Connected to DaMatrix

Index

2006-01-01T10:00:00.004Z

Connected to DaMatrix: Blog Index

DaTrilogy

Sun Poker Championship

Prima Poker: A - Z

Wall of Fame

DaMatrix v Brian Wilson

Poker Hand Nicknames

DaMatrix v Doyle Brunson

VC Poker Cup 2005

Maxim King of Poker 2005

WHUPC 2005

PokerStars: A - Z

Where are they now?

VC Poker Cup 2004

Disconnected

2005-12-30T15:24:00.000Z

Daflection

2005-12-27T01:22:00.000Z

Hardly played any poker over the festive period apart from some home games. Won 4 home tourneys in a row and 2 seconds in one day, in the last game I gave them a chance by busting out first.

Rounding off the year with another profitable week. Only my 36th out of 52 weeks but 10/12 profitable months. The only negative months were when I played the WHUPC in May and VC Poker Cup in August - I'd won my seats into those events in previous months and I take off the buyin after I play the event.

If next year is twice as good (poker profits) I will be very happy with developments. If everything went according to plan I would imagine that I could be 10 times better, but the poker markets are becoming more and more efficient and I'll probably go through a long plateau as this year I've had 4/5 short ones.

Ideally I'd like to reach a peak in time for the WSOP but if I won't be playing it doesn't really matter does it? If I don't play in at least one WSOP/EPT/WPT event or the VC Poker Cup again, I'll be very disappointed - I make myself about evens at the moment.

Merry Xmas

2005-12-25T11:43:00.000Z

December Poker Babe

2005-12-21T13:00:00.000Z

December Poker Babe

A double dose of Colombia's purest export, not the white stuff but Sofia Vergana, is the final babe of the month. Visit the Complex Mag Skin section for more pics.

Sofia Vergana

DaMatrix Trilogy

2005-12-18T18:09:00.000Z

Only a few posts left to go on this blog. Yesterday I played quite bad - actually, I've been playing quite bad for over a week now. My patience levels have dropped to rock bottom. Maybe it's because I'm waiting for the year to end so that I can make a fresh start but I also haven't been feeling too well.

I'm very happy with what I've achieved this year from no bankroll. Hopefully, the next stage, DaMatrix Reloaded, will be even better but it will be at least another year before DaMatrix Revolutions (Revelations might be better)!

That's right, my poker progression is a trilogy. In Part I, I have become a decent all round player albeit at low stakes. I've read a lot of books, watched a lot of poker, developed my nickname, played a lot online but in comparison, I have played almost zero live poker.

I think I've played 2/3 comps at the broadway casino, 1 at Star City, WHUPC main event and 500 euro freezeout, Maxim King of Poker, VC Poker Cup 2005 and the Doyle Brunson sixpac. Not bad from no bankroll though.

With everybody playing poker nowadays, I think having a poker image is almost as vital as skill when it comes to the 'bigger' picture. I've been very lucky in that I adopted the Matrix nickname after being called that several times in my first encounter with the Devilfish at the VC Poker Cup 2004. It helped that I busted him by giving the whole idea of building on the name some credibility and history. Similar to how the 'fish got his name.

The Da prefix was added to make it easier to secure an online alias at sites. I had the prefix on a previous alias so some continuity there. Since I'm Italian, it also gives some of that style to it too: DaMatrix was born.

Over the past year, DaMatrix has played all the common forms of poker: hold'em, omaha, stud and draw. If I was to give myself a score out of ten, I'd give myself 3/10 to all of them. Multi-tabling different websites and different games has got to stop as I am probably playing at 30% of best - hence the 3/10.

That's in Part II. Concentrate on playing as little sites as possible, focus on my main poker skills and develop a few more ideas. I will also try to find a mentor, get hold of a white rabbit card protector, win a major tourney to facilitate sponsorship (I can dream), defend my Maxim King of Poker title and meet/play against Phil Hellmuth who probably has the closest playing style to me.

Afterall, I have played at the same table as Devilfish and Doyle Brunson - and Phil Hellmuth can't be considered great until he plays me, lol. In bit torrent episode 23 of the WSOP 2005, Hellmuth did play against probably a long lost relative of mine. Hellmuth made that decent laydown with AK on a 44AQ board against Passantino who held AA. When the turn was a Q, Passantino should have checked again if he would have correctly assumed that Hellmuth would be scared that he had AA/QQ/AQ with a big bet here and because of the preflop action. Because of Hellmuth's cards, Hellmuth put him on QQ rather than AA or KK and this "read" is revealed on the video too.

Anyway, long way to go before Part III: releasing my own poker perfume! ;)

Saturday Schedule

2005-12-17T14:33:00.000Z

Schedule of some of the MTT tournaments that I will be/might be playing today. I like to play freerolls to try different styles and release any tilt from cash games that I may be playing in.

6pm Betfair Poker Xmas Pudding

6pm Pokerroom.com Player Points Major $6k Freeroll

6:45pm Ladbrokes Poker Cruise Xmas Cracker

8pm Bet365 Poker $5K Freeroll

8pm BugsysClub $10k Warm Up Final

8pm OPT Poker.com WSOP Event Final

8pm Paradise Poker Gift Tree Freeroll

8:30pm Prima Poker EPT Scandinavian Open Final Probably give this one a miss since I didn't qualify via a satellite and I might be playing too many tables at that time to focus on this $515 buy-in.

9pm Titan Poker Depositors $1k Freeroll

9pm Pokerroom.com Royal Tourney

9pm Hollywood Poker Babes & Bounties II

2:30am Royal Vegas WSOP Freeroll

Blonde League Finalists

2005-12-13T23:18:00.000Z

Blonde/Virgin Poker League finalists after game 3:

TOTAL POINTS/QUALIFIERS

64 Stabla
50 Neeko07
49 12barblues
48 Boco
48 Creme_Egg

40 rivsec
39 RussQPR
38 wormster
36 The_Ant
35 DaMatrix

33 fwitted
33 Henrik7777
32 Howlovely
32 Nakor99
32 NorthAngel

30 _Nemesis_
30 jezza777
30 Wardonkey
29 bigarmo
29 byronkinc

29 W4LLY
28 Ginger.
27 The_Brief
26 JAG50
25 claypoleuk

25 sendthecake
25 Strumm
24 dazla996
24 feedthegoa
24 rye5098

The final is next Tuesday. Good luck all.

Instruction

2005-12-12T13:16:00.000Z

I'm happy to say that I don't make a bad poker coach. You may remember that in his first live tournament at the Broadway casino, my friend won $1,500. Last week, I coached my brother into second place at the Sun Poker Championship live final. His reward:

Sony BRAVIA KDLV40A12U 40" LCD TV HD Ready (HDMI) with built in Digital Freeview [£2k+ at amazon.co.uk]

SONY DAV-LF1 DVD Home Theatre [£1k+ at qed-uk.com]

Vogel's Furniture Q5120 stand approx £500+.

+Poker DVDs

Total = $6,000

In order to reach true poker mastery, one of the keys is "Instruction". That is one thing I lack. A mentor is quite important to guide you through the poker path. Having just read the book "Ace on the River", Barry Greenstein (Tuan Le's mentor) seems to be on a similar level to me. Marcel Luske and Noah Boeken clearly show how powerful the teacher-student thing can be - not only results wise. So, who do I think would be top of my list? You might be surprised by my choice, but it is in fact the Devilfish!

So, if you're reading this Mr Ulliott, get in touch... I need a white (gold) rabbit card protector!

Maui $60K+ Progressive Jackpot Sit 'n' Go

2005-12-11T23:57:00.000Z

Damn, decided to play for the Maui Jackpot on Titan a couple of hours ago. For those of you who don't know about this promotion the details are:

Maui - Jackpot Sit 'n' Go – Terms and Conditions
Titan Poker will pay a $15,000 Jackpot Prize to the winner of five consecutive $5+$0.75 “Maui – Jackpot Sit ‘N’ Go” tournaments. Titan Poker will also award a $200 prize to a player who finished in either 1st or 2nd place in five consecutive – Jackpot Sit ‘N’ Go” tournaments. If no player wins the $15,000 Jackpot Prize, Titan Poker will add additional funds to increase the prize.

Well the Jackpot has grown to over $60,000 (about £35,000) so since I hadn't played s&gs for weeks I thought I'd fired up 5 of these sit and goes and was playing them all at the same time. I won the first 3 (one was easy cos the player was disconnected - but I was playing 3 tables at that point short handed/heads-up and getting timed out aswell and the blinds were high so I couldn't really wait for him - especially under these circumstances) and was heads-up on the other two. On one I went all in on the button with a medium Ace but Stan33 on the Big Blind called with K high for half his stack hitting his friggin kicker twice!! Grrrrr!!! The other heads-up I won easily by consequently being super aggressive and getting lucky...

So 4 wins and 1 second for, not $60k, but $200! Surely 4 wins and a second deserves more!

Gutted!!! :((((((((((((((((((((((

9191601 2005-12-11 18:56 Maui "Jackpot Sit N Go" 1 1 1 1 $5.75 $0.75 $15.00 $5.75 $0.75 $15.00 $-10.00 260.9% - 2nd

9191401 2005-12-11 18:51 Maui "Jackpot Sit N Go" 1 1 1 1 $5.75 $0.75 $25.00 $5.75 $0.75 $25.00 $-20.00 434.8% - 1st

9191141 2005-12-11 18:47 Maui "Jackpot Sit N Go" 1 1 1 1 $5.75 $0.75 $25.00 $5.75 $0.75 $25.00 $-20.00 434.8% - 1st

9190971 2005-12-11 18:42 Maui "Jackpot Sit N Go" 1 1 1 1 $5.75 $0.75 $25.00 $5.75 $0.75 $25.00 $-20.00 434.8% - 1st

9190701 2005-12-11 18:39 Maui "Jackpot Sit N Go" 1 1 1 1 $5.75 $0.75 $25.00 $5.75 $0.75 $25.00 $-20.00 434.8% - 1st

FIFA World Cup Germany 2006 Draw

2005-12-09T23:42:00.000Z

Download the World Cup 2006 Wallchart PDF here!

German supermodel Heidi Klum and some random bird holding the World Cup

Visit the FIFA World Cup Germany 2006 website.

Blonde Virgin

2005-12-06T00:18:00.000Z

Nothing to do with what I got up to after the Sun Poker Championship in London last Saturday.

The second Blonde Forum League tournament was played at Virgin Poker today and I managed to add an extra 5 points to my score.

01. Stabla 26 + 24 = 50
02. Creme_Egg 20 + 28 = 48
03. RussQPR 19 + 20 = 39
04. rivsec 12 + 26 = 38
05. wormster 27 + 11 = 38
06. Nakor99 18 + 14 = 32

07. NorthAngel 16 + 15 = 31
08. 12barblues 30
09. jezza777 30
10. byronkinc 29
11. W4LLY 29
12. DaMatrix 23 + 05 = 28
13. The_Ant 28
14. Neeko07 27
15. The_Brief3 21 + 06 = 27
16. claypoleuk 25
17. sendthecake 25
18. rye5098 24
19. AdamM665 23
20. Nidavellir 22
21. Boco 22
22. fwirred 21
23. suzanne661 05 + 16 = 21
24. Legz11 19
25. lalalarina 18
26. JAG50 17
27. p3rcy 17
28. Henrik7777 15
29. twignbud 14
30. feedthegoa 13
31. Newportlad 13
32. Teacake 12
33. Howlovely 11
34. Chili Pep 10
35. rookie20 10
36. dannypoker 09
37. redsimon 09
38. Khota 08
39. Tomoli 08
40. Heidster 07
41. StackBashr 07
42. b.strider 06
43. Foggy1 04
44. yorksgirly 04
45. _RFC_ 03
46. Wardonkey 03
47. mastersoul 02
48. matt674 02
49. patman24 01
50. totalise 01

The last league game is next week. Top 30 after that game go through to the League Final.

The Sun Poker Championship

2005-12-03T23:18:00.000Z

Arrived at the Palm Beach Casino at 7pm Saturday for the Sun Poker Championship final. Nine players, including my brother Gattopardo, were going to fight for $30k in prizes.

Sun Final: Players

One player, rippy, arrived fashionably late for the tournament so missed the group photo in front of the main first place prize: a mini!

The play was very tight for the first few levels. Gattopardo winning a couple of early pots though.

It was a surprise when the guy that arrived late was the first person out. He was left short stacked when his AJ was no match for pokerfenner's AK. Couple of hands later his late position raise was called by pokerfenner in one of the blinds. Pokerfenner checked the flop and rippy went all in on the Q high flop. Pokerfenner eventually called with pocket 7s and was up against AQ. Turn was a 7 though!

brael (left): Not his night

It was a while before more players were knocked out. A lot of them were playing a survival strategy trying to get into the top 3 paid places. Before it even got to 5 handed, pokerfenner had been dealt pockets aces three times as well as cowboys!

Down to 5

The play was very cagey as the prizes were now within sight. Gattopardo, short stacked, managed to double up when he went all in UTG with JJ. ChipDawg's A3 on the BB was no match. Gattopardo won another decent pot reraising all-in against the chip leader's UTG open raise preflop with QQ to take it down. Pokerfenner was happy to fold, declaring, "Nice hand".

Gattopardo now had some chips and he managed to knock out one of the next two players, Dammuzz was the bubble boy, to catch up with pokerfenner's chip stack 3 handed. When he knocked out ChipDawg into 3rd place, Gattopardo began Heads-Up as the chip leader.

Gattopardo: Chip Leader

Gattopardo had made a great comeback from nearly out of the money to chip leader heads-up. He didn't change gears though and paid for that as he was up against probably the best and luckiest player on the night: pokerfenner.

Heads Up: pokerfenner v Gattopardo

Unfortunately, Gattopardo played too passively in the end, against DaMatrix's advise during a break in heads-up when I suggested he make a deal or play more aggressively. I don't think he quite realised how big the difference was between 1st and second place. Play restarted and I realised he hadn't listened to a word I said! Grrrrr! lol

Pokerfenner, who wanted it more and had come there to win the final, grinded Gattopardo down until knocking him out on his 3rd attempt: Gattopardo (guaranteed at least a $7K prize for second) went all-in on the SBB with, King crap, K3o and pokerfenner called with KT that flopped a straight and gutshot royal flush draw.

Winner: pokerfenner

No royal flush and no ten on the river for a split pot resulted in a well deserved win for pokerfenner who qualified by winning the tournament Leaderboard. Congrats to the first Sun Poker Champion!

Read The Sun Online's article.

Beginning of the End

2005-12-01T16:31:00.000Z

One year of Connected to DaMatrix is nearly over. I've enjoyed documenting my poker exploits over the past 11 months but at the end of the year I will not be updating this blog anymore. Time to pull the plug so to speak. Any new news will be at www.DaMatrix.co.uk.

Congrats to Reevio on winning the Hendon Mob League, his qualification helped by a royal flush, but commiserations to stooger who didn't do so well without the help of his DJ_buddy and finally poor Mr&MrsSplash who's Aces got cracked by Reevio's 88 heads-up in the final.

