Well this will be a pretty long update as lots has happened since my last post.
My last post covered the unfortunate event which saw me snapping my wrist on the ice and requiring surgery and two k wires. It really wasn’t perfect timing as I was just starting to get into grinding the hu sngs and was feeling confident in my ability to beat the games and move up.
The medication I was on at first post the operation really affected me physically and mentally besides the fact I was one handed I didn’t feel like doing anything then feeling sorry for myself. It is only when you lose use of something you take for granted you begin to really appreciate what it was you once had. I could barely dress myself, couldn’t wash properly and couldn’t complete the most trivial of tasks. It was only after two weeks that the pain in my wrist and the affects of the surgery and prescription drugs wore off, I became more competent. I got my cast changed and my hand and arm was not a pretty site the K wires sticking out of my wrist encrusted in dried in blood combined with the dried in disinfected and blood covering my arm. Thankfully the new cast was lighter and easier to manage, however I still couldn’t leave the house with our friend Mr. Frost giving us a snow storm like I’ve never seen before and with Australia looming in a couple of weeks and the need for a speedier recovery than expected it would be foolish to jeopardise. I missed a number of friends 21st’s and countless social events and didn’t drink for 3 full weeks. One of my favourite days of the xmas period was looming around the corner and I was determined to attend but it was out of my hands and sure enough the ice returned and it was only on the last minute I decided to go in and see how bad the streets where, you see it was no normal occasion it was our annual 12pubs of Christmas on Camden St. which usually promises ridiculous attire and creepily messy behaviour by the 30 strong crowd involved and it was the combination of transport from pub to pub coupled with drink that made me apprehensive. I went and braved it and my fears where greatly exaggerated as the streets where clear of ice in the city centre and a great day was had by all.
The cast had to come off a week early due to me leaving for Australia on the 9th of January, so I got it off on the 5th of January and had to the two K wires out too, it left for a small dilemma as I had to get all my physiotherapy in one session and will have to judge myself on the recovery. One of the k wires didn’t want to leave my wrist and made friends with my nerves as it was getting removed, the shadow doctors face looked in more pain than me.
It took a getting used to using my wrist again as it was extremely weak, the advice I was given was to treat my wrist as it never had been broke which I did and do the necessary exercises.
My going away party came and went and before I knew it I was on my way to the airport to start my Aussie Adventure, the route I planned was Dublin- Amsterdam-Kuala Lumpar- Sydney. It started at 3am on a Sunday night and I arrived in the hostel in Sydney at 9.30pm on the Monday. Some of you may know I have had my run ins on long distance flights and I wasn’t looking forward to it too much, I heard Malaysia airways where pretty decent, my first 12hour flight had a screaming baby the whole way but he wasn’t even a baby he was like a 3year old toddler, but that in no way prepared me for my next flight, I was disappointed to see the plane was significantly smaller and me and my mate Ayo where taking bets on the seating arrangement of the plane and whether we would have entertainment. We got on board they somehow had 9seats going across the plane. Sit down take off far bit smaller and less space then the last trip, finally get in the air, my entertainment doesn’t work, oh well I’ll wait until someone comes by and also my head was bouncing from the screaming kid who is now two rows ahead of us. Eventually one of the guys comes round and I tell here my entertainment is not working. Sorry sir blah blah blah let me reset it and it should work fine don’t press anything until it comes back on, hour passes no sign of my screen or anyone coming back. Eventually he comes back and I’m like its still not working, goes off again, comes back with a voucher for the on air shopping worth about 24euro, he keeps apologising and invites me down to the crew seating to watch a film, I wasn’t in humour of kicking up a big fuss as I wasn’t going to be using the entertainment system and was happy enough with my ipod. In the row in front of ours there was an Indian family consisting of mammy daddy baby grandad and granny. Mammy sat with her full seat back then next seat granny didn’t, so I could see too well what was going on, my seat wasn’t pushed back. The baby spent the whole flight trying to ripe mammys top off to get some “bitty” and looked overjoyed every time he got some. It was defo something I could have done without seeing.
I was surprised at how easy and quick going through customs was, we got a train to hostel in world square, 19bucks a night 18person dorm, there was a great buzz in the place even though the quality of the place was below par. I set up my bank account with relative ease. Got internet for 79$ for 4GB’s which I have 3months to use and can top up at a cheap enough rate. One thing I have noticed since being in Sydney is its quite expensive, especially drink, but everything seems dearer when the currency value is greater than your own but the decreasing value of the euro made things seem more expensive.
I did the oz party bus the other night which involves a bus kitted out wih a DJ box and lights and stuff driving around to 5different locations for 5free drinks and entry, all for 30$ which was great value. The group mentality on the bus especially with drink on board brought back memories of my days of going to bohs matches. People do lose the run of themselves smashing the roof of the bus with their fist jumping up and down like lunatics, screaming at the top of their lungs. I am glad to say I was firmly in the middle of all the non sense and had to remember to not smash my healing wrist off the roof, there is a small chance I may have broke my left hand J. there was one interesting game played for 300bucks worth of prizes and it really shows how far people will go for free stuff, 5guys 5girls have get into various positions and the last to do so came either leave the game or take an item off each, it got down to the final two as most got down to their pants and bottled out, to stay in the game one of the guys(very camp guy) got his kit off and tugged on his knob as he pulled down his briefs and saved the girl from getting her baps out. The sick part was he still didn’t win the top price. The strippers friend did stalk me for the entire pub crawl and I in no way led her on, my chattyness got the better of me, the lads had great craic the next day slagging me as I said I’d take a blowie off here but nought else you might ask yourself why not? If you seen here in the flesh it would take a long time before the beer goggles would come into effect you might hit a coma first. The crawl ended in a foam party.
