TFI Friday Round-Up

All is well and good in DaMatrix. Very excited to be going to the WHUPC in Barcelona in few weeks thanks to Stan's Poker.

I've learned that heads-up skill is more valuable than I first thought in tournaments - especially if you want to come first!

Over at Full Tilt Poker, I've been watching some of the pro's in action; John Juanda, Mike Matusow, Paul Wolfe and err Richard "Quiet Lion" Brodie ;)

I even challenged them to a heads up match offering 1% (worth up to $1300) of me in the WHUPC if one of them beat me. They all refused.

One railbird there took the opportunity to tell me that my blog is boring! Tell me one that isn't ;)

If you Navigate DaMatrix on the right, you'll find plently of great links to more boring blogs and poker websites.

Some great poker action to look forward to this weekend as I play in 3 online finals to qualify for land based events.

Update for my FPP Qualifiers post: I have used up 3 of my 4 chances to qualify for the BPO and WSOP (x2). No luck. One chance left to become a FPP Qualifier.

Finally, the May Poker Babe is just around the corner! And in response to the railbird at Full Tilt, I have added a "Boredom Relief" section within Navigate DaMatrix on the right with links to previous Poker Babes. Check it out!

Adios.

Note to Self #1

Don't multitable razz, holdem and omaha at 3am after only having slept 2hrs in past 40 hours.

Race for Bracelets

Played my first real money tournament at Full Tilt Poker. They are doing $24+2 "Race for Bracelets" tournaments this week - first prize being a package to play in one of the $1,500 WSOP events.

The start time of these super satellites for Europeans are not very good - in fact, I don't think I'll play another one. Nevertheless, I played the Limit Omaha Hi/Lo that started at 1am BST with 116 runners.

Having just won a WHUPC seat at Stans Poker, my confidence was high and thus my goal was to make it a double - I felt I just had to stay awake!

It was a long tournament and I managed to get to the final table after about 3 hours. Along the way, I made a "sick comeback" as player "AssMasterMan" described. With just 400 chips left after posting the BB (500), I managed to split a pot there - going on to build a 17K chip stack.

Early into the final table, the situation was this:


Bracelet Race: LO8B Final Table.

"The Shrike" had managed to gain the chip lead soon after coming to to the final table. POKERBAT was next out in 9th place. Incredibly, after about 30 minutes, The Shrike and gallagej had become short stacks. I waited for an opportunity to be all in preflop against one of them having them covered but when that happened against gallagej I got rivered.

As a result, I had to be all-in myself against Maverickdmb when he open raised and I reraised my short stack all-in from the SB to get the BB to fold and isolate my opponent. Preflop it wasn't looking too bad, I held AhQsQcJd (45%) against AdKd9s4c (55%) so I had +EV even though I was a slight dog. The board was Kh7c9d-8s-4d and I finished 8th. It was 4:30am and I didn't stick around to see who won.

Just looked at the final results:

7. The Shrike

6. gallagej

5. Jonah

4. AssMasterMan

3. Maverick216

2. Maverickdmb

and the winner was "Studpokerman". Nice job!

The Stud Hi/Lo Bracelet Race, which I really wanted to play but commenced at 3am BST, was won by "The_Nikoli" who beat 136 other players after 4 and a half hours.

World Heads Up Poker Championship 2005

Just won a seat to the World Heads Up Poker Championship 2005 at Stans Poker via a freeroll. WOOOOOOOHOO!

Before the tourney began I felt very confident, Zen and the Art of Poker has really helped me get my poker back on track.

Built my stack up early then had to start again from scratch after my opponent called my bluff. KEY HAND 1: I managed to triple up when I was dealt Aces on the SB. The button went all in, I called and the cut-off, who was also in the pot, called too.

I noticed "lynx500" at my table playing pretty good and I was keeping a close eye on him. When we got to the final table I was one of the big stacks and so was lynx500. The other dangerous oppenents were "shergar01" and "I_hate_river".

When we got to the first break on the final table, I was looking to clear my head but I was playing another tourney so I didn't quite manage to do that. Ended up playing abysmally up to the next break and resulting in me being short stacked 4-handed. KEY HAND 2: was when I called shergar01's all in with KJo. My first instinct was to fold, but I had him covered and decided to take a shot hoping I had at least two overcards. I really wanted to take it down to 3 handed asap. The plan backfired since he had KK and now I was in danger of going out 4th.

Thankfully, the break came at just the right time and I was able to regain my "Zen".

Nursed my short stack back to a reasonable level mainly thanks to KEY HAND 3: when I tripled up with AK v QQ v AK(who folded on the flop) and at one point we all had about the same stack. When "I_hate_river" was knocked out in 4th place and it became 3 handed I felt I had an edge.

My BB was respected by shergar01 sitting directly to my right for a few orbits and his stack started to dwindle. Unfortunately, he then went on a rush where he won a lot of pots consecutively and his stack was almost back up to my level. During that time I wisely folded KJ and A7 to his all in raises. KEY HAND 4: folding that A7 was critical since I was in the BB and he raised all in from the SB. I mucked after thinking for a while during which time I almost called. I didn't and he showed AJ. The mistake I made in KEY HAND 2 really helped me to focus on putting my chips in better spots.

Making great laydowns is all well and good, but I knew I had to put a stop to his run... in KEY HAND 5: he raised my BB for the 3rd consecutive time. I look down to find 73os and reraised more than half his stack.....he folded! Phew! I showed to rattle him a bit.

That move was the turning point. shergar01 busted out next and it was now heads up between me and lynx500 who had a slightly chip advantage. I had picked up that he was calling slighty too much but it had been working for him throughout the tournament. Heads up though, I was able to use this against him and I built a 2:1 chip lead.

