The Hats

Well, what can I say. The Hats are like an old rock band called the Beatles. They started up, they were on top of the world, and then, they went there separate ways. They became interested in other things than pop music and more into taking lots of drugs and writing songs about yellow submarines and walruses. In-a-similar-but-when-you-think-about-it-not-so-similar-at-all way, The Hats went into other pursuits, like their studies, video games, sport, getting drunk, working, etc etc, the dream kind of died.

I call for a hat reunion, not that we don't talk to each other anymore but I want to revamp the crew to make it back on top of the poker in the region, which means eliminating those who have lost their love for the game or for being a true balla in general. But I cannot make the decision of reuniting the hats alone. In Melbourne next week, the Hats will ride again!

Also, Ahmad Tamim Yaftali would like to stake a claim as a member of the infamous Five Hats and Shit. I offer this evidence to counterpoint any claims:

Full Tilt Poker Game #11730834238: Table Ernest (6 max) - $0.25/$0.50 - No Limit Hold'em - 11:05:07 ET - 2009/04/17

Seat 1: Peet3D ($109.35)

Seat 2: Teamtacejack ($32.70)

Seat 3: Happy Lucky Me ($49.50)

Seat 4: LaOrtegafr ($43.25)

Seat 5: K7n24 ($20.75)

Seat 6: themisterfister ($117.80)

Peet3D posts the small blind of $0.25

Teamtacejack posts the big blind of $0.50

The button is in seat #6

*** HOLE CARDS ***

Happy Lucky Me folds

LaOrtegafr folds

K7n24 folds

themisterfister folds

Peet3D raises to $1.50

Teamtacejack calls $1

*** FLOP *** [2c Qs 6h]

Peet3D has 15 seconds left to act

Peet3D bets $2

Teamtacejack calls $2

*** TURN *** [2c Qs 6h] [5c]

Peet3D bets $5

Teamtacejack calls $5

*** RIVER *** [2c Qs 6h 5c] [4h]

Peet3D bets $13

Teamtacejack raises to $24.20, and is all in

Peet3D calls $11.20

*** SHOW DOWN ***

Teamtacejack shows [7h 8c] a straight, Eight high

Peet3D mucks

Teamtacejack wins the pot ($62.40) with a straight, Eight high

*** SUMMARY ***

Total pot $65.40 | Rake $3

Board: [2c Qs 6h 5c 4h]

Seat 1: Peet3D (small blind) mucked [Ad As], a pair of Aces

Seat 2: Teamtacejack (big blind) collected ($62.40)

Seat 3: Happy Lucky Me didn't bet (folded)

Seat 4: LaOrtegafr didn't bet (folded)

Seat 5: K7n24 didn't bet (folded)

Seat 6: themisterfister (button) didn't bet (folded)

Winning Freerolls Yay!

Yay I just proved that even good players can win these donkaments:-) $15 4 me

A few thoughts...

This is going to be kind of a downer post, so if you're reading for crazy bad beats or recent success, you better not get your hopes up. Over the last few weeks I've been really considering how much time and energy I devote to poker, but live and online. At the start of the year, as you'll know if you  a) know me; or b) read the blog; I had an absolute blinder of a year at the start of 2008. I turned an investment of maybe $400 into close to $13-14k.  

Now that is sick money, and I know the first thought that comes to mind is "what did you do with the money"? And I want to say mind your own business, but its my blog so I better divulge things. I spent most of my profit on poker. I also went to various places around Australia spending recklessly and I even did some stupid degen gambles at the casino when I was "living the high life." I stayed at hotels that were expensive, just because I could. To be honest, and I'm not going to lie, it was actually great, and I regret very little of it. It was nice feeling rich after growing up not exactly poor but really knowing and noticing every little dollar that was spent. It was nice to just let it all go, have a $60 meal at a restaurant if I wanted, to peel $100 off my stack at the casino and give it to a mate to have fun with, but what did I gain from it?

I guess you could say I learnt to value more things than money, which I guess is true. And I got a lot of good experiences, including trips to Sydney, Melbourne, Canberra, Newcastle etc. where I had a lot of fun times. I don't regret these things. And I don't even regret not having the hefty bank account I once had. 

