A $6,000 Month

December has been a great month pokerwise, it could have been a lot better however the grounding is there to build on for 2011.

This is just a quick update as I'm off to Ireland for a week tomorrow however I'll post up a "2010 Review" and "Goals for 2011" post shortly after my return.

Recent Results.

Since my last post I've had the following results over the past few days...

* 1/41 for £560/$860 (£44 UKIPT Sat on Stars - top 2 got seats)
* 2/197 for $800 ($26 Rush MTT on Tilt)
* 1/248 for $710 ($12 Rush MTT on Tilt)
* 2/238 for $432 ($12 Rush MTT on Tilt)
* 3/180 for $236 ($12 MTT on Stars)

I also had some deep runs with 2 sick beats. The first with 400 left from 5,000 runners in the $11r on Stars. Get it in with AA pre against AJ, flop J river J ... nice. Even more sicker imo with 50 left from 500 in a $75 MTT on Tilt I repop an early position raise with QQ. He calls and the flop comes rags, he ships allin and I call. If I win I'm chip leader with 50 left and $6k up top. He turns over pocket 2s and nothing more. All I have to do is dodge a 2 with 2 cards to come and I'm chip leader....Turn....2 ! GG.

I was pleased to ship my 2nd £560 UKIPT DTD seat this past weekend as that allows me to book some nice accoms during my stay. With my recent results, my Heads Up MTT shippage earlier this month, the $2.1k I got from my mate and other cashes here and there it's been well over a $6k month which is my best of the year. A nice finish to 2010 and things are looking up for 2011.

Here are some screenshots of my results...

MTT Win, Friends, Deep Runs

Friend Running Hot

Well in a few of my previous posts I've mentioned my mate who I've recently got into poker, I've been coaching (Gazika11) him through tourneys and teaching him the basics. Well the past week has been a sick week for him (and me in some respects). He only plays Rush as he doesn't have the patience for normal structure MTT poker.

In the space of 2 days he binked yet another $75 45 Man for $1.1k (from an original $3 step ticket), after this he finished 2nd out of 1,152 runners in the $10r $30k Rush on Tilt for $6,000 and then the day after finished 1st in the $26 $20k Rush Turbo on Tilt for $5,100 haha. I was playing with him in both of these tourneys so took 20% in each for around $2.2k. Sick sick sick run hes on.

He's taking it well in his stride and is under no illusions that this is how things are on a regular basis and appreciates theres still plenty to learn in poker but what a start to his poker career. He's got a nice little bankroll to play with now so onwards and upwards in 2011 I say.

Heads Up MTT

I had some binkage of my own on the weekend. I jumped into the $22 Heads Up MTT on Stars and managed to put together 8 straight Heads Up wins for an outright win for $1,350 which was nice...


Deep Runs

Over the weekend I had 3 deep runs falling short in all :(

I placed 40/2,369 in the Poker Stars DNG on Friday night for $267. Followed this up on Saturday with an 11/247 in the $109 $20k on Stars for $395. Finally I late reged for the new Stars major, the Sunday Kick Off. This got 1,339 runners and I busted 20th for $536.

I was feeling really good deep in the Sunday KO and felt a final table was on the cards. I went card dead for the final hour and a half before reshipping 17 bigs with AT, 66 calls and holds and that was that.

Overall this past week has been very profitable especially with Gazikas results. Plus shipping the $22 HU MTT and running deep in a few majors. Hopefully I'm just laying the foundations for 2011 and I can turn my endless deep runs in 2010 (Warm Up, Party Millions, Endless DNG runs, etc...) into some major ships :D :D

The Rescue Ship

Last night I decided to put in an MTT grinding session and played about 10 in total. After a few results in recently weeks I was firmly brought to down earth and reminded of the harsh reality of MTT variance. I couldn't even buy a vowel last night and busted all before the money leaving me firmly on "choppy waters" and sinking me to about -$400 on the night. I finally make it back to shore and just feel like hitting the hay.

The Rescue Ship

Whilst I was on shore, licking my wounds and seeing 10 ships sail away I get a call (via skype) from a mate of mine whom I'm currently coaching. Although I just wanted to get my head down he said we should play a couple of $12 Rush tourneys on Tilt so I agree and away we go. The usual of me playing my hands and talking him through his, being on hand whenever hes in a tough spot. Rush is an ideal way for people to quickly pick up the raw skills needed for poker as your always seeing hands asap and being put in tough spots much more than a standard MTT.

So I quickly bust one tourney and some how find myself with a 20k stack after one hour in the other. This particular event had 233 runners and we always agree that if we play a Rush MTT together then we'll ship 20% if either finish top 2, so that was my aim to get his bankroll moving in the right direction.

