Sleekshot Poker

Happy New Year!

2008-01-03T22:27:00.000Z

So a new year and my new year poker resolution was to play cash games. But just before I got into that there was this extra value added tourney at Mansion last night. $1 buy-in with $20080 added to celebrate the new year. Only trouble was there were 3533 runners and starting stacks of 3000 chips. It could be a long night.

Well after a marathon game I was finally out in 8th place for a prize of $413 which is a new cash high record for me from tourney play.

Let's hope it's a sign of things to come for 2008!

Happy New Year indeed!

2007 Summary

2008-01-02T16:21:00.000Z

So the difficult second year. Or am I confusing it with bands and their difficult second album? Anyway, after discovering poker in 2006 the challenge in 2007 was to maintain my enjoyment from the game as well as my enthusiasm.

Some good early MTT cashes, including a win in the Laddies Deep Stack Tourney left me about $1k up after 4 months. I then moved house and refurbishment took over my life with little time for poker!

In the next 6 months, poker took a back seat and I played mainly STT’s to resurrect my challenge and hopefully win enough to buy a new PC. That went well although I tailed off towards the end but I finished the year with the challenge looking like this:

Played 192
Entry Fees $1056
Prizes $1440
Profit $384

Plus $15 from $10 STT's

November provided a couple of nice wins in some low entry high value tourneys and then December I decided to have another crack at cash games (more about that here).

So all in all another good year on the poker tables but an even better one off of it with a new house and new baby boy!!

Overall 2007 record:
Freerolls - $749
MTT's - $523
STT's - $248
Cash - $217
Bonus - $139
Rounders - ($17)
Total - $1859

Let’s hope 2008 is even better.

Challenge Update

2007-12-11T14:22:00.000Z

Things have been a little slow on the challenge front what with one thing and another! But since the last posted update I've played 43 more STT's and added another $88.50 to the total profit.

Which gives a summary at present of:

Played 184
Entry Fees $1012
Prizes $1425
Profit $413

Plus $15 from $10 STT's

Getting there. Slowly!

Gnuf Said!

2007-11-30T09:26:00.000Z

Well updates have been a little thin on the ground here, but with decorating the house and now being a Dad (woohoo!) have had little time for poker.

But I did manage to sneak away for a couple of hours last night and play in a $2500 Gtd tournament at Gnuf (who?) which only had 121 runners. Big value – we like it! Anyway, after a solid start and then very patient and perhaps a bit too cautious play I made it to the final table. Then had 2 slices of luck (thoroughly deserved lol) where I rivered a 3 outer and then made a 4 card flush (I hate it when that happens!) and eventually finished 5th for $150. Happy with that.

There’s some good value tourney’s coming up in December and hopefully I’ll find some time to have a go at a couple of them.

Painting & Decorating!

2007-09-23T21:03:00.000Z

Well in between painting and decorating, I've been concentrating on STT poker play rather than tourney's for two reasons mainly. 1) To clear my freeroll 'winnings' and 2) To continue this challenge. The challenge now has an added goal. It's still to make $1000 purely from STT's but I now have a purpose in that if (when!) I get there I'm gonna treat myself to a new PC cos this one's getting slower and slower!

Good news to report is that since the last update on here, I've played 22 for a profit of $89.

Summary:

Played 141
Entry Fees $775.50
Prizes $1100
Profit $324.50

Plus $15 from $10 STT's

So a 3rd of the way there now. I really think I should try my hand at a few $10 games, but the trouble is I like the winning feeling at the moment! Maybe when I get to $500 I'll have another go at those $10 games.....

Highs & Lows

2007-08-21T12:36:00.000Z

Still plodding away with the STT challenge with mixed results.

Highs - A couple of weeks back I won 4 out 5 and thought I had cracked it!

Lows - But straight after this I then equalled my worst run of 7 without cashing!

It's a funny old game!

But overall, since the last update, I've added $30.50 to the fund.

Summary:
Played 119
Entry Fees $654.50
Prizes $890
Profit $235.50

Plus $15 from $10 STT's

The Challenge Is Back On!

2007-07-27T12:37:00.000Z

My STT Challenge had taken a back seat lately, but I've had some mild success recently in the Interwetten $200 freerolls. The blind structure is lunacy but if you get a good start anything can happen! Came 7th for $12 and then 2nd for $36, but the only drawback is the prizes are only released with player points. So this gives a perfect good excuse to resurrect my STT challenge.

