thE cLAIMeR

WCOOP

2008-09-05T05:01:00.002+01:00

My WCOOP schedule is as follows

Event #1 $216 nl 6max 1mill
Event #6 $530 nl 3mill
Event #9 $215 nl 4max 400k
Event #10 $215 Razz 100k
Event #12 $320 mixed hold em 6 max 300k
Event#20 $1050 nl 3mill
Event #22 $530 mixed hi-lo 200k (sattelited in for $115, not part of syndicate)
Event#26 $320 6max 500k

also a $320 satt to the main event.

I hope to sat into a few more in the next couple of days. ONE time STars plzzzzz.
GL all playing, but can i have just a little bit more please ty.

Challenge, done-ish

2008-08-21T14:06:00.002+01:00

In 2 days of grinding thunders and a bit of PLO on dtd i withdrew the £250 i deposited and was left with the £550 for the dtd deepstack tommorow afternoon at 3:00pm. 15k chips and a 90 minute clock i think, should be good for me and i really think ill put on a good show.

had a 2nd in the $50w1(cubed) on tilt a few nights ago for $4,600. Was a strange night i was in the top 10 in chips of 5/6 of the tournies i had left. Took some brudel brudel beats but this made up for it.

Im concentrating on full tilt more than stars at the moment as i have rakeback on there, and i always seem to be better with the majority of my roll on one sight and just depositing bits and bobs on other sites for shots.

I really wanna get cracking on Ipoker but this laptop stops me from downloading it. arrrrrrrg.
there are a few good afternoon-early evening comps i like on there so ill see if i can fix this soddin laptop.

Ive been hovering around the early teens in the pocket fives Uk rankings. I feel that i should be Top 10 here however some of the guys play 7 sites contributing to their scores whereas i play just stars and tilt.

So a 4pm-9pm sesh playing everything on tilt, gotta be in bed by about 2:00am for an afternoon train to notts to win this deepstack. First prize should be around £22,000 so lets bring it home.

Also i gotta give my mate Jeannie a shout, she is one of only 2/3 female readers i have so Hi, your brill!

Rick

Little challenge...

2008-08-18T07:14:00.002+01:00

Since last post things have improved slightly, Won the $70 ko 28k on tilt for $6.4k and won a couple of $75 45 man sng's as well as getting deep in a few. Confidence is back and im back playing to scratch.

So this week sees the DTD deep stack festival hit the club. Ive decided since, playing live costed an abs fortune the last few times ive travelled, to set myself a challenge on the DTD site for the next few days.

Ive deposited £250 into the account and the new balance is £251.79p lol.

I will start on the £11 thunders and use a 25BI roll and hopefully i will progress to the £30's if i put the right volume up. This should see me cruise to my target.

My target is £1500

£250 back into bank which i deposited
£550 deepstack freezout on friday
£330 on the saturday if i am KO'd from the Deepstack
£170 for hotel
£200 for travel and expences

ill update this blog daily. More often if i win.

£250 = £11 thunders

£500 = £22 thunders

£750= £30 thunders

£1250 = £50 thunders. By this stage i should have hopefully completed the challenge.

So monday the 18th august im gonna start about 3ish and play 100 of these today and see what happens.

OBV im gonna have to put some massive volume in or run like god to do this in 4 days, so i wish myself GL.

Bits and Bobs

2008-08-06T15:42:00.002+01:00

Since the $19k ship on stars my online form has been really bad.
The only saving grace's have been my form in the $69+5 45man sng on tilt.

The last few days have provided a little encouragement with a 3rd in the $70 4pm bounty on tilt and a win in a stars $100fo, alas only 36 runners entered, i must register late next time ;)

They were good to the tune of $1900 and $1380 respectively. But ive been having up to $1500 worth of buyins per day so could do with a few more decent wins, even though ive cut my schedule down due to the following;

If im 5-8 tabling the mtt's and deep in one, ill unconsciously focus all my attention on that one, and start doing retarded things in the others, like calling 3bets oop with sooted cons and suchlike.

Ive decided just to play 4 comps a day on tilt and stars, starting at 4pm and finishing at 8pm

However the FTOPS starts tonight with a $215 buyin 6max with 1million guaranteed so ill be playing that. I might do a report from every FTops event i play.

Ive played a few live comps with frustratingly little success recently

£750 at DTD 10k chips - never got above starting stack, had to make some big laydowns and ended up going out with 88 v AJ for a 15k pot.

£220 at DTD- had huge chips 14 out and managed to get 12th went competely OTT trying to hammer the table and they ended up hammering me.

£330 broadway, got a disappointing 16th/91 in this, the struture was ridiculous missing out levels, i was comfortable all the way untill the 1k/2k 200 level where i had to make a few reshoves, I open raised with 35k stack to 5200 with AJd and was called by the BB, the flop came AT9 he check raised me all in i called to be shown a set of nines. GG

£500- broadway, bumped into a crazy local rich donk who called by 3 bet on the flop with A4 on a J23 i had KJ and hit his ace to leave me short early on, called his raise with 89dd and flop of Jd Ts 4d was good enough for me to ship my remaining chips in, he had A5dd lol, and the black ace on the turn was no good.

£330 dtd - played really well on day one, not showing many hands at all, no showdowns, just picking up blinds and antes with ease. ended day 1 with 61k.
Day 2 started as day1 ended, picking up a lot of blinds. However they moved me tables, which i think cost me a final place. I had to adjust to this new table and tighten up. I raise TT and gets 3 bet and shoved on by two AK;s sigh, i raised QK sooted and guy shoves, again showing AK after i folded, Then a young kid raised the button to 7k with 37k back and i have 66 on the sb i decide im having none of this and pop it to 19k abs commiting myself is he shoves, he took a while and shoved AJo he hit a jack and i was low, Shoved 22 into wernick's AK and he spiked gg me.

Ill try and update the blog when i get time.

GL to Pab, moomin, gregior, flushy alexmartin, maldini, geeforce, johne147, and every1 else i know tackling the gukpt luton. Its my dads 50th on friday so i cant make it. GL ALL rick.

Part Two

2008-07-11T12:22:00.007+01:00

So the main event had finished and myself and booder decided to go for a nice and cheap 90 min sweedish massage, and then pop to the hotel bar for a bit of snap and a few beers.

We got talking to a nice american bloke who seemed to have been there done that, got the T-shirt. If youve been to tenerife he's been to elevenerife etc... He invited myself booder and tracy to macau horse races the next day and as this would be the last time we had a chance to visit, we thought it folly to refuse.

So that was the plan then , couple more beers bet and up earlyish, bout mid-day for the races.

Plans dont always go according to plan with me however and i decided to put a mammouth drinking/online poker session in. i got no sleep and was like a walking zombie come the races.

I made a smallish profit at the races, booder lost. I got a maccy D's on the way home and set my alarm for 2:00am about the time the decent tournies started accross the sites.

Stayed up till about 1:00pm when i took down the $100 fo on bluesq for abut $4k, which saw a now infamous picture of me lazing about playing.

The next day i played the $500 daily freezout at the casino, and played really well, ammassing a load of chips 2 tables out (70 started) until i clashed with the othr big stack at my table after i 3-bet him preflop with TT and he 4-bet pushed, i decided he was full of it and was up against A3 he spiked and i was crippled. Managed to get to the final but only 6 spots paid and i crashed out in 8th after one of the many cardracks on the table woke up with JJ after id pushed over the top of a button raiser with 97s.

Tuesday the 27th novemeber was out last full day so we went out to a few casino's, The palms, Star city, for a few drinks, and then to Mortons steak restuarant for the best steak ive ever had. A few bottles of red and we were ready for a good kip for the long trip back.

Was a brilliant time over there and i'll be trying my bollocks off to qualify for this years, which isnt far away.

