Classic Razz Hand

Here is what happens when you think you are playing Stud instead of Razz:

Event Name: RAZZ Table Morton
Event Started: Friday September 30th
Game: Limit Razz
Level II: 10 Ante 20 Bring-In 50/100 Limits (5 Minimum Chip)
Starting Chips: 2,500
Starting Players: 8
Seat 1 : MeanDarlene starts with 2,480
Seat 2 : cassieopia1 starts with 2,480
Seat 3 : DaMatrix starts with 2,460
Seat 4 : LooksLikeAA starts with 2,600
Seat 5 : OhioSlim starts with 2,460
Seat 6 : top_dog starts with 2,480
Seat 7 : Maiden starts with 2,460
Seat 8 : bikerchick starts with 2,580

***DEALING THIRD STREET***
MeanDarlene dealt up Qc
cassieopia1 dealt up 7s
DaMatrix dealt up 2h
DaMatrix dealt down Qh Tc
LooksLikeAA dealt up 8h
OhioSlim dealt up 3h
top_dog dealt up Ad
Maiden dealt up 2s
bikerchick dealt up 7h
MeanDarlene posts the ante 10
cassieopia1 posts the ante 10
DaMatrix posts the ante 10
LooksLikeAA posts the ante 10
OhioSlim posts the ante 10
top_dog posts the ante 10
Maiden posts the ante 10
bikerchick posts the ante 10
MeanDarlene opens with the highest card
MeanDarlene brings-in high 20
cassieopia1 folds
DaMatrix folds
LooksLikeAA completes 30 to 50
OhioSlim folds
top_dog raises 50 to 100
Maiden calls 100
bikerchick folds
MeanDarlene folds
LooksLikeAA calls 50

***DEALING FOURTH STREET***
LooksLikeAA dealt up 4d
top_dog dealt up 5d
Maiden dealt up 2c
top_dog bets 50
Maiden folds
LooksLikeAA raises 50 to 100
top_dog raises 50 to 150
LooksLikeAA raises 50 to 200
top_dog raises 50 to 250
LooksLikeAA raises 50 to 300
top_dog raises 50 to 350
LooksLikeAA raises 50 to 400
top_dog raises 50 to 450
LooksLikeAA raises 50 to 500
top_dog raises 50 to 550
LooksLikeAA raises 50 to 600
top_dog raises 50 to 650
LooksLikeAA raises 50 to 700
top_dog raises 50 to 750
LooksLikeAA raises 50 to 800
top_dog raises 50 to 850
LooksLikeAA raises 50 to 900
top_dog raises 50 to 950
LooksLikeAA raises 50 to 1,000
top_dog raises 50 to 1,050
LooksLikeAA raises 50 to 1,100
top_dog raises 50 to 1,150
LooksLikeAA raises 50 to 1,200
top_dog raises 50 to 1,250
LooksLikeAA raises 50 to 1,300
top_dog raises 50 to 1,350
LooksLikeAA raises 50 to 1,400
top_dog raises 50 to 1,450
LooksLikeAA raises 50 to 1,500
top_dog raises 50 to 1,550
LooksLikeAA raises 50 to 1,600
top_dog raises 50 to 1,650
LooksLikeAA raises 50 to 1,700
top_dog raises 50 to 1,750
LooksLikeAA raises 50 to 1,800
top_dog raises 50 to 1,850
LooksLikeAA raises 50 to 1,900
top_dog raises 50 to 1,950
LooksLikeAA raises 50 to 2,000
top_dog raises 50 to 2,050
LooksLikeAA raises 50 to 2,100
top_dog raises 50 to 2,150
LooksLikeAA raises 50 to 2,200
top_dog raises 50 to 2,250
LooksLikeAA raises 50 to 2,300
top_dog raises 50 to 2,350
LooksLikeAA raises 50 to 2,400
top_dog calls 20 and is all-in
LooksLikeAA takes back 30

LooksLikeAA cards were 8c 8s
top_dog cards were 3s 7c

***DEALING FIFTH STREET***
LooksLikeAA dealt up 2d
top_dog dealt up Ts
DaMatrix: lol

***DEALING SIXTH STREET***
LooksLikeAA dealt up Kh
top_dog dealt up 6d

***DEALING RIVER***
LooksLikeAA dealt up 4h
top_dog dealt up Ks
top_dog wins low 5,140 with a seven low
top_dog: omg
Maiden: errr
top_dog: its razz

