Octover

October is finally over and it went out with a bang! Two of England's best up and coming players made the last 5 in the EPT Dublin event. The final TV table results:

1 €317,000 Mats Gavatin

2 €174,500 Henric Olander
3 €89,300 David "dpommo" Pomroy (England)
4 €69,500 Joe Rafferty
5 €59,500 Pete "bullitpete" Haslam (England)
6 €49,600 Jim Reid
7 €39,800 Michael "Beppe" Greco
8 €29,800 Michael O'Sullivan

Noah "Exclusive" Boeken, John "Skalie" Kalmar and Jonas Molander got busted 11th, 10th and TV bubble 9th respectively.

The final week in October has been kinda crazy for me. Sent a new League record at BugsysClub of over 44,000 points beating the previous record set by oscar13 in March 2005 of 41,039. Also went deep in a couple of good tournaments but this last week I have been playing too tight to hit first or second places - especially since I have been usually playing more than 4 tables and different sites and games at the same time.

Now that the month is over, I can relax a little and let the tournament skill neurons grow. Maybe re-read a few books or order some new ones that I am interested in. Some relatively important tournaments are coming up in the first half of November so now is the time to find the zone. November is also my penultimate month of this 1-year blog diary so I will be trying hard to set thing up for December.

Stay tuned!

DaMatrix

October Poker Babe

October Poker Babe

This month's poker babe is Nikki Sanderson. The sexy girl that crowned me as Maxim King of Poker.

Another must see thing this month is Curry-N-Rice Girl by MC Vikram and Ludakrishna. Enjoy!

Hendon Mob League: Game 10

The Hendon Mob Poker League's Game 10 started at 8pm with 48 players and after the match I finally became leader of the League. Read the report to see how I did it.

Managed to double up in the first 15 minutes thanks to hitting a set on the flop. THE_THIEF min raised in late position. Sensing AA, I decided to just call with QQ in the BB. Flop was QTx with 2 hearts. I go for a check-raise to pretend I might have a flush draw. It works because he reraises my check raise. I go all-in and after a bit of a dwell he can't let go of it and calls turning up KK. No outdraw and I was up to 5k chips.

Down to 40 players after 37 minutes, I was in 6th chip position. No good spots until the first break. alanc and StackBasher got busted into 32nd and 31st positions respectively. 30 remaining. Chip positions: 1st Wellboy 10475, 2nd redsimon 7925, ... 12th DaMatrix 4020 at the break.

In the end I was lucky to finish 14th/48 for 8 league points, especially since I didn't hit a single flop since that QQ and never got KK/AA. Ironically, QQ was the last hand I was to play. Grumbledook raised to 4XBB in C0-1. I had QQ in the SB and once again I just flat called. I had him on AK or smaller pair and was going to fold on the flop if an Ace or King came to leave me with one round worth of chips. Flop was King high but I thought the chance that he had an under pair or AQ/AJ was too high for me to fold and so I went all-in. Unfortunately Grumbledook had KK and I was out :(

The result puts me top of the Hendon Mob Poker League with 2 games to go since (Mr&)MrsSplash, didn't do better than 4th, finished 7th. I'm tied with alanc on 81 points put since his score comprises 10 bounty points then that puts him second. Any excuse ;)

Stoogster couldn't make it back to back wins after the 1st break chip leader, Wellboy, beat him heads-up. The final Game 10 results:


Game 10 Results
Events 11 and 12 are worth double and treble points respectively which means that it is far from over even if I am currently top. Two bad results and I might not even finish in the top 10!

See the Hendon Mob League Top 10 Players.

Blogger Championship

Took part in the inaugural Blogger Championship on PokerStars. Finished 516/1473 after my AT in the SB ran into The_Venetian's AQ in the BB. Final results:

Later, I finished 11/204 in the $10k GTD at BugsysClub. Another battle of the blinds - this time I had the better hand but still lost :(

Blackdirt who had me slightly covered raised all-in in the SB with T6o (knew he/she was at-it) and I called with A5. Ten on the flop and I was out.

Congrats to Sunday9pm, a regular on the BlondePoker forum for finishing 5th in the blogger championship and easy_wind of course for winning it. The BugsysClub $10K GTD was won by softgun who took home $2,870.

BlondePoker Heads Up Challenge #2

Finished 3rd/28 in the BlondePoker.com Heads-up Challenge #2 held at PokerStars, losing to WSOP gold bracelet winner Brian Wilson in the semi final. Riverdave beat Brian in the final to take down the event. Well done.

