Circus Friday Game 5th June 2010

So I didn't blog in a while, I'll keep this as short as I can. Honest.

I get persuaded to play the Circus £15+£15 game on Friday and get further persuaded by BO$$HOG and Pads that having beers before would be fun. They were absolutely right, it was fun. Couple of beers in the telegraph (which is rammed) and then off to reg at Circus. Before we reg, I play my first ever game of AZBOKING with Sensh, BO$$HOG, Pads and Andy Blair. Obviously I bink it. Beginner's luck and such.

I get drawn a reasonably tough table, with Andy 'KQ4EVA' Blair (who I love listening to talk about poker whilst he's playing, it's like free coaching!), Lewis Clemment and Chris Day all here, plus some unknowns. Chris is tough to play against as he's just so aggro with a wide range, and I think it's pretty safe to say that Lewis is a top player who will be more than happy to have the button when I'm in the BB. Andy is directly to my left too, which should be fun. Chris is directly to my right and dealing, and he's always good crack. You know he's gonna be here for ages with loads of chips, or out early with his style.

A little into it, Chris coolers Andy for his first buyin with A7 > TT all in on a 7 high flop. Ace on the turn. Andy rebuys, and Chris coolers some other dude and very quickly has north of 20k, I guess, from the 6k start. He's being aggro and running good. Hitting every draw and such. Then Chris raises the button to 425 and I repop to about 1250 with AKs from the SB. Andy moves in from the BB and Chris passes. I don't like folding with 1/3 of the effective stack already in there when I'm flipping a lot. I make the call and AK > TT. Ul Andy, wp. Always a pleasure.

I like to threebet a little lighter against Chris than I normally would, and I make up for this by flatting less. The reason is that Chris can have a tendency to overplay hands a little, especially if he thinks 'he'd never reraise with X preflop' so you can get him to commit his chips with all sorts of draws and mid pairs. The flip side is that I'll rarely bluff him, particularly if I think he has a draw and the pot is about to bloat.

Later a couple of crucial hands come up. I threebet Chris' open with TT and he calls (that's not lighter than usual, I'll 3bet TT for value against most people..) and he calls OOP. He leads pot size on a 689 board and I just shove for 10k effective. He snaps with K7, I fade the world and double up to 20k-ish. My shove looks so weird here I think that Chris might think he has Ks, 7s, Ts and 5s for the best hand. He'll prolly also call with just like any pair. With hands that beat me, he probably bets smaller or even 'checks to the raiser' I think. Meh, maybe I got lucky that I wasn't behind but that he still called. I had a live AZBOdraw if I was behind, anyway.

A few orbits later, with the beers flowing, there are a couple of limpers (Chris included) into Rob Flett (new to table) in the BB. He promises to raise, so I overcall with 99. Not ideal, but meh. Flop is a dreamy 345. Rob checks, Chris bets, I raise for value from hands like A5, etc, and Rob flats. Chris then shoves for 6k more (with about the same in the middle) and I just flat. Rob then moves in for 1000 more than that. Sigh. Not beating anything now, I guess, but I call. Actually, I'm beating the world. Rob has 52 (he gave the 'I guess I'm going to work speech) and Chris has 65. I scream for a running King Queen ball, and that's exactly what I get, and all of a sudden I have 38k or so. We're not even at the break yet!!!

At the break, I tell pads how I'm crushing and he tells me how he's catching up. Some good banter there, of course. I decide to add on, just for the crack, and eat at the break, catching up with Dan and Mark Trett too.

After the break, some other stuff happens. Fast forward to Dan and Mark Trett getting moved to the table. I'm dealing now, and having banter, and watching the Tretts hoover up chips. Apparently when Mark writes his first book, the first chapter will be 'how to get there on the river' and Dan will guest author a section on 'how to flop trips and get paid everytime'. Dan and Mark both came to the table with less than me, and all of a sudden Dan has like 50k, Mark getting to about 35k -- by getting there on the river, obv ;) -- and I can't relax anymore. Now there's poker to be played, so I mix up a few pots, but I'm playing a little tight against them both as they both have position on me and I don't want to get into a spot where I could go broke if I play it wrong.

