Tourney tonight!

Warmed up for tonights blogger Pokerstars sng by coming 7th from 113 in a $20 nl tourney at Interpoker which paid $90.I was the shortstack going into the final table but folded JJ when I could have called a push and although I outlasted 2 others I wish I'd pushed my JJ and taken a chance rather then end up getting blinded away.Good fun though.

Played a little poker with Juice,The Edge and Rosie ( Hi Rosie!) at Laddys before heading off to the 6 max tables for yet another night of pokery madness.Despite my tourney profits I was soon staring at a $150 downswing for the night so I did as all sensible acorns do in these situations and looked for the craziest table with the lowest blinds.

Ended up finding a $1.50-$3nl 6 max table with an average pot of $164 and a guy with over $1k who seemed to be running over everyone by raising $45 -$80 preflop on almost every hand.It can be heart in mouth stuff but I relish playing maniacs like him and sat down with $300 to see what I could do.What I mostly did was fold a lot but I showed I wasn't to be messed with either.He bet $51 preflop and I raised all in with 1010.He folded.Bear in mind this is after limping about 4 times and folding to a similar raise from him everytime.

I won another decent pot from him when I finally decided to play AQ sooted.The first time I got it I folded to an $82 preflop bet but when I got in the same situation again I called and my Q kicker beat his 2 kicker when an Ace hit the board.He actually checked on the river and I checked to despite being ahead.He didn't have to show many hands due to the constant folding but gradually the table wore him down and I left just after him with $200 of his money.

Maybe there's not much skill in camping for monsters to take out a maniac but it certainly requires a lot of heart,discipline and the ability to shrug it off when every time you limp you get raised by 40bb.

Won $80 on Friday night and had a lovely big post all about it ready to go until I closed the page by mistake.Grrrr.

Weekly figures update sees $1421 at Interpoker,$1171 at Ladbrokes and $618 at Pokerroom which means I've made $250 betwen last Sunday and today and most of it this weekend.


One subject I covered in my eaten post was about the average pot sizes when moving up.While my skills are probably nowhere near ready for $10nl I note that according to the Pokerroom lobby right now there's not a table up to and including $10 nl with a higher average pot than I was playing at $1-$3.50 last night.

As I wrote last week though I'm sticking to the .25-1nl tables for most of my play for just now although I still can't seem to break the cycle of being down over $100 and then pulling it back at a higher level.Maybe this time if I can keep winning I'll save it rather than cashout and consider playing $1.50-$3 or $2-$4 on more permanent basis to see how it goes.

Looking forward to tonights tourney at 'Stars.Hope I can stay awake for it.Went to bed at 5.20am and was up at 12pm to go collect the wee one and head over to my sisters for a couple of hours to celebrate my Mum and Dads 60th birthdays ( Dads 2nd,Mums 8th).Nic and I paid for a night at a 5 star luxury hotel in St Andrews for them and I think they'll enjoy it.

Yesterday afternoon I was at Ibrox to witness Rangers fail to win for the 9th time in a row.The first time that has happened in our 132 year history.We even managed to throw away a 2-0 lead to draw 2-2. We play Inter Milan at Ibrox on Tuesday night for the chance to qualify for the Champions league 2nd stage and it had better be the managers last game in charge and a new man in by the end of the week or thre protests will really take off.Protests outside the ground are more the kind of move our separated brethren make across the city but for a club thats won more league title and more trophies than any other in the world the current situation cannot be tolerated any further.

Ok I've posted the hand below to show Juice that its not all ABC lucky poker and that my style does allow me to make plays and moves when I sniff an opportunity!

We had a recent discussion on Juices blog about his recent massive upswing at .10-20 where he's made over $200 at full ring tables in just over 2 weeks but still doesn't give himself enough credit as he feels he has made it from bad players.Errrr Hello that's the idea was my reply but Juice feels he can't develop his game playing weaker players.

Comes down to style I think.If your style is similar to the Doyle way of playing where it's all about putting the opponent to the decision about their cards rather than what you hold and you can make money that way then good luck to you.If on the other hand you prefer to camp and trap players like that then that is a style that shoud be respected in its own right.

Sure from an ego point of view it probably feels good to think your running over the table as every time they raise the maniac makes a huge bet and they all fold but the bottom line is it was me who left with $200 of his cash and other players took even more.I don't care about dominating the table.I just want to win money!

Texas Hold'em $1-$1 NL (real money), hand #1,542,238,178Table Stockton, 3 Dec 2005 01:03
AM

Seat 1: Zagga [JH,AH] ($98 in chips)

Seat 2: starcrash ($167.60 in chips)Seat 3: Habewess ($93 in chips)Seat 4: JstDoIt1 ($46 in chips)Seat 5: ppwarrf ($101.60 in chips)Seat 7: rene_lyngaa ($86.40 in chips)Seat 8: gwr2 ($364.20 in chips)Seat 9: Bukie1 ($72.30 in chips)Seat 10: celo 456 ($146.50 in chips)

ANTES/BLINDS :starcrash posts blind ($0.50), Habewess posts blind ($1).

PRE-FLOP: JstDoIt1 folds, ppwarrf calls $1, rene_lyngaa calls $1, gwr2 calls $1, Bukie1 calls $1, celo 456 calls $1, Zagga calls $1, starcrash calls $0.50, Habewess checks.

FLOP [board cards QH,6H,6D ]

starcrash bets $3, Habewess folds, ppwarrf folds, rene_lyngaa calls $3, gwr2 folds, Bukie1 folds, celo 456 folds, Zagga calls $3.

TURN [board cards QH,6H,6D,5D ]

starcrash bets $5, rene_lyngaa calls $5, Zagga calls $5.

RIVER [board cards QH,6H,6D,5D,2D ]starcrash checks, rene_lyngaa checks, Zagga bets $25, starcrash folds, rene_lyngaa folds.

SHOWDOWN Zagga wins $55.
SUMMARY Dealer: ZaggaPot: $57, (including rake: $2)Zagga, bets $34, collects $55, net $21starcrash, loses $9Habewess, loses $1JstDoIt1, loses $0ppwarrf, loses $1rene_lyngaa, loses $9gwr2, loses $1Bukie1, loses $1celo 456, loses $1

Ok thats all for this weekend.Hope you all had a good one and hope to see as many as possible at 'Stars tonight for the tourney...

Oh and this weeks top tip is that if they check after the river they are usually weak!