What I do regret is the feelings that maybe all the people that I argued with about poker being gambling were right. And maybe I'm losing. I was on top for a while, but now I'm down with the plebs looking for my next big score. I've played 30,000 hands on my iPoker bankroll experiment and I'm down around $200 at 20NL. It's kind of demoralising, but moreso, what it tells me is that maybe I'm just not the poker god that I thought I was. Over the last 6 months it's been a real ego check to continually study and analyse my game and realise how many gaping flaws I have. I'd post my Holdem Manager statistics on the site but really they're abysmal. I play a decent solid reg game but I guess I have too many leaks for me to maintain a constant winrate. My goals of being like durrr and CTS are dissipating fast. 

So what should I do? I love the game of poker but lately I feel like a fish. And I know I'm not. I've read a tonne of books, I play a decent aggressive game, I browse 2+2 strat threads, I talk about hands with my mates constantly, and I've really done a lot of ego checking lately. I used to think I was the best player in the region, but now I just feel like some donk who bit off more than he can chew.

Now I know this sounds very self-loathing and depressed, and I just want to clear up that I'm not going to go loco or anything, I'm just having a lot of conflicting feelings about what I want to do with my poker career. I used to think I had a red hot go at giving professional poker playing a go but now while I've been juggling it with other commitments like uni and stuff, it seems like it's a giant hassle. I love the game still but I need to start to break away and get involved in other things i.e. my uni work and the few jobs that I have lined up.

This is the most rambley of all my blogs ever, basically it's because it's 4am, I've had another night of playing poker and getting semi-deep in tourneys for no real outcome, and this is the bubble I played that just sent me over the edge. It's too stressful at the current time, I guess.

Anyway. I'm moving house soon and starting a new job so maybe this will have a positive effect for me, a new lease on life and all that. But for now guys, keep playing, keep reading, keep doing whatever you do that makes you happy I guess. Because I sure as hell am going to try.

Peace

Styles

Teams Event - Close but no cigar

On Sunday most of the Bathurst poker players drove up to Katoomba in the Blue Mountains to take part in the Poker Challenge teams event. We fielded around ten teams including:

Me (Styles) and Benny
Matty P and Sarah
Tamim and Vicky
Mark and Jenny Cowie
Teddy and Jarron
Casper and Jodie

Other locals we play with from Lithgow included Brent and Paz, Di and Kerry (sp), Spyros and Scuba, amongst others. There were 67 teams and every team was allowed a rebuy and add-on. Players started with 4000 in chips, played for 1 hr, then combined stacks and took it round-for-round.

As soon as I'd played 2 hands on my first table, I became aware that the competition was very very soft. Except for a few players I could see, my whole table was full of absolute donks, to put it nicely. I didn't berate them or try to argue with them, but they were saying some of the dumbest poker advice I'd ever heard so I just tried to keep my mouth shut. Some memorable examples:

"Small pockets win a lot more than big pockets."
"I knew he was barkin!" (When I got called down with pocket deuces on an A9496 board and I showed Ks7s for a busted flush)
"I won't call all ins without a good hand." (After calling 2 people's shoves preflop with pocket fives)
"I had to call." (With two red Tens on a QJ4 two spade board.)

But I just sat down and watched. I learned pretty early not to bluff because these guys were playing fucking so terribly and calling so lightly it made my brain bleed. I took a fairly decent sized pot early on when I raised a naked Ace in late position and spiked an Ace on the river after C-betting the K-high flop. I couldn't value bet the river since it brought AKJTx on the board and I figured the Queen could potentially be check raising. However, it was K2 (nice preflop call) who I sucked out on and I ended the first level with around 5250, and Benny had around 6750 giving us the nice neat 12k stack plus we took the addon for 5k and started after the break with blinds 100-200.

After that... it pretty much went quite well. Benny and I had a lot of faith in each other's plays and I saw Benny play the best aggressive poker I've seen out of him (though I've not seen him play tourneys too much). I found it to be very intense to play in the teams-swap structure and I was more nervous watching Benny play than when I played myself. When I was playing I just tuned everything out and listened to the iPod but when I watched Benny play my stack I got more nervous as we got closer to the money.