My mate quickly busted both and I found myself ITM as chip leader. I made the final table 3rd in chips and take a hit straight away when I'm in the BB with 22. The button limps and sb makes up. (blinds 600/1200, I have about 80k). I make it 6800 to try and take the pot here however the button and sb call. With that said the flop comes a nice 355 and sb checks. The button has 15k and I lead out for 13k, button shoves, sb folds I call. Button shows KQ lol for K high. Q on the turn and he takes down a nice pot :( sucks.

Anyway I grind my way back up and win a big pot taking out 2 people with QQ. When it's 3 handed I'm chip leader and with 4x the chips as 2nd just pretty much take advantage of the fact that they're both tightening for 2nd place lol.

So finally despite unable to board 10 ships earlier, from nowhere I get an emergency phone call and after 2 hours of waiting the emergency ship comes sailing in :D

After I shipped my mate his 20% I find myself with a small profit on the night which I'm happy with as it could have been a lot worse :D :D

UKIPT Galway, UKIPT DTD and 2011

UKIPT Galway

Well first up UKIPT Galway was a big fail for me. My flight out to Dublin was delayed due to Dublin Airport closing because of the snow. It finally opened and we took off eventually landing in Dublin at 9pm. Dublin was covered in snow and it wasn’t letting up with the snow chucking it down as we landed. Our flight was the last flight to land before it closed again due to the weather.

Right, so I’m in Dublin at 9pm, in a blizzard and I need to get 150 miles across country to Galway, with the airport closed and most buses to the centre cancelled my chances don’t look good. I managed to find a GoBus which was going direct to Galway via the motorway and I finally got away at 10pm. The road conditions were awful and I was getting slightly worried when we were sliding all over the road and passing endless broken down cars and AA vans. To be fair the driver did well and although he was going at 10mph I finally got to Galway at 1am lol. Not bad seeing as I left for the airport at 3.30pm the previous day.

So due to the weather conditions my girlfriend couldn’t meet me as she lives 30 minutes outside of Galway in the sticks. I check into a Travelodge and book 3 nights as it was only 90e. I get to the Travelodge around 1.30am and it’s -3, I go into my room and ..... THE WINDOW IS WIDE OPEN AND THE ROOM IS FREEEEEEZING !!! I was fuming. I popped the heating on, pulled out the 2 spare duvets, put on my hoody and all was well :D not a great 12 hours for me that’s for sure.

Ok so as mentioned in a previous post I was planning on playing the 350e side event on the Friday however when I wake up on Thursday and check Poker Stars there’s an announcement that the UKIPT has been postponed due to the weather. It was postponed a day so I assumed (never assume it makes an ass out of you and me) all the side events would be pushed back a day as well. If they stuck with running the 350e event on the Friday then Stars would miss out on a day’s worth of bust outs in the 1,000e main event. Anyway with this announcement I figured that there was no poker for me that weekend because if the 350e was running from Sat/Sun I couldn’t play as I was flying home Sun.

I made it to Galway after 12 hours in the snow, changed my £s to es for the tourney buyin and was ready for some poker but it wasn’t meant to be. I spent the long weekend with my girlfriend HOWEVER on Sat I read the 350e tourney did start on Friday as planed and it was just the Main Event that got pushed back AHHHHHHHHH !!!! This sent me to Tiltsville, I was soo annoyed at myself for not 100% checking and I could have easily walked to the venue to double check. When I found this out I proceeded to go on Tilt and spewed the 350e buyin on a pointless overly expensive meal and some clothes lol.

Anyway that was a 100% poker related fail of a weekend, the main plus was that I got to spend all my time with my girlfriend which was nice.

UKIPT Nottingham

I played a £44 Seat Only satellite last night to the next UKIPT Main Event and managed to ship a £560 seat. It’s nice to bag a seat to this nice and early and it takes the pressure off the longer it goes without bagging one. Which leads me onto next year...

Live Poker in 2011

January/February is going to be a busy couple of months for me in terms of live poker (by my standards).

• 22/1/11 – 23/1/11 - £115 Grand Prix, Dusk Till Dawn
• 5/2/11 – 6/2/11 - £50 NAPAT Team Event, Star City
• 10/2/11 – 15/2/11 - £560 UKIPT, Dusk Till Dawn
• April – WSOP Circuit, Las Vegas

I have a return flight to Vegas booked for April during the WSOP Circuit at Ceasars. There will be endless ring events with buyins ranging from $300-$500 during my stay. At the moment I’m 50/50 about going as I don’t have anyone 100% definitely coming with me due to the £700 return flight. I may head over regardless however all depends on how the poker side of my life is treating me around that time.

Online

Nothing major to report here as I’ve been away however I did bag the £560 UKIPT seat and have had two MTT cashes since my ship, 11/360 for $115 and 7/500 for $220.

That’s all for now :D

Cheers