My strategy in order to bust him was to build a big pot and get him to call me all the way down. In KEY HAND 6: lynx500 raised the min on the SB I called with Q2s. I hit top pair and a flush draw. I bet he calls. I hit my flush on the turn and make quite a large bet- he calls. River is a blank, but by now he is almost pot committed. I am pretty sure he will call any bet at this point and rather than making a smaller bet to make 100% sure I am called - I bet enuff to bust him. He calls with his top pair and I can't believe I have won! :)


World Heads Up Freeroll Results.

Jump to The Draw

PokerStars: A - Z

The A-Z of Who's Who on PokerStars:

#1_Lucky_One - Phil Hellmuth
#1PEN - Peter Neff
$saxo$ - Karsten Johansen
-BBJ- - Ben Sprengers
1oneriverrat - Scott Harms
4KingAceHole - Sam Grizzle
55Lucky55 - Spiro Mitrokostas

AawwNutz - Roy Carter
abc2000 - Peter Mairhofer
acesfull23 - Bryan Bevis
Acey-Deucey - Dennis Longoria
ackbleh - Steve Day
acpro - Pat McCarthy
actiondonkey - Jim "Minneapolis" Meehan
ACTIONJACK1 - Paul Jackson
Acunningham - Allen Cunningham
adamx - Adam Schoenfeld
adgator - Andrew Dykeman
am888 - Carmy Banin
AmazingGrace - Steve Zolotow
amishdriveby - David Ring
anakinso - Mike Goodman
AndreasH - Andreas Hagen
AnGlen - Ansel Glendenning
antyfreez - Yaron Wasserman
area23JC - J.C. Tran
ariesone - Howard Riley
autoduelfool - Philip White/Jay Goldenberg
Axabaxa - Alexander Cooper

BadAtThis - April Zwick-Friedman
BadLarry - Lawrence Frye/Anders Rosander
Baffa - Johan Backfjard
Bamboo100 - Paul Maxfield
batoelrob - Rob Hollink
bajeezes - Tod Skarecky
bbaced - Ryan Walters
beanie - Paul Nobles
BeepCS - Brian Shimek
Believer82 - Jeremiah Vinsant
berka - Daniel Bergsdorf
bigfish729 - Eirik Kolaas
bigglesworth - Thomas "Thunder" Keller
bigpaddy - Patrick Whiting
BIGSLICKNG - Michael Terrel
Bigslicks3 - Broc Segura
Bill Ivey - Lee Money
BillyBones - William Brennan
billygoatgrf - Jonathan Sanger
birdguts - Gavin Smith
BKLaw - Natan Wager
Blessed - John Duthie
bl0wback - Hugh Kirton
blkjck - Ryan Skluzab
Bluesbr0ther - Thomas Madsen/(Salvadore Cataldo?)
Blumfeld - Henning Frick
Bob&TomShow - Derek Dix
BobbaD - Dan Bobba
bogey54 - Brad Kondracki
bossen - Andre Fossmark
bottsky - Kevin Bott
Boxclock - Stephen Krex
braveyoyo - Yarom Limor
BreakRibs - James Kilarjian
Brett Favre - William Jensen
brocklanders - Todd Jones
broksi - Gus Hansen
buck21 - Shawn Buchanan
bulletproof - Bruce Yamron
Bumperenos - Bill Munley
BUNGALOWBILL - Paul Vicary
Bunsen - Matt Mortensen
Bushman - Chris Bush
Buster Love - Mark Seif
Butch Acidy - Joe Cassidy

C.K. - Christian Kruel
cajunsqueeze - Ed Pelegrine
capnncoke - Chip Jett
Caradoc - David Wilkins
carallen - Chad Runkle
Carlos_DK - Rehne Pedersen
carlspacker - Chris McIntytre
CasinoFun - Eric Karr
ChicagoSlims - Mike Kleinstub
chickenlittl - Shawn Keller
chief525 - Jeffrey King
Chino23 - David Rheem
chipsjn - Jeff Nairin
ChosenKid - Greg Debora
CHUFTY - Richard Ashby
chump - Troy Reed
clarkaoo - Thomas Mathiesem
collins3 - Stuart Fox
CooperD - Jeff Nosek Patterson/William Rockwell
crankyman - Tim Ramsey
crazyplayer - Barry Greenstein/Mimi Tran
cuckmaker - Jared Davis/Stacee Evans
cunningplan - Richard Piper
curzdog - Patrick Curzio

d'Amphoux - Michel "Mike" d'Amphoux
D-Rockkk - Paul Darden
Dabest247 - Davin Andersson
dam_straight - David Miller
Dan Druff - Todd Witteles
danny boy 14 - Dan Burns
dannythekid - Matt Hawrilenko
DaProfessor - Brady Davis/Miguel Olillares
Darrell77 - Darrell Dicken
Darth Maul - Nicholas Fradet
dass - Mikael Nilsson
dblgutshot - Gregory Alston
DBLMEUPPLS - Jason Levine
deadmeatRB - Richard Belle
Decision - Jon Hansmeyer
deek2122 - James Ennis
DeOhGee - Joseph Cordi
den&vic - Dennis Orr
derek7 - Michael Collins
Dflawless - Dewey Archer
Diamond Dave - Dave Veitch
DingDingDing - Raymi Sanchez Thorn
dirtyguy - Yaser Al-Keliddar
DiscoDD - David Davies
docbaby - Richard Lloyd Behl
Dogger9 - Bernard Lee
dolfan - Carmen Marino
Donald - Anders Berg
donttap - Jay Canowitz
Dosenpfand - Thomas Vinas
DOUBLEDUCE - Paul Wolfe
doublesuited - Daniel Negreanu
downtheline - Jim Hamburger
dpommo - David Pomroy
Dud711 - Rob Chasen
DuggaYowski - Travis Brennan