On monday i took down the stars $55fo 100k for $19,100 Which is my best online result for quite a while. Im upto 17th in the pocketfives Uk rankings. Im still struggling a little on full tilt for some reason with only a 3% ROI over 566 tournies. On stars i have a 90% ROI over 1600, so im either overperforming on one or underperforming on the other. Time will tell i suppose.

Next week im going to play the 1st mini festival at Dusk Till Dawn where there is a £750 fo main event, a £220 side event and lots of cash action. One time please. I'll try and keep this blog updated more often now.

So far this year online im $52k in profit from stars, $1,300 lol from tilt, $5,200 from Ipoker , $2300 from party, which isnt ad considering the shitty start to the year i had. Those close to me will know what i mean.
Rick.

Macau trip report Part 1

2008-05-15T21:44:00.003+01:00

Starting off from the last post.

Macau

Set off for an aurdous (cant be spelt right) journey to macau which involved, a taxi to chesterfield train station, 3 trains to stansted and a 14 hour non stop flight to hong kong airport. When there a ferry to macau. My good mate Booder who won a seat through minimal fpp points brought his sister trace.
When the ferry aproached macau the first thing i remember seeing was the sands casino with bright red neon lights and i already had a buzz in my stomach anticipating the next week of fun and poker.
We arrived at the grand waldo casino and it looked beautiful, just what i imagined a big vegas hotel to look like. We knew stars were holding a welcoming party in one of the bars in the hotel so were very eager to dump our things, get a quick shower and head off to the party and consume a lot of free alcohol.

Booder and trace checked in without a problem whilst i had a major problem. My name wasnt down on the list. I immedieatly started to monkey tilt, knowing everyone would be up in the bar enjoying the music and free beer. I panicked and demanded answers. Someone gave me the name of a stars rep and told me to go see her about the room, "she will be in the party" i bet she will was my tiltish reply.

I decided the best course of action was to take my suitcase in booders room, slip into a shirt, have a quick spray of lynx and aftershave and head to the party.
I did this but before i could relax i needed to find this broad to sort my room out.
We entered the monkey bar and i tracked down this lass. She appologised, tolt me to enjoy the party and she would sort it out in the next hour. This wasnt something i liked to hear but managed to keep my composure, after all a few bevvies would calm the clam down a tad.

Right up to the bar, booder and trace order a calsberg, (sigh) my explanation of whats the best value to order from a free bar fell on deaf ears as i proceeded to order 2 tequila sunrises, one for my non existent buddy who was in the khazi. We sat on the bar stools and enjoyed the scantily clad dancers while getting smashed. By now i had consumed various concoxions of alcohol and was heading for the dancefloor. Booder and trace meanwhile were ready for some kip and decided not to take advantage of the free bar.

Not a big problem for me as i had made a few drinking buddies and news that my room was sorted gave a welcome boost and soon my dancing shoes were in full motion, dancing with a certain miss mercier was cool until bill Chen saw my advances as untoward and proceeded to do anything in his living power to stop me acheiving my aim of seduction. Mercier continued dancing and called me a dance donk which was funny. I think me and isabelle were the last 2 in the bar. Unfortunately she rejected my proposal of a room party and i headed up to the room to get a few hours, sleep temporariy forgetting that the main event $2500 buyin was starting in about 6 hours UPS.

Pab met me and booder at the casino in the morning and managed to get on the alternate list as me and booder drew the same table. The competition started very bad for me and i didnt play well at all. I had raised a lot in the first level and couldn't connect to a flop for love nor money.

I raised it up with AT and got flatted from the bb from an aussie who seemed like he knew the game from how he was talking. The flop was a good one for me AT2 and was happy for the aussie to donk lead 300 into the 325 pot. I decided to play this straight forwardly and make it 1025. The aussie then flat called. The turn brought a queen and he checked to me. I didnt like this card one bit and maybe should have checked behind on the turn and possibly called a bet on the river. I however bet 1800 only for aussie to jam in for 7k total. I tanked for an eternity. I still had 6k left at 50/100 and couldnt see anything that i beat apart from QTs but even that didnt make sense to me. I decided to lay it down. The next two levels passed without a single playable hand and i ended up getting 4k in at 100/200 with KTs on a KQx vs QK and that ended my disappointing tournament. Booder started really well, hitting a few hands and getting paid and was upto 24k when i retired to my room to get some kip. Unfortunately a few hours later Booder knocked on my door with the inevitable bad beat which cost him his chips.

We were both out of the tournament but we still had 6 days left in macau and we werent going to squander it..

Holy Macau!

2007-11-09T15:22:00.000Z

just won a $109ds for a $4,500 package to macau. Im delighted as i bubbled for a seat last week in the step 6 qualifier. My mate booder won his seat from fpp points so its guaranteed to be a good trip. Since stars give you the option of a twin room or single room ive decided to take my dad. The flights are £316 return which isnt at all bad.

Blackpool northern Lights festival starts this weekend and encorporates the GUKPT main event. I have tossed and turned about this schedule as i dont like some of the events and refuse to buy in directly to the main event. Theres a super sat tonight on BSQ so ill nip to the boozer for a few early bar ales, nip back at 9 (maybe) and see what i can do.

If i fail to win a seat to the main event, my plan for blackpool is this.

Arrive with my mate ash on sunday and play the £150 double chance. Stay overnight. Ive jut gotten onto the 24 bandwagon so will take season 3 with me so i can mooch about all day monday watching it, then probably play the £300 with one rb or addon like a freezout and only add-on if its essential. I will play the £500 freezout on the tuesday. If i get any scores in these 3 events ill stay for the main event. Ill play some single table's for a seat to main and prob chuck about £250 at it if need be.

Since i won the macau seat last night, which is only a week after blackpool I will be fine if i miss the main event. But obv id love to play it.

Watched my t.v debut this week and was a little disappointed in the hands that were and were not shown. Although i didnt get as much stick as i expected from the commentators for stacking off with KQ. My game plan 3 handed was to steamroll these guys but i fell at the first hurdle. Meh.

Gl to all in whatever ventures take your fancy this weekend and next week. Rick

Rick Rolled

2007-10-16T01:50:00.000+01:00

So this guy anton bergstrom adds me on facebook and msn, and i see what he has to say, after googling him i find he is a hacker, and decide to attempt a rick roll, which i managed, aswell has getiting him to ship me $5 on my bust stars account. Cheers hacker.

The links are below, i have never laughed on my own so hard in my life.... GOLDEN!.. i love life.

http://blondepoker.com/forum/index.php?topic=28195.0

http://forumserver.twoplustwo.com/showflat.php?Cat=0&Number=12483953&an=0&page=0

enjoy........

One Time October!

2007-10-04T07:36:00.000+01:00

Sorry for the lack of updates from the broadway. Managed to chop the £300 double chance freezout for £8,000 when chip leader Shaf gave a local guy and myself a pretty good deal.
Would like to write up a tourney report for this because i thought i played really well. I will give you a few key hands/Situations.

I started off taking my double chance straight away as another guy on the table did, although he was 3 to my left i still wanted the kippers full stack if we clashed. My Starting table included maria demitriou / chilli - great fun and good player (we had history from a year or so ago in blackpool when i pulled a great bluff on her. Des jonas, maurice nicholson, and a few unknowns.

Started off really badly, tried to bluff maria with 66 on a AJKQx board and she made a good call with AJ, although a pretty standard call vs yours truely. I also tried a float on her with rags on a JxxJ board, alas she had JT and soon it was chilli 2-0 clam after the 1st level.

I dwindled down to 3,850 at the first break, which was way below average and (for once) went on a little stroll outside to try and get my head together. It seemed to work.

