UKIPT Nottingham

Day 1

The tourney started at 12pm and only played 8 levels with NO dinner break, therefore a 15min break every 2 hours meaning a finish of around 9pm.

The early stages were god awful. You start with a stack of 15,000 and I found myself quickly down to 6,000. The main hand involved a BIG fold on my part...

Blind were 50/100 and UTG raises to 400. I find AA and decide to smooth call as 3-betting seemed to be enough to take the pot down preflop at my table. The SB also calls which I wasn't happy about. Flop comes 8h 9h 2s. The SB actually leads out for 600 which I found strange, the original raiser quickly popped it up to 1,700. I decided to re-raise to about 4,500 as I though the original raiser was weak and just trying to take the pot down there and then. However the SB decides to to ship allin and I have about 8,000 behind. I couldn't really figure out what AA was beating here and put him on a set or 89. I opted to fold as blinds were still 50/100 and with 8k I still had plenty of play.

I proceeded to stack off some more chips and found myself with 6k.

The first pot to get my chips moving the other way started with the UTG limping. I found Kh2h in the sb and decide to make up the BB, the BB checks. Flop comes Ah Jh Qs, so I've flopped a gut shot and nut flush draw. I check, B checks and UTG limper min-bets 300 I think it was. I call and the SB pops it up to 1,200. UTG calls and I decide to ship my 5k (ish). Both fold and that was a nice little pickup.

My double up hand was when UTG raises and I smooth call with AA (lol). Flop comes Q high and he bets out, I shove and he snaps with QT. I dodge and double up. This took me to about 12k and I managed to small ball right the way up to about 20k. I continue to small ball by taking the blinds and antes as well as 3-betting and taking the pots down pre.

One interesting hand was when MP raises 3x I call with 33. Folded around and the flop comes JJ5. He leads out and I was going to re-pop him here but decided to smooth call. He checks/gives up on the turn, I bet out and he folds. That pot added a nice 15% to my stack.

I then finished up with 43k. I was so frustrated early on because the last 3 live tourneys I've never gotten above the starting stack and have had to play short stack poker. However once I got some momentum in this one I was able to open up a little and start chipping up. 394 players started Day 1b with 160 making it into Day 2. Not sure about the figures from Day 1a however I know about 250 players played. Making this tourney the largest £500 tourney in the UK to date. 72 places paid with 1st taking home £80k.

Day 2

Day 2 started well, I ran my stack up to about 100k before getting moved from the softest table ever to one which had Tom Middleton and Rupinder Bedi on it :( I was placed to Tom Middletons immediate right which wasn't the best place to be sitting.

Anyway the day pretty much ended for me when I picked up QQ. I raised, Middleton 3-bet and I tanked. I could either call and play the flop oop and be put to a tough decision if an A or K comes on the flop or I could 4-bet shove. I know if I shove he's folding most of his 3-bet range however he snaps me off with AK. An Ace hits the flop and I'm left crippled.

Finally busted in 107th place out of about 670 runners.

4th for $2.3k - Stars daily $20k

This was a fun tourney, I 1 tabled it which is very unusual for me but it seemed to work. I played my A game and was a huge chip leader going into the final table. I sat tight until we got 6 handed where I started to open up. 4 handed I manage to flop a set "Bing"!!! however unfortunately my opponent flopped a bigger set :( That left me crippled and that was that, out in 4th...

Egypt

Right Egypt was a funny old trip. It was nice to sample a different culture however I came back with mixed reviews.

We stayed in a nice 4* hotel which had everything we wanted...

The holiday started off strange as our guide was a little dodgy and made sure he told me to "watch my girl" when he dropped us at the hotel. Fair point but obviously made me wonder why he would say that. Anyway the first day we decide to visit Naama Bay which has lots of shops, the beach, restaurants etc...

We got a taxi and the taxi man insisted we book our return trip with him because getting a taxi back from Naama just wouldnt be safe, fair enough we said collect us in 3 hours. As soon as we left the taxi it was like being dropped off in the lions den. We were surrounded by shops and the shop keepers were standing at their doorways ready to pounce. for some reason we were the only people walking around the shopping area, no other tourists in site.