I've played 9 since 'winning' the freeroll money and am happy to report 5 ITM finishes, including winning 3 of the last 5.

That also brings up my 100th STT at $5 level, so my overall record reads:

Summary:
Played 100
Entry Fees $550
Prizes $755
Profit $205

Plus $15 from $10 STT's

Plus a few other stats from this wonderful poker spreadsheet!

2007 Half Year Report

2007-06-28T08:50:00.000Z

With the new house in need of complete refurb and additional news of a new arrival due in November, poker has taken rather a back seat in the last couple of months! However, I am pleased to report that the first six months of 2007 have outstripped the same period of last year! A profit of $1043 has been achieved (mainly in the first 4 months) largely due to successes documented in previous posts.

The breakdown is:
Freerolls - $680
MTT's - $318
STT's - $18
Cash - $-52
Bonus - $79
Total - $1043

I think poker will continue to feature low down on my list of priorities in the coming months, but I hope to be able to still play in the odd game here and there.

No April Fool!

2007-05-02T19:15:00.000Z

It’s been a hectic few weeks for me with moving house and being on revision courses.

However, I did find time to notch up a couple of good successes in April.

Firstly, in the Punters Lounge Bloggers freeroll I managed a credible 5th place and cashed for £80. I think it would have been higher if my KK hadn’t been busted by 99 when down to the final 5 and sitting comfortably in 3rd. Ah well.

And then in the April SO PL League I won Leg 1 and came 4th in Leg 2 to secure the overall title and bag $250. And I also get this nice little avator –

- just a shame I have no internet access for half of this month to show it off!

Deep Stack

2007-03-26T17:05:00.000Z

On Friday night, I settled down for what was hopefully going to be a long night of poker. The focus game at PL was a deep stack event with starting chips of 5000 and blind levels of 15 minutes! I'd never played a deep stack before but thought patience would be the key. A lot of others appeared not to think so though! And within about half hour about a quarter of 208 field had been eliminated. Me - well I was languishing on about 4000 chips having chased a flush which missed!

However, patience was the key and soon I had got myself up to about average stack whilst playing only premium hands. I then reached the money (top 20) whilst sitting about 11th I think, when I was dealt QQ in late position. There was one early raiser and a caller, both of whom I had covered so I pushed all in. Both called - DOH! The early man showed 99 and I can't recall what the other hand was - nothing I was particularly bothered about. Much to my annoyance the pair of 99's made a straight on the river (isn't it always!) to put a severe dent in my stack. Now in times gone by I would have probably shoved it all in on my next marginal hand and been out in the late teens. However, I decided patience definitely was the key and waited and eventually got my stack back up and when we reached the final table I was comfortable in about 4th.

With 8 remaining I get dealt QQ again. There was an early raiser to 2BB. One caller after that and I flat called too. Everyone else folded round to the big blind who shoved all in. The initial raiser folded, the caller pushed all in too and so did I (again having them both covered). I was not too displeased to see I was up against AK and AQ. Thinking that realistically only 2 aces and 3 kings could beat me and rather hoping that the initial raiser who had folded had some of those cards. Nothing on the flop, a blank turn and then........ an ace on the river (isn't it always!!!) The guy who took the pot was a huge chip leader with only about 7 left and I was thinking "that should be me!"

Anyway, again I didn't tilt and patiently built my stack up again until there were 4 left. I disposed of 4th place with KK which then left me chip leader with 3 left! Eventually I got HU with the guy who had rivered me. We were fairly even (I led about 600k v 450k) but the blinds were still very low in comparison. We played HU for about half hour and then hit the 5th break, the time showing 1.05am! About 15 min later the final hand came. I had called a raise with KK. The flop was QTx. He bet out, I raised and he re-raised all in to which I gladly called. He showed (rather surprisingly) 33 and neither hand improved and I had won the tourney! And with it set another PB - the second time in two weeks.

It's been a rather good March. :-)

A New Personal Best!

2007-03-20T20:27:00.000Z

Still not been playing as much poker as last year, but I’m trying to pick value games now when I do. This little beauty last Saturday was kindly pointed out by a fellow PL’er – Philossify – to which thanks were extended.