The 1st hand after the break i raised up to 600 in mid pos with 43ss Still trying to force the action, and recieved a caller from the bb. The flop came 777 and when he checked to me i fired 700, which he called pretty fast. I had an idea that the wasnt strong and was hoping i checked the turn so he could fire the river, but with 2550 left i bet 1500 on the J turn and after a dwell he mucked....phew so i was up to just over 5k.

A few hands later i doubled up with 75 on a 763 flop vs a non believers 65. I kept playing a lot of pots and after winning a big pot with KJ on a J high flop vs AQ finished the day on 31,000 and well happy. Even after losing a big KJ v TT flip which would have put me on 75k.

32 players started day 2 and i had decided that my new table was a weak passive one, and that i would go to work pretty early on it. Blinds were 400/800 and i raised the first hand utg 9hTh to signal to the table my intent.

Chilli limped early and i made it 3200 to go with 63os, she called and we saw a T22 flop which she check folded after a dwell.

Then a monster hand occured. Chilli made it 3k to go at 500/1000 and i called the button with Jd Td to see a beautiful 2d 8c 9d flop. Chilli led out for 8k at which point i tanked my last 26k in the middle to recieve an insta call with AA. The turn and river brick out and she fades my 17 outs. OOOps im now on 7.5k at 500/1000.

The net hand i shove 9T and get it through. Then i shove QTos and recieve a caller with 66. I win the vital flip and i am back to 20k. The big stack of the table loved to limp suited cards in ep so when he did it for the umpteenth time i called the button with 89hh, the blinds came along for the ride and we saw a 2h 2c 5h flop. Sb checked and a guy from sheffield frazer led out for 4k the ep limper folded and i made it 10k with 7k back. Back to frazer who put me in and revealed his flopped trips, i spiked the turn however with the Ah hitting and was back on 40k.

I was knocked back down to 30k when i was all in vs maria with 99 v AQ she flopped an ace and i rivered a 9. After this pot i played good TAG poker and with a few squeezes managed to final in 4th place in chips out of the 10 remaining.

I was quiet early on as a few players departed. I made a a 3 bet all in vs shaf with AK and a couple of squeezes. I knocked a player out with QK v 55. Maria went out in 5th and we were down to 4. I wa third in chips. The final 4 were all smokers so whilst on a fag break outside we discussed a bit of buisiness and i proposed a 4 way deal where shaf took 9k and the other three of us took £7,500 each. Thus giving us better than 2nd place money. It was a great deal on the face of it, until a guy who had been awkward with a saver earlier on the bubble, had do discuss it with his business partner, an abnoxious bloke who wanted him to go for the win. So we played on until he was inevitably knocked out in 4th. We did the deal this time giving Shaff £10k and £8k each for a local guy named saed and myself. the chips at this point were 450k 200k 200k respectively.

Since the broadway i have been playing really well online, but running really bad. Ive got deep i a lot of biggies but not made the final. It's frustrating but i know good things are coming. Ive tweaked areas of my game a little and im sure i will be seeing the benefits soon.

October is a big month for me. This weekend i am heading off to dublin for the 125 euro irish international open. Over 1000 entrants for this one and with a 10k starting stack and 40 min clock with all levlels included im hoping for a big run. There will, im sure be a few pints sunk during the 4 day break.

A week later its my 1st Blondepoker bash in Cardiff. Look forward to meeting some of the alias's face to face for a few drinks, aswell as the people ive met from blonde in the last two years.

After that its onto the Gukpt at the vic which i won my seat for online. One time.

The month concludes with a trip to walsall for the grosvenor grand prix, which i qualified for online. Last year this comp for me was a total nightmare and im hoping for much better this year. ONE TIME PLHE.

* a little mention for my mate fran who FT'd the £500 f/o @ broaway in a tough field to get 6th for £2,500 well played chick.

Oh and my name on facebook is Richard James Trigg if anyone wants to add me.

cheers
Rick

Broadway

2007-09-18T08:44:00.000+01:00

Off to the broadway tonight for the £150 with one rb or addon tonight and for the £300 double chance freezout tommorow. I may stay longer, i dunno yet, laptop will be with me to hopefuly subsidise the week. Only played once before in this lovely casino and won the comp so hopefully it will remain a happy hunting ground for me. Sunday i bagged a seat into the Gukpt £1k event at the vic which happens in an already busy october. Last night i got 2nd in the hunt the pro's comp on Dtd £25 freezout jobbie, I got £253 plus £100 more by taking Nowab out.

Ill update this blog with my expenses and maybe even a few tourney reports, but the problem with these is im usually a bit drunk at the end of the night and forget most of the hands for a few days. I'll try my best. If its freshers week in birmingham maybe i can recruit a team for a night on the town.

Bits and Bobs

2007-09-10T19:02:00.000+01:00

Up until last week i had been on cracking form on stars. Won the $22rb for 6.5k won the $55 6 max for $2.3k 3rd in the $55rb for $5.5k and 2nd in the $50 with 1 rb or addon.
Thesedays instead of keeping large onine rolls, i thought it best that my bank see lots of activity and more importantly see a lot of money coming in, and not so much (well i try) going out. So when new house time comes i will have a chunk to whack as a deposit and then get a mortgage without much difficulty. Been coolered a little last week so decided to take a few days off inbetween, did a bit fo shopping, bit of supping etc..... Got a few things planned for poker.

The first of Which will happen on the 5th of october when me and booder head off to Dublin for the 125E freezout 100K!!!! gauranteed comp. To Buy into this value beauty of a comp you have to register via online site Mermaid poker. We get there friday Afternoon so plenty of time for a good sup before the mid-day start on saturday. I reckon i'll hit the police gig on the friday night (i think its friday night)

Later that month im playing the grosvenor grandprix qualifier only comp, which the value of the seat will be aprox £1.5k there is a £300k gauranteed prize pool. Only problem is its Pot-limit!!
No probs for the clam who homed his skills/luck in £10rb comps from 16 ;)

Last week saw an article titled Rich "theclaimer Trigg in the WPT mag which i was very happy about as, as my freinds can testify to isnt the worst picture they could have dug up from the archives.

Today i been trying to build bankrolls on a few sites, I am starting bad-beat traders soon so while im waiting im spinning the £100-200 ive got on 6 different sites up to get rolls on the all. Im using the 10x pull up in the sng's as my formula and so far so good, i tried betfair today and span up.

I also used $12 of my dtd roll to play a satt to tonights $100 $25k comp, i won a seat very easily, had a massive stack early. One person who wasnt impressed with my A4d call vs his 3bb push(it cost me 2k of my 27k) was a gy who plays as MILLION! or Cheque_m8 he has left a comment on my previous post.

Get this str8 mate, if you wannna have any kind of mtt/stt/cash challenge blogger v blogger
gimme a shout and i will accomodate your business, you can even pick the site. Been a while since i lost my last challenge to porty-fish and the clams blood warms to the potential of another.
Shippity Ship
laters.

edit, went to leeds last week with my mate ash to play the £100 freezout, the gimmick this time was 15k chips and an hour clock!! wow i thought sweet, untill the blinds started at 100/200 and the clock was shortened from 1hr in the 1st level to 20 mins and 15mins after that. I met Horneris ther, neither of us did much although my mate got 9th for a slight loss, after i was in his ear shouting for him to stick his dust stack in the middle with any two... Sorry mate

Weighed In

2007-08-26T08:18:00.001+01:00

SHIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIP

Updateaments

2007-08-22T08:35:00.000+01:00

Since newcastle ive had a few touches online. The first being a win in the $10rb on stars for $5.3k. Won two comps on BSQ for about $4k total and got a 2nd in a comp last night for $1.6k.

Went to luton for the festival and had a good week on cash to pay for my week, however the tourneys didnt go according to plan after a good start.

I came into the final of the £100 f/o on the saturday 2nd in chips but the crapshoot structure found me out when i had to lay down AK early when jeff rodgers 3 bet me preflop he showed AA.

