved Pads some money there ;)

The Aftermath...

I wake at about 12 and head for lunch with Joerg, Hannes (German Community Manager) and David. I have Llantio Campero (basically a Gibraltarian mixed grill breakfast thing) and it hits the spot. Arriving home,  I catch the football (great games today, although fuck Alan Pardew, that was Hughton's team!) on the internets and then sleep for an hour or so before heading out for steak with Hannes, Joerg and Melvin. We then head to the casino and I leave to come chill out after about an hour when they decide to play cash and I really cba.

Right Now...

I'm headed back to the casino (it's almost 3am) because I want to watch the Khan v Maidana fight in better quality than the dubious WLAN in Gibraltar can offer. I'm predicting Khan to win, but it will be really close and Maidana could knock him out for sure. I quite enjoy that I can make a snap decision to go to the casino at 3:00am and be there by 3:02am. I could never do that in Newcastle!


Hope you've enjoyed the recap and the amount of blogging I've done lately. I'm hoping to keep up the rate of blogging, but only if I think I have interesting things to say!


Keep it funky and glglglgl to all those still grinding miniFTOPS,


Peace,


--huzz

In which I feel like there's a pneumatic drill in my mouth...

I've been off work sick today for what feels like the first time in over 4 years. My head is on fire, I can't think straight and my tooth is giving it absolute dixie.

I might need to be off tomorrow, too, which isn't really great as I have a lot of stuff to finish by the end of the week so being two days behind would just be suicide to be honest.

Still, it's the company Christmas party tomorrow (the stuff of legend!) and I definitely want to be ill and miss that. Ssssigh. Hopefully the three different painkillers and antibiotics I'm taking can turn it round before tomorrow as obv it wouldn't be good form to miss work and then go party and unless I'm actually incapable of walking I'm going to party.

In other news, what the hell have Newcastle done in sacking Hughton and replacing him with Alan Partridge Pardew? What's he ever done that Hughton hasn't? Absolute disgrace. Somehow this idiot managed to get a 5.5 year deal. I don't even give him 5.5 days. He's gonna cripple us for compensation when he's sacked in 3 months. There's a huge economic incentive for him simply not to perform. And Mike Ashley is allegedly a business man? He's a fucking moron, that's for sure.

In other news, I'm thinking about doing a Masters next year through distance learning. Could be fun.

That's all for now.

--Huzz

Boooooooooooooom

So yeah.

Remember I said that a friend had been out for an interview?

He got 'the call' today and they offered him a job! Ship it Pads!

Here's to being degens in Gibraltar together! :D

That's all for now.

--Huzz

[ ] Dentists are fun. Or cheap.

RE That Tooth Thing:
 
So re the whole toothache thing: shipped the dentist (super nice guy) £200 today which made me feel sad and I have a cocktail of drugs to be taking so that the inflammation which is stopping him just yanking the problem tooth out fucks royally off.

Apparently after what I'm loosely terming 'the operation' (maybe 'procedure' fits better) I'll be in some discomfort for about 2 days. Good thing the procedure (is it better?) is on the 23rd of December then. And I won't be able to smoke or drink for two days at least there after.

[ ] I wanted to enjoy Christmas, anyway.

That's pretty disappointing to be honest, but I'll have to get on with it. The fact that I'm 1800 miles from my home and family on Christmas and now can't even really enjoy myself is pretty awesome. Just for extra fun, I won't even 'be allowed' (Dentist) to work for 2 days. Both my flatmates are going home for Christmas.

[ ] Not only did I want to enjoy Christmas, I was looking forward to some level of social interaction.

[x] Life tilt now. 

[x] will be making turkey soup as it's prolly the only thing I'll be able to drink/eat.

[ ] Christmas will be Merry.

[ ] Get me started on New Year.

So yeah, that's pretty much it. Oh yeah, it occurs to me that if you google my name you can find this blog through my Twitter (not anymore...) but just in case anyone already found it, I'll probably not talk alot about work anymore. I wouldn't want anybody to misunderstand anything that's said here. Too many injokes and NPS based banter which can defo cause misunderstandings. I hear companies do that these days and even whilst I doubt my firm does (too cool by miles) you can never be too sure.

Hopefully see you all for APAT in Januaryaments.

Peace,

Huzz

In which I have two days off in a row for the first time....

Work:

So once again, it's been a little while since I've blogged and to be honest that's because I'm working really hard at getting new processes and procedures implemented at work such that as the department grows (projected to more than double in the next 12 months) we have scalable processes in place that all have an owner which will make us super agile and able to adapt as quickly and possible whilst minimizing the risk of growth at such a rapid pace.

This weekend has been the first time since I got here that I've had two days off in a row. I've still been answering emails and doing a little work, but I haven't actually been to the office at all this weekend. Even though I really love the work I do, sometimes it's nice not to have to physically go to the office. I'm reminded of a speech given by Jason Fried of 37signals fame where he talks about why the office isn't actually a place where people work. If you work or manage in an office environment then this should really be required viewing. Go on, cancel that next meeting. People will love you for it! ;)

In any event, I feel I'm really making progress at work and making the changes that are required as quickly and as sensitively as possible -- even though I have been accused of 'killing the culture' on more than one occasion because I have some radical ideas about schedule and capacity management (e.g. we should forecast volume before scheduling, hardly revolutionary, I know!) I guess maybe I need to learn to tilt less and focus more on getting people to buy in to the changes I want to make. Just because they're obvious wins from my perspective doesn't mean others 'get it' quite so easily.

Social:

The social life here is, as ever, completely awesome. I'm really having a lot of fun and the maxim 'work hard, play harder' certainly applies here! Whether it's going out for dinner or playing poker through the week (still on a lifetime downswing btw, but nice upswing at slots!) to getting absolutely battered at the weekends, there is always something cool to do and awesome people to do it with.

Speaking of awesome people, at the beginning of the month I moved into my new apartment, right on the marina looking out towards Spain and Africa, a full 5 minutes (if I'm lazy, and I think we'll all agree that I am!) walk to the office which is super nice. I've attached some photos below ;)

I'm sure you'll all agree that this apartment is pretty baller for £500/month!

My flatmates Mike (Lead French Community Manager) and Joerg (Poker Market Analyst) are two of the nicest blokes you could ever hope to meet so I'm really happy!