That's ONLINE poker baby!

November News

2005-11-29T13:44:00.000Z

First of all, congrats to Barny Boatman on his runner up finish at the Midland Masters. The Hendon Mob League Final is tomorrow night and one of 10 lucky forum readers will be off to Las Vegas with the Mob to the Bellagio WPT.

Below is a table by Steve Brecher from Full Tilt Poker's Lessons from the Pros #37. The figures carry some assumptions for simplification but the table is self explanatory.

DaMatrix's online player of the week award goes to "Ozzy 87" from Houston. I've been very impressed with their poker to say the least. He's won a 2 tournaments in a week at Pokerstars at the same time as owning the NL $25/$50 and $50/$100 tables at Ultimate Bet.

Here are Ozzy 87's cashes from PokerStars in a little over a week from 24 NL tournaments for a total profit of $27,959 ($30,719-$2760 buyins):

1. 1/105@$100 = $10,440
2. 2/220@$100 = $3,850
3. 1/178@$300 = $16,020
4. 12/102@$100 = $383
5. 17/107@$100 = $409.

Last night I also saw him spin $10k at NL $50/100 into $66k in a couple of hours getting paid off when he had the nuts on the flop or the river in $20k+ pots. Whenever he reraised he had very strong hands but still kept getting paid off! To have won 2/18 tourneys with $100+ buyin is extraordinary also.

Today, I was playing with Antonio Esfandiari in a NL ring table at Ultimate Bet. He was telling everyone how a burger cost $60 in Monte Carlo. Soon, I was involved in a pot with the magician. I flopped a set of 4s on a two diamond board and I was check-called by Antonio. Turn was an ace and again I bet big enough to make calling with a flush draw a mistake but was check-called again. River was another diamond and the pot was $60. Antonio instantly led out with a pot bet and I folded swiftly showing my pocket 4s. He was amazed that I folded and promised me he had the flush - hey, that's why I folded! He can stick his next Monte Carlo burger..... lol

Finally, made another cash in a Blonde Forum tourney at Virgin Poker. It was the first Blonde Poker League tournament and I finished in the top 10 out of 107 other blondites.

Maxim KOP 2006 Begins

2005-11-24T15:03:00.000Z

Qualification for the Maxim King of Poker 2006 began today. Hopefully I'll be there to defend my title. I recommend you too try to qualify as last year's event was great!

Full details: Maxim KOP 2006.

Don't turn your back.

Congratulations are also in order for Paul "ActionJack" Jackson who won $600k yesterday by finishing second to Phil Ivey at the Monte Carlo Millions. I've met Paul at the WHUPC 2005 in Barcelona and the VC Poker Cup 2005 and he's a sound bloke!

November Poker Babe

2005-11-21T18:26:00.000Z

November Poker Babe

This month's poker babe is Vida Guerra. Wallpaper courtesy of FHM US. Touch her lucky bum before you play to increase your chance of winning at poker! ;)

Hendon Mob League: Game 12

2005-11-15T16:01:00.000Z

The Hendon Mob Poker League's Game 12 started at 8pm with 60 players.

My aim of finishing in the top 10 were exstinguished when my KK got busted by JJ. I limped UTG+1 with KK. (don't usually (almost never) limp in early position with KK, but fealt sure someone would raise and I could take down a decent pot without showdown preflop with a re-raise or otherwise I'd have my whole stack in with a massive advantage. Either was good for me. The conditions for limping in with KK were right since there was a great chance to double-up by trapping someone with a lower pair/AK/AQ raising me since they might not (intended) put me on KK. I estimated someone would raise before the flop at 90% and the outside chance of being able to win (more than just the blinds) in two different ways was desirable.

My plan seemed to have backfired when the whole table folded to the BB. The big blind thought for a while before going all-in (with JJ). I called in a nanosecond but my opponent, FlippetyFlop, hit a straight. He then even had the cheek to suggest my play was bad! lol I didn't even complain about the beat - and why would I? If I won that pot I would have been on course for that top 10 final finish. I know how it feels to play like a bounty is on your head.....

I didn't expect to qualify anyway, since the point system of doubling and trebling the points for the last 2 games turned the whole league into a crapshoot. Not complaining, except that with the double and, especially tonight's treble points, the incentive for dishonest players to cheat was high. I am very sure about at least one player - this player is the only one were my notes on him just say muppet. There's a small chance that I am just being paranoid - but any suspicious feeling that I get is enough proof for me aside from other indicators...

For some time I have been thinking about writing a speech a-la Travis Bickle style from Taxi Driver about the people that play poker...

In Travis Bickle’s words: whores, skunk pussies, buggers, queens, fairies, dopers, and junkies.

The final league top 10 table after Game 12:

League Final Top 10
Congrats to p3rcy for winning the League and good luck to the ten finalists in the play-off for the Bellagio trip.

See the Hendon Mob League Top 10 Players.

PrimaPoker: A - Z

2005-11-13T19:30:00.000Z

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

_judas_ - Henric S.
10-J-Q-K-A - Mike J.
14UTOPAY - Jonah E.

A-F - Andre F.
AAlimper - Thomas J.
AceJay - Jatinder S.
aceonwrists - Thomas B.
Agren - Daniel A.
ajhcmaj - Adam M.
Amarok - Ben J.
Anos - Tanya H.

baconburgare - Anders H.
BallenaGris - Michael Y.
banton - Sami P.
Basil_Rex - Jeffrey B.
beaver_like - Peter D.
beethoven - Fredrik E.
Benelli - Kenneth A.
bigdevil - Danut A.
biggtime - David G.
Bingoent - Anders K.
bluntwrap - Andreas L.
Boogman - Randy B.
Brittpopper - Sascha F.
Bruno2 - Baard H.
bsanna - Bjørn S.
bullitpete - Peter H.

calson - Peter C.
Cisco - John A.

darkboss - Edmund B.
dellis - Kenneth W.
diegom7 - Diego M.
dingdingding - Raymi T.
dino321 - Gard A.
dodgerskaua - Brian C.
drexthetex - Dustin D.
Drunkelb1 - Steven D.
dukyboys - Eugene R.
Dunkelb1 - Steven D.

emil__ - Emil A.
ericsind - Eric S.

Fanthomet - Orjan K.
Farquad - Gene B.
FeralBoy - Richard M.
Ferrai - Tony L.
Ferrari360 - Arshad H.
fishnutz - James K.
fourfinger - Haavard S.
froggybumbum - Stefano B.

Geobe - Edgardo B.
Groy - Glen M.

Handsolow - Rob M.
Hedman75 - Jimmy H.
Hegger8 - Henric N.
Helena_ - Helena N.
HighHeat - Phil M.
Hitmedegen - Carl G.
hoahoa99 - Johan L.
hoe - Robert I.
Honest Lad - John K.
hookemtide - Eric B.

Iquist - Barry C.
itsdabanger - Adam B.

JabbaTheHut - Thor L.
jdrengsgaard - Jacob D.
Jimmyuk - Mick W.
Joern76 - Jorn M.
Johjo - Johan J.
jonnybearr - Justin M.
Joopy - Cheryl C.
joseph123 - Sargon R.

KARSTENSHEA - Ryan S.
kastell84 - Thomas D.
Kempe - Micke J.
kgbman - Dennis O.
KingHigh2004 - Mark C.
KMTboy - Steven C.
Kunta - Deniz O.

Laaur2 - Jarle K.
laughingwolf - Jason R.
legolas4 - Marcos R.
Lels - Ariel B.
Lundan - Anton L.

Mabbe - Kristian E.
mademen33 - Brian B.
Madmarty - Martin C.
maffian - Peter H.
matlessinger - Mat L.
mavericka - Mark G.
Maxgammon - Wayne M.
MissSweden - Rose S.
money2spend - Larry J.
moratto - Louis M.
Mr_Hoppy - Rumit S.
MrLoose - Nils J.

n1stunnor - Jason G.
Nathan - Stale E.
nbliss16 - Nathan B.
nedomansky - Ulf H.
nordlight - Niclas L.

OhioRounder - Noah C.
Olis2 - Ole O.
Oska - Paul O.
Otis - Neil H.

paddydog - Joseph R.
Pan_Hanson - Peter H.
pappapoker - Dan B.
pounce - Adrian C.

Quintrix - Patrik K.

Rickmotor - Rick C.
Ricko - Rickard A.
Roberto1 - Robert W.
rosebud17 - Rose R.
Rudder1 - Jacob B.
rur - Runar R.

ScottA - Scott A.
ShaDan - Zhi L.
Shawdofax - David J.
ShockAndAww - John V.
Silverback - Mattias N.
Sinine - Imre L.
Sirdogstar - Darren K.
skivrmt - Mark A.
SNPoker - Steve N.
sparv - Fredrik D.
Spycatcher - Dean S.
Strakov - Samuel L.
suhleafs - James S.
Sylta - Frode S.

tdp12212012 - Paul L.
thatspoker - Michael F.
Themenace - Dennis J.
This_is_war - Paul D.
timmy420 - Tim L.
Tony-Soprano - Christian T.
trader518 - Edward B.
Traveller2 - Björn I.
TUFFONE - James C.
TY-MUPPET - Paul J.

UMCorona - Bryan C.
utpetson - Tomas P.

Veron22 - Martin H.

wackywilly - William M.
WikiWild - Clint R.

XO - Mats B.

zimbardo - Erik L.
Zlatte - Anders P.

ReBirth

2005-11-12T15:11:00.000Z

Work in progress: Rabid River

Been getting to grips with Propellerhead's ReBirth RB-338 software recently. Watch out for some poker related electronic music. 'Rabid River' - dark drum n bass or funky french house?

This month I have also been mostly playing The Movies on PC and Pro Evolution Soccer 5 on PS2.

Hendon Mob League: Game 11

2005-11-08T16:00:00.000Z

The penultimate Hendon Mob Poker League game started at 8pm with 56 players. The tournament payed DOUBLE ranking points hence a good performance was vital. My goal for this game was to remain in the top 10.

As usual, Stan James added $500 prize money to the $25+$2.50 NLH event and there were $100 bountys (and this week 10 bonus points instead of 5) for any Mobster that you knocked out.

Started off on Joe Beevers' table. The first half hour I made a lot of mistakes and lost 20% of my stack. It didn't help that 10 minutes b4 the start of this tournament I had bubbled somewhere else. Was being a little too passive and wasn't catching any flops with some speculative hands I was playing. My bad luck/bad play combo continued for the next 15 minutes and lost a further 20%. So I was down to 1,500 chips from 2,500. Rocked up for the next 15 minutes to try and get to the break with at least half the starting stack. Like to make things harder for myself! lol

At the break, 44 remaining: 1st Almunia24 7875, 2nd p3rcy 6120 and 3rd Wellboy 5785 - 43rd DaMatrix 1234.

Things went from bad to worse. Was doing my best to hang on and try and get into the points but lost my one and only attempt, after 90 minutes of playing, to double up with JJ in the SB against clear overcards/smaller pair. Unfortunately I was up against the DaMatrix - QK, and just like in the WHUPC, my opponent caught a queen on the river. I finished 37/56 but hopefully other results will go my way and I'll still be in the top 10 after this game - that's really all I was hoping for at the start of the game anyway.

So, overall Game 11 was a shambles. Not the time to put in my worst performance of the League season so far!

It was inevitable that today's game would be bad though. Last night something good happened... my protégé, Gattopardo, qualified for The Sun Online Poker Championship live final to be held at the Palm Beach Casino in December! He came 1/180 in the Weekly Final held at The Sun Poker.

Final League Game 11 results:

Mob League: Game 11 Results

With the final game next week being TREBLE points, remaining in the top 10 for a chance to play in the play-off will be hard to achieve with everybody gunning for a top finish. Anything worse than final table and it's bye bye Bellagio.

Top 40 (click to enlarge)

Above is the Top 40 going into the last game where the points up for grabs will probably (if less than 100 players) be: 1st 63, 2nd 60, 3rd 57, 4th 54, 5th 51, 6th 48, 7th 45, 8th 42, 9th 39, 10th 36, 11th 33, 12th 30, 13th 27, 14th 24, 15th 21, 16th 18, 17th 15, 18th 12, 19th 9, 20th 6 points and everyone outside top 20 get just 3 points. There will also be 1 to 4 bountys at 15 points each.

See the Hendon Mob League Top 10 Players.

Bonfire of the Blinds

2005-11-05T23:22:00.000Z

Wall of Fame: 1st

Finally achieved my goal of winning the Wall of Fame tourney at BugsyClub beating captainNdiet heads-up.

The signs were good today after I won one of the first tournaments I played with 100+ runners. I also placed in two other tournaments with big fields (top 50/1000+ and top 20/250+). The only disappointment was Prima Poker's Tournament of Champions.

The T.O.C. started with just 61 players, winner take all. There were a few away players on my table - one to my left. So I was happy to take their BB whenever it was folded to me in the SB.

After a few rounds of this, I pick up QQ in the SB and it's folded to me once again. I make an automatic min-raise to steal the BB from the away player. Suddenly, the BB reraises me - so sensing that they think I have been stealing I go all-in - the chance that they have KK/AA is too small and I have to go for 1st place - of course, they turn over AA! I embarrasingly finish 57/61 lol Oldest trick in the book - after you time out, pretend you are away by putting it on auto-fold, then wait to pick up a monster to make your move!

Bit of a shame since I had been looking forward to that for over a week -if I had to estimate the chance that I'd get caught out by that trick in the T.O.C. I'd say it was a million to 1 (one of the advantages of playing live is that you can see if your opponent is really asleep or not lol). Congrats to Dunkelb1 who beat short stacked Stackbasher heads-up and grabbed a package to the Monte Carlo Millions!

Winning one of the two tournaments that I wanted to win today isn't bad though (if I had won both that would have been incredible).

I am now an official member of BugsysClub's Wall of Fame!!

TOC & WOF

2005-11-02T21:19:00.000Z

This Saturday at 8pm I will be playing in the Prima Poker Tournament of Champions (T.O.C.) having qualified for the WHUPC back in May via Stan's Poker, a Prima Poker operator.

-- The Prima Network, the world’s largest online poker network, unveiled plans to send its best poker player to Monte Carlo Millions, the world’s most exclusive poker tournament. Every player who has won a seat to a land-based tournament from Prima in 2004 or 2005 is eligible to play in the Tournament of Champions, a freeroll event whose final table will be televised on Poker Zone’s “Poker Night Live,” channel 226 on SKY TV in the United Kingdom.

On Saturday, November 5th at 21:00 GMT, the strongest players on the network will compete for a chance to win a $30,000 prize package to represent their card room in Monte-Carlo with the pros.

The Champion of Champions will join 120 of the world’s best poker players in Monte-Carlo, where he or she will be treated to luxurious five-star accommodations at one of the world’s top hotels, $500 spending money (or equivalent in Euros), the $25,000 buy-in to the Monte Carlo Millions and a shot at the largest prize pool in European history: $3 million. Once there, if the Network Champion plays the cards right, a seat at the world-famous Monte-Carlo Casino’s final table and a chance to win the $1 million first prize awaits.