Within 2 minutes we were approached by a guy who was nice and introduced himself to us and we got chatting. To two naive tourists this just seems like a local being friendly until he eventually got us into his shop. He then proceeded to sit us down and shut the door. At this point we smelt something slightly fishy lol and then he said he was going off to make us an arabic drawing of our names lol. His brother then enters who proceeds to bombard us with perfumes and creame, rubbing creams into my girlfriends arms. I was like "Nah I dont fancy any perfumes at the moment mate". This went on for a while a we eventually had to get up and storm out because they just wouldnt let us go.

2 minutes later another guy approaches and I just say no thanks and walk on, then one minutes later two others who this time I ignore and then they proceed to get angry shouting "Do you not like Egyptians". Then a huge Egyptian guy comes over and offers his hand so I felt obliged not to piss him off so shake his hand and he wouldnt let the fuck go lol, he was holding and squeezing it for fooking ages.

I finally go my hand free and my girlfriend and I walked off again and kept our heads down. We didnt know where to go or what to do all we knew was we had 2 and a half ours to kill. Eventually we found The Hard Rock Cafe and the moment I walked in there felt like heaven haha familiar surroundings, English tv and nice burgers lol.

We burnt a good while in there and walked back to where the taxi man was collecting us but bloody hell, what an experience. I appreciate thats the Egyptian way but everyone I have spoken to have said they are never going back because of this carry on.

Anyway Day 2 and determined to enjoy the rest of our holiday we start of by booking a snorkeling trip in the red sea. We then just chillax by the pool for most of the day roasting in the 35 degree heat.

Halfway through the holiday I start getting use to their food, I also grew to love chickpeas lol, something I use to think was a bland food stuff, it can actually be used and incorporated into amazing meals.

Probably the best part of the holiday was the snorkeling in the Red Sea. It was totally fantastic and a once in a lifetime experience imo. We headed out towards Tiran Island around 8am in the morning in a lovely boat. After 3 hours in the boat we stopped and had the chance to dive into the seat and follow the instructor on the snorkeling route...

March Results

Online

I played the $640 Party Million at the beginning of the month and managed to cash for $1.5k. This was a great start to the month of March and in fact sparked my most consistent month of MTT poker to date. For a few solid weeks during March I was immersed in a routine of coming home from work having food and then settling down at about 7pm for an MTT session until about 1am.

During a span of 21 days I managed a total of 21 MTT cashes for a total of over $10k. I ran a fairly good ROI on this volume but it really made me realise the hard work, intensity and commitment needed to grind out good money playing poker. I managed this volume for around 3 weeks whilst working a 9-5 job so it may be slightly easier if I had more time but it was hardcore.

The individual cashes are shown below...

This included 5 final tables, 1 ship and 4 four figure scores.

Live

I made the trek to Coventry for Day 1b of the UKIPT. This was my second UKIPT event having previously played the Galway event. Getting there was no problem as it was all motorway and you can't miss the casino from the outside. I hadn't heard great things about Coventry so wasn't expecting much but was blown away by the casino itself. I've played in about 8 UK/IRE casinos and this is by far the best. Not yet entered a Vegas casino so I'm unable to compare.

The tourney itself didn't go great and I never got above the 15k starting stack. My table wasn't that tough but I had no real hands to get things going. The two players I did recognise at my table were James Mitchell recently IPO winner and Andy Bradshaw lol. Andy Bradshaw really made the table fun, he was so strange and got put in some tough spots. One of his so called "friends" at the table outdrew him on the river and Andy went mental..."How could you call that bet on the turn"..."We play together week in week out and you do this to me" haha it was so funny. He was like an open book it was sooo easy to tell when he had it and when he didn't.

Anyway I got short and managed to double up getting 7s in pre against Ks lol. I then got back up to about 12k before getting 4 bet allin by a guy whilst holding AK, I called and lost a race Vs Qs. I could have maybe gotten away from that and waiting for a better spot but I felt that was the time to gamble as if I busted I would have been able to drive home in good time without getting back late lol. Therefore I didnt bother checking into my hotel which was booked all weekend. Maybe I should have then I could have railed Dan and played the side events. But when you bust a tourney you feel like doing nothing else but leaving the place.

Seat @ UKIPT DTD

Took down a £560 seat to the DTD UKIPT event in May. I've played 2 of the 3 previous UKIPT events running pretty dry in both. Best I managed was Day 2 in Galway, busted late in Day 1 at Coventry...