EasyH - Hoyt Corkins
eat@theY - Dennis Bray
ebolivia - Edward Moncada
EDOGN - Erick Lindgren
eirivi - Erik Villand
El_Loco_Solo - James Courtney
El Blondie - Dave Colclough
El Capitano - Marcel Luske & Noah Boeken
ElkY - Bertrand Grosspellier
emptyseat88 - Scott Fischman
Enon - Lee Goldman
erbloore - Eric Bloore
ericppp - Eracles Panayiotou
erguon love - Phil Ivey
evybabee - Evelyn Ng
Exclusive - Noah Boeken
Exitonly4 - Ray Coburn
extempore - Paul Phillips

fangs22 - Kevin Fangerow
FAtALBuLLeT - Shawn Silber
fedlos - Ted Lawson
feeltheglee - Gilbert Lee
FellKnight - Jordan Devenport
feurinho - Markus Feurle
fezzig - Lee Budin
fidallio - Joe Sebok (Greenstein's son)
First Ward - Frank Russomano
FishLips - Seth Eisner
Fixedset - James Jordan
flashbadger - Graham Clarkson
flopit20 - Brian Wilson
flushthecat. - Brook Lyter
Fossilman - Greg Raymer
Fougan - Thomas Fougeron
FoxyLisa - Peter Eichhardt

G6Dragon - Johnathan Lane
gaamblor - Joe Pelton
Galaxy 500 - Greg Teed
gambler21 - Anders Henriksson
GambleAB - Aaron Bartley
gank - Brett Jungblut
gapoker63 - Robert Daniel
gator93 - Frank Hernandez
gatormark - Mark Hanna
geocom - George Commander
georgeman88 - Igor Golovin
GigaBet - Darrell Dicken
gizzimow - John Michael Gale
GKD326 - George Kell Dickson
Go Deacs - Ron Gibson/Ron Smith
gotmilk - Richard Grijalva
Gouge - J.C.Welgemoed/Justin Foster
GreasyTony - Mark Hylden
GreenMan - Ken Moss
Gunslinger3 - David Bach
Gurre - Jonas Molander ?
gwchater - Alan Hance

H@££ingol - Oren Halling
HALIPIMP - Cory Campbell
hard$ - Frederick M. Ammon
hawkeye0808 - Barry M. Schwartz/Brett Bezotte
Heavy Sho' - Ryan Shore
hh1689 - Michael Woo
hickoryhill - Joe Vannata
Higgins43 - Michael Higgins
hitecdeck - Declan Barker
Holdem_NL - Tom Dwan
holdem2000 - Jonathan Senn
HoldEmPhil - Eric Fithian
Homer03 - (Anthony) Don Fagan aka Kalooki Don
Hoss_TBF - Baker Jamil Abdallah
Hugefish2888 - Manlee Wan

I_Tilt_You - Ilari Sahamies
ICfishies - John Harper
IgnatiusJ - Alex Balandin
ijsj2003 - Iwan Jones

j1hubbs2h - Jeff Hubberman
J9 of Clubs - T.J. Cloutier
j.pizza - Olaf Thorson
jacksup - Matt Matros
Jacques_xxx - Carlos Mortensen ?
JAMAPLAYS - John Harrington
jamesy - James Goldstein
JBabel - Jarrod Babel
Jcastle - Desmond Portano
jdags21 - John D'Agostino
jec79 - Joseph Chee
jennicide - Jennifer Leigh
jerrod - Jerrod Ankenman
jesmo5 - Jessie Moore
JESUSITO YLO - Jesus Abreu
joe buttons - Phil Ivey
JoeyTrip - Mike Joyce
Johnny Bax - Cliff Josephy
jonnym_NY - Jon Minick
jtsandwich - Jefferey Taylor
jugman - Henrik Kask
JvilleWhip - Adam LaBare

K_Rose - Kyle Rose
kagesen - Klaus Agesen
KarlSpackler - Derek Van Damme
KD1970 - Keith Donais
kdhspyder - Robert Fogarty
KeishasCaddy - Scott Sheridan
kenydalglish - Dave Colclough
Kid31 - Steve Amer
KidBlaast - Ray Campbell
KidDutch - Dutch Boyd
kidwonder - Jason Lane
killa187 - Ahmed Al-Bassam
kirillG - Kirill Gerasimov
kmac13 - Kevin McCarthy
known - Anders Williadsen
KrazyKanuck - James Worth
krex - Greg Kiempisty
kruzer - Steve Fetterman

lampedusa - Xavier Lascalles
larsenrw - Bob Larsen
Lauren Elise - Simon Galloway
lenny - Dan Heimiller
Looptroop - Daniel Larsson
Loosehal - Harold MacDonald
LosersWin - Richard Gregory
Loss Vegas - Endre Eikeseth
Lost City - Todd Manzi
lotsoaces - Leon F Locklear/Steven Shankman
LuckBox - John Juanda
Lucky Blind - Mike Lacey
luckysucker - Hans "Tuna” Lund
luckyTC - Tobias Christiansen