“Our players come from around the world to play at the World Series of Poker, the Bellagio, Borgata, WPT and EPT events. They are the best the Web has to offer,” said Prima Network CEO Roger Raatgever. “We want to reward our top players and to see who is truly the Champion of Champions. Never before has online poker strategy and sheer determination been so great, for such a coveted prize. I wish all the network players the best of luck.” --

Also next Saturday at 8pm, I am in the BugsysClub Wall of Fame (W.O.F.) tournament after winning Al's Smash 'n' Grab League with a new record of 44,555 points. This will be my 5th attempt at becoming a member of the Wall of Fame, and it marks the one year anniversay since my first attempt. Previous winners of this tournament include Derek "OldKingCole" Rowland, Mattias "Pokermats" Andersson and Matt "SamENole" Smith.

Fingers crossed for some Saturday Love!!!

Octover

2005-10-31T00:02:00.000Z

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

2005-10-28T16:52:00.000Z

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

2005-10-25T23:59:00.000Z

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

2005-10-23T17:05:00.000Z

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

2005-10-20T21:19:00.000Z

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

2005-10-16T12:25:00.000Z

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

2005-10-11T15:58:00.000Z

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

2005-10-03T16:29:00.000Z

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.

Classic Razz Hand

2005-09-30T13:06:00.000Z

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

2005-09-24T14:46:00.000Z

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

2005-09-22T22:51:00.000Z

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

2005-09-21T14:40:00.000Z

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

2005-09-20T11:23:00.000Z

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

2005-09-19T10:36:00.000Z

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

2005-09-17T10:38:00.000Z

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

2005-09-13T23:07:00.000Z

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

2005-09-09T15:08:00.000Z

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...

2005-09-07T01:14:00.000Z

DaMatrix.co.uk site is currently being updated.

Access this blog at:

http://damatrixpoker.blogspot.com/

Hendon Mob League: Game 8 & Blonde Tourney

2005-09-06T19:52:00.000Z

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

2005-09-04T12:21:00.000Z

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

2005-09-01T15:20:00.000Z

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.

matrix

2005-08-31T14:14:00.000Z

matrix ['mei.triks] n., pl. matrices or matrixes. — ORIGIN Latin, ‘womb’, from mater ‘mother’.

1. A situation or surrounding substance within which something else originates, develops, or is contained: “Freedom of expression is the matrix, the indispensable condition, of nearly every form of freedom” (Benjamin N. Cardozo).
2. The womb.
3. Anatomy a. The formative cells or tissue of a fingernail, toenail, or tooth. b. The intercellular material in which the cells and fibers of connective tissue are embedded.
4. Geology a. a mass of fine-grained rock in which gems, crystals, or fossils are embedded. b. Groundmass.
5. A mold or die.
6. The principal metal in an alloy, as the iron in steel.
7. A binding substance, as cement in concrete.
8. Mathematics a. A rectangular array of numeric or algebraic quantities subject to mathematical operations. b. Something resembling such an array, as in the regular formation of elements into columns and rows. c. a grid-like array of elements; a lattice.
9. Computer Science The network of intersections between input and output leads in a computer, functioning as an encoder or a decoder.
10. Printing a. A mold used in stereotyping and designed to receive positive impressions of type or illustrations from which metal plates can be cast. b. A metal plate used for casting typefaces.
11. An electroplated impression of a phonograph record used to make duplicate records.

12. A specially shaped instrument, plastic material, or metal strip for holding and shaping the material used in filling a tooth cavity.

13. Fanciful term for a cyberspace expected to emerge from current networking experiments.

14. The totality of present-day computer networks.

Source: The American Heritage® Dictionary of the English Language/The Free On-line Dictionary of Computing/Compact Oxford English Dictionary.

August Poker Babe

2005-08-29T15:00:00.000Z

August Poker Babe.

Absolute Poker are searching for Miss Absolute. Open online voting will take place October 3-14. In the meantime, feast your eyes on one of the lovely candidates, Monica, somewhere with lots of fish and rocks.

Star City CelebPoker GP: $370

2005-08-28T20:53:00.000Z

Today was the $370 satellite at CelebPoker where 1 in 10 win a $3,500 Star City CelebPoker Grand Prix Package. Haven't been playing many tournaments lately, especially since my cousin who I haven't since in years has been in town.

To prepare a little for the game, yesterday I played and won a Round 2 at Bugsy's Club. My 3rd Round 3 qualification in 6 Round 2 tournaments.

Also yesterday, I finished 9/50 in the $22 WSPO satellite at Coral/Eurobet. Lost with JJ (70%) v AT (30%) in a crucial pot at the final table that would have given me over 20% of the chips 9 handed. In the end, I went all-in blind with an M of just over 2, UTG+1, and got called in 4 spots to finish 9th.

Anyway, I just finished 32/47 in the $370 Star City satellite. With 33 left I was doing just about average when I picked up AKo in early position and raised 4xBB. Next player to act Domi99 (chip leader) pushed all-in with 88! He was lucky that I only had AK instead of an overpair. If (big IF) he qualifies I might go to Star City just to tell him what a muppet he is and break his legs.... only joking Domi!

Watching Ong Bak can take priority now ;)

The 4 $3,500 package winners in the end were jesperlund, CHEECHMAN, chipmagnet and CurlyWatts. Drb01089 picked up $2,450 for 5th place.

Midweek Mêlée

2005-08-24T14:48:00.000Z

Not a bad weekend. Finished 8th in the $22 Coral World Speed Poker Open satellite on Saturday. My all-in with AKs was called by Jediael6 who had me slightly covered with 66. He won the pot and went on to win the satellite and a place in the Coral Speed Classic televised heat of The Poker Channel's forthcoming £2,000 72-player WSPO. Elsewhere, I gained my 2nd Round 3 qualification at BugsysClub.

Sunday night, made another visit to the Broadway Casino to show my mate, "SkinnyBill" around. Couldn't stay long so when my AQ lost to 99 I didn't rebuy. If I don't qualify for the CelebPoker Star City £1,000 tournament in the satellite next Sunday I might give the £100 plus 1 Rebuy OR Add-on at Broadway Casino Festival a shot - that depends if I am back from holiday (not sure if I am going yet!) in time.

Received the October issue of Maxim magazine this week, I'm on page 132 - King of Poker baby!

Finally, been playing in the BlueSquare Poker League(s) freezeout tournaments. The amount of sick bad beats I have had there are unbelievable. Wheather it's due to the software being geared by 1 or 2% towards fish play or just the high concentration of rebuy tournament exposed players I don't know. One thing is for sure, it's more than just bad luck. Maybe there's a bounty on me I am not aware of! ;)

Star City NLHE £20 R&A

2005-08-19T15:46:00.000Z

Played my first live game at Star City Casino last night. It was a £20 Rebuys & Add-on comp. I didn't need any rebuys, just added-on and made the final table (7th) for a $200 profit. After finishing 3rd for $1.5k profit in his first tournament at Broadway Casino, Joe couldn't make back to back final tables at Star City, finishing in the bubble.

Hendon Mob League: Game 7

2005-08-16T23:10:00.000Z

The Hendon Mob Poker League's Game 7 commenced with 54 players.

I started determined to make up for the last game's run of bad luck. Made another final table (4/7) and gained enough points to send me back into second in the league by finishing 5/54.

My strategy for this game was to ensure a points finish by not playing any big pots. For this reason I was playing Ace high hands very cautiously, even mucking ATs and AQs preflop in spots where I would normally play them. Nevertheless, I doubled up when I called HoneyMonster's standard raise with KK hoping to trap him. He moved all in on the K high flop with AQ and I called with the nuts ;)

Eventually I made the final table as the short stack, the key hand that got me there was doubling up with A8o from the SB after an obvious button steal (with 64). I actually did well to get this far since half-way through the tourney I had connection problems. A lot of lag towards the crucial stages around the money bubble and I even got disconnected during a key hand that I had set up for a big bluff on the river. Maybe it was a blessing!

At the final table I was confident I would move up the points ladder with maybe a little luck. That good fortune came when I had to move all-in with AJo before the blinds hits me with a stack ratio of 4. Luckily I hit an ace to beat The_Brief's KK.

After a few more orbits I was back in the danger zone but I finally got Aces and doubled up once again. HoneyMonster was playing aggressively, everytime I had the BB he was raising from UTG+1. Wasn't gonna make a stand with the ten high hands I was constantly getting especially since it was guaranteed I would get called. Also, I was grateful that other people's actions before me made mucking easier. Laying down 88 and AQs to big early position raises before eventually open raising all-in with AKo and doubling up (once again!) via HoneyMonster.

My patience had paid off as we were now down to 5 handed. Needed one more double up to be in contention to win the game and move to first in the league but my luck finally ran out when I got TT on the button. I pushed all-in and after some thinking Dubai in the BB called with 98 that hit trips. C'est la vie!

Pilf won Game 7 defeating Dubai heads up.

Game 7 Results

See the Hendon Mob League Top 10 Players.

Read the Mob League Event #7 Official Report

Star City CelebPoker GP: $40

2005-08-14T22:25:00.000Z

The £100,000 guaranteed first place Stanley Star City Casino CelebPoker Grand Prix is a £1,000 No Limit Freezeout tournament taking place in Birmingham on the 7th and 8th September 2005.

Today I won an entry, on my first attempt, into the last $370 online final at CelebPoker on 28th August by finishing 6/122 in a satellite. I now have a 10% chance of playing in the Star City £1,000 GP since 1 in 10 will win a $3.5 package in the final. I would like it to be 100% of course! So, if I don't qualify in 2 week's time feel free to send the King of Poker your sponsorship proposals ;)

$40 Sat Results

Still at CelebPoker, I later finished 4/337 in the $500 freeroll. Usually when I am multitabling cash games, I have one or two freerolls running just for fun and to let off steam when I get a bad beat in ring play. Doing well in them is just a bonus.

Freeroll Results

Also today, I played two sats for the WPT Legends of Poker Tournament (Doyle Brunson's next tournament appearance as reigning champ):

In the $22 WPT Celebrity Shootout tournament at Hollywood Poker I finished just outside the top 100 out of 448 when a steal attempt with A5o from the CO committed me against 88 on the flop when I paired my kicker.

In the Coral/Eurobet $50 Legends of Poker satellite I finished 23/96. My all-in steal attempt with 98s was called by K4o and I didn't get lucky.

Finally, signing off on a good note, I got my first Round 3 ticket for the current promo at Bugsys Club. About time too! ;)

Winning the Star City GP next month would give me the bankroll to go for my goals (DaTreble) of winning an EPT event, a WPT event and a WSOP bracelet. Otherwise I can keep dreaming! lol

EPT Season Two Schedule

2005-08-13T00:43:00.000Z

This year's PokerStars.com EPT schedule is (with reigning champs and prize money):

EUROPEAN POKER TOUR

SEASON TWO SCHEDULE, 2005-2006

BARCELONA, Spain (Alexander Stevic, €80,000)
EPT Barcelona Open, 16th & 17th September 2005
Buy-in: € 4,000 + 200
Venue: Casino de Barcelona

LONDON, England (John Shipley, £200,000)
Grosvenor Poker Masters, 30th September - 1st & 2nd October 2005 (three days)
Buy-in: £3,000 (*) + 50
Venue: The Grosvenor Victoria Casino

BADEN, Austria (Pascal Perrault, €184,800)
EPT Baden Classic, 4th-6th October 2005
Buy-in: € 4,000 + 190
Venue: Grand Casino Baden

DUBLIN, Republic of Ireland (Ram Vaswani, €93,000)
EPT Dublin, 29th & 30th October 2005
Buy-in: € 4,000 + 200
Venue: The Merrion Casino Club

COPENHAGEN, Denmark (Noah Boeken, DKK 1,098,340)
EPT Scandinavian Open, 25th- 28th January 2006
Buy-in: 30,000 Danish Kroner (*) (4% withheld for taxes/ 4% Admin/Dealers)
Venue: Casino Copenhagen (Radisson SAS Scandinavia Hotel)

DEAUVILLE, France (Brandon Schaefer, €144,000)
EPT French Open, 8th-11th February 2006
Buy-in: € 4,000 (6% withheld for admin/dealers)
Venue: Casino Barrière de Deauville

MONTE CARLO, Monaco (Rob Hollink, €650,000)
EPT Grand Final, 8th-11th March 2006
Buy-in: € 10,000 (6% withheld for admin/dealers)
Venue: Monte Carlo Bay Hotel & Resort

All events No Limit Texas Hold’em

* € 4,000 approximately

DaMatrix v Doyle Brunson

2005-08-11T10:10:00.000Z

DaMatrix v Doyle Brunson: Report

2005-08-10T22:00:00.000Z

Arrived at the London venue where the Doyle Brunson "Big Deal" match (to be shown on The Poker Channel) would take place and immediately wished the poker legend a happy birthday. He was born on the 10th August 1933.

Mike Tindall didn't make the filming, his replacement was Matthew Norman, a journalist who writes for 4 newspapers including the Sunday Telegraph. To be honest with you, the only player I thought might not show up was Doyle so fair play to the legend for spending most of his birthday having a friendly game of poker with us.

The draw for the seats led to the following table composition:

1. noodleboy
2. DaMatrix
3. Doyle Brunson
4. The Sicilian
5. Matthew
6. Sheperd

Despite the bad draw for me, I felt that I had a good chance of getting it to heads-up between Doyle and I - that's why I have been billing this as DaMatrix v Doyle Brunson since I qualified! I won the first pot when I flopped 2 pair from the SB with K2. Doyle tells me it's bad luck to win the first pot - wished he'd told me before we started!

We each started with 50k chips and 20 minute levels commencing from 1/2k blinds. We we allowed 2 rebuys maximum during the first 3 levels. The Sicilian and I were the only ones to use up all our rebuys. As a bonus to the players who didn't rebuy, they received add-ons of 50k at the end of level 3.

Some interesting hands during the first 3 levels, included The Sicilian doubling through Doyle when his QJ flopped 2 pair on a KQJ board and Doyle called his all-in with KT. I tried to build a stack by going all in with Q6s 3-way. Unfortunately The Sicilian had JJ and Sheperd had KK, a Q on the flop but no further help and Sheperd was the chip leader. Rebuy!

Sheperd

In Level 3 just before the end of the rebuy period, I found AT in the CO and went all in again trying to double up. Doyle called with AK and I was busted again. Rebuy!

Now I had to revert to my level 1 strategy and tighten up a little as I was playing like a maniac. One more busting and I would be out first. Made it to the break intact with about 50k out of the 700k in play. Loads of paparazzi came in and took photos of Doyle.

DaMatrix with Doyle Brunson

Soon after the break, I found AKs UTG+1 and pushed all-in, The Sicilian, thinking I was making a move before the blinds gobbled me up, called off his short stack all-in with A3s. When the board double paired, I thought we had split with our ace kicker - hadn't noticed I'd actually made a flush!