Yesterday we went out to visit a friend of ours who came over to Sydney in October on her own, she is living out in Coogee the lads laughed at me in the morning as I was plastered in sun cream before we left. A day of drinking beers on the beach and was great to catch up and see how shes been getting on. We are all meeting up again tonight in the city and going out again. One lads new nickname is RED as he got an absolute pounding off the sun and I had the last laugh.
The flooding over here has greatly affected our plans as we where going to get out of Sydney pretty rapid move up the coast of which is mostly flooded now. Its pretty mental 12people died and 60 missing the last time I seen and they reckon they will not find most of their bodies. We are going to look into the fruit picking to get it out of the way until then we need to get the bank accounts up and running.
Poker wise I have the dongle now so I will be able to play when I get a chance I have played a couple of hu sngs but no real volume as people are constantly coming up to you in the hostels and chatting. I’m sure when I need more money I will find a reason to play until then.
Saturday, January 15, 2011
Tuesday, November 30, 2010
Ice you Bastard
well if you had of told me on saturday afternoon if i was going to spend sunday til 7pm tonight in hospital i'd have laughed at you,
lil did i know when i slipped on the ice on the way home from the shop that i rgery on my wrist would need surgery, i iced my wrist had a few cans of devils bit with my mates and threw a sling on my wrist and i went out, when i woke sunday morning in agony, since sunday afternoon i have spent going from vhi swiftcare to a & e in blanch. it was in vhi the doc said how badly i'd fractured my wrist that i shifted the bone the otherside and i need to get a plate put in my arm,
so off to a&e in connolly fun begins arrive 6,30pm, 7pm tiage nurse sees me, 8pm blood taken and drip added to my vain, 9pm meet surgeon and told i would stay overnight, got a bed in casualty 11pm, surgeon introduced to some of the team and tells he is confident i'll be seen, moved to a day ward noon next day thought i'd be operated on that day, 5pm comes, surgeon comes out explains he won't fit me in as two life threatening injuries have skipped me in the queue
, more than fair enough just a nuisance for me as i would not get seen until tuesday, another night of boredom fasting and plenty of half doze offs and loads of painkillers,
8am nxt morning delighted to see the surgeon, nurse dresses me which is strange i was like the biggest baby you've ever seen, the pants i had to wear where just LOL,
operation went well with no complications, anastecthic is the strangest feeling ever, came around about 3pm today and wanted to get out of hospital as quick as i could stated to drink water get dressed, went loo, sat up in a chair,
nurse comes in says your staying tonight, now all surgeons i spoke to that morning said i should defo get home that afternoon unleess i react badly, i didn't, i demanded to see a doctor or surgeon to be told why i'm staying overnight, 10min later surgeon clears me and asks the nurse why she said i had to stay? she said my paperwork wasn't finished , he said thats not a worthy enuf reason etc and she had told the surgeon i hadn't came round,
he wrote up my perscription and told me he'd see me for my check up in 2weeks,
crazy few days glad its over, shouldn't affect my Oz plans too much, on the mend now i think
bastard ice
Jay
lil did i know when i slipped on the ice on the way home from the shop that i rgery on my wrist would need surgery, i iced my wrist had a few cans of devils bit with my mates and threw a sling on my wrist and i went out, when i woke sunday morning in agony, since sunday afternoon i have spent going from vhi swiftcare to a & e in blanch. it was in vhi the doc said how badly i'd fractured my wrist that i shifted the bone the otherside and i need to get a plate put in my arm,
so off to a&e in connolly fun begins arrive 6,30pm, 7pm tiage nurse sees me, 8pm blood taken and drip added to my vain, 9pm meet surgeon and told i would stay overnight, got a bed in casualty 11pm, surgeon introduced to some of the team and tells he is confident i'll be seen, moved to a day ward noon next day thought i'd be operated on that day, 5pm comes, surgeon comes out explains he won't fit me in as two life threatening injuries have skipped me in the queue
, more than fair enough just a nuisance for me as i would not get seen until tuesday, another night of boredom fasting and plenty of half doze offs and loads of painkillers,
8am nxt morning delighted to see the surgeon, nurse dresses me which is strange i was like the biggest baby you've ever seen, the pants i had to wear where just LOL,
operation went well with no complications, anastecthic is the strangest feeling ever, came around about 3pm today and wanted to get out of hospital as quick as i could stated to drink water get dressed, went loo, sat up in a chair,
nurse comes in says your staying tonight, now all surgeons i spoke to that morning said i should defo get home that afternoon unleess i react badly, i didn't, i demanded to see a doctor or surgeon to be told why i'm staying overnight, 10min later surgeon clears me and asks the nurse why she said i had to stay? she said my paperwork wasn't finished , he said thats not a worthy enuf reason etc and she had told the surgeon i hadn't came round,
he wrote up my perscription and told me he'd see me for my check up in 2weeks,
crazy few days glad its over, shouldn't affect my Oz plans too much, on the mend now i think
bastard ice
Jay
Wednesday, November 10, 2010
I'm not dead yet!
Well its been a long while since my last blog post, and lots of things have happened since then. I guess the biggest thing is that I decided that I’m going to go to Australia in January for the year. My best mate mentioned to me last march that he was considering going over as he was finished college that year and wanted to do it while he still could and before he got a real job. I immediately without even thinking about it and said I’ll go. The way I figured it would be a great life changing experience and serious craic. I like to enjoy myself and love travelling.