The £200 with 1 rb or Ao went well for a long time but after a few of my raises got snapped off i pushed blind with T4 and flushy (my 10%) called with AA after a bit of chat to induce a push behind lol.

The main event was a non event for me after massing bottom set on a K42 rainbow in level one. i never recovered and went out after i pushed the turn with 20 outs and was called by TpTk and i didnt hit.

Still in the process of joining badbeat traders, think this could be a good move for me long-term as i feel my cash is improving big-time and i will look to be moving up stakes very soon.

Oh and i won a seat last tuesday for the grosvenor grand prix in a funny way.
playing 3 handed with 2 seats up for grabs and im shortstack on about 10k with the others on 13-15k, when all of a sudden the CL disconects. I cheekily ask the other guy if he wants to play on or "nick" he says nick, so we proceed to briskly take his chips and gaurantee us both a seat.

Imo there is nothing morally wrong with this, because poker is all about edges and they don't come much bigger than when an opponent D/c's.

Dunno where my next live venture will be. Plymouth Gukpt is a bit far for me to travel so i may venture down to the broadway, although for the moment im quite happy to play online.

Newcastle Trip Report

2007-07-26T15:16:00.000+01:00

Thursday

Arrived via trian to geordie land at about 3:00pm and nipped in a taxi for the 1/4 mile walk to the Jury's inn. On arrival i was told that i needed to produce a credit card, with some money on it. I had about £500 in cash on me but that wasnt enough. Kev was running late so i had to make a decision on whether to wait for him at all or find different accomodation, as the experience was pretty embarrasing and infuriating at the same time. I decided to say bollocks to the Jury's and ring a good mate of mine up, who lives in jesmond (about 2 miles away) i taxied to his gaff and got him out for a few beers on osbourne road, After i had booked a taxi for me and kev for £30 a night (half as cheap as the fkin Jurys) at the grosvenor hotel. So i left my bags at my mates Zaki's and we went and parked our arses at the SPY bar and lethered about a gallon of ale down in no time.

Zaki recognised a few girls from uni and we joined them in their graduation celebrations, obviously intent on getting them round for the house party me and zak had cleverly invented on the spot. After we had finished at the spy bar we went to the local offy and got all the party drinks you can imagine and went back to zak's.

A few hours went by and i wasnt getting the impression i was a hit with the lasses after one labelled me weird. hmmm. So i decided to prove her right by removing all of my clothes and name myself the naked d.J while scouring my i-tunes for songs which i though were cool, obv i was the only one thinking that.

It got to 2:00am and i had a sudden thought, "where the fuck is kev" i had his room key and he hadnt replied to my messages telling him to get round for the party.

Then my phone went dead and i couldnt find my charger. I head back to the grosvenor hotel at about 4:00am and awake about 10:00am from a phone call from kev. Apparently he had to find another hotel miles out of dodge after trying to break our hotel down. Sorry mate.

Friday

Friday was a big day for me. As most people who read this blog know, i have had a terrible 2007 so far and my bankroll was so low i had to join the dtd trader scheme and grind out cash.

I wanted to perform today and over the weekend to prove i can compete on the u.k circuit successfully.

I entered the Casino at 2:00pm for a 4:00pm start and bumped into Action Jack str8 away so he could give me my Dtd shirt. Met fran, pete Linton and Nick hicks from blonde and met a slightly pissed off kev lol.

My 1st table included Steve jelinek, richard herbert, hoss panikhar, Chris Bruce, George Geary and a few faces i couldnt put a name too. I started slowly, trying to get a bit of action created with small 125-150 raises but couldnt hit and was quickly down to 7k.

Things got better after, as i held KK and raised utg, 2 callers the flop came Q77 and i fancied a check raise, 1st guy bets 200 Geary makes it 1200 and i make it 3k and both pass, with this 1st pot scooped and made a few nice floats and was up to 14k when the following han occurs. Steve jelinek who is Short raises to 800 @ 100/200 gets one caller and i make it 3200 from the bb with AK, he thinks for ages and puts his last 5k i. His JJ holds up. 14k pot ships to him and im back down to 8k.

Afew hands later however i would have my revenge on steve. Utg again i pick up AA and raise it to 800, (100-200)steve flat calls in mid-position and the flop comes K24 rainbow, and i check to steve who bets 800 which i turn into 2k, he pushes for 8k and i call, he has AK and i scoop back up to 20k and happy.

My stack manages to get to 29k at a high point before trying a float on a guy called steve craig who had a house ooops, back down to 18k, then on the last round of the day i raise the cut-off to 3600 bb 1200 and recieve the bb moving in for 5k more grrrr i obv call and he shows AQ and i miss down to 10k.

I raise next hand to 3000 midpos with 55 and a guy tanks 16k all in, i decide i think he has AQ and call to see his AJ A35 flop is good for me and after a few pots won at the death i make day two with 22,300 chips. Bring on day 2.

Saturday

64 players came back to saturday and with a 23k stack at 800/1600 i wasnt in desperation mode but a double up would not be a bad thing at all, luckily i didnt have to wait long.
Dan carter raised up on the button, maz nawab called from the sb and i completed from the bb with QK the K89 flop looked good to me until dan turned over K9 and the turn and river T , J completed my str8 with the Q. With that it was pretty much smooth sailing to the final. My favourite move of the day was calling surinder sunar with Jack-high and knocking him out.
Had a few beers with my mates and headed to bed, pleased i made the t.v table 2nd in chips with 405,000.

Sunday

Had a couple of double vodka redbulls to settle my nerves and it seemed to work as i stole blinds galore in the 1st level to increase my stack to 518k without having to show a hand. Simon zach and a shortstack were eliminated which put the field down to 7.

At this point i started to waver a little for the 1st time in the whole comp. The guy on my right mr butters, who i had sat with for 5 hours the previous day seemed to be the biggest rock on the planet. On numerous occasions on the saturday he had passed big pairs to my raises. Today, however i had the feeling he was about to use his image and loosen up a little. In the 1st level i reraised his button raise from the sb with 33 and he mucked. This time he raised from the cut-off to 37k and i knew he wasnt that strong, and that if i made him play for his stack he could not play, so i made it 137k total with 68spades from the button, back round to him. He thinks and thinks and thinks gives it the holywood, shades off standing up, i was 95% sure he was folding, until he reached for his stack and pushed them over the line, ooops, it was 39k more to me and i make the insta call. Our hero had stuck his last 139k in the middle with ATos and he held up.

Straight after that call i raised the next 3 hands and took the blinds. A few more players are lost but i wont spoil the t.v coverage too much.

When we got 3 handed i was 3nd in chips, but made a conscious decision to sacrifice 3rd and really go on a tirade of aggression. It was working until i over committed my self and ran into KK . gg me. I was gutted for the next few hours but very happy how i played on the final and i hope it comes accross well on the box.

Online

Won the $10rb on stars yesterday afternoon for $5.3k. Was extremely happy with my performance in this comp, took total command 5 handed and despite a huge beat 3 handed regained my composure to take it down. Off to luton with that mtt winnings a week on monday, but this weekend im going to york races this saturday and arctic monkeys gig on sunday if weather is good.

Id like to conclude by thatnking everyone for their overwhelming support of me in newcastle. It was really uplifting knowing everyone was rooting me on back home. Thanks guys, see ya next time.
rick

Off to Newcastle!

2007-07-19T10:25:00.000+01:00

So this weekend the cash games will be on the back-burner for a while and my real love of the game of poker, tournaments will be at the forefront of my mind in a quest to provide my 1st elusive ranking win.

I don't play live these days as much as i used to, ive probably played 8 ranking events in total and made the cash in 3 and made a final table, so not too bad. It is no secret that i have been playing a hell of a lot differently live than online. Online, i dont mind pushing all in with complete trash pre and post flop if i read my opponent as weak, however live it feels like a long way back from newcastle. This fear/reluctance needs to be conquered now in order for me to have any realistic chances of winning this GUKPT.