At one point I caught up to our table and Benny was in a hand against Jodie and the pot was pretty sizeable on the flop. The flop was along the lines of T64 rainbow and Ben bet half our stack into Jodie. I stood behind Jodie and she picked up her cards. I nearly shat myself when I saw she had QQ! I was praying Benny wasn't going to get too attached to JJ or whatever (or that he had KK+), but as I expected her to reraise and Benny to be in a tough spot, she folded? I couldn't wait to ask Benny what he had in that hand because I wanted to tell him he made her lay down the big overpair. He later told me that he put her on QQ and he did in fact have KK.

When I got back in the blinds were fairly big, 500/1000 and the average stack had to be close to 16-17k. We had a good stack of around 28.5k that I built up into 35k just through basic preflop aggression. There were not too many hands of note except a few races we took (mainly 60/40s where we were the 60, our Ax vs KJ etc.) and we definitely won more than our fair share.

Tamim took a big hit with a dominated Ace on an A high flop and he and Vicky were out in 10th. The final table had two Bathurst teams, Jarron and Teddy and Benny and I. There were a tonne of short stacks at the final table with blinds 10k/20k, and Benny had first Final Table shift. He disposed of the shortstacks pretty well, even calling like 3 all ins with Ts4s (a move I wholeheartedly agree with, he had 2 live cards and a chance to bust 3 of the 9 players without risking more than 10% of our stack). When it came my turn to play, we were 5 handed and on the bubble. Teddy was on the shortstack after Jarron's buttonsteal with Kc4c ran into the 77 of the bigblind, but he ground his way back by shoving A9 and beating KQ.

Ted was the bubble boy however, when he shoved QJ and lost to the (new) bigstack's AK. I played about 4 uninteresting hands 4-handed before passing the baton over to Benny who knocked out the lady in 4th. I was disgusted when Benny called her all in and she did the dramatic slowroll, showing one J and peeling the cards to see JJ. My annoyance was abated however when Benny re-slow rolled her showing QQ. We held and moved to 3 handed play. By now the blinds were excruciating and Benny shoved on the button with Q7 and ran into Di's AJ. The 7 hit on a miracle river and we were down to HU.

This is when we offered not a chop; but a payout restructure. The pay was extremely top heavy to meet the $2000 g'teed first prize, so I simply suggested we change the payouts from:

1st: $2000
2nd: $800

to

1st: $1800
2nd: $1000

which IMO is still a little too much for first. However our opponents thought we were trying to chop 50/50 and kept rejecting the deal before we got a chance to explain. So I shrugged and Benny began the HU match with around 300k in chips to their 550k.

Benny played solidly and we saw very few flops. The time for me to tag in came and I was really pumped because Benny was playing by far the better of the two opponents and I figured if I got just a little lucky I could beat this lady heads up. Benny gave me around 380k to work with and before long I had busted it up to 450k without showdown.

On one hand, my opponent limped HU and I checked 78os in the BB. The flop came AK4 rainbow and she immediately led 40k. Easiest spot to raise in the world since an A or a King always raises there, and I made it 120k quickly and confidently, and she folded and I showed my 8 high. This seemed to annoy her, which was of course my objective. I took the chiplead that hand, moving up to 550k.

A few hands later, my biggest mistake of the day came. We had folded blinds back and forth for a while and I decided to open Q6os for a raise to 80k. She said, "ten" and I looked up confused. The lady fumbled with her chips and I asked "Ten what". She looked extremely nervous and couldn't seem to articulate exactly how much she wanted to raise it to. Eventually the dealer claimed it to be a re-raise of 60k. So given that this woman was clearly very nervous I called with the intention to take it away on most flops.

The flop was Jc9s4s. She was first to act and said "ten" again and put in ten 10k chips worth 100,000. I thought for a moment and saw she had left her self with 240,000 behind, and went with my read that she was incredibly weak preflop. I moved all in without hesitating. As I did it, she slumped in her chair and I figured I had the hand worked out fine. After a bit she goes, "OK, I call", and I must have done the exact same slump. I show my pathetic Q6 and she shows the worst possible hand I could see, QsJs, for top pair, flush draw, and dominating kicker. I don't think she realised exactly how strong her hand was here, which is why she played the hand in that fashion, or maybe my reads of weakness just came from the fact that this lady was clearly very nervous playing for this amount of money.

