My Results

You just can't beat free money from Party Poker!  Their reload bonuses are very easy to clear even at the low limits, so when a 20% up to $100 bonus popped up on my account yesterday I got busy.

I decided to play for this bonus using $25NL only.  I wanted to see how no limit compared to fixed limit hold'em as I've mostly played $1/$2 to clear these bonuses so far.  Because the wagering requirements are based on a number of raked hands, regardless of the actual amount of rake paid, the limits do not really matter.  In fact a quirk of this system is that you have to play less hands at $1/$2 to clear a bonus than at $2/$4 - although you pay more rake in total, $1/$2 games are raked in 25c multiples, whereas $2/$4 is raked $1 at a time.

I thought you would probably need to play more hands at $25NL than $1/$2 as there would be fewer flops, but really this doesn't seem to be the case - I'd usually bank on slightly more than 50% of hands being raked at $1/$2.

Stand by, stat fans - here's how I did

Hands played:  1540 (for 1000 raked hands)
Hours played:  23.63 (approx 6 hours @ 4 tables)
Rake paid:     $30.10 (so Party Poker lose $69.90 on this promo!)

Amount won:    $35.52 (4.61 BB per 100 hands)
Win rate:      $5.92/hr
Bonus awarded: $100

Rate w/ bonus: $22.60/hr

Certainly not bad for the smallest game in town.  And for those who like even geekier stats, here's how I was playing:

Vol. Put $ In Pot:       14.29%
Pre-flop Raise:           7.21%
Post-flop Aggression:     3.72
Won $ When Saw Flop:     33.59%
Went to Showdown:        20.99%
Won $ At Showdown:       50.91%
Folded SB to Steal:      87.50%
Folded BB to Steal:      80.00%
Attempt to Steal Blinds: 18.57%

So it's a fairly small sample size, but the diagnosis looks pretty good - firmly rooted in the Tight/Agressive camp.  Poker Tracker gives me a little cash bag icon - result!

If I try to be objective, my blind play looks kinda weak, although 8 times out of 10 is probably nothing to be concerned with.  Need more input.  When there are a lot of limpers, as you get in these low limit games, there's not too many opportunities to steal.  I could be raising a bit more pre-flop, but again with lots of limpers I'm aware that my range of hands to raise with is tighter than usual, and limping into multiway pots with small pairs and suited aces becomes attractive.

Oh, and I appear to be rather aggressive post-flop.  That one really surprised me as I still think I check/call too much on the river.  The aggression factor is calculated as the number of times you bet or raise divided by the number of times you call (checking is ignored).  A number between 2 and 3 - betting twice to three times as often as you call - is thought to be nicely aggressive.

Grrrr, then.

The good fortune continues.  I am H-O-T-T.

Back online this time, and I was logged into Blue Square Poker.  I hardly ever play here - most of the tournaments have rebuys and are complete donkfests.  Potentially profitable, but very frustrating, and there are many other games I'd rather play.  The strong contingent of British players doesn't help.  Makes it a totally different game, and not in a good way.  I'm bound to rant about this some other time, so I'll leave it at that for the time being

I'd actually logged in to check out the satellites for Poker 6, which sounds like a great tournament and I wanted to qualify to have a crack at this.  With live qualifiers as well as online, I was planning on having a few attempts.  However I've since realised I can't play on the second day (going to see Pet Shop Boys) which would make it all a bit pointless.

Anyway, I sit in their freeroll with a $200 prize pool - eventually I finish up with $3 from this - hoorah! - and an alert pops up for a $100 freezeout about to start.  The prize pool is $3.5k guaranteed and there were only 19 players registered at the time.  I'm thinking this could be a great way to press up my winnings from the Party Poker shootouts and I just can't resist.  I scramble for my switch card to get enough money in my account to play and just make it.

One of the annoying things about Blue Sq is that you have to do transactions in £ but then play games in $.  I have Neteller in USD, which is not accepted, and two visa cards on USD bank accounts.  No good - I still have to play in pounds and be at the mercy of their exchange rates.

At kick off there were 26 players registered, but that's still a good overlay on the prize money - works out at $34 each and even with a $9 entry fee they are giving me $25 to taking part, which I always like!  Top five were getting paid, and the top prize of $1470 was as good as my coveted seat in WSOP Event 37.

This game was amazingly different to anything I'd played on Blue Sq before.  People folded.  People knew when they were beat.  There were some very strong players who managed to not go broke with hands that would cost many players their entire stack.  I was pretty impressed.