Other:

•  Yesterday was hell because I had a really bad toothache for about 5 hours.
•  Copious amounts of rum solved the problem. ;)
•  Pads was here for an interview last week. The word on the street is that he crushed it. Let's gogogogo one time and ship me the $2k referral bonus lol.
• I'm really hoping to get to the APAT team game even though I (quite rightly) wasn't selected to play. I defo wanna be on the rail.
• I still haven't been to Spain. I really should change that, particularly now I've started learning Spanish.
• I'm speaking more German than I have in about 4 years, which is really nice for sure. Even though yesterday I had a really bad toothache which I can only assume was the result of not uttering a single English word the whole day!

That's about it, honestly. Comments appreciated, and let me know if you wanna join Scottttty and Dan Mutha Fucking Trett here sometime early next year! :D

Hopefully I'll see many of you at the Bolton G in January. Until then, if I don't get the chance, I'd like to wish you all:

A Very Merry Christmas and a Wonderful New Year!

Huzz

[x] it's been a week

So I promised that I'd update my blog in a few days.

As pads just skyped me:

[x] been a week

So I guess I should update.

Ok, what's happened this week?

Wait, first, how has poker gone over here so far?

Tournaments: played two (£70 outlay), bubbled two (both shoving button with AK into AA in BB or similar)

Cash: one session -- up about £150. (a buy in) should be a lot more, but I'm just playing nitty poker working out who the retards are and such (hint: if they're Spanish. Retard. Gibraltarian: 50/50, international: 30% retard, 70% solid reg)

So, yeah, working for a gaming company I just don't want to play that much poker right now, not when I'm thinking about it and talking about it 13 hours a day anyway.

What am I doing?

Eating out. Like every night. I cba with washing up and eating out is possible to do for as little as £10 (in the casino) for 3 courses and a beer.

I'm also just hanging round the casino (it's a real focal point for the entire company, after hours because it's just pretty cool) and chatting to colleagues and talking to people.

Good Things:

I interviewed the best candidate I've ever (in prolly like....50+ interviews so good sample size) interviewed for Customer Service today. My boss then insta-said let's make him a Team Lead, so we found some more operational support which we really need.

I referred a really good friend for a position in our company which I think he's perfect for. If you read this blog, you probably know who I'm talking about, but you might not know he applied, so I'll not ruin that for him.

Bad Things:

I was ill at the start of the week and now it's gg weekend caus I have so much to catch up on.

There you go Pads, a short update ;)

No more bad things.

In which I don't post any photos because my phone is an arse....

So here we are then. Almost a week and a half after I left English shores, with, for the first time in my life, absolutely no idea of when I am going to return (hint: it won't be Christmas or New Year); I'm sitting in my room in my town centre apartment and reflecting on the time I've spent since I got out here to Gibraltar.

Firstly, let's recap the basics for those that don't know.

• I've moved out to Gibraltar, a peninsula on Spain's southern tip and forms one half of (along with the Atlas mountains about 20km across the Med in Morocco) what the Greeks called the Pillars of Hercules on account of the big fucking rock here which is the focal point of the entire peninsula. 

• I'm working for PokerStrategy.com in their Customer Service and Fraud Prevention Department. If you don't have an account, you really should check us out. We offer a unique value proposition to players and definitely worth a look. Ok, no more plugs. Promise.

• I've lived abroad before but previously always had a definitive time frame of when I was coming back to the UK. Right now the plan is to stay here for 3 to 5 years, minimum, but beyond that, who knows.

The Day of the Flight

Obviously, I run super sick amazing and once again, just as it was for my interview, my flight is delayed by about 90minutes due to French twats striking again. So after I'm super tilted and a lot more travelling time than there needs to be I get picked up at Malaga Airport and we drive the 70 minutes or so to Gibraltar. I arrive to a really nice city centre apartment which I'm sharing with a guy from Hungary who is an intern in our editorial department but is also a coach for SnGs. On top of this, he's actually a cool guy too, although a little shy I guess.

At this point, I obv take some pictures but, and this is a theme throughout this blog entry, my phone has decided to delete them all. Which is awesome.

Very much a camera fail, obv. Anyway, I head to the casino and have some dinner in the evening and introduce myself to some of my new colleagues. Pretty nice evening and I head home just super excited.

The next couple of days:

Oh man oh man. Friday I spend the day basically exploring Gib and getting myself nice and orientated. It's pretty easy though when you're living in the centre of town and on one side you have a big fuck off rock and on the other you have the sea. This doesn't, however, stop me getting lost when I try and take a shortcut to the office on my second day. But we'll get to that, first though, it's the...

Halloween Party:

What can I say about this? Fucking hell, it was immense. These guys know how to party. I spent the day getting 'greened up' putting green make up all over my body and then adding my Frankenstein mask to complete the look. Basically we were halfway up the rock and we had a free bar all night. Thanks. I got absolutely battered and after about 12pm I have no idea what happened. I think I must have walked home. Down the mountain.  Pissed. In any event, I do know that when I got home my bedsheets (even post shower) were green, as were the walls in the hallway. Really need to get some paint to cover that up, actually. There's one nice part where you can tell I'm stumbling up the stairs because the paint is nicely in the shape of the crook of my arm as I've obviously staggered about.

Sunday, the best day as a Newcastle fan in a long time, and I missed it:

Ueber-hungover from that Halloween party I head for some lunch and then watch Newcastle smash Sunderland all over sipping on cokes in the casino. What a marvellous day. Needless to say I didn't really get up to much for the rest of the day as I had to start work the next morning, bright and earlyish at 9:30am. I must say, however, that not being in Newcastle that day really tilted me, and all the texts and emails I got made me a little homesick. Until I realised it was basically November and I was in 20 degree heat and having a lot of fun, obviously.

My working week:

Basically most days have involved 10 to 14 hours in the office and I think in total this week I've worked something close to 60 hours and it honestly doesn't feel like it at all. I've loved every second of it and never for even a split second have I been bored. Great people are what make great companies and here at PS we have a tonne of good people. I know this is easy to say after ten days or so but I haven't met a single person who I don't feel I can get on brilliantly with. Seriously, they are all top people and I feel really lucky. Professionally, I get on super well with my boss who shares the same vision I have for putting the departments on a more sound footing. Both CS and Fraud are young, immature departments (I don't mean that as a criticism at all, btw, I just mean that they are feeling the pain of having watched membership explode over the last 18 months or so) and they sometimes lack process in certain areas and there are a number of challenges that I have to face in order to make the service we provide to customers stellar. I have a pretty keen understanding of what the biggest pain points are now, though, so over the next 6 to 12 months I'm planning to solve them. But enough of that. Suffice it to say that I'm really looking forward to the challenge professionally over the mid- to long-term.