I wrote that hand trying to think of how spewy it must have looked to all my friends (in particularly Benny) but I still stand behind my reasoning. I'm not saying I played the hand well or badly, but I usually trust my instinct and it was just kind of unlucky that my opponent got slapped in the face by the flop. Benny said afterwards that he was fine with how I played it (even though I'm sure he wouldn't have made this move) and although I'm disappointed we didn't win the $2k, I liked how I played overall during the day, a very patient solid game and I was equally impressed with Benny, and also Jarron, Teddy, Tamim and Vicky's performances, all top ten finishers which is a good result for us Bathurst players.

I'm back on my Online grind as well, just a quick update, my $500 roll is down to $430 after around 1.3k hands of 20nl, but I plan to play a lot more than that, plus I have around $25 of rakeback to collect so hopefully when I get in some time I can put in some decent multitabling hours.

I'm also thinking of starting another blog, a personal one that's not related to poker, because I feel I've kind of inundated the Hats blog with too much of my own stuff, when the Hats need to be represented equally in this blog, poker-wise.

I'll link my new blog soon this week, I'm going to be absolutely fucking swamped with uni work but hopefully I can update it in my spare time.

Peace out

Styles

PS! Congratulations to both LaLa (blog link on the right) who went deep in the APL TOC, and of course to Luckyshades (ditto) who came 9th in the Vic Champs main event for $17k!

Hey kidlets

Thought it might be nice to make a little post so it doesnt look like Stylez does all the work:-) Haha funny stuff in orange a couple of fridays ago but Stylez nailed it on the head when he said the APL ( GayPL ) ban might as well be for life. I mean a bit of harmless banter never hurt anyone, except one certain individual and his gigantic bodyguard. Now why should we be punished for their stupidity???
Anyway, moving right along, Stylez has decided to stake me $50 to start a roll playing exclusively HU SnGs. Hopefully there will be plenty of posts coming up with pictures of me rolling in all the plebs money. Till next time PEAS......... and carrots

Update part 2 or "How Styles Got Banned from APL"

Well, I'm sitting here in my room about to go fucking insane because of the lack of sound on my computer. I would just format it because my computer clearly needs it but I'm getting a new computer in like 4 days so I just have to wait it out.... snore. SO I figured I'd keep you campers happy and update the second part of my blog. (On a side note, I just noticed I've been running this blog for over a year. How's that for dedication?)

Online happenings

Well, I was planning on starting my bankroll this weekend but I decided to wait until I get my new computer in a few days and multitable grind on delicious dual monitor goodness. I'm going to be playing on hansapoker.com under the username BWStyles, probably grinding 20NL with occasional shots at 50NL with my 1k BR. I hope to get in 20k hands at 20NL before moving up and making it a full fledged 50NL roll. I need to do this for my own sanity and to prove to myself that I can stick to a bankroll and make consistent money without taking ridiculous gambool shots.

My true goal is to be at 200NL by the end of the year but we'll see how the swings of my bankroll handle that before I consider moving up without at least a roll of 6-7k. My other goal is to be rolled for a preliminary Aussie Millions donkament because I love crown and I'd just love to go to the Millions.

The APL fiasco

Well, it's official. I'm officially banned from the Australian Poker League for... nothing at all. I went down to play the $11 game at the Park yesterday when Craigie informed me that the system wouldn't let me register. So, even though its technically a temp 1-month ban it may as well be lifetime because I've had it with APL's ridiculous tournaments, their blatant misappropriation (ugly word right) of the players' money in prize pools, and their crappy 15minute donk structure (300/600 to 500/1000 to 1000/2000 in the space of half an hour... hmm great tourney there APL) that furthers the gimps' distorted views of themselves that they can indeed play poker and better than most when they get lucky with A9 vs pocket 4s.

Ok enough ranting. Here's how the shenanigans went down. I went over to Orange to play in APL's $1200 first-prize guarantee for the sole reason that since I won the Park Hotel $11 game 2 weeks ago I got a free chipup/addon (worth $22) so I decided to make an appearance and try get lucky ONE TIME.