The Sicilian - the only player not busted by Doyle

Matthew was next out when he went all in UTG with A7s and Doyle gambled from the BB with 62. Sixes and deuces had been hitting the flop frequently during the game and Doyle's gamble paid off when he hit trip sixes.

4 handed, I found A2 and pushed all in. Doyle called one again, with A8s, but luckily I hit a deuce to survive.

noodleboy

Noodleboy was out third when he tried to steal Doyle Big Blind with Q7s. I thought he must have had a big hand to attempt such a foolish thing but Doyle read his man right and put him all in with A8. Even though a Q hit the flop, Doyle made a straight on the river.

I was really looking forward to a heads-up between Doyle and I. Three handed, when Sheperd went all in UTG (AJo), I had him covered by 5k. In the SB I found T2s. I just had to call his underaise with the Brunson! Doyle though, raised my last 5k all-in with 82 to try and knock both of us out. His 82 flopped 2 pair and Doyle won the tourney.

Incidently, if Doyle hadn't called I would have been heads-up with him with a 3-1 chip disadvantage which would have been interesting - maybe I should have asked Doyle not to call so that one of us could have a heads-up with him... but I found though that Doyle is a ruthless poker player and takes almost every opportunity to try to bust someone out with any hand.

It was really fitting for Doyle to win, especially on his birthday. He kindly donated the prize money to a cancer charity to cap off a brilliant day. I was pretty happy with my second place and played as well as I could considering I didn't get dealt a single pair all day.

Final Results:

1. Doyle Brunson
2. DaMatrix
3. Sheperd
4. noodleboy
5. Matthew Norman
6. The Sicilian

Each of the losers received a signed hard back copy of Doyle Brunson's Super System 2. My message said, "May the flop be with you!".

Hendon Mob League: Game 6

2005-08-09T15:21:00.000Z

After over two months since Game 5, the Hendon Mob Poker League's Game 6 finally kicks off tonight.

Got off to a great start, 2500 starting chips, 25/25 blinds. I had AA in the BB, UTG makes a bet, folded round to me, I raise to over 1k and he reraises all in, I call. His AK needed a heart on the river for a flush that doesn't materialize and I am chip leader with 5,000 chips.

The river isn't so kind the next hand I play. Still level one. The table is tight, so I limp in with 83s looking to hit a flop. Criamulus two to my left makes it 100. I call 75 looking to take his whole stack.

Flop is Td8d3. I bet over half the pot, since I put him on an over pair, and he re-raises to about 400. I double his bet and he calls. Now I am sure that I am ahead and trips are unlikely when the turn is a 4. First to act, I raise him all-in I am happy with taking the pot (since he probably has an 18% change of hitting the river) or getting called.

Criamulus interprets my all-in as being weak (intended, but it also protects my hand) and calls off all his chips with JJ but hits one of his 8 outs when another 4 arrives!!!

If that didn't suck enough, blinds 75/150, I am short stacked with K7s in the BB, Belly-Buster in late position raises it to 600. Putting him on a steal I go all-in looking to double up. He hits a straight with T9o though!

I finish 40th out of 55 mobsters. Hopefully I'll get my own back next week, in Game 7.

See the Hendon Mob League Top 10 Players.

DaMatrix v Doyle Brunson: Warm Up

2005-08-08T14:08:00.000Z

Having decided that my friend Joe will be accompanying me and playing in the Doyle Brunson match to be shown on The Poker Channel, the final 6 player table (sixpac) tournament line up will be:

Doyle Brunson
Mike Tindall (All-Star Poker Challenge Champ & Rugby player)
DaMatrix
Joe "The Sicilian"
Sheperd
noodleboy

To prepare for the match, we made our first trip to The Broadway Casino in Birmingham so that Joe could experience his first live No-Limit poker tournament.

The tournament was a £20 Rebuy & Add-on with an excellent structure and skilled staff and dealers. I made it to the end of the rebuy period with over 10k in chips from the starting 1k without any rebuys. Joe needed a few rebuys to get to grips with the whole experience especially since he was being a little unlucky. Adding on at the end of the break, he only had just over 2k in chips. After some motivational talk from DaMatrix though, Joe returned to the table ready to play like a beast! His luck was about to change...

During the freezeout section, everything was going according to plan, we were down to just 2 tables, I was picking up small pots waiting like a tiger in the bushes ready to go for the kill and Joe was doubling up every other hand. Joe had parlayed his 2k into over 20k with a mixture of skill and luck, when I was dealt AA UTG with blinds at 400/800. The action in this level had been fast, so limping in was the obvious decision as I was 100% sure there would be a pre-flop raise.

Sure enough, UTG+1 (who has me slighly covered) raised to about 4k - everyone folds back round to me and I ponder how I can get the rest of my 9k in and get called. Do I flat call and then push all in on the flop or just reraise all in preflop? I opt for option B and reraise all-in, making it over 6k to him to call. He does just that and flips over AJo! I turn over AA and someone half-heartedly accuses me of doing a "Trumper" for taking about 20 seconds to re-raise all-in with the pocket rockets pre-flop! Crazy!

Anyway, all my money is in as a big favourite and winning this pot would give me an average final table stack, but the flop brings two Jacks and I am out. :(

Meanwhile Joe is making some great Sicilian poker moves and busting people out left right and centre getting to the final table as the chip leader with over 70k out of the 200k in play.

Another break, and some more DaMatrix coaching, regarding deals and playing strategy and Joe is ready to go. I expect him to finish in the top 3 and after some deal making collect about £1k (since there is £3k prize money distributed in the top 3 places).

The final table starts of playing tight, the short stacks are holding on trying to move up the prize ladder. Meanwhile, Joe is trying to knockout the small stacks with the worst of it but doesn't manage to get lucky. His stack is decreasing, but he is still on target for a top 3 finish in his first live tournament.

After a long final table session, we do finally manage to get to 3-way play. Joe has just slightly less than the second largest chip stack. The chip leader has a big lead. A deal is struck, and the chip leader receives £1,300, the remaing player and Joe both receive nearly £900. There is a £300 seat left to play for, and the first hand after the deal Joe calls an all-in by the chip leader with AJo. The chip leader though, with KTo, manages to hit a ten on the river and Joe officially finishes 3rd.

A great comeback from the first break and a fantastic result in his first tournament! Many thanks to The Broadway Casino for running an excellent tournament. Doyle Brunson here we come!

A World of Poker Broadway Casino Review

The Broadway Casino Membership Form (pdf)

DaMatrix v Doyle Brunson: Preview

2005-08-07T00:08:00.000Z

That's right! I will be taking on the living legend of poker, Doyle Brunson, in central London on the 10th of August to be shown on The Poker Channel. As well as, Doyle Brunson, Mike “Junkyard Dog” Tindall (World Champion Rugby player), fresh from his All-Star Poker Challenge win, will also be at the 6 player table.

I qualified by placing in a $30 satellite on Poker Heaven on Thursday 4th August. We made a deal 3-way since I had 50% of the chips and the other two had 25% each. I took a seat and "Sheperd" and "noodleboy" decided to go together since each package winner can take a friend.

Satellite Results

The satellite was pretty tough. Among the 24 other starters were mobsters/blondites "The_Brief" and "londongirl". A player that stood out was "Carpe1". He was playing textbook no-limit tournament poker and kept putting pressure on my blinds. I nearly made a stand with A rag on his 3rd steal attempt but felt the situation wasn't right. Next orbit though I came over the top all-in with T8o and after a long pause Carpe1 folded. Phew!

My stack was below average pretty much thoughout the entire tournament. I patiently waited to get to a full final table from short handed 2 tables out. At the final table, I set about doubling up a few times to 20k chips. Unlike day 1 of the VC Poker Cup 2005, here I was making the right moves to stay ahead from getting eaten up by the blinds and I also survived a few coin flips.

The key hand that secured my seat was when I got dealt TT and flopped a set, the river was a death card - giving me a full house and my opponent the nut flush. That double up took me to over 20k and then the deal was made.

The next night, after watching Tony Bloom win the VC Poker Cup, I saw Gus Hansen outside the Grosvenor Victoria Casino where the European Poker Championship £5k main event was taking place. He wasn't looking too happy after being turned away for not wearing a collar. As he was wandering about Edgware Road looking lost, I managed to catch up with him to ask him if he had any tips for playing against Doyle. Gus just said, "Play good!".

Poker Heaven Promotion details:

"Fancy playing at the same table as two-time World Series of Poker Champion, Doyle 'Texas Dolly' Brunson?

Poker Heaven has teamed up with The Poker Channel to give two lucky qualifiers, and two of their friends, the chance to take on the Godfather of Poker in front of the TV cameras.

The game will take place in London and will give a total of four qualifiers the opportunity to learn from a man that has been there, done it and got 10 WSOP bracelets to show for it!

Oh, and we forgot to mention, there is also a first prize of £1000 up for grabs!"

"The Poker Channel is the world’s first digital TV channel dedicated to poker and is the home of quality gambling entertainment.

Launched on Sky on the 23rd of March 2005, The Poker Channel is broadcasting 24hrs/day to initially 7.3m UK homes.

The channel embodies the culture, lifestyle and attitude of poker fans worldwide and offers a one-stop shop for UK poker fans, providing the highest quality poker television coverage, including live tournaments, educational and documentary programming, editorial and magazine style shows, and live “play along” games.

The channel focuses on providing more live coverage of major poker tournaments and will televise the first ever live tournament heats, bringing the viewer closer to the excitement and thrill of poker.

The Poker Channel is available to all Sky subscribers, as a free to air channel, and is located under the Entertainment section Channel Number 265. "

DB v DM: Coming soon to a television near you!

Jump to DaMatrix v Doyle Brunson: Warm Up

VC Poker Cup 2005

2005-08-06T13:44:00.000Z

Victor Chandler and Ken Doherty (Photo courtesy of VC)

VC Poker Cup 2005: Day 5 - Final Table

2005-08-05T14:10:00.000Z

Final Table Line-Up and Starting Chips/Odds

Seat 1 - Xyuen "Bad Girl" Pham - 136,000 (6/1)

Seat 2 - Kevin "Lovejoy" O'leary - 73,000 (8/1)

Seat 3 - Tony "The Lizard" Bloom - 317,000 (5/4)

Seat 4 - Rolf Inge Kavik - 254,000 (5/1)

Seat 5 - Ben Roberts - 210,000 (4/1)

Seat 6 - Jan Sjavik - 210,000 (4/1)

At stake, £200,000 and the VC Poker Cup

Xyuen "Bad Girl" Pham was out first collecting £16,000. Kevin "Lovejoy" O'leary finished 5th winning £25,000. Next out, Jan Sjavik for £35,000.

Ben Roberts, finished 3rd for £50,000

Heads-Up action

(from left)Thomas Kremser, Ben Roberts and Jan Sjavik look on

More Heads-Up

Final hand, all the chips are in on the turn, Tony needs a Ten or Jack to win the cup.

Tony Bloom won the VC Poker Cup 2005 after coming back from less than 200k chips against Rolf Inge Kavik's 1 million plus stack.

River win

Victor Chandler presents Tony Bloom with a cheque for £200k

QT is the cup winner

The new VC Poker Cup champion, Tony Bloom with Maxim King of Poker, DaMatrix!

The Hendon Mob Poker Database: VC Poker Cup 2005 Results

VC Poker Cup 2005: Day 4 - Semi Finals

2005-08-04T14:09:00.000Z

2 tables of 6, top 3 from each table carry forward their chip stack to the final table of 6.

SEMI FINAL RESULTS:

Table 1

Saet1 - Rolf Inge Kavik - 254k

Seat 2 - Stuart Fox - out in 6th position

Seat 3 - Xyuen "Bad Girl" Pham - 136k

Seat 4 - John Kabbaj - out in 4th position

Seat 5 - Ben Roberts - 210k

Seat 6 - Lee Nelson - out in 5th position

Bad "Good" Girl in Round 1

Table 2

Seat 1 Tony Bloom - 317k

Seat 2 - Jan Sjavik - 210k

Seat 3 - Thomas Gundersen - out in 4th position

Seat 4 - Robert Cooper - out in 5th position

Seat 5 - Richard Holmes - out in 6th position

Seat 6 - Kevin "Lovejoy" O'leary ( VC Poker online qualifier) - 73k

Lovejoy in Round 1

Jump to VC Poker Cup 2005: Day 5 - Final Table

VC Poker Cup 2005: Day 3

2005-08-03T14:07:00.000Z

Final day of qualifying. First out was Devilfish (on TV table) knocked out by Andreas Hagen, other exits included Mel Judah, Marcel Luske, Surinder Sunar, Ken Doherty, Garry Bush and Victor Chandler.

AK no good against KK

Some of the other players in action today:

Martin de Knijff

Ken Lennaard

Surinder Sunar and Marcel Luske

The 4 eventual qualifiers were: Martin de Knijff, John Kabbaj, Kevin O'Leary and Richard Holmes.

Jump to VC Poker Cup 2005: Day 4 - Semi Finals

VC Poker Cup 2005: Day 2

2005-08-02T14:07:00.000Z

Day 2 is about to begin, I talked to Marcel Luske and Noah Boeken at the hotel reception, Noah is playing today. Bullitpete (Pete Haslem) and The Daddy (Tony Palester) from VC Poker are also playing today.

Bad Girl (far left!)

Qualifiers to the semi final included Xuyen “Bad Girl” Pham, Tony Bloom (beat Teddy Sheringham heads up on the TV table), Lee Nelson and Ben Roberts (Harry Demetriou out).

Tony Bloom

This year's presenter is once again James Richardson - top chap!

Jump to VC Poker Cup 2005: Day 3

VC Poker Cup 2005: Day 1

2005-08-01T14:05:00.000Z

Stuart Fox won the featured TV table on Day 1 beating Tino Lechnik heads up. The other 3 qualifiers were: Thomas Gunderson, Robert Cooper and Rolf Inge Kavik from my table. I came 5th on Table 3 after my QJo lost to Darrell "Gigabet" Dicken's 55:

Rolf Inge Kavik

Day 1 Table 3:

I was drawn in Seat 7 on Table 3 and would have Jon Shoreman to my left and Rolf Inge Kavik on my right for the duration of the match.

I won the first pot when my second pair improved to the nut straight on the river and I was called all the way down by Shoreman. Soon, I limped UTG with 55, one other limper and the blinds see the flop. I flop a seat, checked to me, bet the min and everyone folds. I pick up AA in early position and raise 2.25XBB - every one folds. Blinds 50/100, I pick up 55 again, this time I open raise to 3xBB in late position. BB calls. J high flop, BB checks, I bet over half the pot, he calls. Turn is a 5. BB checks, I check. River is another Jack giving me a full house. This time, BB comes out betting 500 and I reraise to 1500 - he calls. I am up to over 12k and making steady progress.

Just before the first break though, blinds 75/150, I open raise to 450 with KK. CO calls. I'm heads up out of position. Flop is 3 clubs, Q/J high, I go for a check raise but he just checks behind me, Turn is a harmless looking 7. I lead out with a bet now and plan to go all-in if reraised. He just calls. Turn is another blank. I double my previous bet and he just calls again to show a set of 7s! I am back down to 8,000. No problem since the next level is still only 100/200.