My friends from home are up on saturday for a night out so if i bust out on friday i can go clubbin with the lads. Hopefully this should provide a solution to the above psychological problem.

A clam trip to newcastle isnt complete without a touch of social. Im stopping in the Jury's inn with colch-kev for thursday and Friday. There are also a few people ive never met, who will be making an appearance in geordie land, Alex Martin, Rookie itb, and a few peeps fom blonde poker will experience a first meeting with the clamster.

So im travelling up today at around 3:00pm, taking laptop to educate kev a little on music and £1/2 cash lol, will be sinking a few beers tonight while listening to the beats, just gotta avoid the house games in the casino as im on a very tight budget, and hoping that a stars cheque i banked on tuesday will clear by friday.

In this tournament im gonna try play the way i do online and i reckon with the right situations i know i can be a major force, ONE TIME!

Cash Grind Continues

2007-07-17T08:06:00.000+01:00

10/7/07 +£423
11/7/07 -£217
12/7/07 £-600
13/7/07 -£200
14/7/07 + £720
15/7/07 +£30
16/7/07 +£550

total = +£926

So another -600 day. As M3boy allued to on the last post, £1/2 is very swingy indeed. I feel, however that i am getting more used to the level with everyday, i know more of the players trends and traits.

Im feeling confident of agood showing in newcastle on friday, im in the holiday inn with colchester kev and my mates from home are coming up on saturday for a night out, so if i dont make day two i'll be out with the lads. Obviously i want to still be in come final day.
Last twice i have played these Gukpt's ive not played my game and played far too tight, This will change on thursday.
gl all

"you don't have to swin faster than the shark, Just faster than the guy swimming next to you"

2007-07-10T12:36:00.000+01:00

The above maxim has been Quite fitting in the infancy stage of my £1/2 trader voyage.
First day i got a new one torn, but since then i have been pleased a thow i have adapted to the new level.

On crypto there are a lot of players that know the game very well and are not very profitable to play with, but on the other hand there are an equal amount of donkeys that would not turn a profit in the 1c/2c limit games. Solution = target said donkeys and avoid the sharks.

I give each player i sit with a score out of 10, as to How they suit sitting on my table.

1= a player who i hate to have at my table, constantly snapping continuation bets
7= a player who lets me get away with murder on his blinds and calls flop folds turn a lot
10= a donkey whom i would swim the channel to play.

you can work out the inbetweens, So when i am scouting for a table i have to total the table points up and then decide if i am going to sit. Obv these figures are subject to fluctuation as many players at this level believe it or not are still learning.

so since the £-600 debacle

7/7/07 £+645
8/7/07 £-335
9/7/07 £+510

which is £+ 220 which is ok after my first day doink off.

MTTs

Played in the dtd trader freeroll on saturday night and won it, so i will be in newcastle for the gukpt on the 19th of july. Looking forward to the friday night piss up already with the lads i aint seen for a while. Should be good.

Also played the $50k on stars on Saturday and went deep before JJ v 88 AJ v QJ and QQv AT
all lost for big pots all in preflop. I couldnt survive after those.

Also cashed in the sunday $215 warm up on stars for $400 odd after running QQ into AA

Im back playing my A game and good things will hopefully be around the corner.

rick

Baptism of Fire!

2007-07-06T15:50:00.000+01:00

Today was the 1st day of my Full Trader on DTD so i woke up nice and early and loaded a £1/2 table up, and proceeded to lose three buy ins within 4 hours. I thought i was crazy, some of these guys are fricken insane, i have played a lot higher than this level in the past and been succesful, well not losing too much.

The preflop play is so aggressive there is a re-raise at least 1/3 hands and continuation bets are getting snapped off right left and centre. I think im gonna need a new ploy if im gonna adjust to this level quicky. I was extremely card dead today and didnt hit any big hands or man made hands. I think i will have to tone down the preflop raising % quite a lot for this level and adopt a more patient approach. Maybe, on the otherhand i just had 'one of those days' i am extremely confident i can average £3-4k per month at this level so im gonna record my winnings on this blog

profit/loss £-600

Just A Little Rambling!

2007-07-04T16:32:00.000+01:00

Since my last update i have only played one mtt which was the £25 hunt for pro's event on dtd, which proved fruitless.

Still grinding away on the dtd trader scheme, was below my target for june, finishing £2200 up for a months play on the 50p/£1 this was probably due to four cold days on the trot in which i lost my daily allocation of £300. I needed a couple of days extension to complete my poits target because of my trip to lake como and my birthday do's. I am currently waiting to be promoted to £1/2 nl which i will have a daily allowance of £600, i will probably start with one table of 50p/1 and one £1/2 just to ease myself into the new level.

On saturday six of us desended on Birmingham to Air nighclub to gods kitchen, not a very nice club but the music was good. Im not a trance man perse but like the occasional gatecrasher godskitchen gig. We stayed in the Raddison hotel (the huge new blue building) which was very nice, especially after my mate complaned about the 24 hour menu service being unavalible and be managed to get

£10 porn x1 (not me) free

£4.75 jelly beans x1 free

£15.50 english breakfast x3 free

which was good, my mate talking BS about having business acounts at the hotel could have been the reason for this.

In the next few weeks i will be looking to play a few more mtt's but will look on them as a treat or reward for a good weeks cash session. I won't be playing any mtt's if i have had a losing week at cash. Later this month i have two class events on the same day; Arctic monkeys gig in manchester or york racing trip with the pub, hmmmm,

On the wsop front it seems to be a disastourous show from the british and stories are appearing everyday of busto and early flights back home eeek.

Our freind from the other post simon young aka suffolk punch and i had a bit of bantor on the blondepoker furum the other night with him flying completely off the handle. The post i made was in jest only as everyone who knows me will testify to.

until next time

Manyana

WSOP blues

2007-06-19T18:57:00.000+01:00

As most of my internet msn poker buddies head off to the WSOP this year to enjoy the masses of tournaments for every pocket i am rueing my luck and play at the start of the year, which has postponed my vegas dream for another year.

Looking back on my cold run i feel that it may have only taken a week off poker to turn things around. Im sure i will be joining the likes of Pab, moorman, gregior, flushy, m3boy next year in the quest for a gold bracelet and the title of world champion in one of the many disciplines.

On the home front im still making good progress on my cash game on DTD. By the end of the month my target is £3000 profit, which should put me in good stead to takle the £1/2 games where a £7k + month is not unheard of, especially with the hours i will be putting in.

My cash game has improved ten-fold recently as it needs to in order to pay for the summers activities which include the annual trip to lowlands music festival in amsterdam

www.lowlands.nl pretty sick line up this year.

GL to all in vegas....

Rick

Dronfield Bankroll Challenge!!

2007-06-13T18:51:00.000+01:00

There is a little poker school down in my local pub on a friday night only four or five of us, all really good mates and im thinking that at £10 per stt times by 3 a night i could make £120 a night Woo hooooooooooo, what i am asking is, because i am completely bust, cant play properly and just hang about with all the pro's and just get my arse on any bandwagon i can find, is if people can bankroll me for this. You can transfer me £2-£5 on crypto by dumping it on a 0.10/.20 nl table as long as no one else is playing or managemnet lurking.

I have no history in these pub stt's but you can probably expect to make £4-£6. Which i will dump straight back on the crypto cash tables. Obv all in preflop to avoid rake, or if u push i may just call you and take your stack!!!.

I may also while at the pub in dronfield, have a few quid in the bandit or partake in a couple of redbulls and vodka.

I feel i can skin these £10 stt's at the pub, and with your generous contributions, because as i have stated i am a bit bust and id rather freeroll with your money, i feel i can make £2-3 an hour in these lucrative games!!!, if any one is interested please leave a comment or leave your bank account number and sort code and ill sort the rest out.