After I came back from UKIPT Coventry(where I actually made day 2) I don’t like to use the word depressed, so I guess I better manner would be I was kind of fed up with poker and pretty much didn’t want to play and grind and took a pretty long break from the game.(Well the longest I‘ve taken since I started playing when I was 16)
This was not a great thing as I just went out too much, drinking too much and just was a real mess and I didn’t know one day from the next and didn’t know where anything was going. I have a large group of friends if anything was happening I was involved. Don’t get me wrong I did have a good time most of the time but I think I had a bit of a epiphany after my 21st, I had pretty much been on a couple month bender and felt like absolute shit and said I can’t keep this up. So I decided I needed to make a change so I cut back on the drink, I knew realistically I could never just give it up as alcohol is a huge part of our culture, I stopped drinking shorts and drinking before going out, I also cut back on nights out. I was much more focused and productive as a person. I finally felt like I wanted to play poker again.
So I didn’t know what to play, and I wanted to set myself a challenge and not to dive back in, so I withdrew all my funds online and left 600$ on Pokerstars and decided I’d grind that up and I would do it playing HU SNG’s and the reason for this is because somehow I was down 600$ @ the 23$ level games from playing them drunk and poorly since I played under that account, so I wanted to rectify that. So I’ve been playing mainly hu sng’s and the odd MTT thrown in. I’ve been happy with my success so far considering the small volume I’ve put in. That is the plan poker wise before I go away and I’d say my only live outing will possible be UKIPT Galway in December. Other than that its really full steam ahead with Australia flights are booked and visa’s are granted leaving 9th of January.
While I am in Australia I plan to update this blog and maybe do the odd vblog as one the lads going is a genius with tech stuff. I do intend to bring the laptop and play poker when I can and also check out some of the live action over there.
I’m sure it won’t be another 6months before I update again,
Jay
After I came back from UKIPT Coventry(where I actually made day 2) I don’t like to use the word depressed, so I guess I better manner would be I was kind of fed up with poker and pretty much didn’t want to play and grind and took a pretty long break from the game.(Well the longest I‘ve taken since I started playing when I was 16)
This was not a great thing as I just went out too much, drinking too much and just was a real mess and I didn’t know one day from the next and didn’t know where anything was going. I have a large group of friends if anything was happening I was involved. Don’t get me wrong I did have a good time most of the time but I think I had a bit of a epiphany after my 21st, I had pretty much been on a couple month bender and felt like absolute shit and said I can’t keep this up. So I decided I needed to make a change so I cut back on the drink, I knew realistically I could never just give it up as alcohol is a huge part of our culture, I stopped drinking shorts and drinking before going out, I also cut back on nights out. I was much more focused and productive as a person. I finally felt like I wanted to play poker again.
So I didn’t know what to play, and I wanted to set myself a challenge and not to dive back in, so I withdrew all my funds online and left 600$ on Pokerstars and decided I’d grind that up and I would do it playing HU SNG’s and the reason for this is because somehow I was down 600$ @ the 23$ level games from playing them drunk and poorly since I played under that account, so I wanted to rectify that. So I’ve been playing mainly hu sng’s and the odd MTT thrown in. I’ve been happy with my success so far considering the small volume I’ve put in. That is the plan poker wise before I go away and I’d say my only live outing will possible be UKIPT Galway in December. Other than that its really full steam ahead with Australia flights are booked and visa’s are granted leaving 9th of January.
While I am in Australia I plan to update this blog and maybe do the odd vblog as one the lads going is a genius with tech stuff. I do intend to bring the laptop and play poker when I can and also check out some of the live action over there.
I’m sure it won’t be another 6months before I update again,
Jay
Tuesday, April 6, 2010
Updating Stuff
UKIPT COVENTRY
Well next up for me is the third stop on the UKIPT which is in the wonderful place known as Coventry, I left it really late to book my flight for some reason and failed to avail of the 20euro flights but 60euro isn’t too bad I guess J it did leave me with getting 6.30am flight on Thursday morning. I am playing day 1B and hope to fair better than the last two stops on the tour. I am staying in the Novotel hotel which is meant to be near enough to the Ricoh arena which is little complex wonderland.
Poker
In terms of poker I haven’t played that much since I came back from Uruguay and any sessions I have booked have just been losing I must be building up my run good. It can be really difficult to keep a positive attitude and continue playing your best. I have ran really bad in tourneys 2010, and can’t win anytime I’m all in regardless what way the percentages are, MTT variance FTW. I remember hearing that John Juanda has never lost two pots all in a row, guess I’m doing something wrong J. I guess I am just lucky in the sense that I don’t need to worry about living expenses or future summer plans as before I decided to give this a bash full time I set aside 6months~ worth of living expenses and set money aside for the summer, I have my 21st, a wedding in Spain and a wedding in Dublin as well as a stags in abroad in May and a Stags in Dublin. I do have intents of starting a grind of 100nl and see how I like it and see how that goes and cut my MTT’s just to a Sundays. I am looking forward to the SCOOP.