MAD M3 - Arshad Hussain
Madam X - Gianna Gragnani
MadMonster - Tom Clark
Mafews - Rory Mathews
magicpitch - David Benyamine
manny - John Manchon
march11x - Marcelo Colosimo
Mariachi - Allan Dyrstad
mariolo - Mario Zeledon
MarkDShark - Mark Seif
markos aces - Marko Juncaj
MaryBeth - Eric Kettner
Master_Maria - Martin Laliberte
mattpackage - Matt Dean
MaxellD - Leonardo Feinzaig
Mazak14 - Mats Rahmn
MazeOrBowie - Jesse Martin
McGee - Matt Treasure
mct119 - Matthew Turner
melonhead - Kenneth Maust
Meranti - Jogvan K. Glerfoss
mercedez - Isabelle Mercier
mgv2004 - Oscar Mariano Gonzalez
micon - Bryan "The Icon" Micon
MightyCanes - Mark Craves
miiine - Shawn Morrison
mikef777 - Michael Foster
Mikos - Michael Lawrence
milkybarkid - Ben Grundy
minatmms - Tam "Tommy" Hang
Miros - William (Bill) Purle
missvicky - Danny Walker
mitchman1114 - Mitch Schock
MIXA - Massov Cohen
MKKMOO - James Dempsey
mlabbe22 - Marlon Labbe
MobMentality - Oliver Fink
mockahai - Michael McClain
Mojo99 - Joseph Lang
moon - Jesus Abreu
Money800 - Chris Moneymaker
moneyman29 - Jeff DeHaven
monk-dogg - Casey McCarrel
Monty3 - Shane Bartholomew
Mr.Lucky - Ray Henson
MrBlini - Byron Shock
MrCoco - Julian Gardner
mrpokejoke - Mike Matusow
MrSmokey1 - Steve Billirakis
Mr.Wrong - (Michael Hogbom)/Per Hildebrand
Mrs. Solid - Eddy Perez
Muppetshow - Stuart Beaton
mydenise - Clemente Castracucco
Mysterwit - David Pullen
mysticaces - Jason Gola

nativefrog - Karl Carter
NeverheebX - Dan Bobba
neverlose - James Kwon
neverwin - Dustin Woolf
neyek - Abdulaziz Abdulaziz
nibluck - Art(hur) Blanda
ninewins - Mike Pino
No Leaks - Richard Scott Pipe
NoMercy - Isabelle Mercier
NotACmputr - Chris Argento
nt65 - Nhut Tran
Nytorget - Johan Storakers

Oakplayer - Evan Schwartz
ob1knob - Larry Silk
ODYSSES - Ferit Gabriellson
offthenuts - Ben Johnson/Brian Cospolich
Omega74 - Thomas Lindgren
orian_sharp - Chris Bane
OrieM - Orrill Martin
OscarF - Oscar Fred
Ozgal - Marsha Waggoner
Ozzy 87 - Aurangzeb Sheikh

p10ker - Gary "The Choirboy" Jones
paigedunn - Corey Mandell
Panella86 - Jordan Berkowitz
PateK - Simon "Aces" Trumper
Patman - Patrick Antonius
patrissimo - Patri Friedman
peckle - David Mgyuen
PECSC - Paul Snead
Pehtoori - Sami Siltanen
pens66 - Alistair Melville/Sirous Modivi
PGA71 - Pete Athansoulis
PhilAlbo - Philippe Albert
PICKLED EGG - Dan Harrington ??
piledriver91 - Robert Jones
Piquette - Jean-Phillippe Piquette
pjfff - Paul Fisher
PJWGUNIT - Pete Wawak
play4pay - Steve Zoine
plumberpat - Scott Gray
Pmackid - Patrick McCann
PMJackson21 - Patrick Jackson
Poker Snoopy - Millie Shiu
Pokerstud - Erez Savion
Pokeyman - Steve Murphy
Popper - Pat Johnson
ppthebandit - Pascal Perrault
Prefontaine - Prahlad Friedman
PrinceCharls - Mark Banin
psykokwak - Bruno Fittusi
Pub1755 - Dan Cormier
PuertoKid - Daniel Roth
Puffies - Jeff Manning
pumpmaster - Duncan Bell
Punkfloyd - John Conroy
PW756 - Pat Walsh

Qdog223 - Casey Quinn/Gregory Ashburn
QT576 - Quan Tran
Quackers - Andrew Prock
quadducks - Jacob Spelman
Quantum - Tom Shaneberger
Quetzalcoatl - Thomas Brandt ?
Quister - Matthew Rosenquist

Rabscuttle - Steve Cowley
Ragde - Edgar Skjervold
ragingbull81 - Gavin Hammans
raiders42 - Alen Patatanyan
Razorbax - Josh Arieh
rbutan - Radu Butan
RChan5 - Raymond Chan
realsass - Thomas Sasso
redrumxxx - Morten Sembach
reggiman - Michael Reed
remedialskil - Steve Kerman
reloadthis - Layne Flack
Reraiseallin - Nikhil Persaud
rhea-n-lana - Rhea Clevenger
Rike14 - Risto Ponnio
RockyWaters - Tom Egan
ron dogg - Ron Winnegar
Rosebudd - Vaughn Sandman
RugDoctor - David Williams
Rustyrust - Rusty Roth
rynofan23 - Jared Kuykendall
rzitup - Mike O'Malley