Overall:

If I told you every little detail of why I'm loving it out here I'd be blogging for months on end, so let me summarise:

• Great apartment
• Great people
• Great challenges
• Great environment (22deg in November, much?)
• Great opportunities, both personally and professionally.
• Super supportive company who really look after their staff with all sorts of goodness.

My next post will probably be in a couple of days, and I'll let you know how I've fared playing poker over here so far. (Spoiler: so so)

A chance conversation with an old friend that I had about 3 months ago when he encouraged me to apply to come and work here has developed into such a great opportunity and I'm grabbing it with both hands (including Friday night when I got absolutely battered) and I'm reminded that the world is full of wonderful opportunities if you only have the stones to go and seek them out. 

I am, of course, disgusted that I missed the NPF Champs, but I caught lots of it on the livestream and I'm so glad I did.

PS, an invitation:

Anyone is welcome to join me out here for a holiday or such, just drop me a mail.

Circus Nifty Fifty Report

So last night was the second leg of my three leg attempt to win the world. Here's how it went.

Caught up pre game with George Lawson, both Trett brothers and a few others and had some cracking banter as per. My starting table was pretty nice, and easier than the Asper's game. I'm in the 9 hole and the only players I recognise are Simmy in the one seat, Shaf, a circus cash reg in seat ten and Steven the teacher in seat 8.

First hand I find 66 and open the pot to 125 in what is basically the hijack and immediately get 3bet by Shaf to 525. Everyone else folds and I tell him Aces good, fold and he shows AA. Yip. Nice hand sir.

A little later it folds to Stephen in the SB and he completes. He basically dares me to shove. I do with KK. Nice life. He instamucks. Sigh.

I wanna talk about a hand that I wasn't involved in at all, in the first level where I felt both players played it pretty turbo good. Simmy opens the hijack to 200 and gets flatted by CO before button makes it 400. I instaput button on QQ+, caus I think his button min-3bet range in the first level must just be really small, it's almost always a raise to induce. Simmy calls as does the button. At this point we've got a 1275 pot at 25/50 and we didn't see the flop yet. I perk up and start watching more intently.

Flop is JJx and Simmy fires 700 or so, CO folds and Button (who I'm reliably informed is called 'Waspy' and a good UK Circuit pro, but we'll get to that in a bit) calls pretty quickly. Simmy then bets 1500 on the most inconsequential turn ever, like a 4 or something and gets called pretty quickly. The river is an offsuit Ten and Simmy thinks for about 0.3 seconds and just jams 7.5k or so into a 5.5k pot (numbers might not quite add up, but he's definitely overbet the pot on the end).

In my head, this is what happens....."ssssssssssssssssssssssssick, Simmy's fucking flops quads. It's the only hand he can play like this. He almost always VBs all other Jacks a set of Tens for tens full too...wowowowow, he's put V on KK or AA like me (he now can't have queens as he prolly raises the turn and he almost never has a Jack because he'd raise the turn (put a flushdraw out there)) wow, sick, what a great bet. V can almost never put Simmy on a Jack here. Like, never. All his small Jack's he check calls, all his big Jack's he VBs river, not shoved. Sick hand."

V is in the tank, and the longer he tanks the more I rule out KK from his range, he pretty much has only AA now because he's already called with a Jack and already mucked KK. V plays well to pass caus it's really hard to think Simmy has a Jack there and as Simmy goes to muck I say 'show me the quads, Simmy, you had quads, right?' and Simmy, with the most surprised look on his face ever says 'yeah, I did, actually..' and shows em.

Must be nice to deal yourself Quads Simmeister. I actually said to him that I didn't think he had that level. That's such an advanced play to shove the river there because most people would probably check or lead really small looking to get value. The way Simmy and I both thought about the hand (since we discussed it, obv) was that he *never* gets raised on the end, unless V has Tens full, which is unlikly given the min-raise pre and the call on the turn being like instaquick so therefore he can bet like 2500 pretty profitably and gets called most of the time. He can check, but he rarely gets lead into either, I think. So basically a smallish vb of 2000 to 2500 seems optimal, but think of the long term. Effective stacks are like 7500. He only needs to get called with his overshove like 1/3 of the time to make it breakeven cEV-wise when he bets 2500 on the end (assuming V *never* folds) vs 7500. I actually think that he gets called a lot more often than 1/3, and unfortunately Simmy ran into a player capable of making a great fold. Additionally, I feel that since it's so much harder to put Simmy on even a bare Jack with an overshove, vs what it might be with a smaller value bet, that he probably makes 2500 more chips everytime he overbets than when he just leads.

I hope that makes sense.

For my part, I make a nice little stack mainly by reading the game well and valuebetting 4th pair a couple of times, lose a bit back making a slightly lose call with QJcc against AQo AIpF when dude had opened every pot since the start of 200/400. Maybe slightly loose against the range I guess, but I can't raise fold my hand and I'd already raised. Anyway, I go through the blinds and such and I make it to 300/600 when I'm in the BB with 8.5k (never higher than 14k) and Waspy (V from quads hand, covers me by about 6 or 7k) opens to 2k in EMP. He's been pretty tight for a while, but when I look at Aces I don't really start to think about my hand. I wanna play for stacks and the best way to do that is call and jam any nice looking flop. I do, and duely jam on KJx, 2 spades. He calls, after a very long tank, pretty sure I induced it by looking superweak, allsorts of reverse tells going on (looking away then insta-looking at his chips when he put his hand on them, etc) and he announced Merry Christmas ans shows AJdd. Jack on the turn, nice life. Can't win 90%ers. Meh.

I think it's a pretty good call against the range I'm suppose to have there to be honest. Poker's about making your opponent make mistakes and I think he made a pretty big one there, caus of the way I played the hand. Meh, sometimes slowplaying works, sometimes it doesn't. I'm still happy with how I played. Not too happy with how I reacted to the beat. Like a bit of a dick, actually. Sorry Waspy. I find out later he's a UK circuit pro and if I'm making a player of that caliber make a mistake then I'm doing something right.

Bring on Saturday and the longer levels and wowowowowow am I gonna crush. Hard. Suits my game down to the ground.

Aspers Nifty Fifty Report

So here we are again.

Since I'm moving abroad I'm a complete money nit at the minute, but still really wanted to play the 'big 3' tournaments this month:

1. Asper's Nifty Fifty £500 Added
2. Circus Nifty Fifty £1000 Added
3. Circus Deepstack Fifty £500 Added

With my nitting in mind, I quickly sold some action in the spread of games and once again Nemesis backed me and was joined by Knerrad in completing out the £100 stake at 60/40 return in their favour.