Life
I haven’t played poker in like a week and instead have been on quite a spree of drinking, went on a 14pub crawl on Saturday some reason related to easter I do never question days like this J. going out with friends and just taking your mind off the game is a big help. I also have been watching the TV Show Fringe, I got through Season 1 and am on Season 2 good show but with the same writer as Lost is it no wonder I don’t know what the fuck is going on. I have also been reading a bit, reading Bill Cullens book Penny Apples, have another book Golden Apples which he wrote but haven’t read yet, I also have my hands on Rich Dad, Poor Dad and have read some of it and so far have found it quite an interesting read. If anyone has any other good books to read leave a post below
Irish Open
Also on a side note, congratz to all the IPB’ers who cashed in the Irish Open at the weekend, particularly PistolPete who made the final table and busted in cruel fashion cause he got unlucky but got 3bet jammed in an absolute horrible spot to do so. Also congratz to IPB’ers update team who did a great job with the updates when I skimmed through all the updates yesterday.
If anyone knows anything cool to do in Coventry while I’m there let me know cause I will have Thursday and possibly Saturday and Sunday free too knowing spewy form.
Jay
Well next up for me is the third stop on the UKIPT which is in the wonderful place known as Coventry, I left it really late to book my flight for some reason and failed to avail of the 20euro flights but 60euro isn’t too bad I guess J it did leave me with getting 6.30am flight on Thursday morning. I am playing day 1B and hope to fair better than the last two stops on the tour. I am staying in the Novotel hotel which is meant to be near enough to the Ricoh arena which is little complex wonderland.
Poker
In terms of poker I haven’t played that much since I came back from Uruguay and any sessions I have booked have just been losing I must be building up my run good. It can be really difficult to keep a positive attitude and continue playing your best. I have ran really bad in tourneys 2010, and can’t win anytime I’m all in regardless what way the percentages are, MTT variance FTW. I remember hearing that John Juanda has never lost two pots all in a row, guess I’m doing something wrong J. I guess I am just lucky in the sense that I don’t need to worry about living expenses or future summer plans as before I decided to give this a bash full time I set aside 6months~ worth of living expenses and set money aside for the summer, I have my 21st, a wedding in Spain and a wedding in Dublin as well as a stags in abroad in May and a Stags in Dublin. I do have intents of starting a grind of 100nl and see how I like it and see how that goes and cut my MTT’s just to a Sundays. I am looking forward to the SCOOP.
Life
I haven’t played poker in like a week and instead have been on quite a spree of drinking, went on a 14pub crawl on Saturday some reason related to easter I do never question days like this J. going out with friends and just taking your mind off the game is a big help. I also have been watching the TV Show Fringe, I got through Season 1 and am on Season 2 good show but with the same writer as Lost is it no wonder I don’t know what the fuck is going on. I have also been reading a bit, reading Bill Cullens book Penny Apples, have another book Golden Apples which he wrote but haven’t read yet, I also have my hands on Rich Dad, Poor Dad and have read some of it and so far have found it quite an interesting read. If anyone has any other good books to read leave a post below
Irish Open
Also on a side note, congratz to all the IPB’ers who cashed in the Irish Open at the weekend, particularly PistolPete who made the final table and busted in cruel fashion cause he got unlucky but got 3bet jammed in an absolute horrible spot to do so. Also congratz to IPB’ers update team who did a great job with the updates when I skimmed through all the updates yesterday.
If anyone knows anything cool to do in Coventry while I’m there let me know cause I will have Thursday and possibly Saturday and Sunday free too knowing spewy form.
Jay
Tuesday, March 23, 2010
Its been a long time coming
Punta Del Este continued
Well that was fun, I busted into level 6 today in the main event 200/400 with ante of 50, to be honest nothing went right for me today, from my table draw to the cards I held. I had SixthSense19 to my left who is Uruguay’s only online player and is quite sick, beside him was Humberto Brenes not too tough a spot as he plays quite straightforward but not a weak spot, the only value on the table was two local South Americans and a old US gentleman qualifier(but he was playing very tight), the other three seats where filled by two young solid South Americans and a Norwegian guy.
My first real hand of the tourney that I played was vs. SixthSense, I raise QTcc in early position to 400 he flats to my left(he had been playing a lot of pots and over betting and stuff),
Flop comes 984ss, I bet 600 to just try and end the hand he flats,
Turn comes Ad. This is a good card for me to continue to bet as all my Ahigh continuation bets get there, there aren’t many Ax hands in his range that call the flop, he more than likely has something like TT T9, JT or a FD, so I bet again 1325, I know he won’t fold a FD or a SD here, hell he might not even fold nine, but my plan was to fire most rivers as he will fold all of them to final bet, he thinks about raising and calls,
River 2 no FD has been completed, this where I had to be careful with my bet sizing cos he might snap me off with 9 or 8x or bluff raise if he senses weakness,
I bet 2200 and he folds after thinking for 3mins, the hand I most rep on the river is something like AK or AQ imo and he is prob unsure whether I would fold that to his raise, but my range does have hands that don’t fold to any river action, therefore he can’t really turn any hands into bluffs but he can’t make light call downs.