After the break I get the worst run of cards and no spots for making a move especially since most pots were raised preflop and I might as well have been dealt one card - that's how poor my hole cards were. 200/400: Rolf Inge Kavik UTG limped, I limped with AJ, Darrell "Gigabet" Dicken on the Button raises to 3xBB and one of the blinds went all in for over 10k. Rolf Inge Kavik folds, I fold, but Gigabet calls with 77. Its KK against 77. Last time the Cowboys lost. 3 blanks on the flop, and Ace on the turn but a 7 on the river meant that the Irishman from Dublin was out.

My stack was decreasing and decreasing. Technically, I should have made a couple of moves way earlier but fealt that I had time to be patient especially since Rolf Inge Kavik wasn't attacking my big blind. In a way, I had to be since there was at least 2/3 people with better cards preflop every hand. At the second break, I only had about 5% of the chips in play. Eventually I pushed my short stack all in with 33 (the only other pair after that KK I lost with) on the button but nobody called, BB showed a deuce. Next orbit, UTG went all in, I had AQ on the button, I called all-in and doubled up against his A8o. Back in the game slightly, but 5 handed I was still in trouble.

An interesting pot when Rolf Inge Kavik, on the button, just limped in after looking like he was gonna raise. I complete on the SB with A3o looking to hit an ace. Shoreman checks the BB. Flop is 2 spades, I check, Shoreman goes all-in on a flush draw, Rolf Inge Kavik calls with KK and they finally hold up on this table. That was a key pot for the Rolf Inge Kavik who doubled up there as he then went on to win the table! But where was the ace on the flop!!!! Grrrrrr.....

600/1200: Meanwhile, I was still in trouble as going all-in would give someone 2-1 to call. In the CO, I push my stack in with AJs and win the blinds. Shoreman says he folded AT. When the BB hits me I have QJ. Darrell "Gigabet" Dicken on the Button open raises me pretty much all-in, I'll be getting 2-1 so this is the time for a bit of luck. Alas, Gigabet hits a set of 5s (about the 4th time that pocket 5s had hit a set) on the flop and I have 2 cards to hit a gutshot that doesn't arrive.

Rolf Inge Kavik went on to win the table.

Walk of Shame

Jump to VC Poker Cup 2005: Day 2

VC Poker Cup 2005: Press Release

2005-08-01T11:43:00.000Z

Britain’s top poker playing celebrities are heading down to Teddington Studios this week to do battle with world’s best professional players for a share of the £500,000 prize pool on offer at the 2005 VC Poker Cup.

Taking place between 1-5 August, the 2005 VC Poker Cup will feature big name celebrities including colourful racing pundit John McCririck, Celebrity Love Island star Michael Greco, football legends Teddy Sheringham, Tony Cascarino and Richard Hughes together with former World Snooker Champion, Ken Doherty.

Bookmaking legend Victor Chandler will also be playing following a successful 2004 event which saw him knock out Marcel Luske, one of the world’s foremost professional players.

“The VC Poker Cup is a truly great event for all poker players” said Victor Chandler, “I really enjoyed playing in last year’s event and am looking forward to taking on some of the biggest names in the game again this year.”

Now in it’s second the year the VCPoker Cup is again set to take the Poker world by storm. Instantly hailed by players and media alike as a breakthrough in televised poker, the 2004 tournament produced some of the finest poker ever seen on UK soil before Londoner Harry Demetriou prevailed to take the £250,000 first prize.

This year’s tournament will be shown as a series of 7x1 hour programmes on Sky Sports starting this September.

Teddy Sheringham, John McCririck and Michael Greco (Photo courtesy of VC)

Jump to VC Poker Cup 2005: Day 1

VC Poker Cup 2005: The Draw

2005-07-26T15:29:00.000Z

The draw for the VC Poker Cup 2005 has been made. I will be playing on Day 1: Monday 1st August.

A reduction in numbers from the original 124 planned to 96 confirmed means that there will be 12 tables of 8 now, with the semi final being 2 tables of 6. Players' table and seat allocation will be redrawn before the start of play on each day. Some names also in the Day 1 draw mix include Gus Hansen, David Benyamine, Rob Hollink, Scott Fischman, Jon Shoreman and Tony G.

Full draw will be posted below. Incomplete draw details:

DAY 1

Table 1: Rob Hollink, David Benyamine, Stuart Fox, Tino Lenchik Tony G....

Table 2: ....., ......, ......, ........, ........., ......., Robert Cooper and Steve Vladar

Table 3: ....., ......, Darrell "Gigabet" Dicken, ....., ......, Rolf Inge Kavik, DaMatrix and Jon Shoreman

Table 4: Scott Fischman, Gus Hansen, .....

DAY 2

TV Table: Marbella Kid, Sean Murphy, Tony Bloom, Teddy Sheringham,

Table 1: Tony Palester, Harry Demetriou, Michael Greco, Ben Roberts, ......, Brian Wilson.

Table 3: Bad Girl, David Colclough, John McCririck,....

Bad Girl

Table: Noah Boeken, Simon Trumper, ....., ....., Lee Nelson

DAY 3

TV Table: John Kabbaj, Devilfish, Ken Doherty, Garry Bush, ...., Andreas Hagen, ..... and ..

Table: Martin De Knijff, Jan Sjavik, Phillipa ....., Surinder Sunar, Marcel Luske, Mel Judah, .... and ......

Day 3 Table

Table: Kevin O'Leary, ....

Kevin O'Leary (centre)

Table: ........, Ken Lennaard, Victor Chander ...., Richard Holmes

Victor Chandler (wearing spectacles)

Jump to VC Poker Cup 2005: Press Release

VC Poker Cup 2005: Preview

2005-07-21T14:11:00.000Z

The VC Poker Cup 2005 kicks off on the 1st of August. I played in last year's £5,000 Victor Poker Cup 2004 double shootout tournament after qualifying for just £5 in a VC Poker satellite on my first attempt. This year, I qualified for free after winning the Maxim King of Poker.

Information below is from the VC Poker Cup 2005 microsite (updated here after a decrease in runners):

Format
This years event will feature twelve qualifying tables of eight players, with the winner of each progressing to the second round. The second round will consist of two tables of 6, the final 3 players on each carrying forward their stack to the final table.

Schedule
1st August: Tables 1-4 played to a conclusion

2nd August: Tables 5-8 played to a conclusion

3rd August: Tables 9-12 played to a conclusion

4th August: 2 Semi Final tables of 6 players, top 3 go through.

5th August: Final table.

The start time of each days play will be mid-afternoon to allow for a pre-midnight finish.

Player numbers
96 players contested the 2005 VC Poker Cup.

Buy-in
The buy-in for the 2005 VC Poker Cup is £5,000 sterling. There are no entry fees or administrative charges.

The draw
Table and seat allocation for the qualifying stages will be made via a free, random draw prior to the event. The draw for the semi final tables will take place prior to play on the 4th August.

Payout structure (to be updated after reduction in participants)
In addition to the following anticipated cash prizes, the top three finishers in the 2005 VC Poker Cup will receive free entry to the 2006 event. This entry will be for a minimum value of £5,000.

1st £200,000
2nd £100,000
3rd £50,000
4th £35,000
5th £25,000
6th £16,000
7th £11,000
8th £11,000
9th £9,000
10th £9,000
11th £7,000
12th £7,000

Television Coverage:
The 2005 VC Poker Cup will be broadcast around the world to an audience of millions, building upon the success of last year's programme.

This year's tournament will be shown as a series of 7 x 1 hour programmes on a major UK satellite station this autumn. This ten-part format will allow for a greater amount of poker shown together with the use of interviews, talking heads and pen portraits to build player profile and support. Negotiations with a range of other international broadcasters are ongoing.

Two tables each night will be identified as featured tables, and will be filmed in their entirety. Other tables will be filmed by roving cameramen to capture key events.

The number of players at each table has also been reduced to eight to ensure that each player receives greater TV coverage.

Jump to VC Poker Cup 2005: Draw

WSOP 2005 Results

2005-07-16T17:00:00.000Z

1 Joseph Hachem $7,500,000

2 Steven Dannenmann $4,250,000

3 John Barch $2,500,000

4 Aaron Kanter $2,000,000

5 Andrew Black $1,750,000

6 Scott Lazar $1,500,000

7 Daniel Bergsdorf $1,300,000

8 Brad Kondracki $1,150,000

9 Mike Matusow $1,000,000

Full WSOP 2005 Event results: Hendon Mob Database: 36th World Series of Poker (WSOP) 2005

Seeing Red

2005-07-11T10:02:00.000Z

Went to the British Grand Prix yesterday. It was one hell of a hot day and 100,000 people had made it to Silverstone for a brilliant day of racing.

Up since 7am, after only having slept 5 hours, nearly 10 hours in the sun was almost too much for DaMatrix to handle if it wasn't for my PokerStars cap!

Returning from Silverstone sunburt, sore and sleepy - I was in perfect condition for some poker! Had been blinded off in the Bet365 Poker monthly $30k Freeroll but got back in time to play the 32Red Poker London 2012 Freeroll in which I finished 5th out of 429. Was chip leader with 6 left, but a bad beat against the second largest chip stack crippled me, otherwise a victory would have been a formality ;)

Paradise Poker: A - Z

2005-07-09T13:44:00.000Z

The A-Z of Who's Who on Paradise Poker

Following my "A-Z of Who's Who on PokerStars" (newly updated!), here are some Paradise Poker players:

AlexisPayton - John Cook
cman69 - Sunny Camper
divingduck - Matthew Englander
GASBOY - Jack Eachus
Gorpos - Gordon Posner
Haligon - Josh Ewing
j_zman - Jason Zimmerman
jmljml - John McLaughlin
JOEYTHEB - Joseph Brooks
Jules5533 - Julian Jiggins
Len99 - Matt Lenton
money11b - Jason Ball
muchaka - Corey Cheresnick
Musky_Andy - Andy Goepfert
NSXT2 - Todd Arnold
omalley - Thomas Madsen
papamoon - Randy Barrett/Ronald Heater/Mehrdad Yousefzadeh
paushter - Evan Paushter
poker ho - Mark Kroon
Riddick18 - Johnathan Cuevas
Rockrigo - Paul Rodrigues
roundabout11 - Michael Finnigan
Shakhtoor2 - Samir Shakhtoor
slappybug - David Arnold
THE BORT - Robert Bortner

Pic of the Day

2005-07-06T16:53:00.000Z

Luck of the Irish

2005-07-03T15:49:00.000Z

Paddy Power Poker pissed me off today!

Opened an account a couple of days ago and I've had nothing but trouble since day one. First I couldn't enable a real money account - so I had to phone them up. Then I had to register new card and had to send a couple of emails before I could do that. The promo code that was due to expire that day had already lapsed. So anyway, I deposited a little whilst a waited for them to give out a new promo code. Played in my first MTT and finished 2nd. Lots of Irish players playing - no wonder I nearly won it ;)

Today, I decided to play some ring games to work off the bonus I managed to get. Everything was going all right; I was up, the bonus was almost unlocked and was looking forward to playing in a tournament later. Then, suddenly, I couldn't access the cashier!

So had to stop my session and figure out what was wrong. Got an email from them saying they couldn't verify my address so they froze my account. Great! It was only after several emails and hours later that, as I type this, they finally unfroze it.

In the meantime, I've been on tilt at other websites playing like a muppet on steroids with a craving for nicotine. I'll just have to finish off the wagering for the bonus and withdraw I guess - I've gone off the Irish.

I login to do just that but all my money has disappeared from my account! More emails...FFS! This BS is almost as bad as Virgin Poker. Here's the explanation they gave me a day later:

"On very rare occasions, money gets stuck in the network, and it has to manually unstuck."

They finally managed to sort it out and I got my money back. Went to the tables and tripled it in about one hour. Problem is that you have to wait about 3 days before you can withdraw any profit... grrrr!

If you're looking for somewhere simple to deposit your hard earned money head straight for Party Poker. Existing accounts are entiled to 20% reload bonus using BONUSJUL til Wednesday 6th of July. That's where Paddy's money is going.

Luck O' the Irish!

July Poker Car

2005-07-01T13:52:00.000Z

Won $300k online this year?

Withdraw and buy the new Porsche Carrera 4S for £70,000. If I win the VC Poker Cup next month I might just get one! ;)

MSN Cars - First Drive: Porsche 911 Carrera 4S

bet365poker: Promotion

2005-06-28T08:56:00.000Z

"July’s the hottest month of the year at bet365poker!

It’s freeroll frenzy once again but with even more winners!

Due to the popularity of the ‘Great May Giveaway’, bet365poker are back with a brand new promotion during July. On each of the five Saturdays in the month, customers will be invited to play in a $20k freeroll tournament. There will be no raked hands requirement, no buy-ins and no catches! And if that wasn’t enough already, they’re paying out right down to 1000th place for each tournament.

That’s right, you can be a WINNER just by making the top 1000!!!

The first $20K freeroll tournament takes place on Saturday 2nd July at 8.00pm BST and customers can enter from midday, Thursday 30th June. Availability will be on a first-come, first-served basis with each tournament limited to a maximum of 10,000 people. It’s sure to be a hot month at bet365poker in July."

Maxim King of Poker 2005

2005-06-23T11:10:00.000Z

Maxim King of Poker: Report

2005-06-22T23:59:00.000Z

What a buzz! I just won my first live tourney to become the first ever Maxim King of Poker! I haven't got a clue where to start, but if you've read the Preface, you may know that I wasn't expecting to play...

I had tried to qualify for the final for about 4 months on Maxim's skin of VC Poker and my brother was lucky enough to qualify before me. Lucky because he's a fish! When it got to the actual day of the tournament I had still not received any confirmation that I would be able to play.

A surprising last minute turn of events, a couple of no shows, and I was given the go ahead to play. Destiny?

My brother, Gattopardo, was drawn on Mel Lofthouse's table. He deviated from my advise a little bit by playing more marginal hands than instructed but nobody could fault him when he busted out with AA to J3 that flopped trips.

Gattopardo, ?? and Mel Lofthouse.

This was my night though. I was in the zone and played almost perfect poker. Folding A9s shorthanded to a hunch that was proved right when AT won the pot, folding AQs to an open raise from the table chip leader short handed, calling an all in flop bet with ace high on a read that my opponent was semi bluffing, value betting the calling stations, winning 50/50s against smaller stacks, winning with Aces, stealing from the button and semi bluffing.

My opponents were getting DaMatrixed and I am not exaggerating! From the 63 players that started I got to the final table with about twice the average stack size. I tried to open deal negotations since it was a winner take all final (a package worth well over £10,000) but nobody was interested. I wasn't that worried and tightend up even more waiting for the short stacks to get knocked out so that deal making would be easier.

Before I knew it, we were down to 3 players and managed to seal a deal of winner paying £1k to both runner-up and third place finisher. The chip leader agreed after some resistance. With the tournament directors increasing the blinds more rapidly to ensure a timely finish it had become a crap shoot and I felt that hedging was required as there was not much room to outplay my opponents.