sacrifice - Graeme Harrison
SamENole - Matt Smith
saphire1 - John Shipley
Sarne - Sarne Lightman
savemyskin - Chris Fargis
schaefer - Brandon Schaefer
schnizeltoe - Matt Keikoon
scrapper41 - Greg Fondacaro
sculby - Sal Calandra
Sdouble - Josh Scheln
seaanchor - Reuben Peters
SelimTheGrim - S. Osman/Tom Ohlsen
Senor_Sock - Nicholas Matala
serb2127 - Nenad Medic
Shaniac - Shane Schleger
sheets - Eric Haber
Shinomori - Andreas Larsson
Shooter D - Dale Hunsucker
Shrubluv - Scott Bush
ShuMoney - Kevin Kaikao
Shytalk - John P. Eadie
sichair - Eric Wall
Siren - Shirley Rosario
skins81 - Stanley Boralsky
skullchips - Michael Leahy
Slambam2 - Tim Spake
slee95 - Sherman Lee
slyther2 - Ryan Ottele
smarx - Steve Marx
smokingjoep - Joep Durkstra
smurfla - Mark Smyriski
sorerichard - Jake Minter
soundgarden4 - Kevin Matten
spetsern - Age Spets
SPORTCARDS - Kevin Betsill
sportfreak - Russ Prentice
Spyder44 - Jim Misiti
stabbyfoulke - Peter Brainard
steamraise - Daniel Alaei
stevejpa - Steve Paul-Ambrose
stevesbets - Steven Jacobs
stevestar - Steve Day
steyr_aug - Albert Alshamn
stoogster - Stewart Brown
str8frushe - Robert K. Schnelle
strassa2 - Jason Strasser
stroker352 - Rob Bowers
Sugar D - David Zeitlin
suitedaces - Matt Szynazek
super ninja - Terrence Ding
Surrey Rock - Harry Fitzpatrick
Svend sværd - Martin Wendt
swirly - Greg Blau

t soprano - Andrew/Brock Parker
talonchick - Adrienne Rowsome
TavistD - Evan Dahl
TBohms - Thomas Bohmer
tdrot - Tom Drotleff
tdw9750 - Thadd Wolff
texdaddy - Cory Saunders
TexP - Scott Pfeffer
TIJO - Alex Brenes
The Anvil - Michael Luber
The Camel - Keith Hawkins
THE CUBE - Rumit Somaiya
The Grinder - Michael Mizrachi
The Hood - Jason Grey
The Salesman - Michael Westerlund
The Shrike - Jeff Henry
the tree - Patric O'Connor
The Whacker - Garry Bush
The Wombat - Leo Boxall
The13thWhale - Mike Cordell
TheBeat - Pete Giordano
thebookie - Allen McLean
TheCount1729 - Gautam Rao
thedonator - Stuart Paterson
TheGrrrr... - Guillaume Patry
TheHawk - Patrick Hocking
TheKid1948 - Larry Prugh
TheLife - Nick Eisel
theprofess - Ted Forrest
TheTakeover - Nick Schulman
thewinner - James Copeland
Thorpedo - Robert Keating
Tidle Wave - Aaron Katz
Tigerma - Hieu Ngoc "Tony" Ma
TiLLerMan - Iain Girdwood
TomMcEvoy - Tom McEvoy
Tomstra - Tom Straathof
TOPARED - David M. Bailey
Tpikahna - Anthony Peroni
Tryangle - Gary Lent
Tune - Tune Seidelin
Twichie - Charles Wey
twin-caracas - Jorge Arias
TWINKIE - Liz Lieu
Two Ones - Jonathan Shecter

Ufearme44 - Brian Fanning
ugabevo - Kevin Shackelford
ulieudie - Alan White
unglee - Ung Lee

van h - Bruce M. Van Horn/2
varment/varmint - Rob O'Brien/Rick Lowe
Veganboy - Theodore Park
VikingVII - Mark Guttormsen
Virus1975 - Jarl Lindholt
VixxWater - Rocky Parker

wallfly - Alan Cunningham
waveball - Will Walter
wchen - William Chen
Wee Stinker - Andy Richmond
WestTexasMan - Shawn Rice
William - William Thorson
willy-rugs - Will 'Willy-Will' Failla
WINNER'circl - Steve Tague
who's bad - Robert Mizrachi
Who is next - Noah Boeken ?
whojedi - Jay Newnum
whoodat77 - David Taylor
wraptduck - Tony G
wsop2005 - Gavin Griffin

X-22 - Paul Magriel
xmrstyle - Scott Bohlman
XXJohnXXL - John Letts

yahtzem - Alex Jacob
yellowhat - Gabriel Nassif
yosi_ben - Yosi Benbenisti
youssepe - Yousif Massoudnia
Yun-Harla - Steven Greenberg

zachary muk - Henry Wilcox/William R. Swenson
ZeeJustin - Justin Bonomo
zohar72 - Jay Goldberg
zqxjk - Grant Sbrocco

Miracle Rivers: danadeez (7%)

The river will always find a way to knock you out of a tournament if it wants to. The lucky player benefiting this time is danadeez @ BugsysClub.

Event Started: Saturday April 16th

Game: No Limit Hold 'em

Level X: 100 Ante 300/600 Blinds (100 Minimum Chip)

Average Stack: 16,195.65 (10,000 starting chips)

Remaining Players: 92 (149 started)

Seat 1 : oscar13 starts with 21,400

Seat 2 : stylin starts with 17,500

Seat 4 : Karenb starts with 15,100

Seat 5 : Heur starts with 15,000

Seat 6 : neilsiv starts with 14,100

Seat 7 : DaMatrix starts with 9,200

Seat 8 : xTroutx starts with 15,100

Seat 9 : mr_peterson starts with 26,600

Seat 10 : danadeez starts with 21,500

Seat 5 : Heur has the dealer button

***DEALING HOLE CARDS***

DaMatrix dealt down Qh Ts

oscar13 posts the ante 100

stylin posts the ante 100

Karenb posts the ante 100

Heur posts the ante 100

neilsiv posts the ante 100

DaMatrix posts the ante 100

xTroutx posts the ante 100

mr_peterson posts the ante 100

danadeez posts the ante 100

neilsiv posts the small blind 300

DaMatrix posts the big blind 600

xTroutx folds

mr_peterson folds

danadeez raises 600 to 1,200

oscar13 folds

stylin folds

Karenb folds

Heur folds

neilsiv folds

DaMatrix calls 600

***DEALING FLOP*** [ 2h 4s Td ]

DaMatrix checks

danadeez bets 2,000

DaMatrix calls 2,000

***DEALING TURN*** [ 4h ]

DaMatrix bets 5,900 and is all-in

danadeez calls 5,900

DaMatrix cards were Qh Ts (81%)

danadeez cards were 9s Th (19%)

***DEALING MIRACLE RIVER*** [ 9d ]

danadeez wins 19,400 with two pair, tens and nines

DaMatrix has left the table (7%).