About an orbit later I pick my first real hand of the day KK, old South American guy limps, I make it 525, other old South American calls(he had played one hand of note where he c/r a K4x flop vs. Humberto 1025 to 5k)
So we go 3handed to the flop- T4cc7, the limping SA bets 450, I figure this is nothing but a FD or something weak and for some opponents is a set, so I go ahead and value-raise to 1425, I can call HU but can’t afford to let the guy behind come in,
he quickly makes it 5k, SA leader folds pretty quickly, now the stacks where about 20k effective at the start, so my decision on the flop decides whether I play for stacks or not, I figure this guy has a set nearly always, either way I felt like I was drawing to two outs nearly always, I also don’t have Kc so no backdoors, so I decide to fold but show cos I feel he will show if I do regardless, he shows top set I feel good,
Nothing really happens good for me until I pick up KQdd vs. the Norwegian, he makes it 550 UTG its like his first hand cos he was 2hours late and only arrived at the tourney, blinds 100/200, I decide to flat,
Flop comes 984dd, he checks I bet 800, he calls, I’m still unsure what he has he could be floating some of the time have like 44-AA, some 9x and 8x hands and some SD and Fds, I do have quite a big draw so tbh I don’t care what he has,
Turn Jd, he leads for 1400, I’m like hmmm, I think this can be BS a lot of the time, there isn’t a lot hands that c/c flop that can bet/call the turn so I decide to flat again to keep lots of weak hands in my range,
The river comes a pretty safe 2s, he bets like 5200 and I’m like sigh, I eventually call to be shown ATdd , I thought of folding but my hand is just too strong too fold, I posted the hand on Irish poker boards,
So that left me with like 10k or so, managed to build this up to 24k by 200/400 with an ante of 50 with no showdowns bar me 3betting AT and getting one street of value on a A2245 board vs. an unlikely KK,
I call a Ten BB shove from late position with AQ(in the BB), he had the top of his range in AK, I drop to 20k,
The second of the big hands came when the old South American brings it in for 1200 UTG, Max the Norwegian flats, which is nothing unusual he has been playing pretty lag especially versus this guy, I pick up AKdd, I raise to 3.9k and sixth sense shoves for 11k folds back to me, I’m never folding here and I run into the top of his range KK no suck out for me and I’m down to like 8k and the blinds go up to 300/600 75 ante, I shove 77 from mid position into QQ and its busto for me.
I did enjoy my stay in Punta Del Este that is the one advantage of playing tournaments in these wild exotic places is that you get to experience a completely different culture. The language barrier was painful at times. The most interesting thing of the trip happened on my return flight from Sao Paolo to Amsterdam, I always choose the aisle seat if I am travelling alone, its just easy if I need to get up at any time during the flight, I have never encountered someone on the inside who abuses the I need to go the toilet, well I never had a guy with diahorrea, a drug problem or a kidney infection beside me before. We get on the plane he goes the toilet far enough, plane stabilises in the air and he needs to go again, ah maybe he had a few beers in the airport, the problem arose maybe after 2hours he had went the toilet 4times, each time I had to get up stop what I was watching and wait for him to come back which was 5 to 10mins, so the food came and even before the flight attendants came to take are trays, I told he would have to wait. When she did come I let him out and I went for a stroll down the plane to cool off, its only 3hours into the flight we have another 9hours to go, you don’t want to get into a row with someone who you have to sit beside, so I’m down the back of the plane and I see this middle age south American man going towards the door on the plane and his hand going towards the lever of the plane, my natural reaction was to push him and ask what the fuck are you doing? He barks back in Spanish/Portuguese and go back to the door in a bit of frantic fashion, before I really know what has happened I have punched the man and he hit’s the deck and as he tries to get up I put my knee into his back and shout he was trying to open the plane door, the flight attendants come rushing to see what has happened the apprehend the man, and I explain what has happened, while a couple of flight attendants talk to the other guy, I get escorted back to my seat and he tells me he will get back to me. So the guys story was that he was looking out the window and used the lever for leverage and that when he was barking frantically he was saying why you pushing me or what not, he claims he doesn’t speak English and did not know that it was an open lever, the good news for me he was not going to press charges, and the second good part was that shitty shitty bang bang didn’t go the toilet again.
I do apoligise for the lack of updates I had 2/3 of that wrote back after busted added to it now, this is pretty long so I will post another update in the next couple of days of more present events,
Later
Jay
Well that was fun, I busted into level 6 today in the main event 200/400 with ante of 50, to be honest nothing went right for me today, from my table draw to the cards I held. I had SixthSense19 to my left who is Uruguay’s only online player and is quite sick, beside him was Humberto Brenes not too tough a spot as he plays quite straightforward but not a weak spot, the only value on the table was two local South Americans and a old US gentleman qualifier(but he was playing very tight), the other three seats where filled by two young solid South Americans and a Norwegian guy.
My first real hand of the tourney that I played was vs. SixthSense, I raise QTcc in early position to 400 he flats to my left(he had been playing a lot of pots and over betting and stuff),
Flop comes 984ss, I bet 600 to just try and end the hand he flats,
Turn comes Ad. This is a good card for me to continue to bet as all my Ahigh continuation bets get there, there aren’t many Ax hands in his range that call the flop, he more than likely has something like TT T9, JT or a FD, so I bet again 1325, I know he won’t fold a FD or a SD here, hell he might not even fold nine, but my plan was to fire most rivers as he will fold all of them to final bet, he thinks about raising and calls,
River 2 no FD has been completed, this where I had to be careful with my bet sizing cos he might snap me off with 9 or 8x or bluff raise if he senses weakness,
I bet 2200 and he folds after thinking for 3mins, the hand I most rep on the river is something like AK or AQ imo and he is prob unsure whether I would fold that to his raise, but my range does have hands that don’t fold to any river action, therefore he can’t really turn any hands into bluffs but he can’t make light call downs.