I was more impressed that I managed to get to the final table with a decent stack remaining.  I was even more impressed that I scraped second place, after being short stacked with 4 remaining.  Two of the big stacks went against each other, leaving three short stacks and a big stack who didn't really want to play any more. 

I think I had quite a tight image, judging by the dialog between Conbert (3rd place finisher) and some railbird. 

conbert : im well ***** off
conbert : lucky donut mr i need a hand to raise
conbert : n sumhow gets thru
SammyArry6 : maybe luckydonut is better?!
conbert : win 55 coinflip
conbert : i had the worst cards when it went 3 handed
conbert : by far
conbert : feels well sick though
conbert : luckydonut thinks a rag ace is a fold heads up

Here's why I'm a bad player too.

conbert : the j9 was turnin point
conbert : bets 288 flop
conbert : 228 flop
conbert : i have 89
conbert : call to trap
conbert : ne he turns j
SammyArry6 : sick
conbert : first time in my life its happened to me

Wow, nice trap with a shit pair.  First time in his life someone hit a 3-outer on him without making them pay for the next card?  I got real lucky.

SammyArry6 : i'm layin fu muppet at 1/100 to win
SammyArry6 : luckydonut available at 25's
SammyArry6 : perhaps it should be 10000000000000000000000000/1?

So they don't fancy my chances.  Well the other guy only had a 3-1 chip advantage...  It actually lasted just one more hand so he woz right innit.

Seat 5 : LUCKYD0NUT has $10,680
Seat 6 : fu muppet has $41,320
Stakes: 600/1,200 Current level: 9 Level up in: 14 min. Break in: 56 min.
LUCKYD0NUT is the dealer.
LUCKYD0NUT posted small blind.
fu muppet posted big blind.
Dealing Hole Cards.
Seat 5 : LUCKYD0NUT has Qd 9c
LUCKYD0NUT called 600 and raised 9,480 and is All-in
fu muppet called 9,480
Showdown!
Seat 5 : LUCKYD0NUT has Qd 9c
Seat 6 : fu muppet has 5s 5d
Board cards [8c 3c Ah 4h Th]
LUCKYD0NUT has High Card : Ace
fu muppet has Pair: 5s
fu muppet wins 21,360 with Pair: 5s

Anything wrong with the push here?

Anyway, 2nd place got me $875.  Total profit from Blue Sq: $766

I was working in London for three days last week so it would have been rude not to take in a game or two at Gutshot.  Wednesday was a £30 game with one rebuy.  I needed the rebuy.  Holding 88 on BB with 2 limpers, the small blind completes the bet, so I check.  I don't want to play a small pair unimproved out of position against overcards and these guys like to see a flop.  Trying to isolate is futile so I take a flop and see if I can get lucky.

The flop is a very pretty 853, with 2 diamonds.  The small blind bets 300 and I decide to just call.  I don't very often do this, but I want to try and keep the other guys in the pot and if one of them tries to squeeze me out then I'll be happy to stick my stack in the middle.  If I raise I might not get any more action at all with this board so I'll take my chance against a flush draw, wait for a safe turn card and then get my money in.  In fact the two limpers fold and the turn brings a 2 that is not a diamond.

The small blind instantly moves all in, and how can I not call?  The offsuit 2 is the perfect brick - usually.  But when your opponent holds 46 for the nut straight top set is looking poorly.  Very well played indeed - I didn't even see it.  Even if I had, I don't think I can fold this.  He could have flopped a lower set of hold a pocket pair bigger than 88 and love the turn card.  He could even think that I'm drawing to diamonds and bet without much of a hand at all.  Mostly I'm way ahead here, and I still have 10 outs against the one hand that currently beats me to win.  Please, please, call me a donkey if you can find a way to fold here...

Playing 46 in the small blind... as they say "You'll be alright".  But I guess I'd be calling there for cheap too just in case something wonderful does happen.  Didn't get any further after the rebuy - needed to take a chance with my nemisis hand AJ, dealt myself two aces on the flop, but a ten on the turn gave the other guy a full house.

As fate would have it, I have to stay in London one day longer than I expected.  How can I resist the £50 freezeout that night?  Well, basically, I can't.  This is still a self-dealt tournament, which is a bit poor, but it attracts some experienced players so the dealing isn't too bad.  I'll try to keep this one short, because I can't say I wasn't lucky.

Having literaly not played a hand for the first 90 minutes (and the only one I might have played - the best I'd seen - was QJs, which would have flopped a flush but lost to a full house), I found AA and someone raised into me for nearly all my chips.  AK vs AJ two hands later and I'm back in it.  Was chip leader at the final table for a while, and let a few players knock each other out.