Zen ChangeZ

Read Simon 'Aces' Trumper's player interview at Poker 425.

He talks about how his tournament style changed due to pressures:

"Although I had taken a lot of beats I knew I was not
accumulating as many chips as I normally did so when
I lost these pots I was being knocked out when previously
I would have had enough chips left to make a recovery."

I'm going through a similar phase at the moment and I've noticed that it is very hard to win a tourney trying to play very precise, mistake free poker. Usually, you end up busting out to a bad beat because your all-in is called by someone with more chips than sense.

So today, I've been playing rather more loose - of course, the only change I've noticed is that I'm busting out very early and making mistakes I wouldn't normally make.

Hopefully, I will be in the zone soon. In the meantime, I'll be reading Zen and the Art of Poker.

April Poker Babe

You didn't think that I would just leave you with the April Fool's Day Poker Babe did you?

April Poker Babe.
Visit IndianMasala.com for more spicy things.

Review: Virgin Games Poker

My last review was about BugsysClub way back in January, so I thought it was about time I did another one - especially since everytime I play on Virgin Games Poker I come out steaming!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!

Okay, Virgin Poker is still fairly new - but as far as online poker rooms go, it is one of the cheesiest.

My first experience of playing on Virgin Poker was in December 2004 when I played in a final tournament to qualify for a land based event. I managed to get heads up with "LASVAGAS16" and built up an almost 10:1 chip advantage when "cardboardkev", railbirding, gave some advice to my opponent which quite frankly put me on tilt and I ended up blowing the game in spectacular fashion lol.

Since then, the site has made some improvements to it's software. They have added a slide bar when choosing your bet in No Limit... wow. It's still pretty useless. Any site where your most challenging opponent is the software is one to be avoided. You could get to grips with the software but why would you? There isn't very much traffic on the site and in my opinion, the software and graphics would still get in the way of the card playing.

The last straw came when I played in the Virgin BPO Final today. I missed the first 15 minutes because the table does not automatically open up when the tournament starts!! Can you believe that?! You have to find the tournament page and then click on "Take your seat". Simple, but when you are multiplaying on other sites you can quite easily get involved in hands where you forget that you have to go and take your seat somewhere else.

I got a bad feeling about the tournament when I was sat inbetween the two players from my earlier story. Things didnt improve when I was dealt AKs, a couple of limpers, a late position raiser and before I had a chance to act the software crashed to a Virgin Upgrader Error!! What the hell?!

Maybe it was because I was playing on two other sites and watching poker on Media Player. But I've never had a similar problem with other sites. I close down media player and one of the sites. Anyway, the next hand I play is AJo, on the board xAxA, theres some action and when it's my turn to act the software crashes again! Same problem. Virgin Upgrader error! Dodgy.

Did it crash when I had the worst hand? Never. Sod's law I guess. No, bull actually!

My inital stack was reduced to half by all these setbacks and so started looking to double up quickly or quit. After a few limpers I go all in with AQo, no takers. So I limp in with QJs a few hands later. Four handed, it is checked to me on the flop. I bet the pot on the Q high flop. One of the blinds check raises me! I try to reraise all in but the dodgy slide bar leaves me with 16 chips. Turn is a T, I bet my remaining 16 chips, blind calls and turns over QT!

I laughed and left quietly 93rd out of 120.


I was sitting in the empty chair but my QJ got busted by QT. Tip: Don't bother sitting down.

DaMatrix Rating: U (for Uninstall)

Very poor user friendliness and game selection. Avoid.

Hendon Mob League: Game 3

Did better than I expected in the Hendon Mob League Game 3, finishing 4th out of 55 players. A little disappointed by the fact that I made a couple of big mistakes with the decisions based on the aim to preserve chips rather than accumulate them.

Some of the responsibility goes down to the amount of time given to make a decision on the Prima skins. In my opinion, they need to give players an extra 5 seconds to act. My hand has been forced folded quite a few times or I have been rushed into making an incorrect play way too often on the Prima sites.

The tournament started and I was lucky to be sat on BarnyBoatman's left. I felt that at some point I'd get a chance at collecting his bounty and the extra 5 league points.

Just 30 minutes into the tourney this hand occured which had me steaming for the next 60 minutes! I missed a great opportunity to build a big stack and almost knock out Barny:

Date: 4/7/2005 9:29:18 BST

Seat: 1 MrsSplash
Seat: 2 Getariako
Seat: 3 Joe_Jaggers
Seat: 4 Belgariad
Seat: 5 Cerebral_UK
Seat: 6 BarnyBoatman (Dealer)
Seat: 7 DaMatrix
Seat: 8 THE_THIEF
Seat: 9 RupertE
Seat: 10 alexadamou

***DEALING HOLE CARDS***

DaMatrix dealt down As 7s

DaMatrix : Posts small blind 25.00
THE_THIEF : Posts big blind 50.00
RupertE : Calls for 50.00
alexadamou : Folds
MrsSplash : Folds
Getariako : Folds
Joe_Jaggers : Folds
Belgariad : Folds
Cerebral_UK : Folds
BarnyBoatman : Calls for 50.00
DaMatrix : Calls for 25.00
THE_THIEF : Checks