So last night was the first of the spread and I rocked up to get a nice starting table of several retards, one studenty aggro online player, Rosco and Rachel Costa. I'm stuck in the 3 hole between Rosco and Rachel and looking forward to the fun.

Within the first level I 3bet AK twice and fold on Jxx and Qxx boards to retards who so obviously had AJ and KQ that I wanted to spew a little. I'm annoyed and then when I have to fold JJ on a QxxT board against QTo lol I'm down to about 5k from the 8k starting stack and get a little tilty when this hand occurs.

AggroStudent makes it 150 UTG and I pick up two separate weakness tells so folded to me in the Hijack I threebet in the dark. The button (complete looooon, lost most of his stack already) calls and I'm not concerned about him at all. The flop comes down K9Tr and I get checked to. I sneakily checked a peek at 88 and lead 2/3s pot. I get shoved on by the button and, as predicted, the aggrostudent folds. Unfortunately it's only like 90p more into 80mirrrion so I call and get shown K4s. Nice life. 8 on the turn is pretty sweet though.

Still within the first level there are two limpers and Aggro makes it 375 in MP. Rosco flats the SB and I find a nice life with AA in the BB. I make it 1275 and then get a speech about respect from first limper (who folds QJcc...lol pls call?) AggroStudent then tank folds, which annoys me, I thought my 3bet with 88 (he doesn't know I was blind) would get me a 4bet like 80% of the time here. To my absolute surprise Rosco then sticks half his stack in. As Dan Trett said to me last night, I can't really continue in the hand without turning my hand faceup whichever way I play it, so I just jam and somehow Rosco folds. I still don't know what he had, he has to call with like all his bluffs given the odds so I guess it was a hand like QQ/KK since he wasn't getting 4 to 1 to call with those (since I always have AA here). Although I don't squeeze that often, he can be playing smallball with QQ/KK. Flop is AKx anyway so I either get em all or none on the flop so shoving pre prolly the best line.

From then, I go pretty card dead for about 80 years. Standard, and can't find any spots. At the break I have 15k, and after the break I'm just finding onehand per orbit to steal the blinds with, including 64dd UTG+1 which was pretty nice. At 300/600 I call a 4bet jam vs Aggro with AJo (same weakness tell as before) and he shows the same hand, and then at 400/800 I get AQs UTG and run into BB with...AQ lol chop chop...

Anyway, I then open to 2200 with A8ss in the hijack looking for my onehand per round, get shoved on for 4k, call and lose a race vs 55. Down to about 8k at this point which is 10BB with blinds about to go up.  Next round OTB Aggro opens and, again, I know he's weak. T8dd is a standard resteal there, BB passes like AJ and Aggro sigh calls with A9o. I flop the OESD, turn a flushdraw and have 20 outs going to the river. I don't run good enough and I'm out.

Pretty happy with how I played and a couple of times early if boards come Axx (with AK vs AJ) and not Jxx then I get stacks. Just sucks when you can't run well at all (8s aside lol).

Still. Off we go tonight with leg II of Mulhuzz's plan to bink.

Peace,

--huzz

T Minus 20 or So Days...

So it looks like I'll be starting in Gibraltar on November 1st, which probably means flying out there in about 20 days time. GG me.

In which I run really goood...

So I've been offered the job. Working for PokerStrategy.com, although I can't say much more right now.

Just need to work out a transition at work and then I'll be off to Gibraltar to live, work and play. Couldn't be more delighted.

Shipppppp ze looooot!

--huzz

In which I basically retire from live poker in Newcastle....

So last night I play Circus £20 doublechance and take all my chips at the start. Like an orbit in basically one of only 3 competent players at the table opens to 225 after a couple of limps from the CO, and I make it 725 behind with KK in the SB. He tank makes it 2100 leaving himself about 3k behind and I just jam.

I 3bet small because V is a good player, I guess. I don't know his name, but I think he might be Celia's boyfriend, maybe? Or something. Nice guy anyway. The point is he's capable of recognising my shove as being airy too, which only makes sense if I 3bet small. He has AKhh and sigh calls. There's an Ace in the window but somehow I find the one outer on the turn.

Stephen the Teacher is at my table and has been talking non-stop. I put Phil Collins on Spotify and I cans still hear him, so I change to Paramore, and that's a little better ;) For reference, most of the time I don't mind Stephen. He talks a lot, but is basically harmless and a lot of the time he's just such dead money it's ridic, so ofc I don't mind playing with him. For some reason though he's really tilting me. At 25/50 he makes it 700 and I call from my huge stack with 66 on the button. Bear in mind, I know 100% that Stephen has TT/JJ here, but I'm looking for nice boards to bluff or to set mine. On a Q35 board he leads 2k and I jam thinking I had loadsa fold equity. As ever, his overbet is 'I'm scared of something having got there already' but he calls announcing 'I think you have a Q but I can't fold'. I tell him he can fold, ofc, but he doesn't. No miracle 6ball and I'm back to 11k or so. (He had JJ, obv).

A couple of hands later I raise TT to 175 and get called in 4 spots. I cbet a AA9 board, get called by Gladys, check call the turn and a K on the river means I'm check folding. Gladys has like King high there a lot and I got rivered I think. Anyway, another small pot lost.

Some hands later I open early without looking at my cards simply because it's Stephen's big blind and he threebets me to 600. I instacall looking strong. I also think he has a small pair from his demeanour (I mean, it's not hard to read him).

Flop is 356ddd. He overbets the pot again, I look at my cards and decide, meh, this is prolly a set but his batshit bet just gave me equity to jam in this spot with my Jd4s. I jammed 8k or so and he SNAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAPS with.... 4d4h. Brilliant. Players can't pass a 4high flush draw. Mint. Obviously I brick and I'm out in the first level.

Well played Mulhuzz. Keep forgetting that you never have fold equity against retards.

Well, on the the NPF Champs in November, still no job news :(, and playing the £3r at the G tonight to get drunk. Excellent.

--Huzz

In which I visit Gibraltar...

So, here we are again than. Last time out I talked about how I was off to a job interview in Gibraltar.

Well, first off, what a magic place. Really. Such a cool part of the world -- great weather, great atmosphere, cheap beer -- as you can imagine, whales of times were had. I arrived on the Thursday afternoon after a 2 hour delay to my flight due to the french national pastime, la grève and quickly got checked into a pretty baller hotel after the one or so hours drive from Malaga where I'd landed. The drive down, incidently, took me through some of the coolest mountains I've ever seen, which included driving near this little gem:

Check out videos of 'El Camino del Rey' online to see more of this amazing place and the nutso guy that films along the pathway.