Nevertheless, after Mick Helliet was knocked out in 3rd place, I felt I had a great chance to win the tournament against my somewhat inexperienced opponent, "Dan Arama", who had a bigger stack. He showed me a stone cold bluff with 42 when the board was a three flush and I had checked out of position. Soon, again, when I checked out of position acting first on the flop he went all in.

So when I checked K2o in the BB after Dan Arama had limped in on the button and I flopped trips you know what was coming... I checked and waited for him to go all-in. To my surprise he checked and the turn was a queen. I was 99% sure that if I checked he would go all-in and sure enough he did! I called and my trips beat his pair of queens. For me, that was the hand of the tournament.

Kings were, fittingly, the theme of this King of Poker final. With huge blinds of 7k and 15k with 1k antes and me having started the hand before posting blinds with a 83k versus Dan Arama's 77k, when I looked down to find KQo my only move was to go all-in. As soon as Dan said call I knew I was behind probably to an ace - it was worse, he flipped over QQ!

I felt a King would come though, it was that kind of night where I couldn't put a foot wrong. After 3 blanks on the flop, the turn was a King and I was crowned the King of Poker!!!

Nikki Sanderson ready to crown DaMatrix aka DaGodfather.

What did I win?

1. £5,000 Cash (£3,000 after deal)

2. A £5,000 seat at the VC poker cup

3. A trip to the US to attend a Maxim US party

4. VIP entry to a Maxim UK party

5. A trip to a Maxim girl shoot

6. A digital camera

7. Poker game set

8. EA game

9. £20 HMV voucher

10. King of shaves gift set

11. Free case of beer

12. Maxim & Inside Edge subscription

Saturday Summary

2005-06-18T09:15:00.000Z

Played in Hollywood Poker's $22 + $2 WSOP Celebrity Shootout that commenced Saturday 7pm BST. I used player points to buy-in, so essentially this was a freeroll for me.

674 players started. Nearly out half way through when my 88 all-in was called by A9s. 9 on the turn but a Jack on the river gave me a straight. There were $100 bounties on the celebs taking part. I only came across one at my table during the tourney, Noah Emmerich, but didn't knock him out. Vince Van Patten and James Woods were also playing but they didn't get very far. Eventually I finished just out of the money but inside the top 100.

Bob Goen outlasted all the celebs taking part and for his achievement he won a WSOP seat. The winner of the tournament, Emir1982, also got a WSOP seat on top of the $2.7k for 1st place.

In the Bet365 Poker's $5K freeroll I finished 4089/4189 when my AA got cracked by A7s.

Finished in the money, 3/9, in Clay Knight's Festival Event 2, stud hi/lo.

Finally, 5/140 in Bugsys Club WSOP Round 2, just missing out on a Round 3 Ticket :(

Round 2 Results

Maxim King of Poker: Preface

2005-06-14T12:44:00.000Z

I will be going to the Maxim (in association with VC Poker) King of Poker Tournament Final on Wednesday 22nd June 2005 at Pacha, London. But guess what? I won't be going to play - I'll be cheering my brother aka Gattopardo ("The Leopard").

After getting coached by yours truly, DaMatrix, his super-aggressive style has led to some impressive results. None more so than beating 170 other players in a weekly final to qualify for the KOP Final.

I'm still trying to find out if I qualified as one of the monthly movers. In March, when I attempted to be, I placed (top 27) in 31/54 tournaments with fields of 100-200, winning 2 of them. Didn't do so well in the Weekly finals during that month because I was playing aggressive to go for the win and gain a seat in the final - didn't know that the points system was biased towards doing well in these. Despite sending various email to try and find out the scoring algorithm I never got a reply...

What's at stake in the final:

GRAND FINAL PRIZE
• 2005 VC POKER CUP
• SPENDING MONEY - A £5,000 cash bonus
• MAXIM SHOOT - A trip to a Maxim girl shoot
• MAXIM PARTY - VIP entry to a Maxim UK party and Maxim US party, including all flights and accommodation.

Look out for the Maxim King of Poker Trip Report...

Q9s

2005-06-13T12:52:00.000Z

Game: No Limit Hold 'em
Stakes: $0.50/$1 Blinds ($0.25 Minimum Chip)

Seat 1 : DaMatrix starts with $318.50
Seat 2 : paul69 starts with $35
Seat 3 : Mongo starts with $76.50
Seat 4 : HOLDEEEZ starts with $223.75
Seat 5 : GARYaus starts with $94.50
Seat 6 : Gianfry starts with $0
Seat 7 : Sugarkings starts with $12
Seat 8 : andy p starts with $162.25
Seat 9 : emc2cronic starts with $43.50
Seat 10 : puppyfoot starts with $88.25
Seat 2 : paul69 has the dealer button
Mongo posts the small blind $0.50
HOLDEEEZ posts the big blind $1

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

GARYaus calls $1
Sugarkings folds
andy p raises $3.50 to $4.50
emc2cronic folds
puppyfoot folds
DaMatrix folds
paul69 raises $3.50 to $8
Mongo folds
HOLDEEEZ folds
GARYaus calls $7
andy p calls $3.50

***DEALING FLOP*** [ 9d Th 9h ]

GARYaus bets $25.50
andy p raises $128.75 to $154.25 and is all-in
paul69 calls $27 and is all-in
GARYaus calls $61 and is all-in
andy p takes back $67.75

***DEALING TURN*** [ Qh ]

***DEALING RIVER***[ Qs ]

andy p cards were Kh Ks
paul69 cards were Kc Kd
GARYaus cards were 9c Qc

GARYaus wins $119 with a full house, queens full of nines
GARYaus wins $103.50 with a full house, queens full of nines

andy p: lol q9
DaMatrix: wow had TT

***SUMMARY***
Hand Ended: Monday June 13th 7:27:28 AM CDT 2005
Total Pot: $222.50 ($3 rake)
Board: [ 9d Th 9h Qh Qs ]

Seat 1 : DaMatrix did not bet, folded pre-flop
Seat 2 : paul69 (button) lost $35, showed hand [ Kc Kd ]
Seat 3 : Mongo (small blind) lost $0.50, folded pre-flop
Seat 4 : HOLDEEEZ (big blind) lost $1, folded pre-flop
Seat 5 : GARYaus bet $94.50, won $222.50, net +$128, showed hand [ 9c Qc ]
Seat 6 : Gianfry did not bet
Seat 7 : Sugarkings did not bet, folded pre-flop
Seat 8 : andy p lost $94.50, showed hand [ Kh Ks ]
Seat 9 : emc2cronic did not bet, folded pre-flop
Seat 10 : puppyfoot did not bet, folded pre-flop

PokerRoom $300 + $20 WSOP Qualifier

2005-06-12T08:07:00.000Z

I qualified for the PokerRoom $300+$20 WSOP qualifier by placing in 1 out of 2 Stage 1 WSOP qualifiers ($6) and then placing in the subsequent $44 Stage 2 Qualifier on my 1st attempt. So for $12 I had a decent shot (45/1) at qualifying for this years WSOP main event with Team PokerRoom on a package worth $13,500.

The tournament started at 11pm Saturday, but finished well into Sunday, 4am BST. 265 players entered, for a total prizepool of $79,500 - 1st to 5th: WSOP seats.

Starting chips were 2500. For the first 30 minutes I miss every flop and I am down to 2150. Couple of trash hands later and after UTG limps, I limp in the CO with 66 flopping a set. UTG bets the K high 2-flush flop and I reraise. He calls. Turn is blank. Check, pot bet (all-in), call. My set beats his pair of kings and I have doubled up.

Just before the 1st break and the blinds still relatively low, I am in EP2 with 77. UTG does a min raise and straightaway I put him on AA/KK because up to now he had been playing the best poker IMO at the table. Despite this something tells me to call, but in the end I decide to muck with 8 people yet to act. Flop is 97X all diamonds. BB check raises UTG all-in who calls with, surprise surprise: KK. No more diamonds and the cowboys hold up - I would have won a big pot there!

BREAK 1 STATS:

54th out of 207 remaining of 265. Me: 3.9k, Av: 3.2k, CL: 8.2K.

Get no hands again for the next 30 minutes, then make a stand by calling the Button's second consecutive all-in on my BB with 77. He shows KQs, but my pair hit a set on the flop and I win. That was it for that hour, no cards, guy on my right constantly raising and showing down big hands.

BREAK 2 STATS:

75th out of 90 remaining of 265. Me: 3.3k, Av: 7.3k, CL: 31K.

I'd been at the same table since the start and seen AA, KK and QQ left, right and in front of me. But somehow, they had avoided me for over 2 hours! I felt that they would me mine soon, especially since my best hands had been going up progressively: 77/88/99/JJ...

Alas, I only pick up AQ and go all-in, nobody calls. Good cos I didn't fancy a race. One orbit later and I get 33 in MP3. Desperate and knowing that I am taking a big risk with 4 people left to act I go all-in trying to win 900 with my 3k. Cut-Off isolates me and I am left hoping for a race situation. Unfortunately, he turns over 88 and I finish disappointed after 2 and a half hours - especially since QQ, KK and AA were waiting for me just around the corner!

Results.

PokerRoom WSOP Package Winners: croywhale, dogg30, georgivt, jamie0331 and minjita.

****

Played in the Noble Poker $52 + $5 WSOP qualifier after at 2am BST. It started with only 155 players but it was a winner take all: a WSOP Package. The late starting time, faster structure, worse players, ZERO hands and blogging the Virgin and PokerRoom games, meant that I was hardly going to win. Finished 54th/155. Down to 16 after less than 2hrs, the eventual Noble Poker WSOP Package Winner was FuzzyBear40.

Congrats to all the winners!!!

Virgin Poker: £4K Added

2005-06-11T23:34:00.000Z

Got an email from Virgin Poker telling me about this £4K added tourney. Buy-in £40 + £4.

Now, I know I suggested uninstalling Virgin Poker (wish I did; read my Review: Virgin Games Poker) - but being such a nice guy I decided to give them another shot, but only because 120-ish players would begin and top 20 paid.

The actual buy-in was not even £44 as advertised, but £35+£3.5! Virgin Poker need to sort themselves out.

The Tournament:

122 Started, top 20 paid, £8,270 prize pool, £2,439.66 for 1st place.

I began 3 to the right of londonpokergirl aka Mel Lofthouse The general standard of play at the table was about average if not poor. I was seeing as many cheap flops as possible. From the starting 2,000 chips I was down to 1,700 when I limped again. I had 66 in early position, quite a few other limpers and I flop a set. I led out knowing at least one of them would call me or even raise me. I get one caller, turn makes the board kind of scary but, nevertheless, I bet about 3/4 of the pot. My opponent calls again. River pairs the board, so I lead out with a decent bet with my full house. He doubles my bet, so I know he's got at least trips if not the possible str8. I reraise my remaining few chips all in, he calls and doubles me up with his rivered trips.

So far so good, I've got over 3,300 chips and I'm in a top 20 chip position. With the blinds at 50/100, there's an early position raiser that makes it 350, one caller (EggMaster) and then I reraise half my stack with KK. The initial raiser folds, but the cold caller calls yet again leaving himself with 3 BBs! I know I have him crushed especially with a J high board. He checks with his remaining few chips and I bet him all in. He calls and shows A6! Turn BLANK. River ACE!

Shortly after, I get booted from the software by a "Virgin Upgrader Error". I log in and then 2 minutes later the same thing happens and I have to restart the software probably missing pocket Aces in the meantime. WTF is that error all about? It's not the first time it has occured - read the Review: Virgin Games Poker. I'm pretty sure it someone at Virgin Poker pressing a button and ejecting me from their stupid poker room.

Level goes up and I'm down to 6BBs when I pick up 44 on the button. Open raise 3xBB but the SB goes all in, I call and his ATo beats my PP. Chip and a chair. Forced all in by the BB with A2 which turns into a full house by the river - wish I had chips because the SB had AK...

Next hand, I get AT in the SB and I push my short stack all-in 4 handed but get beat by JTs which flops a flush. I finish a lowly 71/122.

The winner was trojan1 (£2.4k) who beat Offthehook (£1.3k).

Results.

Will not be returning to Virgin Poker even if they added a million. £4k? Bah! The only thing I'd play on there is freerolls...lol

Party Poker WSOP New Player Freeroll

2005-06-10T09:23:00.000Z

Party Poker are hosting a WSOP New Player Freeroll on June 12, 14:15 EST (7:15pm BST).

New players need to make their first real money deposit before Sunday June 12th, 12:00 EST (5pm BST) to be able to register before the freeroll deadline at 14:05 EST (7:05pm BST).

Register by going to:

>Party Poker>Tournaments>Special>ID 360304.

Top 3 places win a WSOP package worth $13,500. Less than 300 registered so far. Good luck.

Prima $200 Freeroll

2005-06-09T14:44:00.000Z

Results.

Played a handfull of 5,000+ runner freerolls lately to test out different strategies. Placed in the top 50 a couple of times and today I actually won one and had to come out of my little blogging break to tell you about it!

I got to the last 100 without too much trouble and was patiently waiting for a good spot. Finally, UTG and very short stacked I picked up QQ and tripled up. Then AA, JJ and QQ all in a row, winning every pot at showdown. This propelled me to the top 20 rank.

Maintained my stack til it actually got to the last 2/3 tables. Got KK in early position and raised half my stack enough to put the BB almost all in. He goes all in and turns over AA but luckily I hit a K on the flop.

This gave me a final table stack where I'd never witnessed so many bad beats, out draws and flukes. I benefited when I rased the BB from the SB with A5 and he put me all in with A6. I had to call but managed to flop trips.

My final table strategy was to keep my stack size level til 4/3 handed and then outplay my opponents. I got to the 3 handed stage at quite a big disadvantage with only 800k chips and the other 2 players at about 2 million each.

Won a few small pots, other guy got knocked out and was heads up with a 3:1 disadvantage which I almost reversed when I won a big pot by bluffing the river with 8 high.

From here I wasn't gonna waste any time and put him all in with QJ he called with A rag and doubled up. Finally, I got 33, raised and he went all in with overcards, I flopped a set and it was all over!

Whoever wins this year's WSOP main event will have to be very lucky.

*****

Later that day I also finished 2/255 in the Stan James Poker Freeroll Grand Prix. The prize for 1st place was a $2,500 home entertainment system. Congrats to BlindBurt who played great at the final table building a big stack and beating me easily heads-up with his 10:1 chip advantage.

Finally, just now, I finished 7/255 at Poker Host to qualify for their WPT Weekly Final Freeroll.

June Poker Car

2005-06-03T11:36:00.000Z

Just won a big poker tournament?

Pick up a Ferrari 360 Spider for the summer at just over £100,000.

Top Gear Gallery: Ferrari 360 Spider

WHUPC 2005

2005-05-26T22:59:00.000Z

Go to The Mob Poker Database: WHUPC 2005 Festival Results

Hendon Mob League: Game 5

2005-05-26T22:44:00.000Z

Today is the Hendon Mob Poker League's Game 5. My odds have been slashed from 66/1 to win Game 4 to 33/1 to win Game 5 today. Don't see why, as I haven't come close to winning a game yet.