***DEALING FLOP***[Qs, 9s, 5h]

DaMatrix : Checks (Initially I thought about betting, but I didn't want to limit the field)
THE_THIEF : Checks
RupertE : Bets 250.00
BarnyBoatman : Raises for 600.00
DaMatrix : Folds (Barny's raise throws me of-guard and whilst I am deciding whether to Call or Re-raise min/all-in, time is running out, and I choose to fold! I had about 2600 chips and to call was 600. Doh!)
THE_THIEF : Folds
RupertE : Calls for 350.00

***DEALING TURN***[ Ts ] (this is when I started kicking myself! lol)

RupertE : Bets 600.00
BarnyBoatman : Calls for 600.00

***DEALING RIVER***[ 8h ]

RupertE : Bets 1200.00
BarnyBoatman : Calls for 1200.00 (Barny said that he intended to raise but made a mistake)

RupertE : Shows cards [ 10c, 10h ]
BarnyBoatman : Shows cards [ 5s, 8s ] (I didn't have Barny covered, but he would have been left with just a few hundred chips if I had stayed in the hand)

BarnyBoatman wins 5000 with a flush.

Despite that terrible fold, I navigated myself to the last 2 tables. I had the chance to push my short stack all-in with 88 in middle position after two early position limpers - but thought it was a little too risky. The two limpers both had Ace rag, and Barny's A3o caught a 3 to win the pot.

The big blind was quickly approaching and I would be in trouble with only 4 BBs in front of me. UTG I get KJo and decide to fold (would have flopped a gutshot, but two players had 77 (Skalie) and JJ (Ironside) - Skalie's 7s won with a bet on the Ace high flop). No big blind special when I get dealt 72o and I fold to a pre-flop raise.

The very next hand, I get AA in the SB! I manage to quadruple up and make it easily into the final table in about 7/8 chip position. The unfortunate bubble boy was BarnyBoatman who got rivered by Skalie.

It was very close between the 4 shortest stacks but I noticed that the opposition was playing quite loose and so I tightened up even more to gain a few places. Doubled up during a battle of the blinds when filthyweasel in the Big Blind (who had me covered) decided to try to bluff me on the river with ace high by going all in. I had flopped an 8 on a QQ8 flop and was pretty sure my opponent had nothing by the time he bet on the river. Filthyweasel was reduced to less than 1k chips and he was next out in 10th place.

Soon, we were down to 6. My last mistake occured when I raised UTG with QQ but then folded, after some very little thinking that Prima give you, to an all-in from the button. In that time I thought I was up against AK/KK/AA, didn't have time to add in JJ and maybe AQ/TT, otherwise the call would have been automatic. Belgariad kindly told me later that he had JJ.

With practically no chance of winning the tourney after that QQ fold, I concentrated on gaining a few more places and was very happy to finish 4th instead of 6th. Going out with KJo from the big blind against Skalie's all-in raise with 96o from the small blind.

That left Skalie, zxcvbn002 and Belgariad to fight it out.

Hendon Mob League Game 3 Results.

Congrats to Skalie who had the skill and the luck to win on the night.

Hendon Mob League Top 10 Players

FPP Qualifiers

Lately I have been reading a lot about FPP Qualifiers from Poker Stars doing well in live tournaments. Some of the players in these FPP Qualifiers can be pretty good - in fact, some of them are even professional poker players.

Julian Gardner (MrCoco) and Martin Wendt (Svend sværd) were FFP qualifiers to the EPT Grand Final at Monte Carlo where they finished 15th and 14th respectively, both collecting nearly 20k Euros.

The most notable FPP qualifier to do well recently is of course Brandon Schaefer (schaefer) who went on to win the EPT French Open (144k Euros) and then finished second in the Monte Carlo Grand Final (350k Euros).

Can I emulate them? Probably not, but I thought I would try...

Having accumulated 600 FPPs to unlock a deposit bonus, I decided to use 400 of these (who needs another baseball cap? lol) to play in a WSOP Freeroll Round 1 which was due to start in less than one minute. The top 9 (out of 102 on this occasion) would qualify for the weekly 4,000 FPP WSOP Freeroll Round 2 final where the top 2 get seats to the WSOP.

To cut a long story short, I managed to place in Round 1 by going all in UTG with AK (I would have been forced to go all in when I posted the BB next hand) and surviving the hand being called and checked out by everyone at the table! The blinds soon hit the short stack on the other table, but he was not as fortunate as me. The bubble boy (finishing 10th) was none other than "mmdog" who was ranked 10th in the 2004 PokerStars overall Tournament Leader Board.

After all of that, I actually unregistered for the Round 2 that I qualified for. My options with 4,000 FPPs are:

A. One chance (4,000 FPP) at coming first or second in a field of approx 250 players
B. Four chances (4 X 1,000 FPP) at coming first in a field of 200 to 300.

I am leaning towards Option B at the moment.

77/1 Bad Luck

Forget one out bad beats; here are 3 consecutive tournament hands that I all lost at combined odds of 77/1.

HAND1

Event Started: Sunday April 3rd
Game: No Limit Hold 'em
Level X: 100 Ante 300/600 Blinds (100 Minimum Chip)
Average Stack: 20,000 (10,000 starting chips)
Remaining Players: 31 (62 started)

Seat 1 : sgtcyber starts with 17,700
Seat 2 : calamais starts with 6,600
Seat 3 : Shadowfax starts with 68,100
Seat 4 : nickym998 starts with 15,000
Seat 6 : monyhere starts with 13,400
Seat 8 : DaMatrix starts with 17,100
Seat 9 : Beruz starts with 42,700
Seat 10 : kingkonk starts with 17,100
Seat 4 : nickym998 has the dealer button