***SUMMARY***
Hand Ended: Friday September 30th 8:04:38 AM CDT 2005
Total Pot: 5,140
Seat 1 : MeanDarlene (bring-in) lost 30, folded on third street
Seat 2 : cassieopia1 lost 10, folded on third street
Seat 3 : DaMatrix lost 10, folded on third street
Seat 4 : LooksLikeAA lost 2,480, showed hand [ 8c 8s 8h 4d 2d Kh 4h ]
Seat 5 : OhioSlim lost 10, folded on third street
Seat 6 : top_dog bet 2,480, won 5,140, net +2,660, showed hand [ 3s 7c Ad 5d Ts 6d Ks ]
Seat 7 : Maiden lost 110, folded on fourth street
Seat 8 : bikerchick lost 10, folded on third street

Maxim Matrix

There's a VC Poker Cup article with a pic of me on page 139 of the November issue of Maxim.

Also, last night, I managed to catch the Big Deal with Doyle Brunson on the Poker Channel. I don't think I came out too well on it, you've got to remember though that it wasn't a serious game of poker - more of an opportunity to learn more about Doyle over the felt. If you read my report of the trip, you'd know that I was playing like a maniac during the rebuy period trying to build a stack, the friend I took along to the show was playing loose too trying to get chips. I also had a cold hence why I was sniffing! lol

Because the cards didn't come my way, I had to make full use of the 2 rebuys possible and what the show didn't reveal was how I managed to come back from last in chips to finish 2nd (not joint second as indicated in the show since I had more chips at the start of the hand).

All of that is trivial really. I'd say the importance of the poker on show wasn't that great. The show's importance was the appearance of Doyle - giving a chance to the viewers to learn more about the living legend. If you watch the show, focus on what Doyle does/says and you might learn something, ignore everyone else!

Next stop, the VC Poker Cup on Sky in November which might also have footage of my Maxim King of Poker win.

Maxim pic with compulsory cheesy caption

Some Saturday DaMatrix tourney results:

5/247
8/133
166/6220
200/7554

Ended the day with a mistake though that resulted in a poor 49/166 finish in the Round 3 at BugsysClub. Open raised in late position with AJs, got reraised for half my stack by cockney kid (good player) in of the blinds and instead of folding I went all-in. He turned over KK, So I had just over 30% chance of winning the pot to give me an average stack. Folding would have left me with less than a 1/3 of the average stack. My first impression was that he had a big hand, but then I persuaded myself that he might be good enough to attempt a 're-steal'. Didn't fancy hanging about anymore as a short stack and so I decided to gamble.

Moto: Play like a beast!

;)

BlondePoker Heads Up Challenge

Finished 4th/43 in the BlondePoker.com Heads-up Challenge held at PokerStars, losing to the eventual winner, -BW9-, in the semi final.

Played my losing final hand perfectly against the dynamics of the match, limping on the button with AQo, getting raised as expected and reraising all-in and getting called by A7o - unfortunatley the board came out as [3d 4d 7c Th 9h]. Via some aggressive play and good decision making -BW9- had built up a 41.2k:6.8k chip advantage before that hand anyway and so deserved to go through - just wished I could have made it tougher for him ;) 2 mistakes really that drove me to a short stack: Lost a big pot with KT v 88 and an Ace high four-flush against trips.

After my poor showing at the WHUPC (mainly due to being unprofessional and going out til 6am the night before), I felt I had something to prove - to myself more than anything. One thing I learned is that I need to adapt quicker to the new blinds after winning one match. Even though the ratio is the same I found that since the next match starts almost immediately online (if you are last to finish in the round) I was playing too aggressive/playing bigger pots than necessary.

It's like when you come off a motorway and your driving faster than it feels. As a result I was making poor decisions at the start of Matches 3, 4 and 5 (Match 1 only lasted 12 hands) and had to come back from behind in them. My comeback didn't get off the ground when my AQ lost to A7 in the semi though.

Match 1: beat Big_Fish83
Match 2: beat Aceby4
Match 3: beat debaser
Match 4: beat AdamM667
Match 5 (semi final): lost to -BW9-

Blonde H/U Results

That's back to back Blonde Cashes for both myself and -BW9- against some tough fields that included Dave Colclough and TonyG.

