A rare correct wording of the often misquoted Mark Twain line. Twain spent plenty of time on Mississippi riverboats and was probably no stranger to poker (he also wrote a bit), so the line is doubly-apt, here.
Like the suitability of the quote, the near-death of this thread is also two-fold; firstly as lockdown eased, my time on here became more sporadic due to my main (sadly debatable) business. And secondly, soon after I created this thread I started playing different tournaments regularly, ones that clashed with the £5.50 Mega-stack. So, therefore, I've played this specific tournament only a handful of times in the past three months.
It could be argued that, in making this thread specifically about one tournament, I've backed myself into a corner. Moving forward, would it be within forum rules to totally change tact, and turn this thread into one of my general musings? A kind of diary, I guess. This would also relieve the pressure of how regular updates need to be.
As I said, my time on here as been a little sporadic over the past couple of months - few days on, few off, or maybe just a couple of MTT's a session. Most of my time was taken up by planning a true return to business with horse racing and the return itself coincided with the recent Ayr and Newmarket meetings (handicaps are my thing).
While the return was successful, it's unlikely that volumes will ever return to those enjoyed previously and it's likely that I will be back to "lockdown regularity" with regards to time spent on here, going forward.
Since I last updated this thread, my results have been steady, I won the bigger mega twice and the £33 Turbo rebuy twice - I clearly need 10,000 in order to survive the early levels - but my return on Monday brought and extremely pleased 30 hours or so.
I played two tournaments on Monday evening (the Reload and the Midnight Express) and managed to scrape a win in both. On Tuesday I started with a second-place in the 7:00pm BH, despite holding half the chips when down to three players. I was gutted not to get over the line here. Not because of the money, but a victory would've mean three consecutive MTT wins - something that can't happen often?
My fourth tournament of the week was last night's Gold Rush, which I also managed to fluke, meaning my formlines read 1121 in four consecutive tournaments (135.5 average field size). Again, I cannot stress how disappointed I am not to make it a perfect-four, just for personal achievement.
*there was a losing satellite sandwiched within that quartet, but I am hoping we an all agree that satellites do not count as genuine MTTs?
After the Gold Rush had finished, I decided to play the rush and play a little PLO cash...
The above happened a few hands in (sorry, it wouldn't post all as one post).
Thankfully, this came at .10/20 and I only lost £20. I don't care how deep you're playing, 100% of players are going to stack here at 4-card.
Due to the relatively small loss in this nightmarish coup, I was euphoric after. Us punters are a weird bunch, aren't we?
When you're £500 up but end up only winning £50, you feel like you have the weight of the world on your cursed shoulders. However, when you're £500 down and you claw back £450, to end up only £50 in the red, you leave the betting shop with a spring in your step while calling the other half to ask what take-away she wants treating to.
Let's see what tonight brings, I guess I am due a few first-level KO's.
"Moving forward, would it be within forum rules to totally change tact, and turn this thread into one of my general musings? A kind of diary, I guess. This would also relieve the pressure of how regular updates need to be."
No heroics from the four entered tonight. Though had a run in both the main and the mini.
Small cash in the latter, after my JJ ran into the BB's AA. I open shoved with 18 bigs UTG - all very standard.
Finishing three off the money in the main was frustrating, this being the pivotal hand with around 30 left...
Player
Action
Cards
Amount
Pot
Balance
lyonsbob06
Small blind
600.00
600.00
54357.00
TamL
Big blind
1200.00
1800.00
37718.00
Your hole cards
A
5
kawamattyz
Fold
RyanC7
Fold
mushroom1
Raise
3600.00
5400.00
20694.00
nichols06
Fold
lyonsbob06
Fold
TamL
Call
2400.00
7800.00
35318.00
Flop
2
2
3
TamL
Check
mushroom1
Bet
3900.00
11700.00
16794.00
TamL
Call
3900.00
15600.00
31418.00
Turn
7
TamL
Check
mushroom1
Check
River
4
TamL
Bet
11700.00
27300.00
19718.00
mushroom1
Call
11700.00
39000.00
5094.00
TamL
Show
4
4
mushroom1
Show
A
5
TamL
Win
Full House, 4s and 2s
39000.00
58718.00
Having only called, I left myself with 4-bigs and I managed to double up a few hands later. However, the recovery was short-lived as 10-bigs all-in with A8o was called by the BB's 86o (he had around a 75bb stack), and, sadly, I could not avoid the pesky 6.