***DEALING HOLE CARDS***
DaMatrix dealt down Ad Qh

sgtcyber posts the ante 100
calamais posts the ante 100
Shadowfax posts the ante 100
nickym998 posts the ante 100
monyhere posts the ante 100
DaMatrix posts the ante 100
Beruz posts the ante 100
kingkonk posts the ante 100
monyhere posts the small blind 300
DaMatrix posts the big blind 600
Beruz folds
kingkonk folds
sgtcyber folds
calamais raises 5,900 to 6,500 and is all-in
Shadowfax folds

nickym998 calls 6,500
monyhere folds
DaMatrix raises 10,500 to 17,000 and is all-in
nickym998 folds
DaMatrix takes back 10,500

DaMatrix cards were Qh Ad (% Lose = 7.16%)
calamais cards were Ac Qc

***DEALING FLOP*** [ 4c 8c Tc ]

***DEALING TURN*** [ 3d ]

***DEALING RIVER*** [ Qs ]

DaMatrix: argh
calamais wins 20,600 with an ace high flush

HAND2

Seat 1 : sgtcyber starts with 17,600
Seat 2 : calamais starts with 20,600
Seat 3 : Shadowfax starts with 68,000
Seat 4 : nickym998 starts with 8,400
Seat 6 : monyhere starts with 13,000
Seat 8 : DaMatrix starts with 10,500
Seat 9 : Beruz starts with 42,600
Seat 10 : kingkonk starts with 17,000
Seat 6 : monyhere has the dealer button

***DEALING HOLE CARDS***
DaMatrix dealt down 5h Ah

sgtcyber posts the ante 100
calamais posts the ante 100
Shadowfax posts the ante 100
nickym998 posts the ante 100
monyhere posts the ante 100
DaMatrix posts the ante 100
Beruz posts the ante 100
kingkonk posts the ante 100
DaMatrix posts the small blind 300
Beruz posts the big blind 600
kingkonk folds
Shadowfax: unlucky DaM
sgtcyber folds
calamais folds
Shadowfax folds
nickym998 raises 2,300 to 2,900
monyhere folds
DaMatrix: thats my middle name ;)
DaMatrix raises 7,500 to 10,400 and is all-in
Beruz folds
nickym998 calls 5,400 and is all-in
DaMatrix takes back 2,100

DaMatrix cards were 5h Ah (% Lose = 39.90%)
nickym998 cards were Ts Kd

***DEALING FLOP*** [ 3d 7h Td ]

***DEALING TURN*** [ 8c ]

***DEALING RIVER*** [ 6h ]

nickym998 wins 18,000 with a pair of tens
DaMatrix: :((((((((

HAND3

Level XI: 100 Ante 400/800 Blinds (100 Minimum Chip)

Seat 1 : sgtcyber starts with 17,500
Seat 2 : calamais starts with 20,500
Seat 3 : Shadowfax starts with 67,900
Seat 4 : nickym998 starts with 18,000
Seat 6 : monyhere starts with 12,900
Seat 8 : DaMatrix starts with 2,100
Seat 9 : Beruz starts with 41,900
Seat 10 : kingkonk starts with 16,900
Seat 8 : DaMatrix has the dealer button

***DEALING HOLE CARDS***
DaMatrix dealt down Ts Td

sgtcyber posts the ante 100
calamais posts the ante 100
Shadowfax posts the ante 100
nickym998 posts the ante 100
monyhere posts the ante 100
DaMatrix posts the ante 100
Beruz posts the ante 100
kingkonk posts the ante 100
Beruz posts the small blind 400
kingkonk posts the big blind 800
sgtcyber folds
calamais folds
Shadowfax folds
nickym998 folds
monyhere calls 800
DaMatrix raises 1,200 to 2,000 and is all-in
Beruz folds kingkonk folds
monyhere calls 1,200

DaMatrix cards were Td Ts (% Lose = 45.48% )
monyhere cards were Qd Ad

***DEALING FLOP*** [ 6d 2s 2c ]

***DEALING TURN*** [ Kd ]

***DEALING RIVER***[ 4d ]

monyhere wins 6,000 with an ace high flush
DaMatrix has left the table

Miracle Rivers: Eddie_Felson (9%)

Welcome to a new feature - "Miracle Rivers". Showcasing the luckiest players in online poker. This month: Eddie_Felson from BugsysClub.

Event Name: WSOP Vouchers to 10K Gtd WSOP Seat
Event Started: Saturday April 2nd
Event Type: BugsysClub Real Money Satellite
Event Buy-In: 22 WSOP Vouchers+2 WSOP Vouchers ($220 total prize pool)
Game: No Limit Hold 'em
Level VII: 50 Ante 150/300 Blinds (25 Minimum Chip)
Average Stack: 5,000 (1,500 starting chips)
Remaining Players: 3 (10 started)

Seat 2 : IRONWOLF1 starts with 3,600
Seat 3 : DaMatrix starts with 1,650
Seat 5 : Eddie_Felson starts with 9,750
Seat 2 : IRONWOLF1 has the dealer button

***DEALING HOLE CARDS***
DaMatrix dealt down Ad 5c

IRONWOLF1 posts the ante 50
DaMatrix posts the ante 50
Eddie_Felson posts the ante 50
DaMatrix posts the small blind 150
Eddie_Felson posts the big blind 300
IRONWOLF1 folds
DaMatrix raises 1,300 to 1,600 and is all-in [Pot = 2050]
Eddie_Felson calls 1,300

DaMatrix cards were 5c Ad (64%)
Eddie_Felson cards were 8s 4d (36%)

***DEALING FLOP***[ 2s 2h 5d ]

***DEALING TURN***[ Ac ]

***DEALING MIRACLE RIVER*** [ 3d ]

Eddie_Felson wins 3,350 with a five high straight

DaMatrix has left the table (9%)

April Fool Poker Babe

Phwoar! Kate Moss has nothing on this month's Poke-a-Babe courtesy of Mingers.com.

Does my bum look big in this?