I headed back to the Gutshot for another Tuesday night ‘beginners night’ tourney. I figured that I cant play the cash games until I can afford to suffer a few bad runs from the deck so until then I can just cap my max potential losses at £20 and still have decent prospects of making some decent coin. I’m still playing online as well but not as much as id like and when I do play its still a battle to keep my cash out of Sit n Go's and on the cash tables. The draw of the Sit n Go's is like a magnet for me even though I know full well that I have much better returns from cash games. I also know that to make something of a poker career I've gotta focus on cash games and try and ignore the massive wins I see in the WSOP and WPT as the top pros can go months and even years without winning one or even cashing. Cash games are going to be my ticket to the big time – I'm just not sure I can afford it yet.
Anyway, now that that tangent is over, back to Tuesday night. I had arrived way to early last time and had to sit and wait for like 45mins so this time I arrived about 20 mins before the start and only just got registered in time. There were 110 runners and the prize pool had crept up over £2000 which was a nice figure to see on the tournament screen.
In what was probably the most amazing start to a tournament I've ever seen, a dude (I’ll get back to him later in the post) got dealt pocket rockets on the first hand. ‘Not so amazing’ I hear you say. Well the guy to his right had raised it up and didn’t leave himself much fold equity as he had only bought in for a tenner. The rockets guy reraised enough to put him all in and the guy insta-called and flipped over AK. Needless to say the aces held up and the AK guy was sent packing on hand one.
Hand two is dealt and the guy to the right of rockets dude raises it up again. Rockets dude sits and thinks about it for a while and then reraises him all in. I was suspicious of this and figured he was trying to steal but when I saw my holdings (two rags of some sort) I had to fold and watch how it developed. It folded back to the initial raiser and he went into the tank. Bear in mind he was friends with the busted guy – not that it’s relevant but just funny. I was fully expecting a call and eventually he flipped his AK and said you can have it mate. Rockets guy instantly flips over another two fucking aces - unbelievable!!!!! I’ve never even seen that kind of shit online let alone live. I know if I had that AK I was going home after that hand. How he folded it I’ll never know but what a laydown.
So rockets guy was on a roll and trust me, the rest of the table was hating it. This dude was an English guy of Indian or Paki decent (or something in that region) and he would not shut up. He just talked smack the entire time regardless of whether he was in the hand or not. The scary thing was he was playing pretty well and accumulating lots of chips. When he busted out two more guys on one hand and had a massive stack I was very pleased that our table got broken up. He will make another appearance in this post though as he was truly the poker villain for the rest of the 109 runners.
I played really well – got down to a short stack early after suck out but slowly built it back up to around average and never really dropped below average until the final three tables. I was really enjoying myself and when I won a race with my pocket deuces against a guys KQ (I think – I know they were overcards) the table thought it was wicked when they commented on how lucky the deuces were and I scoffed and said they were always gonna win and that’s why I had them tattooed on my wrist.
It was about this time that our old friend the rockets dude was making his exit. He was mouthing off to everyone that he was better than anyone in the room and would take anyone on in a game of heads up. He basically got told in no uncertain terms to fuck right off. What a wanker!!!
A few orbits later and I was low on chips with the break about 30 seconds away when I hit top pair top kicker on a sketchy looking board. I was out of position but put in a bet trying to take it down. The chip leader raised me all in fairly quickly but I really only put him on a draw and thought he was playing the bully. I also figured I would call it regardless as if I busted I could leave and not have to sit through the break with the hope of making my short stack a cash cow. If I was right and the board didn’t help him then I would double up. So I called and flipped my hand only to see him excitedly show his flopped straight and I was busted in 22nd out of 110.
I was happy with my play but not so happy with missing the cash. I’m feeling more in the groove now and although I wasn’t exactly getting dealt great cards, I was making moves and they were paying off. I think I only got two pocket pairs all night and they were both 66 so I think I did pretty well with the hands I had.
The top two chopped the pot for around £500 each and I know that when (not if) I win one of these I’ll be more than happy with £500.
Monday, June 18, 2007
Welcome to the Gutshot
I’ve been in London for coming on three weeks now and kind of dipped my toes so to speak into the massive poker scene over here. I had done a little bit of research prior to coming over, checking out various poker clubs online sites etc. I found a joint called ‘The Gutshot’ and the website looked pretty flash so I made it my choice to check out for real once I arrived.
On day one here I took Tarz on a walking tour of London so she could get her bearings a bit – I have lived here before about 7 or 8 years ago but she had only ever visited. I made sure that the tour magically went along Clerkenwell Road (a bit north-west of the CBD) and there, in a nondescript brown-faced building, proudly stood what I hoped would be the place where I would really start my live poker career.
I play a lot of online poker but there is only so much enjoyment you can get out of sitting at a computer and making bets against faceless opponents for hours on end. The real reason I like poker is the social side to the game – to me, a great night can involve little more than having some good friends around, swigging on beers and talking crap as we battle it out for tiny little stakes – the money is irrelevant in games like that as its all about the banter and the smacktalk. Win or lose I always go home happy after a good session of live poker. Also – there is something fun about mucking around with chips that you obviously can’t experience online.