It was the Golden Palace “Try Us Out” freeroll! Basically a huge prizepool of $7500 and just 209 runners. The blind structure was rather harsh. Anyhow less than 2.5 hours later I’d finished in 8th place for a new personal best cash prize of $225. And I’m also pleased to say that philossify finished 3rd despite recommending the tourney to all us PL’er’s!

Other recent successes include 1st place in the Poker Satellites daily freeroll for $30 and 2nd place in an Interwetten crap-shoot freeroll for $36.

7th Heaven

2007-02-13T18:07:00.000Z

I haven't had much time to play poker so far this year, and even less to write about it, but I picked up a decent result on Saturday night in the 32Red Freeroll. This freeroll was to celebrate them winning an award for being the best gaming provider or something so it was quite ironic that this was the third time they had tried to stage this celebratory tournament! To compensate for the 2 previous attempts, the prize fund had been swelled to $7000 and there was also the added bonus of $50 buy-ins to Sunday's $200k GTD tourney for finishing in the top 50. The starting field was 2321 and by the first break I sat 13th. I maintained my form and by the 2nd break I was 5th and at the 3rd break I was chip leader! I eventually made the Final Table in 10th place, but managed to cling on for a while and eek out a few more places before finishing 7th for $140.

I also gained entry to the $200k GTD on Sunday, and for a little while on Sunday morning was dreaming of the $44k first prize! lol. Seeing as it was a rebuy (and I had no intention of rebuying for $50!), I decided I would be aggressive from the off. However, I lasted approximately 10 minutes after getting attached to top pair on a flush draw flop which eventually hit on the river and ultimately knocked me out. Bad play from me, but nothing lost and no complaints.

Stick To What You Know

2007-01-17T13:24:00.000Z

In an attempt to broaden my poker horizons, I thought I'd give short handed cash games a go. Man, what a totally different game. It cost me a few dollars but I learnt some valuable lessons though and maybe one day I will go back and give them another go. Indeed I had a successful session on Stan James short handed recently to gain raked hands quickly, but for the time being I'm going to stick to full ten man tables.

With the incentive of releasing a $50 bonus at Paradise Poker I have begun the slow steady grind. And so far so good. I've had two sessions and both times 2-tabled the 0.10/0.25c tables with max buys of $25. The first session I finished +$15.65 and the second one I was +$15.44. I'd be happy with that every time! And I've accumulated 60pts towards the bonus - only another 40pts for the first $10 to be released and at this rate it would take a further 16 sessions and I'd be $270 + $50 up at the end of it all lol. Now that would be a riiight touch!

2006 Summary

2006-12-27T17:42:00.000Z

It's been quite a good year for me personally. I only started playing in January and quickly got hooked! The obvious highlight for me was getting the trip to Vegas and playing in the Mansion Poker Dome which was then shown on TV in America!

My other highlights include: Winning my 1st Freeroll in January for the princely sum of $3 at Canbet! But then when they switched networks I landed another one in April for $150 and I remember the buzz of that. A superb feeling. I also managed a 3rd place in the Blue Sq Bubble in August for $120. I played in the Punters Lounge Heads Up tournament in September and came 2nd. Not bad, considering I'd never played HU before! And I've had a few final table finishes in MTT's too.

My STT challenge is ongoing, although I stepped back down to $5 games recently after wiping out most of my $10 games profit, however still in profit in both.

My overall record reads:
Freerolls - $665
MTT's - $482
STT's - $146
Cash - $6
Bonus - $309
Total - $1608 + $7k Vegas Trip!

My targets for next year are to continue with my STT Challenge, but I also want to improve my cash game play.

Overall, I've thoroughly enjoyed my first year in poker. And hope 2007 brings more of the same!

Challenge Update

2006-12-08T12:32:00.000Z

Well my STT Challenge has taken a downturn in the last month. I managed a measly 3 cash finishes from 23 played in November to wipe out virtually all my $10 games profit.

I still have my profit from the $5 games and I think I will step back down to that level, and also won't be playing as many over the next month or so.

I am also considering switching back to Interwetten or Pokerroom and ditching Europoker. It might purely be a superstitious thing, but I did well at the other two sites and poorly at this one!

Summary:
Played 85
Entry Fees $935
Prizes $950
Profit $15

Plus $100 from $5 STT's.

Been A While....