I started off well building a 14k:10k lead against Brian Wilson but to his credit he adjusted very well and was soon luring me into playing bigger pots preflop after I had decided that I needed to trap him post-flop. The key hand (the biggest pot in the match) in my Semi final that made me lose the psychological war was:

Seat 1: flopit20 (14137 in chips)
Seat 2: #1DaMatrix (9863 in chips)

#1DaMatrix: posts small blind 120
flopit20: posts big blind 240

*** HOLE CARDS ***
Dealt to #1DaMatrix [9h Th]
#1DaMatrix: raises 480 to 720 [Decide to raise with T9s at a time where my opponent would put me on premium cards: AA/KK/QQ/JJ/AK...]
flopit20: calls 480 [calls hoping to outplay me post-flop but I am one step ahead with a disguised hand on the button]

*** FLOP *** [Qs Jd 6s]
flopit20: checks [trying to outplay me with a check raise? flopped a set?]
#1DaMatrix: checks [sensed he would have check raised me if I bet, so I checked to try and hit and make him pay for his cruel intentions lol]

*** TURN *** [Qs Jd 6s] [7d]
flopit20: checks [figured now was the time for him to lead out, but he checks... hmmmm]
#1DaMatrix: bets 777 [I take a stab since he checked again]
flopit20: raises 777 to 1554 [min-raises me - either v. strong or v. weak. I read it as a set-up for a bluff on the river if I call due to the dynamics of the match]
#1DaMatrix: calls 777 [I call instead of reraising, since if I hit my draw I feel confident he will pay me off for my whole stack since I am 100% sure he doesn't think T9 could be one of my possible hands. Also protective if he does have a monster and I'm not going to win a huge pot if I raise and he folds if his hand is worse than mine - I don't think he's folding hands better than mine here]

*** RIVER *** [Qs Jd 6s 7d] [7s]
flopit20: bets 240 [Very strange bet this. Some railbirds said after the hand that it was very clear he had a hand with this bet. It's not as clear cut as that. I am either calling or raising. It looks like he wants me to raise (although I read it as wanting a cheap showdown) and I feel that I can't win by calling. Dilemma.]
#1DaMatrix: raises 3093 to 3333 [I decided a big bet is in order which can easily represent a full-house the way I have played the hand and the match up to then. If he reraises then I have to fold - and that was in the back of my mind too but fealt that the chance that he would re-bluff here to be very small (since losing the pot would put him at a big disadvantage). I've made it big enough so that he's either folding or reraising. He has to put me on AK/QQ/JJ cos I hadn't raised a lot on the button (the T9s raise was to disguise my hand) and the chances that he has QQ/JJ are very slim (he would have reraised me preflop). I am also tricky enough to slowplay the QQ or JJ in the same spot]
flopit20: raises 8530 to 11863 and is all-in [To be honest, this move was totally unexpected as I thought I must have had some respect by that point in the match. I think one factor that made him think that he could pull off the move was the time it took me to bet. That could have been the motive behind the min-bet on the river. If I call the hand is over and he got a cheap showdown. But if I decide to raise then he might be able to decide whether I am weak or not by the time it takes me to bet. So, he got the right read and goes all-in! He either has nothing or close to the nuts. I have read him as weak all the way. But with a min bet and then a re-raise all-in? I guess he figured out that I couldn't call with AK. Took a big risk though, because I estimate 50% of the time I would have had a hand to call him with here]
flopit20 said, "call"
#1DaMatrix said, "damn wp" [I concede that he outplayed me]
flopit20 said, "call"
flopit20 said, "call" [the "call call call" was interesting. I know he doesn't want to lose to me - he doesn't want to lose to anybody. He's like daring me to call. For a moment I think he wants me to win and has actually got nothing. But Ten high! It's an almost impossible call. I did think about it with him urging me to call, even if it was just to see his hand - but I didn't want to look like an idiot with lots of BlondeForum members watching the match and then him showing down a full house against my ten high lol.]
#1DaMatrix: folds [after a long think I decide to fold with enough chips for a decent shot at a comeback. The right move is sometimes folding a marginal winning hand to then trap your overly-confident opponent for all of his chips later on]
flopit20 collected 11214 from pot

*** SUMMARY ***
Total pot 11214 Rake 0
Board [Qs Jd 6s 7d 7s]
Seat 1: flopit20 (big blind) collected (11214)
Seat 2: #1DaMatrix (button) (small blind) folded on the River

Here is what Brian Wilson had to say about the hand:

"i had nothing, great game u fight like a tiger, gl"

Then his all-in on the end was a fantastic move. Must have put me on AK. No wonder he is a WSOP champ the way he set that up! Min betting to induce a bluff to then re-bluff! Crazy move!