Anyway, after getting myself nice and checked in to the hotel, I grabbed a quick beer and then headed out to meet my pal Hannes for dinner. Well, we didn't get quite as far as dinner as we quickly met some of his colleagues and friends in a bar and then later in the casino. Anyway, knowing I had an interview the next day, but not until 11am, I decided to sit and play a little 100NL. I sat for, I think, £90 or so (all the non-Euro cash I had on me) and within 4 hands I'd slightly more than doubled when I got A6dd in from the BB on an A62 board vs an UTG limper with AJ. Obviously the entire world had also limped, hence the slightly more than doubleage. I checked in the dark, he leads for more than pot, one caller, I 3bet, he 4bet jams and I snap after the original flatter has passed. Mbsfn, right?

Wrong.

A little later I lose a race for about 30 with TT v AK which is pretty standard, but the game is ridic soft so I don't mind that at all. Plenty of fish to take chips from, or so I thought. At one point I also lose my balls when I should have 4bet jammed A7o (btn) over him and he shows me QTo (bb) I told him he should 3bet to £21 if he had a ten in his hand...sigh. I'm so weak lol. Knew he was full of shit too, but didn't want to find A8 or something.

Key Hand 1:

I flat a small (to £4) raise in the BB with A2cc and with 4 callers already I'm getting zillions to one. 922r looks like the perfect flop for me, I lead, get 4 callers, someone shoves, I reshove, but only get the shovers £150 or so in the middle. I'm pretty sure that's how it plays out, but the point is that I lose about a £600 pot with A2 on a 922 board when AT gets there. Running T-balls, eh? Hannes immediately rubs me down by calculating that I was 99.49% to win right there. Sigh.

Key Hand 2:
Sigh. I get it in on the turn with top two on 85AQ, get called by 9T and a J-ball on the river. Sigh. All of a sudden I'm less than breaking even, down to about £55.

Key Hand 3:
Having got the required double up with JJ v TT on a Qxx board (I read people gooooood) I'm on about £130 when this happens. The 200NL game has just broken and people have joined this table. One guy has about £800 in front of him, and posts. He makes it £7 to go and I make it £21 in the SB with JJ again. Some Spanish retard (who gutshotted me twice already tonight, once in a big pot) has about £400 effective I guess (maybe a bit less) and he flats. Poster calls as well and I immediately think...hmmm, I might need a set here but we'll see. Anyway, board is JXXcc and I just jam. With £60+ in the middle, and I have £130 there's nothing else I can do here. I get called in both spots and it gets checked down. Turn 2s, River Qd. Retard flips KQcc for the busted draw, I show JJ and get shown QQ by the poster. Brilliant.

Anyway, that was me busto. Brilliant. Decided to take a taxi back to the hotel and not bother reloading.Must have run about a million quid behind EV, I think. Maybe more like £800-£1000, I guess.

The Next Day:
Anyway, the next day I make it over to the office where I'm being interviewed for about 10:45am and introduce myself. First impressions: Wow. Every Office should be like this. So laid back, well stocked out and cool as fuck. I'm quickly introduced to the HR lady, the current head of Fraud and the Chief Operating Officer. I get myself a water and crack on with answering the questions. About 2 hours later we've talked about everything, and I''m feeling good, before the COO leaves for another meeting and I'm left with the Fraud head and we talk some more about algorithmic approaches to Fraud detection and prevention and some other stuff, before she sets me a task of sifting through 300 lines of data looking for fraud indicators in the registration data. I think I do pretty well here, I don't know what fraud looks like in their system, but I know that irregular looking behaviour is a good place to start so I get a couple of algorithms and such running and bang up a quick snippet of VB code to find some obvious stuff for manual review. There was also some pretty straightforward ID validity test (pick the fakes out from these passports) and then another test of my language skills and customer service chops which I think goes fine too.

After about half the time, I meet Hannes for lunch in the staff canteen and enjoy a pretty nice chicken curry before having a cigarette on top of the building looking out over the marina with Spain to my right and Africa to my left. Pretty. Fucking. Amazing. Anyway, Hannes lets me get back to work and I finish off. A little later, he gives me a tour of the office and I meet the team a little more formally than last night, then go back to the hotel feeling pretty pleased with myself.

That night I head over to the Casino again for beers and poker (losing £130, highlight of the night running AJ into AK on a AAx board against the most aggrofish at the table for stacks...sigh) but continue drinking and talking poker with loads of the guys, before heading to a leaving party for one of the company. On the way, we stop of at Hannes' baller as fuck apartment and have some Vodkas, obv. Anyway, long story short, I meet some more people, generally make a good impression I think, and I should find out on Friday if I got it. My initial impression and read on them is that I did well, and I'm confident, but we'll see. Definitely getting some positive vibes like.

Basically the company spared no expense in showing me what Gibraltar is like and what it's like to work for them. They treated me as a colleague, not an interviewee, for the whole time and I came away flabbergasted at how smart each and everyone of them was. Like not just in poker (even though some of their employees crush anything from 400NL all the way up to 2k/4k fixed limit. No joke. Ha. Sickos!) but in business as well. I was very impressed by them, and should they make me an offer I'd snap it off.

Anyway, this is long now, wish me luck, anyway.

Building a Door...

Milton Berle said:

If opportunity doesn’t knock, build a door.

I’ve built my door, kitted it out with the best, shiniest knocker you’ve ever seen and now we’ll go see if I can invite opportunity to come a-knockin’.

This Thursday, I’m flying out to Gibraltar to talk to some wonderful people about how I can streamline and improve upon their trust, safety and risk mitigation procedures, enabling them to become less risk averse (the consequence of having a well defined fraud prevention policy is that you can take a few more risks, which seems like it shouldn't be true, but it is!)

If the interview goes well, I hope to be in Gibraltar full time by the end of the year, maybe even sooner.

I'm really really excited by this opportunity, coming as it has at the perfect time with all the stuff that's going on at work at the moment. Working in the gaming and betting industry has obvious appeal to me, and the nature of the work fits both with my academic and working background, so there are obvious encouraging signs there and a whole load of transferable skills, too.

Anyway, I'm going to spend a few days out there, catch up with an old friend who's lived out there for a while now and enjoy a little bit of distraction from the situation here.  It should be pretty nice trip either way, and I hope that next time I'm blogging I can tell you all some good news.

Can I use your one time? Thanks, I might need it.

In which I remember why I love the G....