Before anything started I noticed that pretty much everyone had bought in for double ($44) and that approximately 75% of people added on the extra 3k for $22 extra at the break. At a tournament of roughly 80 runners, one would assume that if the average player spent $50 (taking into account players who had free chip-up cards and those who didnt rebuy) the prize pool would be around the $4,000 mark. However, apparently a guarantee means something different at APL then at other tourneys, because though they guaranteed a prize pool of something like $2750, even if they make over the guarantee, the prize pool stays the same. However, no-one seems to know where the other $1250 goes. I got told in the very first of these APL events that the money would "trickle down" each month so that the prize pool would remain guaranteed for the next game and even increase if the numbers stayed solid.

This was all well and good, but I said at the time (and still say) what about the players who travelled a long way to get to this special hyped up tournament. Players came from Bathurst, Orange, Parkes, Dubbo, Blayney, and even as far as Oberon. They might not be able to make such a long drive each month so why should money go from their pockets to a prize pool they'll have no chance of winning?

There was also the stellar argument that that explanation was, in fact, a lie. The APL I went to the other night (where the bannings occurred) had a prize pool of:

$1200 for first
$500 + poker table for second
$254 third, or something

etc. etc. with the final table all getting at least $100. That is actually a DECREASE in the prize pool from the very first of these chipup/addon games where the first prize was $1500! And I know there was overlay the first time, they had a similar amount of runners and they had a similar amount of rebuys. So where was the money going. Bringing these logical inconsistencies up to Craigie and Boylo who were both hosting the event was probably one of the sparks that made Craigie write me into his report later in the evening that would eventually get me banned from APL. That, and the fact that I work for NPL, I suppose.

Ok, enough ranting again. What happened on the night where I got banned was, I drove out to Orange with Matty, Sarah and Vicky because I had the $22 chip up card that I'd won and I thought fuck it, why waste it even though the tourney is terribad. When we got there we found that the stack size had decreased from 5000 chips per $22 to 3000, basically forcing everyone into the addon. I had a fairly decent stack and chopped at a lot of pots early on, I won't go over any interesting hands because there weren't particularly many, just standard raise pf, c-bet, and either take it down or muck it when the players show strength. No particularly tricky spots. I ended up busting with AK when I shoved PF with 17k and blinds 1k/2k and the button limper, an average weak-tight APL nit, calls with AT and spikes the ten on the flop. (Her explanation: "You bluff too much.") Anyway this isn't a bad beat story post, so movin' on.

I wanted to leave as soon as everyone busted but the twins wanted to watch Sauro (the lone Bathurst representative left) at the final table. So we stayed around for that and Matty and I decided if we were going to be watching these players we'd have a few beers.

It got to Heads-up when I was on my 3rd beer, so I wasn't even tipsy really. I've decided not to name names (though most locals will know what I'm talking about), but a player who normally is quite good natured if a little egocentric at times, was a bit drunk and started lording it up throughout most of the final table. He thought he was Phil F'n Ivey dammit. Singing along with his ipod, claiming he was going to take it all down, he was clearly quite chuffed with himself that he made the final table. Now Sarah and Vicky had been subtly antagonising this guy all night, just pretty much ripping on him, how he was acting, and how he was playing. That's pretty much what the twins do at the table, I think it keeps them amused or something :p.

On one particular heads up hand, the quiet guy who was playing the loud and boisterous player for the $1200 first prize was on the SB and considering what to do with his hand. The loud player said to him, "If you limp in, I'm putting you all in."

The guy considered for a moment and decided to limp in. The loud player immediately shoved. The quiet guy again considered before making a fold. The loud player obnoxiously threw over K4os, saying "I told you I'm going to put you all in. I'm going to bully you every time" (or something to that effect).

Sure enough, a few hands later, with the chipstacks at pretty much even (280,000: 270,000), a chop was offered but declined. The loud player said, "it's fine, I'm going to win the $1300 (?) anyway."

Almost the very next hand, the loud player looks at his hand in the SB, and says, "I'm all in."

The BB looks down at his hand and snap calls, rolling over two red AA. The boisterous SB shows J4, clearly annoyed, but starts rallying about how he can "crack 'em".

The AA holds up (justice?) and Matty yells out, "Go cash in your $1300, [name] !" Now, this is the first thing Matty has said to this guy all night, but because he was probably wound up at the twin girls needling him all night, he just snaps.