The best thing about the hand is that it doesn't matter what he had. I was outplayed either way. Whether he had a hand or he didn't. Nevertheless, a very interesting hand. In hindsight, it looks after my bet on the river that I have enough chips to fold if he moves all-in. When choosing my bet, I had 7,589 chips left and I was thinking of betting 2,222, 3,333, 4,444 or all-in. I figured the 2,222 was too small and callable, the fact that he bet the min on the river meant that going all-in would have looked to0 fishy (another reason why the min-bet was clever, if he had bet the pot instead then I could have moved all-in on him). So it was between 3,333 and 4,444 and I chose the 3,333 since it might be interpreted as stronger and also minimises my loss in achieving the same or better effect. That min bet basically completely trapped me - you can trap with a good hand or if your a champ you can also trap with a bluff!!

DaMatrix's Road to the Semis:

Match 1: beat Lauren Elise (1 hand)
Match 2: beat MKKMOO (7 hands)
Match 3: beat henrik7777 (18 hands)
Match 4 (semi final): lost to flopit20 (55 hands)

Blonde H/U #2 Results

That's back to back semi final appearances in BlondePoker H/U competitions for me. Not bad. I have cashed in 4/5 Blonde Tournaments now.

As a bonus, here's another hand that occured between me and Brian Wilson, after being down to the felt I had come back a little and was trying to build momentum, Wilson was having none of it though:

Seat 1: flopit20 (17524 in chips)
Seat 2: #1DaMatrix (6476 in chips)

flopit20: posts small blind 200
#1DaMatrix: posts big blind 400

*** HOLE CARDS ***
Dealt to #1DaMatrix [5d 3s]

flopit20: raises 400 to 800
#1DaMatrix: raises 1600 to 2400
flopit20: raises 8000 to 10400
#1DaMatrix: folds [Seriously considered calling here, but 53o was too weak to make a stand with even though I had just above 2-1, 4k to win 8.8k [5d3s (34%) v 6c7c (66%)]. In a small sit and go with an opponent who had been playing similarly I would have called, but once again I chickened out under the BlondePoker spotlight! lol]

flopit20 collected 4800 from pot

flopit20: shows [6c 7c] (high card Seven)

That hand pretty much killed off any chance of winning that I had and 7 hands later I was toast. It's very hard to win a heads-up match when your opponent doesn't respect any of your raises or he can see your hole cards!!

Poker Hand Nicknames

AA - American Airlines, Bullets, Pocket Rockets
AcAs - Joe Luis
AdAh - Red Arrows
KK - Ace Magnets, Cowboys, Gorillas, King Kong, Kangaroos
QQ - Bitches, Canadian Aces, Dykes, Hookers, Siegfried & Roy, Tits
JJ - Fish Hooks, Knaves, Jay Birds, Hooks
TT - Audi, Dimes, Tension
TcTs - Pele
99 - Phil Hellmuth, Popeyes,
88 - Dog Balls, Little Oldsmobile, Snowmen, Racetracks
77 - Hockey Sticks, Mullets, Sunset Strip , Saturn, Walking Sticks
66 - Cherries, Route 66, Kicks, England
55 - Presto, Speed Limit
44 - Magnum, Sail Boats, Diana Dors
4c4s - Darth Vader
33 - Crabs, Treys
22 - Ducks, Pocket Swans
AK - Big slick
AQ - Big Chick, Little Slick, Doyle Brunson
AJ - Ajax, Blackjack, Jackass
AT - Bookends, Johnny Moss
A9 - Jesus (Chris Ferguson)
A8 - Dead Man's Hand
A5 - High Five
A4 - Transvestite
A3 - Ash Tray
A2 - Hunting Season, Little Slick
KQ - Marriage, Royalty
KQo - Mixed Marriage
KJ - Kojak, King John
KT - Katie
K9 - Canine, Dog, Pedigree, Fido, Cujo
K8 - Kate, Kokomo
K7 - Columbia River
K3 - King Crab
QK - DaMatrix
QJ - Maverick, Oedipus Rex
QsJh - Pinochle
QT - Goolsby, Quint, Robert Varkonyi
Q9 - Quinine
Q7 - Computer Hand
Q5 - Granny Mae
Q3 - San Francisco Busboy, Gay Waiter (Queen with a Trey)
JKo - Bachelor's Hand (Jack-King Off)
J6 - Railroad Hand, Jack Talley
J5 - Jackson Five, Motown
J4 - Flat tyre
TJ - TJ Cloutier
T9 - Countdown
T8 - Tetris
T4 - Broderick Crawford, CB Hand, Convoy, Good Buddy, Roger That
T3 - Weinberg
T2 - Doyle Brunson
98 - Oldsmobile, France
95 - Dolly Parton, Working Girl
94 - USA
92 - Montana Banana
8J - Jeffrey Dahmer
86 - Mexico
85 - Finky Dink
84 - George Orwell
83 - Sven
82 - Spain
7T - Bowling Hand
78 - RPM, Argentina
76 - Union Oil, Trombones
75 - Filipino Slick
74 - Cambodian Slick, Germany
73 - Joe Hachem
72 - Beer Hand, Hammer
69 - Big Lick, Joe Bernstein, Dinner for 2, Good Lover
64 - The Rabbit
63 - Blocky
62 - Ainsworth, Chris Sutton, Chile
5T - Woolworth
58 - Sweden
57 - Heinz, Pickle Man
54 - Chris Moneymaker, Switzerland
4K - Fork
49 - San Francisco 49ers
47 - The Rookie (Brian Wilson)
45 - Jesse James, Colt
3A - Baskin-Robbins
39 - Jack Benny
38 - Racquel Welch
34 - Waltz, Italy
32 - Hooter Hand, Cough, Can of Corn
29 - Twigy
25 - Quarter, Two Bits
24 - Lumberman's Hand
23 - Mississippi Slick, Polish Big Slick