Ill be writing a diary on the challenge, which will be full of BS because ill not play at all, ill just spunk your money on food drink and bandits.
Yours sincerely
rick

on an another note i read a cracking money making plan the other day...

http://suffolkpunchpoker.blogspot.com/

Its Getting better.........man

2007-06-03T16:07:00.000+01:00

So... last week on bank holiday monday i woke up easy ish about 9.52am to be precise, legged it downstrairs and just sneaked into the $30 f/o on stars. I managed to get a third in this for $1500 which i was a little disappointed about. After coming 9th in a $650 wsop satt with 6 places two days proir i was up for some compensation, but that was to come later on.

I quicky jumped in the shower and met some mates for a carvery and couple of beers, got back home about 5 ish an had a kip on the settee intent on being prepred for the busy mtt night ahead.

When i awoke about 8:00pm for the $50 50k i realised that Action Jack had put me onto the £.50/£1 ;evel on the trader sceme. (so far that is going well) the tournamnets i played until about 11:00pm alas, were to bing no joy.

I was still in the $50 3k chips at 11:00 when ZZZZZZrope, PaymyLoans11, Gio pinged me on msn asking if i was playing the $162 100k at 2:00am i said it was a bit late for me but im gona play the $100 3k chips in 15 mins, he said hed play and we struck a 10% saver.

about 7 hours later i found myself out in 2nd after 3 of us were involved in a hand.

me 285k

CL 900k

ss 50k

as u can imagine, the ss was on my right so i didnt want to raise incase he passed an the bb put me in with blinds at 20/40k ss didnt have much time.

I flat called a lot on the button incase Ss pushed so we could both call and spitroast ;-)

so i had AK with the chips above on the button so flat called the 40k SS flat called and CL saw a flop of A23 with two spades pretty good!

the shorty pushed and the CL reraised i decided to push and pray the SS didnt win the pot and the CL the sidepot. SS had T5os and the CL had 28spades and hit his spade on the turn.

I never got a chance to play heads up but the $7,100 1st prize was much needed, and ZZZZzrope was happy to be shipped his 10%.

with that roll i had to pay a few peeps off and thought id pay my visa off so not much in roll now, but im level again and got a few $ in stars and touny tickets and T$ so chances to build again.

Ive won seats today for the warm up, stars mill, and sunday 2nd chance so chances of a big score in these.

I reckon im gonna knuckel down on the trader scheme as, even at 50p/£1 £700+ a week is easily attainable, and im gonna give it my best shot.

On friday im doing to lake como for my mates wedding for 4 days should be a brilliant trip really looking forward to it. Rumours are we may see a certain mr weller there as well, we'll have to see.

Gl all tonight, thanks for all the congrats messages they are appreciated.

Oh and the job said the company no longer wished to take on new staff. grrrr dont know what ill do hehe.

cheers.

Change of plan

2007-05-21T22:34:00.001+01:00

well somehow the rileys job seemed to fall through. I was offered it and it seemed like a nice place to start in the real world of work. 25k, free food and drink free membership. I play a lot of snooker!!. Their representative rung me up just to make sure i had a bar license!! WTF!!! it turned out that it was in the smallprint..sigh.

So i needed to backtrack to a job that i had put on the back-burner while i tried to sort the rileys one out. Somehow i managed to Bs my way to saying i wrote the wrong email down and i should be staring on tuesday to 29th. It is real hassle with all the refrences i need to get, most of them fake due to the experience (ssshhh) i said i have in the I.T field, well it is fair to say i have spent most of my adult life behind a computer ;-).

The DTD sceme is a funny one. I have almost ammased the number of Mpp points at the 25p/50p level and my profit so far is £800, it was at a high of £1200 after a few golden days. In this scheme there is a very fine line between profit and points accumilation, whereby sometimes you have to put the hours in even if you are running bad and fancy a break. So this has to be takin into account. I should be on 50p and £1 blinds in a few weeks and i reckon £300+ a week is a fair expectation at that level. I am really confident playing at these levels and i reckon my cash game has improved a hell of a lot. I seem to be able to read players hands for fun in cash, like i used to do in mtt's.

I have been playing a few comps here and there on stars and been getting deep in a few but not really a sniff of getting a big score there boring me a little at present. On stars i am very paranoid that every late raise is a steal so have been pushing AJ AQ a lot and been running into big hands.

The plan now is to start work, which will pay be about £1250 a month after tax (bout time i paid some) continue trader hopefully make about the same at 50p/£1 and then hopefully £2k plus per month at £1/2.

The job will be good for a few reasons.

1) extra cash obv and to get credit for eventual mortgages etc

2) the office in which im working as an I.T anaylst *ssshhh is jam packed with fanny

3) it will keep my poker fresh and relieve boredam.

4) meeting new people, ive kept the same freinds for 10 years, class lads but nothing mmuch new to talk about and my brains doing activitys have been the main topic for ages now.

eventually i wanna go back to pro but i reckon cash games throughout the week and only a few occasional tournaments at the weekend or trips to festival events is the way to go. Its almost impossible imo to make a living playing online mtts, those cold runs can only be sustained if you are a regular winner of comps when you final.

On the social side, went out saturday to walkabout for the f.a. cup final at 2:00 a massive leo-sayer then took place until 3 in the morning, cultimating in me playing the 8rb at silly oclock on stars. busted 50th out of 1400 odd when my big stack constantly got tested and i lost 4 flips and an 80/20.

Champions leauge on wednesday night and i really fancy liverpool in 90mins, if they can keep kaka on a lease which being a great defensive side they can, i think they have the belief and ability to win this 1-0. Will definately be out for a few for that, as one of my last nights of freedom.

On a final note i thank everyone who commented on the last post, most i know through blonde poker or tribeca. I think thats FuGu the last one. I have taken everything said on board and am conscious to make +ev decisions from now on and do things more proffessionaly.
until next time,
rick.

Long Post.........

2007-05-11T21:19:00.000+01:00

Well i got prompted to update this blog and due to the fact that at least one person reads it i felt obliged to make a very hearltfelt and honest post.

From early in the year i had a gut instinct/feeling that 2007 wasnt going to be as rosy.
Although i withdrew a load of cash throughout 2006 maybe about £60-70k i squandered nearly everything, depositing about £2-4k at a time and sometimes doing the lot in a few days on daft horse racing bets or fancy clothes, meals in top restaurants trips abroad, etc... with an air of invincibility i felt that i could do this and keep winning on a weekly basis as i proved (short-term varience) in my 1st 2 years as a pro.
I got so used to tribeca as a site i knew all the players off by heart, new every tourney like the back of my hand and felt confident i could win any tourney or stt i sat down at with consumate, naiive ease. Recently alas, i have found that this is not as easy on other sites where the competition is greater than the great fishpond that was tribeca(R.I.P lol)

So when Green Joker Poker made the inevitable transition to playtech i decided to test the waters of other sites, having played on playtech and not liking it one bit.

First i tried Crypto and had some good sucess on £2/5nl making my starting roll of £1000 into nealy £5000 in the first couple of weeks. This hot streak seemed only to be momentary as maost of that roll went within the dying weeks of january. I realised that Mtt's were my game and decided to play the Crypto mtt's £50f/o and £25/fo and most of the pokerstars biggies, $100rb etc......

As i hadn't gone over 3 weeks in the past 2 years without winning an onlin mtt for $2k+ the cold-run was a relatively new thing and i didnt know how to respond. Many pro's would say take a few weeks off and acsess the situation, however when you have barely anything in the bank, know your running really bad, and are eager to 'make things right' this is easier said than done.