"Come say that to me outside you cunt!" He says. We've heard this player make a similar remark at NPL (but not normally this drunk). We begin to laugh and then the player, in drunken bravado, rushes over like he's going to punch Matty.

This is the part where I committed my horrible sin that got me banned from APL. I stepped in front of my friend, placed up my hand, and said "Settle down, [name]."

The guy goes "Fuck off Styles," and continues to push towards Matty. At this point the guy's drunken friend who is about 7 fuckin foot tall came over and started to have a go at me. I told him in no uncertain terms to piss off and that I wasn't interested in starting fights. At this point there's an uproar with security coming to restrain these drunks and the barman and the head of the club coming up to see what the fuss was about.

Just as we think the drunken player has been restrained he breaks away from security, runs to throw an awkward-looking punch at Matty, and ends up tripping and smashing a table stacked with crockery.

As the fight starters get taken down stairs, Craigie says to Matty, the twins and I that we're all getting written up in a report by him and we're going to be banned from APL. The twins go off about how they started the fight and Matty and I did nothing but Craigie doesn't listen. The Barman points to Matty and I and says "You're right, you're right," because he saw that we did sweet F. A. to start this fight except for one jocular comment from Matty. We leave (having to be escorted by security) and drive home.

Now, this is kind of the gay part. When I went to register at APL at the Park I get told I can't play. I accept it, I only went to play to see my poker buddies really, so I move off. As I'm walking out Vicky goes to walk in and I say "Don't bother, we're banned." She goes and tries to sign in and is accepted immediately.

So this is my public statement. Fuck you, APL. Fuck you, drunks in Orange. I lost any respect I may have had for either of you that night. You guys are what, 35? And you're trying to start a blue with two 20 year old kids. Grow the fuck up. And fuck you, Craigie. I thought you were my fucking friend but its clear you go and ban me for this because you don't like me because I work for NPL and questioned your ridiculous tourney structure rather than because I stood in front of one of my best friends when he was about to get attacked by a violent drunk. Don't ban the girls for starting the shit, just ban Matty and I for watching your joke of a final table. I bet the drunk doesn't even have a permanent ban from APL, even though your rules explicitly state that drunken and disorderly peoplen are not to be allowed to play in APL events, and this is the reason why. Because they get owned by AA and get violent to innocent bystanders in the crowd.

Anyway, that's off my chest. Whether I get bashed by these guys next time I go to Orange to play or run an NPL event remains to be seen.

Until next time guys, stay clean.

Peace

Styles

Update on happenings.

Well, it's been around 2 months since I wrote in this blog, and not for lack of things to write about I suppose, but more laziness/uni work. Here's a few things I'll be writing about now, as much for the benefit of you guys so that you know what you're going to be reading, as it is for my benefit so I don't forget to include something...

• Satellite Poker and the Wollongong trip.
• Casino Canberra
• Online Action (or lack thereof)
• The Hats nearly getting into a biff at Orange Ex-Services

As much as I'm sure you guys are keen to read that last bit, I'll start at the beginning. However, if you want to skip through, I'll mainly be outlining various plays and hands in the first 3 bits.
Ok, here we go.

Satellite Poker

As you guys may or may not know, I'm a poster/lurker on an Aussie poker forum called www.pokertalk.com.au. I used to post more (when I was bragging about pokerstars wins - -where have they gone?) but now I just log in and read occasionally. Anyway, I saw a league called Satellite Poker advertised on there that was going to have a Wollongong game with a 2-day structure and a fairly cool prize pool. So I asked any of the guys if they wanted to come, most of them were busy, but Nick and Teddy were keen to come so we drove down and got our $10-a-night rooms in the pub (which weren't bad). I met a couple of "usernames" as it were and most people were really friendly to us (albeit amazed that we drove from Bathurst to play).

Anyway, we have a 15k stack so I'm fairly certain I'll have a pretty decent edge against an average pub-poker field. However a lot of people at the event appeared to be fairly serious about the game (which is good for me because I usually hear whining at pub poker events from people who are just there to drink and have a good time) so I recalculated a little bit, even though I saw more than a few "gimps" (Benny's word for donks who think they're balla poker players because they had a better player explain pot odds to them and now they have to lecture the table with why they're so good at poker) sitting at the various tables.