Hendon Mob League: Game 9

After being postponed for 2 weeks the Hendon Mob Poker League's Game 9 started at 9pm with 55 players.

Ram Vaswani started this one and was on fire. Easily becoming chip leader with aggressive play. In the end he finished unlucky 13th. I got busted in 49th. I knew it wasn't going to be my night before the game even started. When you are that negative going into a game it's inevitable that you will self destruct.

The first hand that screwed me was AK. I call a preflop raise in the SB and flop an ace. I decide from that point that I will let the original raiser, btstorey, bet the hand for me all the way - he's probably drawing to 3/4 outs. Sure enough, I check, he bets the flop and I call. Repeated on the turn - although I think about check raising it here. River a 9. And I check again hoping to induce another bet. The size of the bet worries me somewhat but I have to call. Unfortunately, he hit a set of nines! beep ;)

The hand that busted me was QQ v KJ. Almunia, who's main game I think is Omaha, raised it 4xBB with KJo it turns out. I am in the SB with QQ and reraise it to about 11xBB. Almunia calls. I'm thinking that he's trying to hit a set, an ace or a king so the JJx flop doesn't really bother me. I lead out just over half the pot and he reraises me all in. He knows that I don't have a Jack (and that's what I wanted him to think by leading out) and could easily be making a move with a middle pair or AK - if he is that sophisticated and thinks I'd fold an over pair. If I had more chips (say I hadn't lost with AK) I might have folded but I basically give up and call. Couldn't be asked anymore and if he somehow has a Jack in his hand then good luck to him. I would have been the tournament short stack if I folded anyway and it would have been a long slog from there.

Why was I negative before the game even started? Answer: Another incredible bad beat on Blue Square.

I have played a few MTTs there, nearly all of them Blue Square League games. Fishy play has been hugely rewarded each time and I have been busted or crippled when dominating nearly every time.

Tonight I had JJ and raised after an early limper. Couple of people saw the 2 suited Jack high flop. I manage to get got all my chips in on the flop against some fish with AJ who hits runner runner for the straight! Unbelievable.

Having played 3 games in the current Unusual Suspects Blue Square League, I have been busted or crippled when ahead every time. 33 v AQ, KK v AK and JJ v AJ. I quit during the last league too after getting fuct by bad beats each and every game.

Tonight I said a big F.U. to Tribeca.

So, this month: I have been mostly tilting. Having witnessed and suffered thousands of bad beats due to my goal of winning BugsysClub tournament League, it's unleashed a trash talking, needling and aggressive poker variable in my game which no doubt can be a powerful weapon under the right circumstances if properly controlled. That won't happen until Nov/Dec and then in the new year, after attending the Maxim USA trip that they are supposed to be organising for me as part of winning the King of Poker tournament, I will be looking to step it up.

See the Hendon Mob League Top 10 Players.

October News

Busy start to October as I have decided to go for BugsysClub Al's Smash'n'Grab League. Saturday and Sunday I was multitabling up to over 10 tables building a lead in points. I am doing the league as a challenge and to get a lot of STT & MTT hands in.

Bad news. On Sunday, (October 2nd) I manage to blow a massive chip stack in the crypto CPC_Time Tournament that had 5 Caribbean Poker Classic Seats (each worth $10k) added to the prize fund. Failed to raise preflop to isolate an all-in player and lost a huge pot as a result that would have seen me as a big chip leader with about 150 (out of the 800+ starters) to go.

Also played the Betfred Telegraph $50k final. Finished around the 200 mark out of 1000 for a bit of loose change.

Good news. I was drawn in the top 5 entrants for the Expekt.com competition run in the September issue of InsideEdge magazine. Won some Expekt merchandise including a poker set. First place was a trip to Malta and $1k though. Grrr.

Finally, in London, the EPT and Gutshot Masters concluded. Mark Teltscher winning the London EPT (£280,000) and John Curtis won the Gutshot Poker Masters main event.