About an orbit later I pick my first real hand of the day KK, old South American guy limps, I make it 525, other old South American calls(he had played one hand of note where he c/r a K4x flop vs. Humberto 1025 to 5k)
So we go 3handed to the flop- T4cc7, the limping SA bets 450, I figure this is nothing but a FD or something weak and for some opponents is a set, so I go ahead and value-raise to 1425, I can call HU but can’t afford to let the guy behind come in,
he quickly makes it 5k, SA leader folds pretty quickly, now the stacks where about 20k effective at the start, so my decision on the flop decides whether I play for stacks or not, I figure this guy has a set nearly always, either way I felt like I was drawing to two outs nearly always, I also don’t have Kc so no backdoors, so I decide to fold but show cos I feel he will show if I do regardless, he shows top set I feel good,
Nothing really happens good for me until I pick up KQdd vs. the Norwegian, he makes it 550 UTG its like his first hand cos he was 2hours late and only arrived at the tourney, blinds 100/200, I decide to flat,
Flop comes 984dd, he checks I bet 800, he calls, I’m still unsure what he has he could be floating some of the time have like 44-AA, some 9x and 8x hands and some SD and Fds, I do have quite a big draw so tbh I don’t care what he has,
Turn Jd, he leads for 1400, I’m like hmmm, I think this can be BS a lot of the time, there isn’t a lot hands that c/c flop that can bet/call the turn so I decide to flat again to keep lots of weak hands in my range,
The river comes a pretty safe 2s, he bets like 5200 and I’m like sigh, I eventually call to be shown ATdd , I thought of folding but my hand is just too strong too fold, I posted the hand on Irish poker boards,
So that left me with like 10k or so, managed to build this up to 24k by 200/400 with an ante of 50 with no showdowns bar me 3betting AT and getting one street of value on a A2245 board vs. an unlikely KK,
I call a Ten BB shove from late position with AQ(in the BB), he had the top of his range in AK, I drop to 20k,
The second of the big hands came when the old South American brings it in for 1200 UTG, Max the Norwegian flats, which is nothing unusual he has been playing pretty lag especially versus this guy, I pick up AKdd, I raise to 3.9k and sixth sense shoves for 11k folds back to me, I’m never folding here and I run into the top of his range KK no suck out for me and I’m down to like 8k and the blinds go up to 300/600 75 ante, I shove 77 from mid position into QQ and its busto for me.
I did enjoy my stay in Punta Del Este that is the one advantage of playing tournaments in these wild exotic places is that you get to experience a completely different culture. The language barrier was painful at times. The most interesting thing of the trip happened on my return flight from Sao Paolo to Amsterdam, I always choose the aisle seat if I am travelling alone, its just easy if I need to get up at any time during the flight, I have never encountered someone on the inside who abuses the I need to go the toilet, well I never had a guy with diahorrea, a drug problem or a kidney infection beside me before. We get on the plane he goes the toilet far enough, plane stabilises in the air and he needs to go again, ah maybe he had a few beers in the airport, the problem arose maybe after 2hours he had went the toilet 4times, each time I had to get up stop what I was watching and wait for him to come back which was 5 to 10mins, so the food came and even before the flight attendants came to take are trays, I told he would have to wait. When she did come I let him out and I went for a stroll down the plane to cool off, its only 3hours into the flight we have another 9hours to go, you don’t want to get into a row with someone who you have to sit beside, so I’m down the back of the plane and I see this middle age south American man going towards the door on the plane and his hand going towards the lever of the plane, my natural reaction was to push him and ask what the fuck are you doing? He barks back in Spanish/Portuguese and go back to the door in a bit of frantic fashion, before I really know what has happened I have punched the man and he hit’s the deck and as he tries to get up I put my knee into his back and shout he was trying to open the plane door, the flight attendants come rushing to see what has happened the apprehend the man, and I explain what has happened, while a couple of flight attendants talk to the other guy, I get escorted back to my seat and he tells me he will get back to me. So the guys story was that he was looking out the window and used the lever for leverage and that when he was barking frantically he was saying why you pushing me or what not, he claims he doesn’t speak English and did not know that it was an open lever, the good news for me he was not going to press charges, and the second good part was that shitty shitty bang bang didn’t go the toilet again.
I do apoligise for the lack of updates I had 2/3 of that wrote back after busted added to it now, this is pretty long so I will post another update in the next couple of days of more present events,
Later
Jay
Wednesday, February 24, 2010
LAPT: Punta Del Este so far
I arrived in Punta Del Este safe and sound, the only problem other than the 20hours of travelling was the timing of it, I got into Montevideo airport at like ~1am and out of customs by half one, I looked for a hotel near the airport before I went but the nearest one was like 11miles away, or I suck at looking for hotels, so I decided I would hang round the airport and get the soonest bus to Punta Del Este, so that turned out to be at half 5, and to be honest it didn’t really matter either way since I didn’t make arrangements with the hotel that I’m coming a day early so I would have had to hang round the hotel waiting on my room anyways. So I had left my house at 3.30am on Monday morning but didn’t bother going asleep for an hour or so, it was now effectively 24hours later with little to no sleep.
Montevideo airport as visually appealing as it is, it really does suck as the only thing open is a McCafe which doesn’t sell still water and no where to sprall out and lie down, so I decided to just stay awake. I got the bus at like 6am and arrived in the hotel and all by 8am, got a taxi up for 484peso’s don’t know yet whether that is good or bad. All I know was that the biggest scariest looking bee flew in half way thru and wouldn’t fly out and buzzed at me for the second half the trip. I didn’t get into my room until noon, I had a shower and went for a four hour sleep, got up about 5pm. I went for a bit of stroll, the scenery is amazing, it took ages before I hit a shop or a bar. I was hoping to find somewhere to get some water because its $4.5 a bottle in the room. I didn’t get any water so I have just been toping up the room tab. I got back the room at like ~8pm, rang reception looking for an adapter for my laptop but never got one, I was pretty tired still so I didn’t make any plans to go the Stars party especially with the tourney starting today. So I just got some room service and was asleep and all by about 9.30pm.