Miss Italia

Miss Italia

The new Miss Italia is Edelfa Chiara Masciotta, who was crowned just a few days ago. She beat my personal favourite, Anna Munafo, heads-up.

DaUFO

Last week I spotted a UFO (not talking aliens etc just an Unidentified Flying Object). After a long Monday night poker session that crossed over into the early hours of Tuesday, I went outside for a smoke. It was approximately 2.30am Tuesday 13th September:

As soon as I opened the front door, directly infront of me and above a bright light "fell" at great speed towards the horizon and in approximately 1 second it was gone. The night sky was very clear. Below is a graphical representation I created of the event:

UFO Details

I have waited a week to post about it because I have been researching what it might have been. When I first saw it my estimation went from a low flying plane to falling meteor to Jet plane to crashing object in the 1 second time period that it was visible. There was no noise, no wind, the sky was clear and at the speed it was going I fully expected it to crash to the ground.... but it didn't, or at least I don't think it did. There was no noise and I didn't see it again. Never seen anything like it.

My report is credible because as a teenager I was very much into astronomy (even wanted to be an astronaut) and almost went for an Astrophysics degree before choosing to read Mathematics. I have ample experience of stellar objects to warrant posting about this event as unusual.

I have witnessed the Perseid meteor showers that usually occur in August and this year the key date was around 12/13 August. This was no meteor shower though which are very high in the sky. I have seen a comet before and the object I saw was closer to that. A sporadic is when I single meteor falls, but if this is what it was then it would have hit the ground for sure since it had penetrated into the atmosphere and it was 1,000ft to 2,000ft high at most when I first saw it. Was it a satellite or the space station? No, this was 'falling' at about 600mph I have estimated.

So what was it? I can be honest and say that I haven't got a clue. It happened so fast that if I had blinked I would have missed it. The event was very local, so I doubt that there could be more than a handful of witnesses depending on what happened after it disappeared from my sight. I haven't seen anything in the local news/web/etc about it. The only other story I have found about an event in the area is below. It doesn't compare well to what I saw.

2003 Story

Imagine one of those lights in the pic above, at say half the distance and at about a 60 degree angle above you, falling and going away from you at 600mph silently in a clear starry night.

Van Gogh's The Starry Night

PokerStars WCOOP Main Event Result

Final 3

Lee Jones [PokerRoom Manager]: I'll restate the deal and you guys can say "agree" if you do...
Lee Jones [PokerRoom Manager]: 1. We're leaving $50K on the table, along with a very nice 14K gold bracelet and a lot of good karma that comes from winning this thing (note what happened to Ragde this past year)
Lee Jones [PokerRoom Manager]: panella: $527,342
Lee Jones [PokerRoom Manager]: tralala: $573,735
Lee Jones [PokerRoom Manager]: vendetta: $540,877
Panella86: "agree"
tralala: alright
Vendetta: agree
tralala: agree

Final Results:

WCOOP Main Event Results

WCOOP Main Event Prize Info

3rd. tralala $573,735

2nd. Vendetta $540,877


WCOOP 2005 Champ = Panella86 $577,342

(Jordan Berkowitz)

Panella86 aka PagonaB aka ?

"Always keep moving." "Change tables. Sites. Locations. Handles." "I've had dozens of aliases online and whenever people get wise to me I disappear" "People don't like playing a guy who keeps beating 'em day in, day out. So you can never stand still."

~

I have updated DaPokerStars: A - Z. As always, take it as an indication only because you can never tell who really is the player(s) behind the screen name.

September Poker Babe

September Poker Babe.

Hollywood Poker have been doing a Poker Model Search for their 2006 calendar. One of their contestants, Jasmynne, is this month's Poker Babe!

Bad beatZ

The amazing thing about this hand is that it didn't happen online. Instead it occured in a home game a few days ago. 6 handed table. I was in the BB with 2h3h. 2 limpers and my bro in the SB completes. I think about raising to get it heads up but decide not to. Flop is Qh4h5h. Brilliant! BB special I'm thinking. SB leads out a pot bet. I smooth call (trying to win a big pot, minimizing my loss if another non-straight flush heart hits) one of the limpers calls. I'm hoping for no heart on the turn since I am not putting them on 2 pair or a set.