I don't usually play afternoon tournaments, but I thought I would chance my arm (donate) in the 5:00pm £20 (1) rebuy.
Lose 33% of my stack in the first few hands, losing a blind on blind race when my AQ failed against pocket sixes.
Was down to around half-stack, with rebuying not really a viable option given the table; Arrogant and lololollol to my immediate left and my right-hand side isn't looking any easier thanks to Skyflyer and Scotty. I can surely find better value for £20 than using it for a rebuy in this exact coup?
Thankfully, such a decision is postponed, temporarily at least, as I was lucky enough to find myself a AA v QQ coup, where I doubled.
Still not really feeling it. Just can't focus in these early tournaments. Perhaps it's The Chase being on in the background coupled with my desperate need to show off my impressive, but ultimately pointless, trivia knowledge to the other half.
My negative mindset was justified as I failed to cash in the 5:00 - I'll say one thing about negative mindsets, they are almost always justifiably proved by the results that immediately follow.
Though, in all seriousness, I did little wrong with regards to my exit.
25 BB stack makes it 500 (blinds 100/200) in the cut-off, button calls, I shove for 20-bigs with 77 in the SB.
Original raiser calls with KQo, button folds. I suppose it's possible that I was doing this with KJ?*
I have an overpair and a straight draw on the flop, once I missed the turn the draw is irrelevant and it's back to dodging mode approaching the river. I didn't dodge well enough.
Oh, and I bubbled in a Hitman satellite, which was nice.
A couple of cashes on Thursday night, however, ultimately the evening left me with high levels of frustration, do to the beats suffered in the few tournaments where I didn't cash - maybe I will exorcise those ghosts with a report, should I be able to bring myself to relive such horrors.
I've tackled three MTT's so far tonight; the Mini, the Main and the £33 Turbo BH.
I finished 203rd in the Mini, thanks to this gem...
Regarding the hand above, I will explain why I opened shoved with 40-bigs.
Obviously, it was table-related; 2/3x'ing would've likely to to bring a 4-way pot, so I wanted to mix it up - it was just a case of how much spice to add to the mix.
Incredibly, I felt there was a chance that I would get called by a worse hand. I realise that sounds crazy, given the specifics, but, as explained, I'm basing this thought on what I had recently witnessed.
The button couldn't call quick enough, fearlessly (yes, that's the adverb I am going with) ignoring the fact there were still two players yet to act.
I flopped well, as you can see, leaving my opponent with just a measly 1.2% chance of sending me packing.
Such was the strength of my hand, his miracle turn card still left me with a 32% chance of redrawing, but redraw I did not.
My second rail-hitting experience came in the £33 Turbo - I like this tournament.
I never really recovered from this lovely coup...
Player
Action
Cards
Amount
Pot
Balance
loololollo
Small blind
50.00
50.00
2882.50
mushroom1
Big blind
100.00
150.00
6670.00
Your hole cards
5
9
bawannab22
Call
100.00
250.00
5700.00
aoturner30
Fold
Richrash93
Call
100.00
350.00
5397.50
loololollo
Fold
mushroom1
Check
Flop
J
10
8
mushroom1
Bet
350.00
700.00
6320.00
bawannab22
Raise
700.00
1400.00
5000.00
Richrash93
Fold
mushroom1
Call
350.00
1750.00
5970.00
Turn
Q
mushroom1
Check
bawannab22
Bet
700.00
2450.00
4300.00
mushroom1
All-in
5970.00
8420.00
0.00
bawannab22
All-in
4300.00
12720.00
0.00
mushroom1
Unmatched bet
970.00
11750.00
970.00
mushroom1
Show
5
9
bawannab22
Show
J
Q
River
J
bawannab22
Win
Full House, Jacks and Queens
11750.00
11750.00
I chose not to play it too fast on the flop, given this was an unraised pot. Once hitting the turn, however, I decided to check-raise massively due to the likelihood of getting called by a 9, and with me then free-rolling in a to win a huge pot.