Flight
On my flight from Dublin to Amsterdam was fine, then arrive out in Amsterdam airport which from my only other experience told me it was huge, which it is but at peek times is crazy, board my flight to Sao Paolo and this is when the fun begins, I get there to find a Chinese guy already asleep in the middle seat, I have the aisle, his leg is also in my space and in general is pushing his boundaries imo, so this constant wrestling continues for the rest of the flight and the bastard robbed my earphones, Sao Paulo airport was a bit of a blur, pretty tired and fucked and unsure whether I would have to go out and check my bag back in, was getting mixed views off people I asked, you got to love being lost in translation. I eventually trusted that it would and the guy at the TAM desk outside the boarding gate confirmed this the flight with TAM was very pleasant,wasn’t overly happy with KLM they where very unclear about having the seats up while food was being served and in general were not as pleasant as when I flew with Air Newzealand but this might have to do with the china man I mentioned, but seriously someone with there seat stretched back while your trying to get stuck into the airplane slop is not on.
So the tourney is going to start in two hours, the plan is to get shaved and showered, get some food, register with the LAPT people and head over the casino which is across this tunnel which is kind of cool. Will post an update after day 1 hopefully i will survive a couple of levels for a change
Montevideo airport as visually appealing as it is, it really does suck as the only thing open is a McCafe which doesn’t sell still water and no where to sprall out and lie down, so I decided to just stay awake. I got the bus at like 6am and arrived in the hotel and all by 8am, got a taxi up for 484peso’s don’t know yet whether that is good or bad. All I know was that the biggest scariest looking bee flew in half way thru and wouldn’t fly out and buzzed at me for the second half the trip. I didn’t get into my room until noon, I had a shower and went for a four hour sleep, got up about 5pm. I went for a bit of stroll, the scenery is amazing, it took ages before I hit a shop or a bar. I was hoping to find somewhere to get some water because its $4.5 a bottle in the room. I didn’t get any water so I have just been toping up the room tab. I got back the room at like ~8pm, rang reception looking for an adapter for my laptop but never got one, I was pretty tired still so I didn’t make any plans to go the Stars party especially with the tourney starting today. So I just got some room service and was asleep and all by about 9.30pm.
Flight
On my flight from Dublin to Amsterdam was fine, then arrive out in Amsterdam airport which from my only other experience told me it was huge, which it is but at peek times is crazy, board my flight to Sao Paolo and this is when the fun begins, I get there to find a Chinese guy already asleep in the middle seat, I have the aisle, his leg is also in my space and in general is pushing his boundaries imo, so this constant wrestling continues for the rest of the flight and the bastard robbed my earphones, Sao Paulo airport was a bit of a blur, pretty tired and fucked and unsure whether I would have to go out and check my bag back in, was getting mixed views off people I asked, you got to love being lost in translation. I eventually trusted that it would and the guy at the TAM desk outside the boarding gate confirmed this the flight with TAM was very pleasant,wasn’t overly happy with KLM they where very unclear about having the seats up while food was being served and in general were not as pleasant as when I flew with Air Newzealand but this might have to do with the china man I mentioned, but seriously someone with there seat stretched back while your trying to get stuck into the airplane slop is not on.
So the tourney is going to start in two hours, the plan is to get shaved and showered, get some food, register with the LAPT people and head over the casino which is across this tunnel which is kind of cool. Will post an update after day 1 hopefully i will survive a couple of levels for a change
Wednesday, February 17, 2010
Updatements: Manchester, Online etc
So i headed over to Manchester for the UKIPT last week, my main event ended quite early which has become a habit of mine in live play. I drew quite a silly table where everyone on it thought that it would be cool to 3 and 4bet eachother on the very first level,
there was one hand wer i open JJ UTG+1 to like 200 after a limp, 2callers, this guy now squeezes to 750, its a shitty spot for me i know i'm ahead of the 3bettors range its like his 5th one so far and he has 4bet once, however i don't really want to 4bet with 15k stacks cos i'm putting myself into a shitty spot post regardless of the flops that dont come Jxx cos i reckon he will just flat whatever piece of crap he 3bet with, but also if i flat the other two lads will call behind, so i take the safest option which is to effectively setmine and call other two blokes call,
flop Q85, checks thru, i think no shud check a queen, unless one of the overcallers have a set i'm good,
turn comes a K, i think ah fuck it that just hit someone lets check again, it gets checked thru, i'm like hmmm
River A, check and hope and everyone obliges i turn up the JJ and win WTF, this just highlights the table imo, its a 3bet pot 4ways and no one can beat 4th pair,
I played a pretty weird hand which i made some mistakes on posted it here : http://www.irishpokerboards.com/forum/showthread.php?t=491
that left me with like 6.5k and i grinded it back up to like 10k when this happened, the lunny villain opens to 425, two callers to me, i look at QTdd on the button i have already been active shipping and re raising so that is out of the question i have too much to just jam but that wouldn't be awful, i can 3bet fold but that wud suck so calling is the best option, the BB who 3 or 4 times at the table looked like he was going to cry and who was greatly inexperienced called as well playing maybe 11k just barely covering me anyways,