£15 Turbo FO, G, Monday 13th Sept

So I played the G 'super steep, super deep' tournament on Monday night because I was bored after work. Nemesis had dropped me a text and, as usual, if he's playing, I'm playing. I get there pretty early and have some great banter with Emma Fullerton, a pal of hers who's name I always forget, Azbo, Nemesis and a couple of others.

When the seats are drawn, well, wp me, I'm in the one seat and one my table are Nemesis and Emma, as well as, and FML, Barry Smith. Brilliant. I definitely needed to be OOP to Emma (superlagggggggg, seat 3) and Ian (seat 5).

Within the first level my bluff frequency is huge, I'm playing mostly ATC. There's only a 15 minute clock, and stacking someone is always nice. Barry Smith limps UTG+1 (seat 7) and I follow (we're 7 handed) with 95cc. Folds to Nemesis OTB and he pumps it to 250 or so and we both call. I think one of the Blinds calls too.

Flop 56Thhc. Checks to Nemesis who bets 600 and is called by Barry Smith. I make it 2200 pretty quick (repping a set) and get called in both spots. Shit. I'm pretty sure Ian has a hand like 78/79/T9/etc and possibley with hearts too. I'm not that delighted by Barry's call caus he almost always has a ten. Iain bets 3200 from an 8000 stack when checked to on a 2c turn (so now I have one pair and a 9 high flush draw lol). On the flop, I checked to Iain mainly for pot control with my weak one pair hand (because he'd have raised with draws as well as real hands if I bet, and also to set up an elaborate three street bluff, which starts with checkraising repping a set on the flop. On the turn, I was planning to lead, until Barry called. Now I have to careful that he's silly enough to call off really light (like I say, the way he played the hand and his demeanour meant that he almost always has a Ten..and a Ten is pretty light given the range I'm repping..) so I check the turn and calculate that I can jam on Ian if he bets the right amount. The nice thing about Barry being in the hand is I can now use him to induce a bluffing range from Ian by checking behind.

Ian bets 3200 on the turn like I say and this is just never a value bet I don't think. With the board now extradrawy he would probably jam his value hands (8k into about 7k..), especially since Barry is in the hand and might stack off light. He knows *for sure* that I'm capable of stacking off really light to Ian too, so there's only one thing to do with his value hands here. 3200 looks like a draw. It could be a well disguised value hand, but, erm, my read was that it wasn't, shall we say. Barry sigh passes and I do the maths and jam 8k effective leaving myself about 7k behind if called. If Ian has a pair and a draw he probably has a decision here, and if he has a bare draw he just has to pass, I think. He tank passes and I show the 'bluff'.

Anyway, I now have about 24k from a 15k starting stack and I'm coasting.  Then this happens on the last hand of 25/50. Player (unknown) opens early and I threebet with KK in the cutoff to 800. I get two cold calls from moron (button) and Emma (SB) before the BB makes it 3000 to play. Original raiser passes and I just jam. Other two quickly pass before BB tanks (with about 16k behind) and talks about how he always loses with this hand, and I put him on AK obv, and then after about 5 minutes (seriously) he calls and flips QQ.

Q on the river. Just the 40k+ (1600BB+) pot lost there then. Sigh. This is not why I love the G lol.

The next hand I raise 10% of my remaining stack, someone makes it 5k (lol) and Emma jams. Thanks for the treble up opportunity with my pretty cards. I jam for 5650 and the guy who made it 5k sigh folds (lol - he passes AJ, but knowing he has three outs he now has the correct price to call off the extra because of his batshit raise....). I beat Emma's AQ with a 6 in the window for my 69s and I'm back to average.

I go on to crush and at one point 6 handed I have 90k, then I have to fold on supercoord flops that miss me and I'm on 45k (average 50k) and 4 handed when I 3bet jam over the eventual winner with K9s and he slowrolls with AQ. He had a healthy chiplead and had opened the last million pots. I miss, obv.

How does he win? He coolers the fuck out of Boris when Boris has him covered by 20k or so. Boris in SB, thinking of what he should raise to (although he hasn't announced raise yet) and the retard just jams. Boris asks to make sure he said 'all in' and then calls with KK. Retard flips 55. Flops quads. Boris makes a stand of it and gets it back to almost even, but he's unlucky again later.

Fortunately this kid has now won 2 tournaments this week (one at aspers, apparently) and will think he's a great player. He's not. Really. I'm licking my lips at the thought of all that money coming back to the poker economy.

Except, I'm not....

I'm taking a break from poker for a while. I'll defo play the £1k added first Tuesday and the NPF Champs is a cert, but other than that I prolly won't play much in October, I'm almost certainly done for September, with the exception of the until I've sorted out a new job and know what I'm doing. We'll see.

Oh, I should tell you why I love the G.....

I was chatting to Phil about why the G's new schedule, much maligned on the NPF, actually makes good business sense for them (it does...) and his enthusiasm to be better all the time was very impressive.  Good things will happen for the G, and if a couple of their games take off we'll have some big pots there pretty soon.

My Ideal MTT Table....

I've played a couple of tournaments recently, ran awesome and crushed in the one that didn't matter (the Friday £15+£15 at Circus) and ran terribad and got nowhere in the one that did (the £50 Circus Monthly FO).

I don't really want to talk about them too much, I mean there were standard spots in both and it's kinda meh. If you can't win 70%ers then you have no chance.

Additionally I played the £20 triple chance at the G on Friday and ran AK into TT on an AKx flop and then AK into QQ and KK aiprf when blinds wake up with QQ and KK? Live poker is rigged! ;) having played super awesome thus far. Meh.

This weekend saw the CMBPT roll into Teeside and as you'll probably already know, the NPF owned it, with FT finishes for bigstumpy (6th?) Rosco (4th and second FT of the tour this year!) and Mark "The Threat" Trett (who doesn't like anyone else winning a free drinks voucher at Teeside, nevermind a poker tournament) coming second for just over £10k.

A couple of people talked about a Day One table that lots of NPFers played on:

1) Dan “Not Always Light” Trett
2) Unknown
3) Khadir “I Call” Khoshawy
4) Rizgar “Borat” Qadir
5) Lee Danaher
6) Dave Collins
7) Mark “The Threat” Trett
8) Craig “Big Stumpy” Newton
9) Ross “Roscopiko” Johnson

How much of an awesome MTT table is this? Banter: check. Good players: check. Bad players: I-call, erm, I mean, check.

This got me thinking. If I could devise 'the perfect' MTT table containing solely NPFers, who would I have?