I haven't really moved chipwise for a while, small variations, going through blinds, taking blinds and limps and such. I'm delighted to continue the banter when the table splits and I get moved. I *really* want Pads' table, but it's not to be, although Dan joins me on a table with philn, KENLOCK and some kid called Phil, as well as another lad called Shaun that I know from around. At this point, let me say that it's the first time I'd met KENLOCK and we spoke for ages about a lot of stuff. He's a top top bloke, if you don't know him, introduce yourself. Needless to say, he knows his way around the felt too.

I start opening all buttons and also threebetting Dan Trett's early and mid position ranges in position for value. The lads in the blinds are starting to get sick of me, I think, and it's no surprise when Shaun shoves. I ask him how much more and he instantly draws in breath quickly, telling me he doesn't have a monster. I know I'm unlikely to be dominated with QTs and make the call for 12k or so. I bink against A3 and start to chip up again.  I then lose lots of it back when I flop two pair from the SB against and all in pre (for 2BBs) and KENLOCK who flatted the button. Ken has a straight and a flush draw, so when I shove he snaps and I can't fade the world this time ldo. I'm back to around 40k again when I open AQo early. Dan calls in the SB which is perfect for me, because it sets up a squeeze from philn in the BB. He duly obliges and I hold vs 78s by flopping an Ace in a 50k pot. Up towards 65k now. (I think that was the order of those hands, I may be wrong, but the net result is that when we move to the FT bubble I had 65k).

I raise from LP again (this time with KQs, a value hand!) and I get shoved on by the mighty Q7s. I make what I think is the most standard call in the world, and he flops a 7. That was the other kid called Phil. I guess he was just sick of me stealing his blinds, maybe. More like a frustrated shove than a value shove, esp when he had 25k or so. GG 50k pot.

I think I play another couple of pots, but get to the FT as a decent stack. Basically, this goes on for ages. Jean Barr limp folds AK to a Dan Trett all in (he lost a reasonable amount at the other table, but I don't remember how) because there was a limper behind. I was furious with that tbh. Anyway, I play like a bit of a hero, I think, but all of a sudden it becomes a little too tight so I start opening everypot that's folded to me, as does Dan. With less than 15BB in some spots, I just shove shove shove and pick up blinds all the time. Dan takes a stand with the 'miles ahead of my range' (my words, not his) KhJh. Unluckily for him (this is the 5th hand in a row I've shoved) I have Ah6h and hold to win a huge pot.

I can't be arsed to keep typing, but some dude gets KK a million times (and I fold JJ and AK to him pre) and later I'm offered a 5 way deal as chip leader. Lewis really has my back here and I turn it down because, frankly, 80% of the time I'm giving like £85 away. I offer a 5% discount on an ICM chop, but nobody other than Lewis knows what that means, so we play on. I start nibbling and nobbling and applying pressure, but then lose a rather large pot to TJ when he outflops me when I'm dominating. *sigh* -- back to average, TJ, furious that I didn't deal, starts giving it a bit of talk, so I stick the earphones in and decide to crush again. I do. 3 way chop at like 6:30 in the morning caus I had shit to do that morning and couldn't be wrecked. That was annoying. Good cash though, felt I played well.

In other news, that put me top of the new world cup league. weeeee..

In other other news, I did like £100 in a cash game at the G on Saturday after coming in pissed and having Scotty outflop my AA then play me like a fiddle for me to get it in drawing dead almost. That sucked. Still, when I made my first post at the NPF, I said I wanted to make £2500 this year from livepoker. It's June. Almost midyear review time, and I think I'm well on target for that, so that's something. Even if I do play like a fucking buffoon whilst pissed.

Thanks for reading. Sorry about the curtness at the end.

GL at the tables,


--mulhuzz