So back to the Gutshot. Now that I knew where it was, I felt it was only a matter of time before I went in to try and ply my trade against the local competition. We had arrived on a Sunday and I was registering with an employment agency nearby on the Tuesday arvo so I figured what better time to go and join up to the club. I wandered over and had a chat to the guy on the desk while I joined up. He was cool and told me to come back that night which was ‘beginners night’. Although the prospect of beginners night didn’t enthuse me, I figured it would give me a taster of what the Gutshot was about without the threat of killing my already almost non-existent bankroll. 6:45pm rolled around and I hit the tube to make my way in to the city for the 8pm ‘Shuffle Up and Deal’ call.
The Tuesday night tournament is a variable buy in freezeout. I’ve never seen this kind of buy in structure before and don’t really rate it highly but each to their own I guess. The way it works is you can buy in for £5, £10, £15 or £20 and you get 500, 1000, 1500 or 2000 chips respectively. I guess this is good if you can only afford the smaller buy ins but I can’t see the point in buying yourself in as a short stack from the first hand. Needless to say I bought in for the max.
The table talk was friendly and although I didn’t play to the peak of my powers (I’m sure I have powers – still waiting to unleash them once I figure out what they are) I enjoyed my first live experience in the big smoke. There was 87 runners and I got busted out in about 45th after I donked most of my chips off on a stupid gutshot straight draw. I don’t usually chase gutshots so maybe it was the whole ‘I'm playing at the Gutshot so I'm making this gutshot’ thing happening. Regardless, it was stupid and I ended up busting the next hand when I pushed my shortstack holding KQ and got no help from the board against his Jacks.
I checked the website the next day and the winner took down about £520 which isn’t a bad return for a £20 investment and a few hours work. I had a great time and with the possibility of taking down 500 big ones for a £20 buy in I’ll def be back. They also have juicy looking cash games and this is my forte (yeah I have powers and a forte!!!) so I’ll be checking them out once the bankroll starts climbing.
On day one here I took Tarz on a walking tour of London so she could get her bearings a bit – I have lived here before about 7 or 8 years ago but she had only ever visited. I made sure that the tour magically went along Clerkenwell Road (a bit north-west of the CBD) and there, in a nondescript brown-faced building, proudly stood what I hoped would be the place where I would really start my live poker career.
I play a lot of online poker but there is only so much enjoyment you can get out of sitting at a computer and making bets against faceless opponents for hours on end. The real reason I like poker is the social side to the game – to me, a great night can involve little more than having some good friends around, swigging on beers and talking crap as we battle it out for tiny little stakes – the money is irrelevant in games like that as its all about the banter and the smacktalk. Win or lose I always go home happy after a good session of live poker. Also – there is something fun about mucking around with chips that you obviously can’t experience online.
So back to the Gutshot. Now that I knew where it was, I felt it was only a matter of time before I went in to try and ply my trade against the local competition. We had arrived on a Sunday and I was registering with an employment agency nearby on the Tuesday arvo so I figured what better time to go and join up to the club. I wandered over and had a chat to the guy on the desk while I joined up. He was cool and told me to come back that night which was ‘beginners night’. Although the prospect of beginners night didn’t enthuse me, I figured it would give me a taster of what the Gutshot was about without the threat of killing my already almost non-existent bankroll. 6:45pm rolled around and I hit the tube to make my way in to the city for the 8pm ‘Shuffle Up and Deal’ call.
The Tuesday night tournament is a variable buy in freezeout. I’ve never seen this kind of buy in structure before and don’t really rate it highly but each to their own I guess. The way it works is you can buy in for £5, £10, £15 or £20 and you get 500, 1000, 1500 or 2000 chips respectively. I guess this is good if you can only afford the smaller buy ins but I can’t see the point in buying yourself in as a short stack from the first hand. Needless to say I bought in for the max.
The table talk was friendly and although I didn’t play to the peak of my powers (I’m sure I have powers – still waiting to unleash them once I figure out what they are) I enjoyed my first live experience in the big smoke. There was 87 runners and I got busted out in about 45th after I donked most of my chips off on a stupid gutshot straight draw. I don’t usually chase gutshots so maybe it was the whole ‘I'm playing at the Gutshot so I'm making this gutshot’ thing happening. Regardless, it was stupid and I ended up busting the next hand when I pushed my shortstack holding KQ and got no help from the board against his Jacks.
I checked the website the next day and the winner took down about £520 which isn’t a bad return for a £20 investment and a few hours work. I had a great time and with the possibility of taking down 500 big ones for a £20 buy in I’ll def be back. They also have juicy looking cash games and this is my forte (yeah I have powers and a forte!!!) so I’ll be checking them out once the bankroll starts climbing.
Adding some pics
I want to try and make this blog a little more aesthetically pleasing so im gonna slowly add in pics for previous and future posts....
To start with here is my latest ink. Its on my left wrist and speaks for itself.....
To start with here is my latest ink. Its on my left wrist and speaks for itself.....
Subscribe to:
Posts (Atom)