Gonna be tougher now but my aim is to be top of the league after this game. Unfortunately, that is not going to happen as I am already out 34/54. Moved my short stack all in from the SB with ATs but the BB woke up with AKo. Two of my suit on the flop but no further help ensured I went for an early bath :( - It seemed that everyone that came back from Barca did the same lol.

Played pretty shit and went against my instincts a few times. Was also playing 2 other prima type software tables and watching another, and I was surprised that I couldn't keep up with the action - must be because I haven't multitabled/played online poker for 2 weeks but they seemed very fast.

Anyway, I'm still in the other two tournaments trying to get something out of them...

Finished 16/266 in the Stan James Lout Bout Freeroll and in the top 50 out of 4872 in the Ladbrokes Cruise Mania Freeroll.

That's it until the next HMF League game, I've decided to take a little break from this. In the meantime I have added a "Trip Reports" section on the right below the clock.

Good luck all.

Hendon Mob League: Game 5 Results.

Hendon Mob League Top 10 Players

WHUPC: Final

2005-05-24T23:57:00.000Z

Simon Nowab LOST TO Peter Gunnarson

€100,000 (winner) Peter Gunnarson

€50,000 (runner-up) Simon Nowab

€20,000 (semi-finalists) John Falconer, Dave Colclough

€10,000 (quarter-finalists) Pascal Perrault, Andreas Hagen, David Leigh, Peter Abela

€3,250 (last 16) Stephen Pearce, Simon Trumper, Raul Paez Corral, Jamie Sharrat, Jac Arama, Frej Rutenskold, Jin Cai Lin, Paul Jackson.

Last year's winner, Angel Blanco, ready to hand over the trophy to Peter Gunnarson.

Go to The Mob Poker Database Results

WHUPC: 1/4 Finals & 1/2 Finals

2005-05-21T23:55:00.000Z

Quarter Final results:

Quarter Final 1A:
Pascal Perrault LOST TO Peter Gunnarson

Quarter Final 1B:
Dave Colclough BEAT Andreas Hagan

Quarter Final 2A:
David Leigh LOST TO John Falconer

Quarter Final 2B:

Simon Nowab BEAT Peter Abela

Semi Final 1:

Peter Gunnarson BEAT Dave Colclough

Semi Final 2:

Simon Nowab BEAT John Falconer

Jump to Final

WHUPC: €500 + €40 NLHE Freezeout

2005-05-20T23:58:00.000Z

After getting two backers for this event (40% Joe "The Elegance" Beevers & 10% Abhey "The Doc") I made up the rest and entered the €500 freezeout.

The Doc - Poker Faced!

Players were allowed to register for the tournaments up to 90 minutes into it, and by the time I had decided to play we were nearly at the end of level 2 (30/60 blinds). By that time of course some people had already amassed a considerable stack and sure enough I was drawn to a table that was being bullied by a big stack. That was okay though, as most of the players had about the same or less than the 3,000 starting chips I had just sat down with.

I won the first hand I got after sitting down when I raised in late position and only the blinds called. When I bet the flop they both folded. I think the table got the impression that I was playing loose!

I played my second hand in level 3 (50/100 blinds). Jim "Celtic Tiger" Britton was in the Big Blind. I was under the gun and raised to 300 with AA. Ilari Sahamies in EP2 calls and everyone else folds. The flop was 755 with two clubs. I bet about the pot but EP2 raises. I put him on an over pair (88-JJ) or flush draw and reraise all in trying to get all the money in before any scare card comes. He calls with 63 of clubs for a gutshot straight flush draw which misses when runner runner Queens hit.

Phew! I thought I would get busted after only playing 5 minutes and 2 hands! The next hand I play is AK in mid position, the big stack makes a standard raise to 300 in EP. Feeling confident and with a 6,000 stack, I re-raise to 1,000 to isolate him and he calls. Flop was QTx, he checks and instead of betting I try to hit an Ace, King or Jack. The turn is another blank, and when he checks again, I bet 1,000 to try to pick the pot up. He calls and the blank river is checked out again. He takes the pot with JJ.

I am back down to 4,000 and a few blinds later at 70/140 I get JJ under the gun. The short stacks have been going all in, so I limp in expecting one of the short stacks in late position to move in allowing me to make a move. The plan works, I limp and its folded to a short stack on the button who moves all in, the blinds fold and I call easily to beat his 75o.

With me knocking two people out and the big stack doing his fair share of busting, our table is very short handed. We do a draw for a seat at other tables and I am moved to Noah "Exclusive" Boeken's immediate right and one from Dave "The Devilfish" Ulliott's left. I have about 5,000 chips and most of the players have a similar stack.

The blinds are at 150/300, when I get KK in mid position. After an early limper I raise it to about 1300 but everybody folds and I pick up 750. I pick up a couple of small pots, Devilfish is then busted out when his small stack is picked off with JJ versus Dave's KTs. We get to the break, and I have exactly 7,500 chips.

Free buffet later, and the blinds still at 150/300 but now with a 30 ante, I get AK in the small blind. There's an under the gun limper, everyone folds to me. With about 1050 in the pot I make a pot bet and Noah in the BB says, "Are you raising me or him? (refering to the UTG limper). I said, "Both!". I would have preferred to win the pot preflop, but Noah's loose call induces another call by the UTG.

The pot is now about 4000 and I have 6000-ish left. The flop comes AcJc4. I bet out trying to win the pot right there, Noah folds but the UTG who has me covered goes all in. And I call with 13/3 expecting him to turn over A2-AQ/flush draw. He has A4o, the turn and river don't help me and I am out in 75th-ish/180+.

Twice!

I would have probably played that hand differently online, but in hindsight, since the antes had just been introduced I should have probably raised more/limped because I´d noticed quite a few people loose calling to see a flop. Nevertheless, I was playing my premium hands strongly and was going for a top finish rather than just sneak into a money place. The UTG limper must not have read me for an Ace...why else would he call?

Alright, he could have been a fish (limping in with A4 UTG and then calling a pot raise would suggest that lol), and Noah's call kind of gave him good odds in position. If he had just flopped an ace without pairing his kicker, I'm sure he would have made the same move.

I still enjoyed the tournament very much and learnt a lot. Thanks to JoeB for sharing a large chunk of the risk, pity I couldn't get the reward :(

Go to The Mob Poker Database: €500 NLHE Results

Jump to Quarters & Semis

WHUPC: Round 3 & Round 4

2005-05-20T22:51:00.000Z

Round 3 Results

BRACKET 1:
Ivo Donev LOST TO Pascal Perrault
Dave Ulliot LOST TO Stephen Pearce
Simon Trumper BEAT Martin Cedercrantz
Peter Gunnarson BEAT Mickey Wernick

BRACKET 2:
Dave Colclough BEAT Juan Sastre
Raul Paez Corral BEAT Barny Boatman
Richardo Gryko LOST TO Jamie Sharrat
Manuel Garcia LOST TO Andreas Hagan

BRACKET3:
Derek Baxter LOST TO David Leigh
Hans Eskilsson LOST TO Jac Arama
Isabelle Mercier LOST TO Frej Rutenskold
Chen Guosen LOST TO John Falconer

BRACKET4:
Jin Cai Lin BEAT Cui Guogun
Peter Abela BEAT Jatinder Singh
Zhang Luzhe LOST TO Paul Jackson
Simon Nowab BEAT Rory Liffey

Round 4 Results

BRACKET 1:
Pascal Perrault BEAT Stephen Pearce

Peter Gunnarson BEAT Simon Trumper

BRACKET 2:
Dave Colclough BEAT Raul Paez Corral

Jamie Sharrat (above) LOST TO Andreas Hagan

BRACKET3:

Jac Arama LOST TO David Leigh
Frej Rutenskold LOST TO John Falconer

BRACKET4:
Jin Cai Lin LOST TO Peter Abela
Paul Jackson LOST TO Simon Nowab

Jump to 500 NLHE

WHUPC: Round 2 matches & results

2005-05-19T23:39:00.000Z

BRACKET 1:
Angel Blanco LOST TO Ivo Donev
Pascal Perrault LOST TO Roy Brindley
Carlos Muntan BEAT Dave Ulliott
Stephen Pearce BEAT Daniel Larsson
Albert Ashanki LOST TO Simon Trumper

Ross Boatman LOST TO Martin Cedercrantz
Peter Gunnarson BEAT Paul Hersleth
John Kabbaj LOST TO Mickey Wernick

BRACKET 2:
Dave Colclough BEAT Noah Boeken
Josep Talens LOST TO Juan Sastre
Raul Paez Corral BEAT Alexander Kravchenko
John Huckle LOST TO Barny Boatman
Woody Deck LOST TO Richardo Gryko
Jim Britton LOST TO Jamie Sharrat
Manuel Garcia BEAT Dan Simcelescu

Andreas Hagan BEAT Mathias Wilkens

BRACKET3:
Derek Baxter BEAT David Slowik
David Leigh BEAT Rino Mathis
Hans Eskilsson BEAT Gary Collins
Michael Keiner LOST TO Jac Arama

Isabelle Mercier BEAT Peter Eichardt
Frej Rutenskold BEAT Bengt Sonnert
Chen Guosen BEAT Padraig Parkinson
John Falconer BEAT Anthony Lelouche

BRACKET4:
Bruno Fitoussi LOST TO Jin Cai Lin
Cui Guogun BEAT Ali Osman
Peter Abela BEAT Julian Thew
Jatinder Singh BEAT Robert Binelli
Mark MacMahon LOST TO Zhang Luzhe
Bill Edler LOST TO Paul Jackson
Mattias Backstrom LOST TO Simon Nowab
Mark Foster LOST TO Rory Liffey

Jump to Round 3 & 4

WHUPC: DaMatrix v David Leigh

2005-05-18T23:29:00.000Z

DaMatrix v David Leigh

I lost my Round 1 match today to David Leigh, representing the University Poker League, who I have to admit was favourite to win before the deck was opened as you will soon realise.

On Monday I met Mathias Wilkens who, like me, was also representing Stans Poker. Later that night after the draw, we arranged to have a heads up match. Using the same structure as the championship, we had a great game and exchanged ideas. We even swapped a couple of %s.

I ended up winning after checking my pocket aces in the BB preflop. The K high flop with 2 diamonds was checked and when the turn was the 5 of diamonds, I bet out about the size of the pot. Mathias called and the river now made 4-straight on the board too, I bet the same as I did on the turn but Mathias reraised all in giving me a tough decision with a 3-flush and one card to a straight the only hands I could beat were one pair or a stone cold bluff.

I told him that I wasn't folding yet, but I was turning my cards over to show him what a tough decision I had. After his initial reaction to my pocket aces, I studied him a little bit longer before eventually calling. He turned over A5!

The next day after breakfast at the hotel, we had a rematch to prepare for his match later that day. I think he raised to 3xBB preflop and I called with 62 flopping trips. I bet out, he raised, and then I reraised him all in. He called thinking I was on a bluff and my set improved further still to quads. Carlo Citrone was watching us play and he challenged the winner to play him. I won the first game and then I had a big lead in the second game but as I aggressively tried to bust him he doubled up 2 or 3 times before eventually winning. We left it as a draw as his match against Daniel Larsson was starting in about a hour.

Carlo Citrone

After the first two Round 1 brackets on Tuesday which saw Mathias Wilkens beat fellow Prima Poker qualifier Henry Bull and Carlo Citrone unfortunately lose to Daniel Larsson who won a crucial pot after rivering trips, the Prima Poker team had a chance to sit and talk with The Hendon Mob. Soon, Devilfish arrived and started cracking jokes and giving some good heads up advise. Winning against Mathias twice, having 2 great games and discussions with Carlo and generally listening to Hendon Mob and Devilfish, I felt a massive pressure on me to win. I had planned to reread Zen and the Art of Poker to detach myself but instead went out drinking til 5am!

Yeah that's right. Me and 2 other Floridian Prima Poker players went "3 deep" around Barca. It was a night of debauchery - alcohol, chicas, vomit, pimps, drug dealers, piss, trannies, scum, pole dancers, six pack street sellers, geordie slappers, dangerous side streets, whores, Devilfish with an umbrella in a night club, dodgy taxi drivers, brummies, pick pockets, mad Russians - and at the end of it all we got a bucket of icy water thrown all over us and no surprise that one of the americans lost is passport. You should have seen me walk into the hotel at 5am looking like my bladder had just exploded....

STD dealer in Las Ramblas checks for the nuts...

You could say that my preparation for the match was thrown out of the window and before the match I had effectively abandoned my game plan. In fact, I had no game plan left. I didn't even know who David Leigh was - a short search led to think that he was a journalist for the Guardian! On the other hand I knew that he had a lot of info on me from this site but I felt that most of the heads up info was misinformation when related to the WHUPC structure and the practice matches I had played. Nevertheless, heads up, you need every edge (just ask Simon "The Edge" Nowab) you can get to overcome the luck component and on Wednesday I had none.

Despite all this, and to further emphasize the nature of high level heads up - it all came down to a coin flip after 90 minutes which if I had won instead of being rivered - I would have had the confidence to feel favourite (even with only 30% chips) after finally gaining focus just after the first break.

When the match started I was feeling very nervous and losing the first 3 hands didn't help. The quality of hands I was received was well below par. In 90 minutes, I got dealt JJ, AQ, 77 and 88 and the best hand I hit on the flop with all the other cards I was dealt was just top pair/bad kicker.

I tried to pick up pots with junk but most of the time David Leigh would reraise or call and then bet. Aware that on a few occassions he might have been bluffing with the best hand. If I was sharper I might have re-rebluffed, but with me being already down to 2/3k and generally having no outs to a decent hand if called, the risk was too much.

Up to the first break, I won a pot with a bet on the flop with JJ overpair, AQ standard button raise. Some stabs with Ten high and 5 high and hitting 2 pair on the river with weak hands after receiving free cards.

Just before the end of level 1 break, I got dealt 77 in the BB. David Leigh raised from the button and I almost moved in but still having a couple of chips left I decided to call and then probably move all in if no ace flopped as on a similar hand before we'd checked it out to the river and he showed AQ versus my A9.

Unfortunatelly the flop was 44A rainbow, I checked and David made a very small bet - I called as I was suspicious. The turn was an 8 and there was now 2 clubs on the flop. Again I checked and David bet 1/3 of my stack. This was a clever bet as it was small compared to the pot but one that would severely cripple me. It left me with a tough decision as I really wanted to steal that pot and give myself a good chance after the break but David never looked like he would fold from start to finish. So I mucked my hand face up and when I was to return from the break I'd have to play jam or fold. David Leigh later told me at the bar after the match that he had AK.

After the break, my first all in with Ace rag wasn't called, then I almost went all in with K7 but flat called instead. He raised a little and I seriously considered moving in but mucked and dodged bullets.

Finally, David raised from the button and I looked down to find a pair of eights. This was it. ALL-IN! The call to him was enough to fold if he felt he was dominated but he called correctly with his KQ. The flop was ATx, turn another blank but the river brought the paint he needed to win the match.