2006-11-29T21:00:00.000Z

It's been a while since I updated this, mainly due to me taking exams last week. So a quick summary since my last post:

I finished in the money again in the Betway lottery, but last Saturday bubbled in 102nd place, missing out on a whole 70 cents! However, that will probably be the last time I play it as they have cut the prize fund from $2000 to a measly $500 meaning all the value has disappeared seeing as there are approx 1300 entrants. I haven't played in many other freerolls lately but I did have a go at Mansion's Poker God and finished a credible 24th from approx 500 runners. That was my second top 27 finish (for additional points) but I don't think I've played it regularly enough to trouble the leaderboard.

In MTT's, I added a 6th place finish in the Mansion $500 added to go with the 4th place I achieved here 2 weeks prior. And staying with Mansion, I'm currently sitting in 14th place on the PL Mansion $1000 Added League Series. A good showing in tomorrow's final leg might see me scrape into the top ten for some added cash. I might have been in a better position already if it weren't for being rivered last week when my AQ flopped a Q but was busted by JJ when a third Jack hit on the river. Still that's poker....

My STT challenge has slowed somewhat, but I've switched to Europoker to try and clear another deposit bonus. Not had much success there though and am currently slightly down, but still up overall. A full update on the challenge to follow....

Final Table Finally!

2006-10-28T18:39:00.000Z

Well it’s been a while since my last final table appearance but I eventually managed another one in the Mansion $10 buy in $500 added tourney this morning. There were only 61 runners so excellent value, and I got off to a solid start. It’s fair to say I had my fair share of luck along the way (AQ busting AK with about 12 left being the one that sticks in my mind – isn’t it nice when it goes your way for a change!), but together with some good solid play too I finished 4th for $122. So I was very pleased with that.

And to cap off a good morning, I finished 47th out of 1000 odd in Betway’s Happy Saturday’s Lottery to gain some much needed PL ranking points!

Halloween Horrors

2006-10-22T21:06:00.000Z

In my STT challenge, I went from hero to zero with the last set of 10 yielding just one 2nd place finish, giving a loss of $80. I think it must have been because Pokerroom changed all their player characters to ghosts and ghouls for Halloween!

However, I’m still showing a profit and have since played the remaining 5 required to get my $40 bonus.

So in summary:
Entry Fees $605
Prizes $710
Profit $105

Plus $100 profit from $5 STT.

One Of Those Days

2006-10-17T11:08:00.000Z

The main focus of this week was to try and play the remaining STT's required to release my 40 bucks bonus at PokerRoom. With one week to go I had 16 left to fit in by Saturday, so it was going to be tight! The challenge is (edit: was!!) going well though and the last set of 10 returned 4 wins and a profit of $90.

However last night was just one of those sessions where everything goes against you. First up I was playing extremely patiently and waited a good 20 minutes before I played a hand. That hand was the old favourite AA in the SB. 3 limpers, so I raised up to 4BB. One taker and a flop of 9 T x rainbow doesn't give me to much to worry about. Potentially, I'm only wary of someone with JQ drawing at a straight so I bet out a 3rd of the pot trying to maximise the returns from my premium starting hand. A call, which re-enforces my belief he's on the draw or maybe has top pair with AT. The turn is a blank so I bet again for a 3rd of the pot. I'm reraised all in and after thinking for a while believe he's on the bluff draw. So I call. And see pocket 9's laughing at my rockets having made a set. Note to self - look out for hidden sets. In hindsight the warning signs were maybe there but many times you get shoves with draws or top pairs so I'll let myself off that one.

Next up we're down to the bubble and there are 2 big stacks with about 6k each and me and one other effectively battling for 3rd spot. I'm keeping my head above water and keeping ahead of the 4th place guy when he eventually shoves his AJ in the BB to meet a big stack with KK. Obviously I'm hopeful the Kings will hold up here. The flop shows a Jack to give shortie more hope and then sure enough on the river is the 2nd Jack which confines me to being shortie now. A few hands later and my A5s is no match for the biggies AJ with an Ace on the flop, and bang goes another one.