I continued to play Mtt's throughout the day and night, often not leaving the house for days on end. Around february I won a seat to Cardiff gukpt, the last comp i won on tribeca, and i was keen to put in a good performance. At the same time i was running badly i decided to take a trip to iceland, which was a bad idea as i was still rueing my luck while i was there, pondering my play and possible mistakes etc....

A few weeks after we got back it was time for cheltenham races in which i made a vital error of not listening to my mates uncle 'johnny lights' advice and felt the pain as i had to stay in the gold cup night as my money had finaly run out.

A week later i had just about enough money to make it to cardiff for the gukpt. It was Final Straw time, i had a visa with about £4k limit so i still had enought to get hotel etc.... at this time i had about £500 in Crypto and $1200 in stars, which was my biggest low-bankroll point ever.

I arrived in cardiff a day early and met Gregior, pab and a few other lads i have met through internet poker and like a twat managed do my brains £4k visa on roulette, while pissed. I wasnt even down to play poker until the next day. I borrowed £500 off a good mate of mine which i am still to pay back as my stars roll went south after Dave colclogh spiked a club in a coinflip after the flop in a coup which would have seen me back to an amount of chips i feel i could have played my game with.

When i got back home i continued to persue the online mtt's thinking that the big win is just around the corner, but as most of you know bad form/running bad breeds bad confidence and often this can affect your game, I began playing with fear and eventually lost all my rolls mid-way through april.

This, strange as it seems, was a relief to me as the pressure on my shoulders was nearly at breaking point. I knew i was good enough to win mtt's at the highest level and cured the form id had over the previous months, I also cursed my naivety in thinking i was never going to have a bad spell, also my carefree spending.

WHAT NOW?

Well i applied for the dtd trader scheme and they took me on, in the first two weeks ive made about £1200 on the 25p/50p nl tables, i am looking to get the position of manager at a local rileys snooker hall for a bit as think i need a bit of stability in order for my A game to come to the fore. I feel i have lost a bit of pride, i have never been academicaly gifted, no qualifications to speak of, poker was the only thing i was good at and it the recent events have really knocked me for 6. My plan now is to make some money on the trader scheme, get a regular job and play poker as a hobby for now. My plan still is to becaome a pro one day but with the right bankroll, motivation, and above all discipline. I know i am good enough, i just need to play in a pressure free envioronment for a while and play my A game.

I hope that i can focus for a while and motivate myself to get back on track A.S.A.P
thanks to all those who have given me support, help and advice over these trechourous times, there is one thing or sure, ill still be attending events here and there. Clam has been knocked but hopefully i will come back refreshed and better than ever.

Best regards
rick

Get the fucking tin out!!!!

2007-03-13T00:02:00.000Z

So pissed off at present, Sunday night i got knocked out in 10th (the final table bubble) AA v 77 in the mansion 100k and was shafted in the stars 1.5m when deep.
So tonight while i am playing the £200 highrollers 6 pack on dtd and we get down to 4 left im thinking here we go again. Oh whats this KK on the button and the chip leader bully is re popping me lets shove it in and see what the mugs got........QQ great.............

Game #3448669203: Hold'em NL (200/400) - 2007/03/12 - 23:50:31 (UK)
Table "1" Seat 1 is the button.
Seat 1: 3guesses (7645 in chips)
Seat 2: GuloGulo (11225 in chips)
Seat 4: Hood69 (44105 in chips)
Seat 5: guitargod (17025 in chips)
GuloGulo: posts the ante 50
Hood69: posts the ante 50
guitargod: posts the ante 50
3guesses: posts the ante 50
GuloGulo: posts small blind 200
Hood69: posts big blind 400
----- HOLE CARDS -----
dealt to 3guesses [Kh Kc]
guitargod: folds
3guesses: raises to 1000
GuloGulo: folds
Hood69: raises to 2000
3guesses: raises to 7595 and is all-in
Hood69: calls 5595
----- FLOP ----- [As 2c 8c]
----- TURN ----- [As 2c 8c][Ah]
----- RIVER ----- [As 2c 8c Ah][Qs]
----- SHOW DOWN -----
3guesses: shows [Kh Kc] (Two Pairs, Aces and Kings, Queen high)
Hood69: shows [Qc Qh] (A Full House, Queens full of Aces)
Hood69 collected 15590 from Main pot
----- SUMMARY -----
Total pot 15590 Main pot 15590 Rake 0
Board [As 2c 8c Ah Qs]
Seat 1: 3guesses (button) showed [Kh Kc] and lost with Two Pairs, Aces and Kings, Queen high
Seat 2: GuloGulo (small blind) folded before Flop (didn't bet)
Seat 4: Hood69 (big blind) showed [Qc Qh] and won (15590) with A Full House, Queens full of Aces
Seat 5: guitargod folded before Flop (didn't bet)

Bad Bad month

2007-03-01T15:54:00.000Z

February was an awful month for me, probably 1st losing month in a long long time.
This Tribeca closure is really tilting me off because BSQ haven't switched yet and there are no more guaranteed tournies on the site anymore. Openened a laddies account and got a 2nd in the $50 double chance comp, but im not too keen on the stt site.

All i am playing at the moment is $200 6 seater speed comps and there aren't that many going, but i am faring well at the moment im hoping to get 20 of these in a day to grind out some $$$$$ but its high varience in these games and your 1st flip MUST hold up.

Won a seat to the cardiff leg of the GUKPT on the 23rd of march, i will be playing on the friday. Thats the only highlight from february as i lost pitifully to portfolio in our challenge. He played probably double the amount that i did, but thats no excuse, he racked up close to $5k in winnings in the 2 comps throughout the month while i mustered up a pathetic $1400.

Looking forward to cardiff and i hope i can run good for once in a good live comp.

Iceland and Injustices

2007-02-19T19:09:00.000Z

Just returned back to sheffield after a couple of days in iceland. Caz (theclaimer) Jon (jdhjon) and I decided to book a break to see what iceland is like and to experience the blue lagoon (a geothermal spa which is like a big natural jacuzzi) it was very relaxing and a great laugh.

We arrived at the airport at around 2:00pm, hired a 4x4 nipped to the blue lagoon for a few hours and then off to thr hotel centrum.

At about 10:30pm we were off on the town. We had been warned that the ale was a bit pricey however £150 for a bottle of vodka was taking the piss a little.

The 1st bar we found was a very small but quality rap bar, just playing joints from the 93-97 era, including mobb deep, biggie smalls, method man etc... then we ended the night well morning at about 6:00am in Pravda a nice club with 3 floors.

Last Thursday Saw the arrival of me and caz at grey mare lane nick in manchester where we were told we have a court date this wednesday. The whole case is absolute lunacy. I haven't bothered to get a soliciter and if they think im turning up in a whisle and flute they can bollox.

Will probably end up with a £50 fine.

The evening after the trip to manchester i decided to go play the £300+25 freezout at sheffield, because due to the police station visit i was unable to attend the GUKPT event in walsall.

When i arrived at naps for the comp i realised that most of the field were local and fancied my chances. I won a few micro pots early and then went card dead on a table full of limpers and very loose players, i decided to bide my time and was down to 2k in chips on level 100/200.

I am let in cheaply on the BB with K7d and see a KJ8 2 hearts flop, and lead for 900 knowing i am commited when a guy pushes himself. I call and see his JTh and my hand holds.

From then on i play very well and manage through KKvQQ and TTv 99 to win 2 big pots to take me to the 40k chips mark with 18 left. I am moved to table 1 to see a few stacks bigger than mine and generally more chips than the table i had just left. Right rick i thought, you aint gonna get away with raising 1/2 hands and out right thievery. How wrong i was, when the table was down to 7 players 14 left overall and 9 getting paid, i was indeed raising a lot and meeting very little resistance, i felt very good and very confident of taking home the 7k first prize even with 14 left.

