BETFRED CLASSIC

BETFRED CLASSIC

9 May 2008
It was a Saturday night and the tournament was a 200 euro freezout with 86 players.
Each player was given 10,000 starting chips and the blinds started 25/25 with 30 min levels

Level 1
I decided that I want to play this event well, concentrate and be in for the long hall so patience was top of my list. This was a good opportunity to get some practice in before Vegas.
I was playing small pot poker with the table and collecting chips nicely.
After 30 minutes and on the last hand of level 1 I picked up AA under the gun (first to act).
I could tell from the first 30 min at the table that if I limped in this pot that I would probably get 4 or 5 callers and this was not how I wanted to play the hand so I decided to raise 5 x the big blind to 125. I got 1 caller from late position and then the guy in the small blind announced raise. This was like music to my ears and as he was counting out his raise his hands were trembling. This I thought was even better as now I could put him on a big hand AK or KK – 99. He raised to 325 and I thought for a minute before I made it 1625. The other player folded and the small blind just called. Now I could rule out KK QQ and put him on AK, JJ, TT or 99.
At this point the small blind was the chip leader at the table and I was second in chips.
The flop came down 4 8 4 rainbow. Perfect. The small blind announced ALL IN.
I needed no time to think as I pushed my chips into the middle. What could I be losing to that he would bet all in with? 88,44, A4 or 84 and surely with any of these hands he would not come out betting especially all in!
The only time I would have to think about this was if I was playing with pros who could read me for AA and know that I would call them on this flop.
The cards went on there backs and to my amazement I could not have been more wrong. He showed 88 and I was drawing this to 2 outs.
No help from the turn or river and I was out………………………………….

Time to reflect on my play from the side lines and analyze the hand.
Could I have got away from this hand?
Maybe if I limped pre-flop and he didn’t re-raise his 88 pre flop I could have bet the flop and folded to a re-raise but the way this hand was played I was sure he had QQ or JJ. But that’s poker he called of 16% of his stack pre flop to a 5x BB raise UTG and a big re-raise after he raised me with 88.
I want to play in these situations all day but of course you can not win them all.
I asked him later why he moved all in as I am always looking to study players and understand their thinking process. He told me that he thought he had the best hand so he bet.
This answer threw me a little and so I asked him why all in? well he said I didn’t want to get outdrawn!

THE BUILD UP TO VEGAS

Over the next few weeks I will be writing about my build up to this years WSOP
From building my bankroll to the practice tourneys I will be playing.


I had a task 4 weeks ag,o it started as a bet which then became a challenge.

I started on a Thursday night with €50 and my task was to end the weekend Monday 11:30 with €10,000.
Could it be done using only poker?

I like nothing more than a good challenge so I took it. My bet was not big but my odds were. I make silly bets with my friend all the time and this was a hard one as it all depended on my first tourney otherwise the €50 would be gone and I would be out before I had a chance to get going.

Thursday night. €20 rebuy.
I played well and managed no rebuy with just the add on at the end I was on for €40 plus the €5 registration

The prize pool was not big but it was a start if I could win this I would have enough to sit in a cash game.
We got to the last 3 and there was talk of a deal I was chip leader and reclined the offer as I needed the win and more importantly knew I could do it.
Finally we got heads up. The blinds were not to high yet and we had a separate dealer on hand to shuffle 1 deck while the other was in use.
Heads up took nearly 80 minutes as I played small pot poker and was close to the finish line several times but the river kept my opponent in the game.
Finally it was all over I was the winner and with a profit of €200 for 5 hours work nearly this task was looking impossible.
I took the 200 to a cash game doubled up within 45 minutes and headed home for some sleep.
I know most people would go non stop till Monday but this is not the way to go well not for me anyway. I know some good games and some big games and I wanted to be fresh to play in them.

Friday came and I went to my local 2-5 PLO game.
I won 600 in the 4 hours that we play for and was only now chasing 9K. (lol)








This was the weekend that Marbella Casino was hosting their first poker comp and I had arranged a room in the hotel for good cash action as the casino did not have any cash tables.
Friday was not a good night as a lot of the players were playing in the super satellite for the main event but I managed to get some 1 table satellites in for cash as these were allowed.
Between this and some small action late in the night I managed to win 850, bringing my total win to 1850 with 2 days gone.

Saturday was the day I needed to focus.
I woke up went for a run cleared my head and did some mind focusing meditation.
I went to my local PLO game won €2,000 and went straight down to the casino to play in the main event. I was bought into this from a private sponsor agreed ages ago so this saved me €550 but also I had to give a share of my winnings away.
I was playing well card dead for the first 3 levels. I moved table and started accumulating chips I was given present after present and when I was moved table I took a horrific runner, runner beat to leave me short.
Then flopping a set I managed to be in bad shape and it was game over for me and straight up to the cash action as time was running out.
I stayed up playing till 12:00 the next day and only managed to win 600 all night.

Sunday was here and I only had 24hrs to go. I knew the cash games would be good tonight but I needed sleep.
A few hours sleeping in the sun and I was back up ready for action.
Sunday night came quickly and a few more STT while waiting for the cash to start I was already up 500.
The cash game started late but it was a great game. By 5 in the morning I was up like 3K which left me looking for only 2 more.
I persuaded the table to straddle until me on the button and after everyone called it looked like a move as I went all in from the button to get a caller for 1550 with QT was hard to believe. I showed my AA and with the Q high flop and immediate service on the turn I was left just looking.
A few hands later the same thing happened and this time I had KK I was called by KQ and managed to lose to runner, runner again and now needed to reload.
What now I needed to win 5K was I going to make it.
07:00 and with only 5 players reaming with 1 of them drunk beyond drunk falling and 1 other falling asleep between hands it was a funny site. 1 player announced he need to go to work in 30 min and then it seemed the game would stop as his friend was driving.
07:30 came and no one was going anywhere. LOL 08:00 he said I have to go. Well as I am sure you have done yourself before 08:00 turned into 11:00 as he was not wining many hands. I managed to get involved a little and get my self back and in a position to win my bet. At 10:00 I was up in this game nearly 2K and was waiting for 1 big hand.
At 11:00 the game did stop though as the drunken man lost all his chips and the others needed to go to work.


I cashed in €2,550 which bough my weekend total to €7,500.00 profit. Not a bad weekends work but not enough to win the bet.
I must tell you I slept for 2 days after that as I am not as young as I used to be and the long hours at the table were not as easy as they used to be.
I had fun and am going to challenge myself again in the near future when there is a weekend of action to do the same again.

CHIP BUILDING

Does the way you build your chips mean anything?

I dont know about you but while I am sitting ther for hours on end I like to amuse my self when I am in a possition to by building different things with my chips.

Some times I go fot he intimidating towers as on the left, other times I like to make funky designs.

This situation doen not normally arise until at least half way through a tournamnet and that is if you are lucky enough to be one of the chip leaders.

Then the more pots you play the quicker you have to change your design as you will either have less chips if you loose a pot or more to build when you win a pot.

This year at the WSOP in Las Vegas I will take pictures and post of my best builds.

Try it some time it is fun, it kills time and more importantly it makes your oponennt want to beat you even more so that they can destroy you works of art which will put you in a better situation.