Some Criteria:

1. I'm not going to give regards to seating (basically position) and assume that the players would randomly be assigned seats at this table.

2. The table is mainly going to be based strongly on 'players whose game I respect' (of which there are many, so if you're not on the list, don't assume I don't.....) and 'people I'd have a cracking time at the table with (similarly cf above).

3. As a corollary of 2), I won't necessarily be ammmmmazzzzing value on this table. I might even be dead money most days, as it happens. As you read down the list, you'll see why.

4. Most players will be given a nickname. Some of them will be well known nicknames, others will be things I think of them.

5. I'm going to try and get a mix of styles and games. Although they'll all be excellent players, see 2).

1. Marc 'mulhuzz' Mulhern
Well, I have to be on the table, right? What's that Rounders quotation? Something about spotting the fish....

2. Steve 'know your enemy' Brennan. 
Yeah, we'll have some Bulmers please. And Brennan's hand reading skills will make me sick. He'll fold AJs UTG+1 but then raise 89s the next hand because he knows his enemy.


3. Ross 'roscoLAGo' Johnson.  
Always plays to win, not as lag as I think he is, obv, and two CMBPT final tables this year means you know he has game. Also Cpt of the latest NPF team.

4. Dan “Not Always Light” Trett
Mark has made the bigger splash in the last couple of years, but whisper it quietly, I think Dan is the better player. Not by much like. And if we both get knocked out early, there is nobody I'd rather go drink Jaegerbombs with on the rail. :D


5. Mark “The Threat/Lord Mayor of Teeside” Trett
All round gent and brilliant player. Useful to get a linecheck from, even if it is just 'check call all three streets'. Only kidding, Mark. Also calls me Mulldozer. Which I love, obv. So he's in. Oh yeah....he also owns Teeside, so in the interests of fairness, the MTT must be held in Newcastle...


6. Andy 'KQ4EVA' Blair
Andy has, unknowningly, taught me more about MTT strategy than anyone else on this list whilst I've been at his table in the past. He also knows a fuckload about the mixed games, and is very good at framing the 'mental' side of the game. If this was an STT, he'd win more often than any other player, I suspect.

7. Dave 'Jimmy Chipmunk' Stephenson
Is there anyone better at patiently waiting for a spot, even with a microstack? The total opposite of my approach to shortstack poker. Also, we're drinking red wine, always +EV.

8. Neil 'Buzzzzzzzzzzzzzz' Harvey
Depending on your definition of 'young' (I'm 24, so we'll say under 22), Neil is by some distance the best young player in Newcastle. Someday soon he's gonna win something huge like a GUPKT. Nobody will be surprised. Obviously he's also a great buffet companion.

9. George 'GeoKing Get Therrrrrrrrrre' Lawson
Very solid, very dangerous, much improved over the last year or so. Also, we'd trade a cheeky 10%, giving me more of a shot. We could have signature hand battles (the mighty 75s for George and K8ss for me!)

10. Ian 'Nemes-is in the tank' Bertram
OK, he tanks. Alot. It tilts me and he knows it, but I love playing with Ian, mainly because there's so much meta-game there and plays that to an outsider look ridiculous make perfect sense to Ian and I. Also, there should be at least one other player where I can't decide if a 5bet jam is Aces or 45s. I'll let you make your own judgment on who the other is!

I'd have a combination of Keith 'please blogggggg moaaar!' Ridley and Steve 'CGK' Wills on the mic announcing the action, too. Just because I can.

Did I miss somebody out? Who would you have on your table? Let me know in the comments if you're so inclined.

Peace, Love and Grapes,

--mulhuzz

In which I do ok....

Short update for the week.

Played 5 sessions of NL50 live for a total profit of £280.

Played two tournaments also for a £60 loss.

I should have been up about £400 today but some quality hands like this:

Q7s in a limped pot I complete in SB.

Flop KQ7hh. I checkraise 3 players, one folds, two call.  Turn is an offsuit 2. With £60+ in the middle I jam for my remaining £45ish and get called in two spots. One has a straight draw, the other a flush draw with a blocker to the straight draw, I hold for a huge pot (~£180).

 I raise to £3.50 AA UTG+1

Called in 5 spots and flop is T45dd. SB leads £8 and I check (with 3 players to act behind) planning on 3betting when the aggro MP player raises (which he will). He makes it £20.50 and I'm ready to 3bet jam when I realise that he's put about half his stack in and he prolly commits the rest on the turn anyway when I can see it blank for free. Whilst I'm running over the options, the SB calls with £100+ behind. Now I can't really jam because the SB could be planning on jamming any non-diamond turn with a set/two pair. I call and the turn is a 2. It checks round, which is weird as fuck, was pretty sure now that SB had a hand like AT/KT/all other pairs and was trying to get to showdown as cheap as possible. Since the aggro MP player checks he now defo has a flush draw.

I river a wheel with the 3. I check-call a shove (once SB folds, I wanted to see what he did, just in case he played a set weird) and get shown J6dd for a bigger straight. Sigh. I should just jam on the flop with so much in the middle. Urgh.

I get most of that back later when....

 Well, only what I'd invested in the hand when MP player from before limps early, Scotty raises right behind, one caller and I threebet to £10.50 with AQs from the BB. Scotty asks how much I have behind and the limper jams for £35. Nobody has played KK like this since the mid-nineties. This is always midpairs and I'm always flipping. I make the obvious call and river an Ace. Scotty passed Jacks. MP limper had TT.

I get coolered when...

I call a small raise OTB with 78s, flop is K88. MP limper bets threestreets, I don't raise caus the board never gets drawy and I almost always have the best hand. MP almost always has like KJ from the way he plays and he ended up with A8. Sigh. I didn't even raise the river just in case. Pfffft. Guess I lost the minimum.

Later that evening, I make a straight and get max value when...

I call a small raise in LP with 89s, flop is 467, call a minbet on the flop, turn is the nut T and I make a thin value raise on the river when the board pairs the 6. Donk had flopped the straight and I take him for £40 or so. 

 4 hands later......


I open KK in EMP. Get 5 calls. Board is J62. I raise a donk from BB. He flats. Turn a 4 and we get it in. He has 43 for a pair and a gutshot. He gets there. Sigh. GG £120 pot.

Decent, but should have been so much better. Did have mint craic with Scotty all day though.

In which Simmy plays like Simmy, not Simmy fucking 3k!

So this weekend was the G Cup team event down at the G. I was playing, for the last time, for Team Ninja.

I'm not really going to review the event too much, other than to pick out a couple of interesting hands and how I reacted and such. Starting with 7500 and a 40 minute clock, let's jump right in.