The turn is a heart, 6h, giving me the straight flush. My bro is excited, says he finally has the nuts and goes all-in. I call of course thinking my bro has just hit the Ace-high flush. I've started leaning forward to gather in the pot before I've even looked at his cards. He says, "The nuts!". "No you haven't!" I say, "straight flush!".

He turns over 8h7h!

BTW Just finished 3/724 in a Betfred Telegraph FF qualifier. Top 5 qualified for a $50k freeroll on the 2nd of October. Also, just out of the money 20/152 in a PokerStars LS8B tourney after I was chased all the way to the river by 3 high cards that became a gutshot that backed into trips against my clear aces up/made low representation. Aaaaarrrgh!

PokerStars 7 Card Stud Hi/Lo Limit - Level X (600/1200)
Seat 1: KindKeith (14232 in chips)
Seat 3: Superspin2 (12586 in chips)
Seat 4: TefloDon36 (29546 in chips)
Seat 5: #1DaMatrix (4349 in chips)
Seat 6: socerflame (3342 in chips)
Seat 7: SVMARTINA (6048 in chips)
Seat 8: Barathea (5232 in chips)
KindKeith: posts the ante 100
Superspin2: posts the ante 100
TefloDon36: posts the ante 100
#1DaMatrix: posts the ante 100
socerflame: posts the ante 100
SVMARTINA: posts the ante 100
Barathea: posts the ante 100

*** 3rd STREET ***
Dealt to KindKeith [6d]
Dealt to Superspin2 [7c]
Dealt to TefloDon36 [5h]
Dealt to #1DaMatrix [Ah 4d Ad]
Dealt to socerflame [3c]
Dealt to SVMARTINA [7h]
Dealt to Barathea [As]

socerflame: brings-in low 200
SVMARTINA: folds
Barathea: calls 200
KindKeith: calls 200
Superspin2: folds
TefloDon36: folds
#1DaMatrix: calls 200 (i just call, if I raise the pot will just get bigger and they might get stubborn on the next two streets)

*** 4th STREET ***
Dealt to KindKeith [6d] [3s]
Dealt to #1DaMatrix [Ah 4d Ad] [6s]
Dealt to socerflame [3c] [7s]
Dealt to Barathea [As] [Ts]

Barathea: checks
KindKeith: checks
#1DaMatrix: bets 600 (Ok, enough games, I bet and get called by some kind of flush/straight draw even though we all got dealt spades!)
socerflame: folds
Barathea: calls 600 (at this point I am 77% favourite against 23%) *
KindKeith: folds

*** 5th STREET ***
Dealt to #1DaMatrix [Ah 4d Ad 6s] [4h]
Dealt to Barathea [As Ts] [Qc]

Barathea: checks
#1DaMatrix: bets 1200 (Tried to get rid of him here)
Barathea: calls 1200 (my advantage improved to 81% against his 19% chance)

*** 6th STREET ***
Dealt to #1DaMatrix [Ah 4d Ad 6s 4h] [6h]
Dealt to Barathea [As Ts Qc] [Kc]

#1DaMatrix: bets 1200 (and again - he can't call me with a gutshot, surely? rather survive than get outdrawn at this stage)
Barathea: calls 1200 (I'm going to the river as a 85% favourite)

*** RIVER ***
Dealt to #1DaMatrix [Ah 4d Ad 6s 4h 6h] [Jh]

#1DaMatrix: bets 1049 and is all-in (if I check he'll put me all-in anyway, the J in my hand means he prob doesn't have the straight)
Barathea: calls 1049

*** SHOW DOWN ***
#1DaMatrix: shows [Ah 4d Ad 6s 4h 6h Jh] (HI: two pair, Aces and Sixes)
Barathea: shows [Ks 8d As Ts Qc Kc Kd] (HI: three of a kind, Kings)

Barathea CALLED 5 times and collected 9598 from pot - SICK!

Winner of that pot had a great chance at making the final table. To his credit, Barathea did and finished 7/152 after again he called off nearly all of his stack with what looked like one pair 3 handed.

[* = figures based on knowing Barathea's and DM's cards only]

News

The main site update is going well, I have a lot of ideas for it. The downside is that I haven't being playing much poker because of it.