I win a few hands early on (including the first hand with AJos on an A high flop - winning the first hand should surely have been a sign of impending doom). Anyway my stack was at around 14.2k when this doozy of a hand comes up.

The blinds are at 75/150 and I'm UTG+1 with AhAs. The UTG folds, I consider and simply limp into the pot. (TARP am I right?) The guy next to me, Franky, a former Satellite Poker winner, nice guy and clearly a skilled poker player, makes a sizeable raise to 600. It folds around to a guy in sunnies on the button who I was still wondering was a good player or not, who repops to 1200. Fairly sizeable action at this blind levels and I'm sitting here with the Bullets and a 14k stack. Great situation, right?

Well, anyway. Here's where I define there hands. I think for about 2 minutes and decide a shove is so spewy with these stacks and re-repop to 4200, leaving myself with a neat 10k behind.

Franky thinks for a good 3 minutes and eventually makes a crying fold. I put him on maybe TT or AK. Sunglasses guy, who I heard someone call the Baron, looks at me incredulously and shows his mate his hand, and does one thing I really didn't expect him to do: flat-calls.

So at this point I'm just hoping no K or Q flops. I throw up in my mouth a little bit as the flop comes KJ4. I look at him and he looks at the flop and then stares directly at me. Ugh. I can't check because I do not want QQ making a big play at me and I can't shove because that's just asking for KK to make a snap call. So I'm resigned to the fact that I might lose half my stack, so I bet 4000 and he pretty much instantly moves all in. I throw AA away face up and he shows me KK, and I'm left with 6000 around 25 minutes into the game. Sick.

Anyway. Two hands later I'm in the small blind with JJ. There's 4 limpers and its around to me, and I raise to 725. The big blind (Franky) calls pretty quickly and one other limper calls. The rest fold and I take a flop of A84. Demoralised, I check. Franky bets 1400 and the other limper folds and I fold JJ face up again and he shows me AK.

So now I've got around 5k and I'm starting to get annoyed. I'm on the cutoff 2 hands later and I get JJ AGAIN. There's a min-raise to 300 (ugh) and it gets around to a player on the hijack who makes it 1000. I think about re-repopping here then I realise that is a stupid play and a cold call here is probably best. One limper calls and we see a 3 way pot which is around 3300 in size.

The flop is a good one (finally), 232. First to act checks and the preflop re-raiser bets 1000. I tank for a good 5 minutes before I realised I have to shove here, if he has QQ good luck to him. So I move my 4125 into the middle, the preflop minraiser folds quickly and this guy begins to cut out 4000 and says, "well I guess I have to." I get annoyed and say, "well if you got Queens you got me bro." At this point, his hand freezes and I give myself a mental punch in the face as I realise he didn't specify a call. As soon as he freezes up I realise he doesn't have me beat.

The ridiculous thing is, at this point, he thinks for 4 or so minutes before eventually calling and flipping up -- of all things -- pocket 4s. (Yes, he repopped pre...) I look at my 11k pot and just ask for a Jack. Not much... just a jack. The turn of course is a scare card, dropping an Ace giving him 4 more outs. Sickeningly the third 4 drops on the riv and I am first out of this tourney that I drove 3 hours to play in.

Nick did fairly well, making day 2, and congrats to Teddy who made the final table (but didn't cash unfortunately).

Casino Canberra

WARNING: Contains Luckbox hands.

In the 2nd last week of the holidays I went to Canberra to mooch at my mate Phil's place who had gotten a cadetship at Centrelink head office and was being put up in a balla apartment in the middle of the CBD of a suburb called Tuggeranong. I went down there just to mooch pretty much but I did go to Canberra casino to play poker a few times and I thought I'd share a few interesting hands.

The game was a $200-$500 buyin with $5/$5 blinds.