FLOP come QsJd3d, checks thru to me i bet like 2525 into ~2kish, BB tanks shoves 10.5k, i overbet the pot by accident i put out all my low demonition chips and left myself with like 6.5k behind, when he shoved after looking like someone was setting him on fire, i felt it was a marginal hand like the nut flush draw, which i do beat i have a pair and two blockers,
so i call pretty quick, he flips AKdd what horrible flat pre, i expected to A8dd or something like that,
anyways 9d hits the turn no one outter for me,
ONLINE
so after this early bustout i considered changing my flight and just coming home but decided to grind it out a lil online and i managed to win a second package to LAPT Uruguay which means i got the $ for it, but i did have a couple of deep runs and bust outs in tourneys which sucked i just can't win any important flips in tourneys deep i build my stack without putting myself at risk and then i just lose a bunch of 50/50, 60/40, 70/30, 80/20s, its tourney variance and its only matter time etc the important thing is getting deep and the luck will look after itself, i also managed to bubble a Berlin package and UKIPT package for Coventry and came 6th in the 30r 6max last night after getting slowrolled on the river i flop nut flush vs a bare pair of fives runner runneraments for him and we play a pot for all the chips in play,
also would just like to say that fair play to Dara O'Kearney (Slowdoke on PS) he is the satelite king winning 2packages to EPT Berlin, his first of many to UKIPT Coventry, i railed one of his Berlin seats from about 40 out with 5seats and it was lesson in how to play a satelite and just totally owned it
also congratz to my horsey AK47 who had a deep run in the Micro Million and was unlucky not to go further
LIFE
its unfortunate but i'm afraid that i am going to have drop out of college in maynooth, i have discussed it over with my mam and sister, the guys in BBV at Irish poker boards and i have got some really good advice, but the fact remains that i have a compulsory class which i have missed 3 of already with going to uruguay next week i will miss another and will flunk the year, therefore i am going to cut my losses(already 3k down the drain) and dropout, i have emailed some of my lectures and they wish me luck, so its official i am playing poker as a profession
there was one hand wer i open JJ UTG+1 to like 200 after a limp, 2callers, this guy now squeezes to 750, its a shitty spot for me i know i'm ahead of the 3bettors range its like his 5th one so far and he has 4bet once, however i don't really want to 4bet with 15k stacks cos i'm putting myself into a shitty spot post regardless of the flops that dont come Jxx cos i reckon he will just flat whatever piece of crap he 3bet with, but also if i flat the other two lads will call behind, so i take the safest option which is to effectively setmine and call other two blokes call,
flop Q85, checks thru, i think no shud check a queen, unless one of the overcallers have a set i'm good,
turn comes a K, i think ah fuck it that just hit someone lets check again, it gets checked thru, i'm like hmmm
River A, check and hope and everyone obliges i turn up the JJ and win WTF, this just highlights the table imo, its a 3bet pot 4ways and no one can beat 4th pair,
I played a pretty weird hand which i made some mistakes on posted it here : http://www.irishpokerboards.com/forum/showthread.php?t=491
that left me with like 6.5k and i grinded it back up to like 10k when this happened, the lunny villain opens to 425, two callers to me, i look at QTdd on the button i have already been active shipping and re raising so that is out of the question i have too much to just jam but that wouldn't be awful, i can 3bet fold but that wud suck so calling is the best option, the BB who 3 or 4 times at the table looked like he was going to cry and who was greatly inexperienced called as well playing maybe 11k just barely covering me anyways,
FLOP come QsJd3d, checks thru to me i bet like 2525 into ~2kish, BB tanks shoves 10.5k, i overbet the pot by accident i put out all my low demonition chips and left myself with like 6.5k behind, when he shoved after looking like someone was setting him on fire, i felt it was a marginal hand like the nut flush draw, which i do beat i have a pair and two blockers,
so i call pretty quick, he flips AKdd what horrible flat pre, i expected to A8dd or something like that,
anyways 9d hits the turn no one outter for me,
ONLINE
so after this early bustout i considered changing my flight and just coming home but decided to grind it out a lil online and i managed to win a second package to LAPT Uruguay which means i got the $ for it, but i did have a couple of deep runs and bust outs in tourneys which sucked i just can't win any important flips in tourneys deep i build my stack without putting myself at risk and then i just lose a bunch of 50/50, 60/40, 70/30, 80/20s, its tourney variance and its only matter time etc the important thing is getting deep and the luck will look after itself, i also managed to bubble a Berlin package and UKIPT package for Coventry and came 6th in the 30r 6max last night after getting slowrolled on the river i flop nut flush vs a bare pair of fives runner runneraments for him and we play a pot for all the chips in play,
also would just like to say that fair play to Dara O'Kearney (Slowdoke on PS) he is the satelite king winning 2packages to EPT Berlin, his first of many to UKIPT Coventry, i railed one of his Berlin seats from about 40 out with 5seats and it was lesson in how to play a satelite and just totally owned it
also congratz to my horsey AK47 who had a deep run in the Micro Million and was unlucky not to go further
LIFE
its unfortunate but i'm afraid that i am going to have drop out of college in maynooth, i have discussed it over with my mam and sister, the guys in BBV at Irish poker boards and i have got some really good advice, but the fact remains that i have a compulsory class which i have missed 3 of already with going to uruguay next week i will miss another and will flunk the year, therefore i am going to cut my losses(already 3k down the drain) and dropout, i have emailed some of my lectures and they wish me luck, so its official i am playing poker as a profession
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