Las Shamblas...

Jump to Round 2

WHUPC: Round 1

2005-05-18T23:00:00.000Z

Complete Round 1 Results

BRACKET 1:
Angel Blanco BEAT Jonathan Sullivan
Ivo Donev BEAT Carlos Lopez
Pascal Perrault BEAT Rumit Somaya
Roy Brindley BEAT Luke Smith
Carlos Muntan BEAT Xuyen Pham
Dave Ulliott BEAT Alex Leviev
Boudet Patrice LOST TO Stephen Pearce
Carlo Citrone LOST TO Daniel Larsson
Luca Pagano LOST TO Albert Ashamn
Charles Mailhot LOST TO Simon Trumper
Martin Cedercrantz BEAT Jean Postmus
Ram Vaswani (below) LOST TO Ross Boatman
Frank Blumlein LOST TO Peter Gunnarson (above)
Paul Hersleth BEAT Tom Brady
John Kabbaj BEAT Marco Monica
Mickey Wernick BEAT Michael Hewitt

BRACKET 2:
Mark Bannin LOST TO Dave Colclough
Paul Zimber LOST TO Noah Boeken
Josep Talens BEAT Bruce Atkinson
Juan Sastre BEAT Makus Lehman
Raul Paez Corral BEAT Ben Battle
Alexander Kravchenko BEAT Vladimir Troyanovsky
Willie Tan LOST TO John Huckle
Phil Shaw LOST TO Barny Boatman
Woody Deck BEAT Sargon Ruya
Mark Bartlog LOST TO Richardo Gryko
Jim Britton BEAT Pouya Majd
Colin Gerrard LOST TO Jamie Sharrat
Nicu Simcelescu LOST TO Manuel Garcia
Dan Simcelescu BEAT Dave Gardner

Mathias Wilkens BEAT Henry Bull
Andreas Hagan BEAT Peter Troejborg

BRACKET3:
Rob Hollink LOST TO Derek Baxter
David Slowik BEAT Daniel Steine
David Leigh BEAT DaMatrix
Rino Mathis BEAT Jeff Kimbler
Paul King LOST TO Hans Eskilsson
Gary Collins BEAT Ben Grundy
Chris Sokrati LOST TO Michael Keiner
Sean MacMahon LOST TO Jac Arama
Christian Engblom LOST TO Peter Eichardt
Isabelle Mercier BEAT Steve Vladar
Brian Benedon LOST TO Frej Rutenskold
Howard Plant LOST TO Bengt Sonnert
Santiago Terrazas LOST TO Chen Guosen
Padraig Parkinson BEAT Joe Beevers
John Falconer BEAT Kevin O'Connel
Anthony Lelouche BEAT Romain Feriolo

BRACKET4:
Bruno Fitoussi BEAT Santiago Planas
Jin Cai Lin BEAT Erik Forsberg
Cui Guogun BEAT John Cunningham
Gary Chatterton LOST TO Ali Osman
Peter Abela BEAT Rosa Massimiliano
Julian Thew BEAT Per-Werner Svenson
Jatinder Singh BEAT Paul Gamhart
Robert Binelli BEAT David Mahmood
Jim Goodwin LOST TO Mark MacMahon
Zhang Luzhe BEAT Chris Evans
Bill Edler BEAT Michael Thuretz
Paul Jackson BEAT Maurice O'Connor
Lothar Landauer LOST TO Mattias Backstrom
Simon Nowab BEAT Khayam Ezzat
Mark Foster BEAT Kate Szeremeta
Rory Liffey BEAT Andrew Kinsmann

Jump to DaMatrix v David Leigh

WHUPC: The Draw

2005-05-16T23:55:00.000Z

May 16 - 24, May 2005

Hello all from Barcelona! Updating you from Hotel Marina. Later today is the draw for the heads up tournament.

Last night I checked out the Casino Barcelona where the Party Poker WHUP Championship will be held. The first person I met there was Rolf "Ace" Slotboom, I introduced myself and we chatted for a bit. There were a few games of poker going on; some 20/40 LHE and 5/10 PLO. The Omaha game seemed the most interesting as there were some people playing really trash hands - but what do I know? Omaha high isn't really my game - yet! ;)

A couple of TV screens were showing re-runs from last year's WHUPC. I have to say that it looks easier on the telly than it really is. Having said that, I believe that even someone who loses in Round 1 would have had a significant chance to win in the final. Luck plays an important in heads-up - whether it is getting good cards, hitting flops or drawing out. It's the deciding factor between 2 opponents of similar skill.

128 Players, 4 brackets, 7 Rounds, the draw for the Championship:

BRACKET 1:

Angel Blanco v Jonathan Sullivan

Ivo Donev v Carlos Lopez

Pascal Perrault v Rumit Somaya

Roy Brindley v Luke Smith

Carlos Muntan v Xuyen Pham

Dave Ulliott v Alex Leviev

Boudet Patrice v Stephen Pearce

Carlo Citrone v Daniel Larsson

Luca Pagano v Albert Ashamn

Charles Mailhot v Simon Trumper

Martin Cedercrantz v Jean Postmus

Ross Boatman v Ram Vaswani

Peter Gunnardon v Frank Blumlein

Paul Hersleth v Tom Brady

John Kabbaj v Marco Monica

Mickey Wernick V Michael Hewitt

BRACKET 2:

Mark Bannin v Dave Colclough

Paul Zimber v Noah Boeken

Josep Talens v Bruce Atkinson

Juan Sastre v Makus Lehman

Raul Paez Corral v Ben Battle

Alexander Kravchenko v Vladimir Troyanovsky

Willie Tan v John Huckle

Phil Shaw v Barny Boatman

Woody Deck v Sargon Ruya

Mark Bartlog v Richardo Gryco

Jim Britton v Pouya Majd

Colin Gerrard v Jamie Sharrat

Nicu Simcelescu v Manuel Garcia

Dan Simcelescu v Dave Gardner

Mathias Wilkens v Henry Bull

Andreas Hagan v Peter Troejborg

BRACKET3:

Rob Hollink v Derek Baxter

David Slowik v Daniel Steine

David Leigh v DaMatrix

Rino Mathis v Jeff Kimbler

Paul King v Hans Eskilsson

Gary Collins v Ben Grundy

Chris Sokrati v Michael Keiner

Sean MacMahon v Jac Arama

Christian Engblom v Peter Eichardt

Isabelle Mercier v Steve Vladar

Brian Benedon v Frej Rutenskold

Howard Plant v Bengt Sonnert

Santiago Terrazas v Chen Guosen

Padraig Parkinson v Joe Beevers

John Falconer v Kevin O'Connel

Anthony Lelouche v Romain Feriolo

BRACKET4:

Bruno Fitoussi v Santiago Planas

Jin Cai Lin v Erik Forsberg

Cui Guogun v John Cunningham

Gary Chatterton v Ali Osman

Peter Abela v Rosa Massimiliano

Julian Thew v Per-Werner Svenson

Jatinder Singh v Paul Gamhart

Robert Binelli v David Mahmood

Jim Goodwin v Mark MacMahon

Zhang Luzhe v Chris Evans

Bill Edler v Michael Thuretz

Paul Jackson v Maurice O'Connor

Lothar Landauer v Mattias Backstrom

Simon Nowab v Khayam Ezzat

Mark Foster v Kate Szeremeta

Rory Liffey v Andrew Kinsmann

Jump to Round 1

I, Rounder?

2005-05-10T23:53:00.000Z

Found $2 in my Crazy Poker Prima skin account a couple of days ago and decided that I would play one of those TV broadcast tables.

The lowest buyin is $2+$0.50. So I sat down in a low limit game for a hit&run and first hand I get is AA. They held up and I've now got the buy in for the TV sit&go.

Then I noticed the Rounders tournaments - 5 Rounds, first place $3k, so instead of playing the TV s&g I try to build the $5+$0.50 for Round 1.

Firstly, I win a $1+0.20 heads up match, I then take my $3 to a PLO8B low limit table and build it up to the $5.50 there.

Time for the Rounders Round 1. Played a patient game and picked the right spots to double up. Eventually winning (1st out of 8) to qualify for:

Round 2, a $27.5 s&g with 10 players. Top 2 qualify for Round 3, 3rd place gets another Round 2 entry.

In Round 2 I was dealt absolutely nothing until TT in early position with 7 left. The BB was the short stack, so I make a standard raise, anticipating that he will go all in. Sure enough, the small blind calls my raise, the BB goes all in and I reraise to push out the SB. Ok so far, problem is BB rolls over AA! :(

Next hand and I get AA under the gun. I raise my short stack all in hoping someone thinks I'm steaming. Everybody folds to the BB who calls with A8o and I double up.

Finally, I get AQo in the BB. UTG limps, SB raises pot and I reraise all in. UTG folds but the fish in the small blind who called me with A8o previously, calls me with KTs and knocks me out in 7th when he hits a King.

I, Rounder?

No. My challenge of turning $2 into $3k ends.

**************************

Meanwhile, my FPP Qualifier challenge came to an end, in my 4th attempt I made the last 3 tables in a 1,000 FPP WSOP Freeroll Round 2 at Poker Stars with 249 starting players. Unfortunately, my medium stack was severely crippled when a steal attempt failed and I didn't recover after that. I had been playing fairly tight, I think in the first hour or two I was dealt 62o about 5 times!

Before my failed steal attempt my pots won at showdown was 3/3.

During current Hold'em session you were dealt 208 hands and saw flop:

- 4 out of 25 times while in big blind (16%)

- 2 out of 24 times while in small blind (8%)

- 4 out of 159 times in other positions (2%)

- a total of 10 out of 208 (4%)

Pots won at showdown - 3 of 5 (60%)

Pots won without showdown - 13

So, I was very surprised when my all in (covering both blinds) in late position with K9s was called by the small blind with A4o for all of his stack. Who was it that called me? redrumxxx AKA Morten Sembach.

Other news. Last weekend at Full Tilt Poker, I also finished 14th out of 1496 in their WSOP Freeroll, busting out when I reraised a steal attempt. The thief had J9 but he beat my 99 when a J hit the board.

Finally, hit a Royal Flush today for a profit of over 100BB's- my opponent gave me a free card on the turn to draw to my one out! Sweet ;)

Runner Runner

2005-05-07T20:08:00.000Z

Game: No Limit Hold 'em
Stakes: $0.10/$0.25 Blinds ($0.05 Minimum Chip)

Seat 1 : DaMatrix starts with $49
Seat 2 : mass2500 starts with $15.35
Seat 3 : Lotusman starts with $18
Seat 4 : niupokergod starts with $7.20
Seat 5 : evoltin900 starts with $2.85
Seat 6 : ManosM starts with $9.15
Seat 7 : ForzaRoma starts with $6.45
Seat 8 : smashed starts with $15.40
Seat 9 : low_key005 starts with $5.85
Seat 10 : SyrEEn starts with $4.75
Seat 3 : Lotusman has the dealer button
niupokergod posts the small blind $0.10
evoltin900 posts the big blind $0.25

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

ManosM folds
ForzaRoma raises $0.25 to $0.50
smashed raises $1.35 to $1.85
low_key005 folds
SyrEEn folds
DaMatrix raises $4.55 to $6.40
mass2500 folds
smashed: sorry
Lotusman folds
niupokergod folds
evoltin900 folds
ForzaRoma folds
smashed calls $4.55

***DEALING FLOP*** [ Kh 5h Ks ]

smashed bets $9 and is all-in
DaMatrix calls $9

***DEALING TURN*** [ 6d ]

***DEALING RIVER*** [ 7h ]

smashed cards were 8d 9d
DaMatrix mucks hand

smashed wins $30.10 with a nine high straight

Hendon Mob League: Game 4

2005-05-03T22:13:00.000Z

Good news. I did managed to play and finished 6th out of 59!

It was a game of two halves. In the first half I played like a one eyed lemon - mainly because I had one eye on the Liverpool v Chelsea match!

FIRST HALF

I got a couple of premium hands when the blinds were low but couldn't really do anything despite limping in with them. I should have been out in the 30s but I managed to double my short stack by going all in on the button with Q high despite being called by the BB with a K high hand.

League points are awarded for finishing in the top 20, so concentrated on moving from the 30s, to the 20s and finally into the points positions. Achieving this by carefully picking the right spots to go all in.

When we were down to 2 tables, I managed to double up again after THE_THIEF had made a pot sized bet in early position with 55 and I called in LP with QQ. The football match was almost over, and half time was approaching League Game 4 in the form of a 5 minute break. Just before the break I layed down 55 after THE_THIEF had once again raised in early position enough to put me all in. To be honest, I thought he had an overpair and thats why I didn't call. Nevertheless, I was happy to see what would happen after the break even though he said he had an Ace.

SECOND HALF

I never believed I would make the final table, but the players started to drop one by one... 17, 16, 15, 14, 13, 12. Thanks to Mathias_666 (a fellow Stan's Poker freeroll qualifier to the WHUPC) who came to the table urging me to hang in there ;)

At this point I was forced all in when I posted the BB with 54o and I was sure I was dead meat when three or four people called to check it out. At the same time, the short stack at the other table went all in preflop with AQ but got called and outdrawn. I was very fortunate to avoid the bubble and in the mean time my 54 had made 2 pair on the four flush board! At the showdown I was again surprised when one by one my opponents all mucked - none of them had a single spade for the flush.

So here I was now at the final table and in a good position to move up the ladder and gain some more league points especially since most players are playing for the money rather than the points. The difference betwee the two really isn't that great but when you are a short stack trying to maximise the points you get it helps a lot.

Thats why I folded AJo in mid position. I know that apart from the possibility of better cards being out there, the chances that some stacks could go to war is very high. Especially since big stacks can target medium stacks who are afraid to bust out before a short stack. Sure enough, a battle of the blinds occured, with the small blind all in with 33 vs JJ. The board came down AxJxA and even though I would have won the pot I think I made the right play. I was rewarded the very next hand when I doubled up with JJ against Grumbledook's TT!

I had gained and extra 4 places but my luck finally ran out when once again I was forced all in when I posted the BB with AQs. I thought I would quadruple up when the flop came ten high with 2 of my suit but Grumbledook's AT held up and I finished 6th.

Grumbledook went on to win League Game 4. Well played!

Game 4 Results.

I have now made the final table in 3 consecutive League games.

See the Hendon Mob League Top 10 Players.

Hendon Mob League: Game 4 (Pre-Match)

2005-05-03T16:10:00.000Z

Today is the Hendon Mob League's Game 4. Unsure whether I'll be playing or not due to some broadband connectivity issues because of a faulty telephone line.

Therefore it is probably not wise to back me at 66/1 to win Game 4. Even if I do manage to start the game I could get disconnected at any point.

Expect a full report later today if (touch wood) I manage to play.

May Poker Babe

2005-05-02T17:40:00.000Z

Since I have just opened an account there, this month's poker babe is straight out of Bodog.com.

May Poker Babe.

TFI Friday Round-Up

2005-04-29T15:08:00.000Z

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

2005-04-23T02:25:00.000Z

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