Again, my opponent fearlessly (yes, that is the adverb I'm sticking with) snapped-called my shove.
My hand even improved on the river! Shame it was the J of C, though.
There's only one thing worse than getting it in at 80-odd percent and losing. And that's not getting it in at 80-odd percent regularly, I guess?
I did manage to scrape a cash in the Main, finishing 22nd, or thereabouts.
I had only 11-bigs at the time of my exit, but managed to get it in good, in a three-way.
I must've been over 80% going to the river, with one opponent having six outs, and the other player left with just a solitary out to pray for.
It turns out there IS a God, as those prayers were answered. I doubt that I could buy a brick at Selco at the moment.
I played true to my name in a £11 Turbo soon after, getting the early exit my hangovered-play deserved.
The Midnight Express is my final throw of the dice for the session, after which I am off to attempt to work out Ascot's Challenge Cup. After I attempt to work out how much rain has hit the course, of course.
Comments
I think we are due a Diary update on the back of that.
A rare correct wording of the often misquoted Mark Twain line. Twain spent plenty of time on Mississippi riverboats and was probably no stranger to poker (he also wrote a bit), so the line is doubly-apt, here.
Like the suitability of the quote, the near-death of this thread is also two-fold; firstly as lockdown eased, my time on here became more sporadic due to my main (sadly debatable) business. And secondly, soon after I created this thread I started playing different tournaments regularly, ones that clashed with the £5.50 Mega-stack. So, therefore, I've played this specific tournament only a handful of times in the past three months.
It could be argued that, in making this thread specifically about one tournament, I've backed myself into a corner. Moving forward, would it be within forum rules to totally change tact, and turn this thread into one of my general musings? A kind of diary, I guess. This would also relieve the pressure of how regular updates need to be.
As I said, my time on here as been a little sporadic over the past couple of months - few days on, few off, or maybe just a couple of MTT's a session. Most of my time was taken up by planning a true return to business with horse racing and the return itself coincided with the recent Ayr and Newmarket meetings (handicaps are my thing).
While the return was successful, it's unlikely that volumes will ever return to those enjoyed previously and it's likely that I will be back to "lockdown regularity" with regards to time spent on here, going forward.
Since I last updated this thread, my results have been steady, I won the bigger mega twice and the £33 Turbo rebuy twice - I clearly need 10,000 in order to survive the early levels - but my return on Monday brought and extremely pleased 30 hours or so.
I played two tournaments on Monday evening (the Reload and the Midnight Express) and managed to scrape a win in both. On Tuesday I started with a second-place in the 7:00pm BH, despite holding half the chips when down to three players. I was gutted not to get over the line here. Not because of the money, but a victory would've mean three consecutive MTT wins - something that can't happen often?
My fourth tournament of the week was last night's Gold Rush, which I also managed to fluke, meaning my formlines read 1121 in four consecutive tournaments (135.5 average field size). Again, I cannot stress how disappointed I am not to make it a perfect-four, just for personal achievement.
*there was a losing satellite sandwiched within that quartet, but I am hoping we an all agree that satellites do not count as genuine MTTs?
After the Gold Rush had finished, I decided to play the rush and play a little PLO cash...
Thankfully, this came at .10/20 and I only lost £20. I don't care how deep you're playing, 100% of players are going to stack here at 4-card.
Due to the relatively small loss in this nightmarish coup, I was euphoric after. Us punters are a weird bunch, aren't we?
When you're £500 up but end up only winning £50, you feel like you have the weight of the world on your cursed shoulders. However, when you're £500 down and you claw back £450, to end up only £50 in the red, you leave the betting shop with a spring in your step while calling the other half to ask what take-away she wants treating to.
Let's see what tonight brings, I guess I am due a few first-level KO's.
@mushroom1
"Moving forward, would it be within forum rules to totally change tact, and turn this thread into one of my general musings? A kind of diary, I guess. This would also relieve the pressure of how regular updates need to be."
Yes, no problem at all.
That PLO beat was an absolute beaut.
Small cash in the latter, after my JJ ran into the BB's AA. I open shoved with 18 bigs UTG - all very standard.
Finishing three off the money in the main was frustrating, this being the pivotal hand with around 30 left...
Off to "enjoy myself" with some PLO cash.