The 3rd game of the night serves me no better. Early on there is one guy who takes 3 people out in 2 hands with AA and KK. A few hands later and I get dealt KK UTG. I mix it up and limp in and so do 5 others. "Doh!" I think to myself, "I've let a few too many in here" but the early big stack in the BB raises up to 4BB. "Aha, you wanna play do ya?" So I re-raise to 9BB. Everyone else folds but he shoves all in. "Great I think, he's got tens or jacks maybe". So a quick call and he flips over Aces - what a run of cards he's had. No help to either of us and I'm busted again. I try to take solace in the fact that that particular situation is only supposed to happen once in about 120 times or so (think I've read that somewhere before!), but it's not much help when you've lost 3 in a row.

No poker for me tonight, as it's the 2nd match of our Essex League Season. Read about how we did on Clements Hall 2nd Team tomorrow.

Punters Lounge Bloggers Freeroll

2006-10-16T09:59:00.000Z

Been a hectic few days for me, so little poker has been played. The only noteworthy tourney I've played in recently was the PL Bloggers Freeroll last Thursday. 45 Runners in this inauguaral event and I finished a creditable 14th against some very knowledgable players. I enjoyed a good run of cards in the early stages, but as the cards dried up and the blinds increased it became increasingly desperate and I ended up with QJs pairing a queen but being beaten by pocket rockets. An enjoyable game of poker though and looking forward to the next one.

Bonus!

2006-10-10T19:47:00.000Z

No poker last for me last night as we had our first Essex League match of the Autumn season. Check out how we got on here.

Since the last update I’ve played 2 legs of the Champions League and have bombed out early in both. The 1st leg I made the nut flush on the river only to be beaten by a full house which was also made by the same card. Then the 2nd leg my trip Q’s were beaten by another full house.

On a brighter note though, I’ve finally managed to rake the remaining $80 of the Poker.Co.Uk introductory bonus. It only took me about 6 months to play the required 1000 hands!

Another positive in the last few days has been I’ve managed to play 10 more STT’s towards the challenge, winning 4 of them including 3 on the bounce. So pretty pleased with that, and will try and squeeze a couple in this evening. As I write though my KK has just been busted by AK. Grrrrr. Let’s hope for better luck in the next one…..

No Joy!

2006-10-05T16:04:00.000Z

No joy in last night's tournaments. Finished about halfway in the field of 224 in the Poker Player game and came 24th in the PL Challenge - which won't be anywhere near good enough to challenge the leaders come the end of the month.

Also managed to get in 2 more STT's towards the challenge. In the first one - walked straight into Aces to finish nowhere, then in the next one bubbled. D'oh! So over all a disappointing night's play.

Might have a dabble in tonight's Champions League on Sporting Odds. Played it for the first time last month and despite only playing 6 of the legs finished a creditable 18th for $25. Will have to see if I can better that this month.

$1000 STT Challenge

2006-10-04T15:30:00.000Z

Didn't have time for much poker last night but managed to squeeze in 2 $10 STT's towards my $1000 STT Challenge (see below). Managed to cash in both of them but couldn't get the win. First one I got to Heads Up shortstacked and my AJ eventually fell to pocket 5's. Then the second one, after hitting top pair with Q7s I was beaten by KJo which made a straight....... on the river! It's always the river! Still a 2nd and a 3rd is not too bad at all.

A brief summary of the challenge: (full details here)

Back in May I set myself a target of winning $1000 solely through STT's. I started off with the $5 STT's at Interwetten Poker, and after 70 of them I had profits of $100. I then decided to step up to $10 STT's and switched over to PokerRoom to take advantage of their 40% deposit bonus. At the last update I had played 20 for profits of $60.

I haven't played as many as I'd have like to by now, and I need to get going in order to clear the bonus in time. I only have 17 days left to play another 30!

I might be able to get one in tonight, but that depends on how well I do (or don't do!) in the PokerRoom Poker Player Team Challenge. Have also got the first leg of the monthly Punters Lounge Challenge tonight so (hopefully) it might be a busy night.

Welcome to my poker blog

2006-10-03T16:21:00.000Z

First up a little bit of my poker background. I started playing poker in January this year, after discovering the Poker Forum at PuntersLounge. I decided to try and get myself a decent bankroll from nothing through playing freerolls and sign up bonuses. And I'm pleased to say I managed this. So therefore I now play all my poker with money won from nothing. Not bad - a hobby that pays for itself!

The highlight of my short poker career was winning an all expenses paid trip to Vegas in June to play in the Mansion Poker Dome, which was broadcast on Fox Sports Network in America. I didn't win, but the experience was superb and I would love to go back there again one day.