The blinds were getting stupidly high - I had about 25,000 with a 2000 big blinds - so I started talking about a deal.  "I haven't played for 5 hours for a seven way chop" said the next player to be eliminated.  It's totally bad karma to turn down a deal.  I'd have been happy with just over £300 each.  Instead I was able to sit back and watch the field drop down to 4 players before I had to play another hand.  I won with the best hand and the worst hand at the times that mattered most (the blind situation meant things were completely in the lap of the poker gods) and ended up heads up with a small fraction of the chips.  Whilst I was surviving, the other guy was busy knocking out the other two players.  My luck continued though and I doubled and doubled again, enough that my opponent offered me a deal based on chip count and I ended up walking away with £898.  In the books I'm down as finishing in second place, but "joint first" has a much nicer ring to it!  1st place would have been £1208 and second £690, so we were effectively flipping a coin for over £500.  Not something I'm interested in doing really...

Because Gutshot is a borderline-illegal cardroom private members' club and not a casino, you can - and are expected - to tip the dealers.  Which is a bit rich in a game that's self-dealt until the final table, but I had to go along with the winner's suggestion of £30 each.  They'll be alright.

Total profit from Gutshot: £753 (approx $1400)

Leicester Gala is one of the better UK casino cardrooms I've played at.  It has a few quirks: most oddly the tables are all 8-seaters, so with house dealers that's no more than seven players to a table.  Every game is dealer-dealt, which is excellent.  Even the £10 game on a Monday night has a house dealer - fantastic value.  Every tournament is a freezeout with a decent number of chips and 30 minute levels.

They also don't allow cash games, so the side action is in the form of a seven-handed sit and go.  Unfortunately because the card room doesn't make any money - let's face it, how could it? - the dealers are called off to run blackjack and roulette and that jackpot stud poker carnival game as the tables break.  So last night (£20 tournament) after I was eliminated early I ended up hanging around for two hours to get in a sit-and-go.

Actually this is the first time I'd been eliminated early at Leicester - I've had reasonable success before.  The cards just weren't going my way though.  I'd gathered a few small pots when I see AK with the under-the-gun player raising all-in for 500 chips.  Blinds are 100/200.  There's still 5 players to act so I reraise to 1500 to isolate and he shows KQ.  The ace on the flop just helps to fill his straight and he doubles up. 

That player doesn't last much longer and gets replaced by somebody celebrating his 19th birthday with free champagne.  I raise under-the-gun with KK and he reraises me the minimum from the big blind.  I move all-in, figuring the stacks aren't deep enough to play the flop confidently and he calls with AJ.  The flopped ace leaves me with about 800 chips and the table breaks.

I'm all in first hand at the new table with 89o and it does the job.  Next hand I see A9 and do the same thing but get called by a donkey with K4s who hits 2 4s and sends me packing.

So after playing for less time than it took to drive there I decided to try a £20 sit-and-go.  These games have 10 minute levels so you can't hang about.  Fortunately I didn't need to, seeing AA very early on.  I called a small raise, feeling that the table was a bit frisky, and sure enough a player moves all in.  The original raiser calls and I rush to get my chips in to calls of "he's just calling for value".

I'm delighted to see 88 and AT, and my hand holds up to eliminate two players!  The luck continues as I knock out player number 3 with the mighty KJ on the big blind.  Usually I'm not good enough to play KJ, but with a free play and flopping top pair against his, erm, total bluff I'm somewhat ahead.

Heads up I have a 3-1 chip lead, which is only about 8 big blinds by then.  I offer a deal, and he refuses - either he thinks he's great or likes £100 coinflip - but the bad karma rule doesn't work this time.

Key hand comes with my 9T in the big blind and a free play.  Flop is 788 and I move all in.  He instantly calls, asking if I have a 7.  I don't really understand the question - a whole bunch of hands are beating his ace high, 4 kicker!  So in fact I'm slightly ahead here with 14 outs and 2 cards to come, but it doesn't happen.  I'd be betting this hand almost always so I don't think it's awful to push in this situation with hardly any chips to play with.

Received £40 for my trouble though, which almost paid for the night, and I got to play some short-handed poker (albeit briefly) which is always good practice.

One thing to remember if you are planning on playing at Leicester is to get there early. Very early.  Registration opens at 6.30pm for an 8pm start.  The capacity is 56 players (8 tables of 7) and when I arrived at 7.20 I was number 46.  I've missed out a couple of times - the Monday £10 game tends to sell out before 7pm.