On my first table, there was one fish, I'll call him Mr. Crazy, who every hand, regardless of position, raised it to $25. He would never fold preflop, rarely fold on the flop (or river -- I saw him do a [perhaps good?] call on a board of 67672 with K5os and win against some old dude who bluffed a busted straight). I was pretty much waiting to stack him. He raised it to $30 in his blinds, he just put 5 red chips in whenever it was his turn to act, and on every flop, did the same C-bet of $25 (no matter the size of the pot). Amazingly, he won the first 7 or so hands. One lady bet $25 into like $175 on the river and he called and she just mucked. I was ready to make some money.

Anyway, on my first BB, 2 people limp and Mr. Crazy raises to, you guessed it, $25. Two people call and I call with 7d9c on the big blind (priced in, right? :p) and 1 limper calls. The flop is okay, I guess: 5d6h8d. So I flop the nutstraight and check first to act. The original limper checks and this guy (who I'm expecting will bet his usual $25) actually bets a frisky $110. It folds to me and I think for about a minute and decide that theres no play better than a shove of my remaining $365 so I just go on ahead and put it all in there. It folds to this guy who SNAP CALLS and I'm pretty much expecting he has the same hand. However he shows 88 for top set and I fade the board pair to win a fairly healthy 975 dollar pot early on.

Two hands later I'm on the button with AcKc. The UTG player makes it $20 and it folds to Mr. Crazy who makes it $40. It folds around to me and I consider flatting here but I really want to take the pot heads up with Mr. Crazy so I pop it to $140.
Then it gets ugly. UTG raiser flat calls my $140 (uh-oh) and Mr. Crazy moves in for an additional $170 (uh-oh). I obviously cant fold AKs in a 900 dollar pot so I make the call. UTG folds with an annoyed look on his face (later said he had AJ... um yeah). Mr. Crazy shows KK and I'm more relieved that he doesnt have the bullets. I call for an Ace and luckbox one on the flop, A58. I'm already counting the pot as the turn drops a Jack ball but of course (the other players always get justice, WHERES MY JUSTICE), the case King balls on the river and I'm back down to around $580.

I decide to loosen up about 2 hours into the game, and when an old rock limps in UTG+2 I decide to raise to $25 with QsTs. I get 4 callers (lol cashaments am I right?) including the limper (Mr. Rock) and the flop comes Jc8s4d. I've got a fairly trifling holding with a backdoor flushdraw and a gutshot, but I fire the mandatory CBet of $50 when checked to me. It folds to Mr. Rock who min-repops me to $100. A check-raise from an old casino rock is something to strike fear into the blood of most but I figure I might be able to take the pot away from him with a nice semi-bluff card on the turn (like a spade). Anyway I flat call and spike my luckbox 9 on the turn. He checks and I bet $225. He moves in for $275 and of course I call. He shows JJ (oops), and again I fade my board pair and take in another nice pot. I cash off the table about an hour after (with some other decent hands) for around $1250 after buying in for $400.

The next day I go back and I only play for around 45 minutes. I buy in for $300 after playing some Casino War and I'm really in a gambly mood. I call a donk's raise with Jh5h early on when I'm in the BB and flop nice with J85. I bet $65, donk calls, turn is an ugly 9 and I shove like $135 and he folds.

The nice hand that came up was where I looked down at Qc7c and decided to raise in honour of Matty P (its his favourite hand). I make it $25 and get 5 callers.

So I flop huge (again -- btw I don't always get flops like this, I swear. I just ran good in Canberra :D) with Jc8c9c. They check to me and I lead $85. I get 2 callers. I ask for no club on the turn.

The turn is a club... the Tc for my delicious 6-card straight flush. They check to me again and I bet $105. One guy folds and one guy calls, this old guy who I was fairly certain was a tough, smart opponent.

The river drops the 7d which puts the 789TJ straight on the board. He checks to me and I faux-tank for a few minutes before shoving my $195 in. He thinks for a while, at one point asking the dealer to count the pot. I'm praying he calls and I put him on the Kc. After a while he calls and shows me the AcJd (wow) and I show him the straight flush and take down the $725.

I cash out from the table soon after since I don't feel I'm playing very well and realised if I keep gambling I'll go bust. So total profit from poker for the trip was around $1300. Begone, busto bug!

I KNOW I have two more sections to update (including the nearly getting in a fight at Orange APL) but I do have to go to uni so I'll have to let this blog entry finish here, and I'll try update the rest during the week!

Peace
Styles