Early doors I three bet A8s against perceived weakness and take a nice multiway pot down on an Ahigh board. I then play some suited connectors in position, make a loose (advertising) snapcall with King High vs Mrmagoogle in a small pot and I'm on about 8500 when I open QQ UTG to 225 UTG at 50/100 and get flatted by both the CO (relatively spazzy, prolly flatting ATPrettyC because of tight BTN and my LAGtard image) and the BTN (tighest player at table, confused by the coldcall) before Nemesis (my team, captain, capable of squeezing wide) makes it 625. I'm getting prepared to 4bet before Alison (mrsfatfish, playing real good and TAGgy) pops it to 1625. I tank fold. Nemesis flashes the As as he folds and Alison mucks. I think she prolly shows a bluff so I think good fold. I also don't think she 4bets AK out of position. With AA she probably flats and  hopes I shove. I guess I ran into the other two Queens (nice bet) or KK (nice hand and nice bet) or the Azbo (super bet, and I'm never ahead). There's always a chance she has AA though. A friend of mine says that however weirdly the hand plays out, there is always an 8% chance that they have AA. A maxim I live by!

I claim I folded JJ as I just don't think folding QQ suits my laggy image at this table.

Anyway, a little later I open T8s in late position, flop 2 pair on a drawy board, bet three streets and get raised on the end by mrmagoogle. I sigh, wonder if he waits till the river to raise a straight or set on a 2 heart board but decide he doesn't, call and my top2 is good for a nice pot.

I'm up to about 13000 when the crucial hand occurs. Simmy3k has just moved to our table and joined the tournament. I know him to be LAGgy as hell and capable of all sorts of moves. His third hand in, he makes it 550 at 75/150 in the hijack and I flat the button with 22. Now a reasonably tight player in the BB Pam overcalls for value. As she does this, I turn to Simmy and announce 'great, I need the pot to be multiway for my hand' and he says 'pfft, I just wanted it heads up'. There's 1725 in the pot and we see the flop:

4c 5c 9x

BB checks (I don't think she check-raises a lot at all, so suspect there's a check-fold coming, or, if she has a draw, maybe a check-call) and Simmy obv cbets 850 pretty fast. I think raising here is the best line because:

1. I likely have the best hand as that board doesn't hit Simmy's range that much.

2. I need to protect my hand, and as an added bonus, price out the BB if they're on a draw.

3. I can represent a set or a huge draw given my speech about 'needing the pot to be multiway'.

4. Simmy doesn't know I've been laggy so a raise reps a pretty narrow range, I think.

5. If I get flat called I can reevaluate on the turn. So yeah, I'm raising for value and for information.

Anyway, you may disagree, please let me know in the comments if you do, but I make it 2300. This makes the total pot 4875, and Simmy has to put 1450 more in. Given that he started the hand with 7500, he'll have almost half his stack in if he flats.

He tanks. For a looooonnng time. About 5 minutes. In the end, he looks resigned and just slides his chips over the line. All 6950 of them (including the 850). So, the pot is 10975 and I have to call another 4650 from my ~11k remaining stack. Let's consider his range:

1. He doesn't have sets or twopair, like, ever, because he jams quicker. Like instaquick. I don't think he was acting, he was genuinely trying to decide how to play his hand facing a raise.

2. For the same reason, I rule QQ+ almost all of the time and TT/JJ lots of the time (i think he flats and reevaluates those hands, and moves in with QQ+ quicker).

3. He has 66,77,88 here a fair amount of the time, I think. Maybe 20% of the time he turns up with one of those hands.

3. He has clubs here, a lot, I think. Like wider than AcXc and including like KcXc, QcJc, maybe even wider, I think (given the image I have of him). Obviously when he has clubs -- I have the 2c, kindofa blocker ;) -- he also has two overs, which is basically a flip. Given the money in the middle (remember, 4650 more into almost 11k) I make the auto call for how often he has just clubs.

He shows KK. Ooops. No help for me and down to like 6k or so.

I then play really badly, don't adjust to my new stacksize and finally shove 4200 over Simmys open with A9s and he has KK, again.

Thoughts on the key hand?

As a test: If you were shown AKcc by simmy when he moved in, and you'd still fold, you're wrong. A couple of people said that too me at the break. I haven't heard a convincing argument for why I should fold here (when shown 2overs and FD) yet, so I'll continue to assume it would be optimal to call.

Anyway, comments appreciated and well done to Dobba Knights for the record and to all who played. Well done to Dan Trett for being more hungover than me and for tempting me pre-tourney with Nandos, too.

Editing blogpost title given comments.

Today is a bad day....

So I have to work tonight, which means that I've had a couple of extra hours sleep in the afternoon to prepare me for the nightshift.

I've woken up to a barrage of 'WTF?!?!?!' text messages from colleagues and after a bit of digging I managed to find out. Most of our entire team is at the risk of redundancy because the Client is moving business elsewhere. Fuck.

I feel absolutely horrid.

UPDATE: The entire team, including me, is at risk of redundancy. What's worse is that the consultation period will be little more than a formality, and that, sometime within the next 90 days, I won't have a job.

Here's the thing. I've been looking, for a while, for a new job, but I thought that I'd always have the safety net of being here to fall back on. There are two ways of looking at this:

1. Ffffffffffffffffffffffffffffffffffffffffffffffuck the world is falling down.OR
2. Ok, that's that then, nothing we can do, let's use this as the impetus to find a killer job in the time I have left.

As a colleague described it, if a plane slams into the side of a prison, you can either lament the structural damage to the prison itself, or you can just fucking escape. Pretty simple choice if you think about it, and I want to make the most of this horrible spot to kick forward in my career.

I'll miss the craic here in the office. There is no exaggeration on my part when I say that all of the people I work with are fucking top class. Honestly, you couldn't hope to work with a better bunch of people. They truely are superb and I'll miss working with every single one of them.

I'll probably take voluntary redundancy if it's offered, though. Just seems like a good spot to move on.

This is the second time in a little under two years when I've been at risk of redundancy, but whilst there was a realistic chance that I'd keep my job last time, that just isn't the case this time. Let's hope I can make lemons out of lemonade.

If anyone has suggestions for jobs, serious or otherwise (I could do with cheering up!) then let me know in the comments. For reference, I have a law degree, speak 4 languages to various degrees of fluency and am learning a fifth. I have amazing chops in Customer Service and Fraud Mitigation and (still) lead a team of 50 people.

I know this isn't the end of the world.

--mulhuzz