Lose 33% of my stack in the first few hands, losing a blind on blind race when my AQ failed against pocket sixes.
Was down to around half-stack, with rebuying not really a viable option given the table; Arrogant and lololollol to my immediate left and my right-hand side isn't looking any easier thanks to Skyflyer and Scotty. I can surely find better value for £20 than using it for a rebuy in this exact coup?
Thankfully, such a decision is postponed, temporarily at least, as I was lucky enough to find myself a AA v QQ coup, where I doubled.
Still not really feeling it. Just can't focus in these early tournaments. Perhaps it's The Chase being on in the background coupled with my desperate need to show off my impressive, but ultimately pointless, trivia knowledge to the other half.
She doesn't even care. Never does.
Though, in all seriousness, I did little wrong with regards to my exit.
25 BB stack makes it 500 (blinds 100/200) in the cut-off, button calls, I shove for 20-bigs with 77 in the SB.
Original raiser calls with KQo, button folds. I suppose it's possible that I was doing this with KJ?*
I have an overpair and a straight draw on the flop, once I missed the turn the draw is irrelevant and it's back to dodging mode approaching the river. I didn't dodge well enough.
Oh, and I bubbled in a Hitman satellite, which was nice.
The only way is up.
*it's not actually possible.
Very enjoyable & well written musings, keep them coming.
A couple of cashes on Thursday night, however, ultimately the evening left me with high levels of frustration, do to the beats suffered in the few tournaments where I didn't cash - maybe I will exorcise those ghosts with a report, should I be able to bring myself to relive such horrors.
I've tackled three MTT's so far tonight; the Mini, the Main and the £33 Turbo BH.
I finished 203rd in the Mini, thanks to this gem...
Obviously, it was table-related; 2/3x'ing would've likely to to bring a 4-way pot, so I wanted to mix it up - it was just a case of how much spice to add to the mix.
Incredibly, I felt there was a chance that I would get called by a worse hand. I realise that sounds crazy, given the specifics, but, as explained, I'm basing this thought on what I had recently witnessed.
The button couldn't call quick enough, fearlessly (yes, that's the adverb I am going with) ignoring the fact there were still two players yet to act.
I flopped well, as you can see, leaving my opponent with just a measly 1.2% chance of sending me packing.
Such was the strength of my hand, his miracle turn card still left me with a 32% chance of redrawing, but redraw I did not.
Back to the redrawing board.
I never really recovered from this lovely coup...
Again, my opponent fearlessly (yes, that is the adverb I'm sticking with) snapped-called my shove.
My hand even improved on the river! Shame it was the J of C, though.
There's only one thing worse than getting it in at 80-odd percent and losing. And that's not getting it in at 80-odd percent regularly, I guess?
I hate this tournament.
I had only 11-bigs at the time of my exit, but managed to get it in good, in a three-way.
I must've been over 80% going to the river, with one opponent having six outs, and the other player left with just a solitary out to pray for.
It turns out there IS a God, as those prayers were answered. I doubt that I could buy a brick at Selco at the moment.
I played true to my name in a £11 Turbo soon after, getting the early exit my hangovered-play deserved.
The Midnight Express is my final throw of the dice for the session, after which I am off to attempt to work out Ascot's Challenge Cup. After I attempt to work out how much rain has hit the course, of course.
Living the dream.
Really liked Shelir in the Challenge Cup but likely the ground is too soft now. G/s no problem.
Firms going six-places EW in the Two-year-old Trophy at Redcar.
Favs form last ten years is 1012153121 and 186% ROI.
I'm not really a stats man, but that's pretty compelling.
Stan Moore's last 5 runners in this...
40/1 winner
11/2 winner
50/1 4th
33/1 5th
100/1 unplaced.
He's got the rag, 150/1.
I was with that Hareem Queen throughout last winter, she's a rag in the 2nd at Ascot, not been seen for a few months, but will handle the ground.
These are just late-night musings, mate, may not being play.
@mushroom1 @gpc70
I live 5 or 6 miles east of Ascot, & the rain has been non-stop torrential all night.
I'll be very surprised indeed if Ascot goes ahead.
PS - really enjoying this Diary, I do hope you persevere for a while.
And, no sooner the word than the deed.....