I'm pretty sure one of the qualifiers from the Celeb Star City satellite I played, CurlyWatts is Martin Green. He finished 2nd last night in the main event winning over £28,000 - not bad considering he qualified for just $4 or something!

Also played in a Virgin Poker tournament last night, finishing a rubbish 47/141 mainly due to seeing only a pair of nines in the whole thing. The winner was DaBeast (a great nickname if I may say so) - join up to a site and create your own DaNickname to put fear into your opponents! Play like a beast! ;)

See the main site, www.DaMatrix.co.uk, for details of a great DaNickname competition I am currently running.

Updating...

DaMatrix.co.uk site is currently being updated.

Access this blog at:

http://damatrixpoker.blogspot.com/

Hendon Mob League: Game 8 & Blonde Tourney

The Hendon Mob Poker League's Game 8 started at 8pm with 53 players.

Drawn to a tough table but at least I had position on alanc. The table got tougher when RossBoatman and the chip leader, TH-Reverend, got moved to our table. Reverend on my left. I'd lost a biggish pot early and connection probs meant that I missed a few hands too.

When I got moved to my next table, I was looking to double-up. So when CommieBoy hesitated to raise all-in in early position, I had no problem isolating him for half my stack with 99. His AJ hit a J on the turn, but the river gave me a straight.... but my opponent a flush! Grrr!

A few all-ins preflop and on the turn and I was staying one step ahead of the blinds. UTG I found 99 again and pushed all-in. Stoogster called with KT but this time my nines held up by hitting a full house on the flop. First break: DaMatrix 2,425 (22/29), alanc 10,399 (2/29).

After the break I fold AJ on the BB after stoogster goes all-in on the buttom. He shows J9. A few orbits later he does it again, but this time I call with JJ and double up to over 4k against his A4.

Picking up AQs I fold in early position as I'd have to commit my whole stack. Next hand I get AK UTG and this time I'm happy to go all-in. Stoogster though calls most of his stack on the button with JTs and knocks me out in 17th for just 4 league points. The bet I did was so big that only AA & KK could have comfortably called me for anybody paying attention. Unfortunately stoogster's dice that he was using to decide whether to go all-in or not said yes. The call and bad beat made me sick to be honest!!!

To make matters worse, alanc gained 5 points on me by finishing 12th. Full points finish results:

Game 8 Results

That bad beat had a knock on effect on my blonde poker forum tournament. Played like shit for 15 minutes going from 3rd in chips to 17th before my 33 hit a set on the flop and I got paid off on each street for all my stack by the river - taking me back up to 4th/38. Really enjoyed playing against Tony G and was a little sad when his PP lost to overcards on the river. In just this tourney, I noticed that he had great timing and a good sense of humour. In the meantime, I was still plugging away and managed to make the final table. Unfortunately I was card dead there but climbed up the prize ladder to finish 7/93.

People's favourite, ironside, won the heads-up after his A4s outdrew RooneyGod's TT to give himself a massive chip advantage. The final results for the Blonde Poker Forum Tournament were:


Blonde Tourney Results
See the Hendon Mob League Top 10 Players.

DaMatrix: Reloaded

At the end of September, nine months on since the start of this blog, DaMatrix Reloaded is born!

Here is a sneak peak at what's coming:

Tournament Thursday

New month and I thought I'd do something different. Haven't seriously played any tournaments on PokerStars, although I have previously worked out what kind of results you need to make it to the top of the Tournament Leader Board.

Anyway, played a $10 Rebuy and Add-on (R&A) PLO8B and sucked, had a couple of rebuys but felt there was no value in going past the rebuy stage (rare) so I didn't continue and finished 82/108.

Then I played the $5 R&A, didn't need any rebuys and just added on at the break to give myself a just below average stack. I made one or two small mistakes and played slightly too tight around the prize bubbles. I was one pot away from being in a good position at the final table and eventually I decided to call an all-in with K7s from the BB (with favourable odds and to get it to the final table stage). I lost against AKo and forced all-in by the SB in the next hand to finish 10/509. You'd need to have finished first or second for a top TLB score.


$5 R&A Results.

Messed about in the Stan's Poker Freeroll GP during the PokerStars tourney before going out and then returning to finish just outside the top 10 out of 234 in the Hollywood Poker Michael Woods Celebrity Invitational.