Once again i made my standard raise to 4500 blinds 800/1600 and ronnie a local player who won a £300 f/o in blackpool i played in makes it 15k more, i had A4os and showed the ace as to say "i have at least something when i raise", he showed AJ hmmm i thought. I know he is a loose player and have a feeling he is in the process of changing gears. I was conscious that the A4 raise i used my left hand for whereas the previous ones i used my right, so the very next hand when i picked up AA for the 1st time in the tournament i used my left again as i made it to 4500 with approx 36,000 left this time ronnie asked how much i had, and to feign weakness asked the dealer to count, as he was counting ronnie answered my prayers my moving all in for 40k i call in a flash and ronnie recklessley turns over AK when the flop came KK7 i wasn't too upset or agreived, i realised how much i had owned that table and that if i won that pot there would be no customary deals and i would play out the victory. However i was out and once again with 14 left i had to curse my luck in a pot with would have put me big chip leader. (in bolton KKv KQ) with 12 left for a 12k 1st prize)

This week im gonna try to overhaul portfolio in our little challenge. He's about 3k infront due to the fact he doesn't have much of a social life however im gonna win one this week to 'stick it up him' and send his $100 into a worthwhile cause.

Fkin long post this innit?? ciao 4 now

TheClaimer v Portfolio

2007-01-31T15:46:00.000Z

Me and Portfolio always have some heated bantor at the tables of the 20k and 15k comps on tribeca, me usually calling porty granite and him usually calling me a luckbox, card-rack etc... which is all true, but over the course of a month i reckon i can whip his arse in the 20k and 15k comps on tribeca therefore hae offered him the challenge, which is ;

Porty and I will play the 20k and 15k comps throughout the month of feburary and whoever gets the most combined winnings is the winner and the loser must pay $100 to the charity of the winners chioce.

Porty has already told me he is away from the 5th-11th so i will discount the comps i play in that period.

This challenge came about because i need some motivation to knuckle down online in mtt's this month and what better motivation is there than whooping a granite rock who still tries to sneak into the money to claim $30 profit, Lets Get Ready to Rumble!!!!!

60 online mtt wins in 2007

2007-01-30T10:37:00.000Z

as i have aluded to on my BSQ/GJP profile my target this year is to win 60 or more mtt's online this year. I believe this is possible for myself as my aggressive late game often means either busting 2 tables out or taking the comp down. So far Janurary has been pretty shaky online however i have managed to wrap four victory's up so far 3 in the morning 3.5k and one in last nights $200 f/o for $4,350.

I have been trying to get out and play more live poker which of course will affect my online target somewhat but i have decided to be very choosy of where i go and play live as it is very hard to be a long term winner playing on the u.k circuit year in year out.

I made a trip to brighton last weekend and thouroughly enjoyed my stay at the cat and horse tavern. The comps for myself were no good, but i did manage to get a 10% off flushy which was worth £680 after he won the £300 f/o after a four way chip count.

I met up with pete alez and tom on the friday and us and junglecat03 proceeded to go out and get absolutely lethered on the town, i then proceeded to go back to the casino pissed as a fart and lose £300 on cash in 3 hands and a bit on roullette.

Mike lacey has a green joker poker tournament in may and a recommend this tournament to all, 15k chips and an hour clock with all the levels included, should prove to make many the player drool with excitement.

I was planning on going to walsall for leg 2 of the GUKPT however im due at moss side nick on the 15th for the most pointless thing ever. I won't go into details but the police in this country are a complete joke, and completely ruined our night.

see ya at the tables
rick

Bolton no good

2007-01-15T14:33:00.000Z

never got going in the main event at bolton. I survived day 1 but day 2 proved to be even more disappointing. I never ever got a hand to play or a situation/spot to double up.

with blinds at 400/800 and 9,500 in chips i decided it was time to make a move.

Praz bansi made it 1800 on the cut-off, the small blind flat called, now in my mind i was planning on pushing with any hand which wasnt total rags. i peered down and saw Th8h and decided this was a good spot to scoop up the pot. Praz bansi thought for a long time before folding, phew i thought ship the pot here, however the small blind pushed his chips in the middle and turned over KK ooooops the flop was A79 and turn T so i had lots of outs on the river but alas a 4 came to demolish the clams comeback hope.

Back tot he online grind this week, may nip to luton later on in the week if i feel like it to play the £500 double chance on thursday, we'll see.

just one my first online mtt of the year, i havent played that many in truth so far and this will change.
Just like to finish with a small mention for james dempsey who did well in finishing 14th odd in bolton, just didnt pick up the hands when he needed them and fell into QQ with 88 on the button. Also good luck to pab in day 2 of the aussie millions, bring back the gold!!

Random Ramblings

2007-01-11T08:28:00.000Z

Right 2007 so far has been hmmmm average, bout £2.5kup online so far had a few ventures to play cash at napoleans casino sheffield which proved entertaining. On one occasion the little ball landing in 32 made me £350 up for the night on the devil's wheel.

I was planning to go to bolton for the first 3 events £100 rebuy £200 f/o and GUKPT £1000 main event, however due to the fact im a lazy tw@ i got to grosvenor sheffield too late to buy in for the £100 rebuy and without the juice money for the main event, (don't ask) i arrived back tonight with the full amount only to be told that the main event is sold out. I think however i have found a seller so i should be playing.

I shall be descending on bolton tonight at around 6 so if anyone see's me gimme a shout, and buy me a double vk rb.

i had a minor result on stars today after borrowing couple hundred $ off flushy as i blew my previous stars roll. I played the $8 rebuy and got 4/896 for $1750 but at the same time managed to spunk a lump off on chelsea HT/FT @ 8/13 vs wycombe.

Dunno Why the fuck i bother with football bets i am a proven loser.

Been playing most of the mansion 100k events daily at 3:00am and have been really unlucky 3 times losing 75-80% shots grrrrr.

So.... after bolton i might nip down to luton for the grand challenge or i might just slob around at home and play online. i don't like planning too far ahead, thats for people with 9-5's right?

me and a pal of mine are currently looing for an apartment in nottingham so i could be off there soon, obv has nowt to do with the dtd card room opening in april :-)

its 08:38 and my mate is picking me up at 3:00pm to take me to bolton so id better get a couple of hours kip in.
tara

2006 round up

2006-12-31T14:37:00.000Z

First off i shall say that 2006 has been a great year for myself on the poker front.

throughout the year i have managed to amass 42 online tournament wins (39 on tribecca and 3 on laddies)

i have made 2 trips to dublin, several to blackpool, walsall and the likeand had some sucess, this week i won a £100 f/o at the broadway for £1800 and 6th in the £300 at blackpool for £1750.

Next year i will hopefully have a few good live results as well as maintaining my tournament record online.

I have met some great people this year through poker and enjoy sharing advice and strategy with these guys.

One thing that did bother me was on christmas day at 3:00am when i decided to take on sharpshooter @ 20/40nl and proceed to get shafted for $12k. the deck assualted him to be fair but i was so pissed i didnt know what had happened until an hour after i woke up on crimbo day.

Occasions like this simply SHOULD not happen, and the cash games are gonna take a big back seat as they seem to make me lose my motivation to play the tournies, which to be fair are my bread and butter. Also obv 20/40 nl is well outta my bankroll.

My next live festival will probably be the Grosvenor UK Poker Tour (GUKPT) at bolton which kicks off with a £100 rebuy, then a £300 freezout and then the £1000 main event.

I am not a big fan of shelling out a bag of sand for one tourney so i will go down the first few days play a few satts for the main event and then decide whether to buy in or not.

i conclude by wishing everyone i know a happy new year and the best of luck at the tables.
rick

"daddys home"

2006-12-21T02:48:00.000Z

20k and a TY to the rail

2006-12-11T02:54:00.000Z

thanks to kev-colch, tank, pab, geeforce, gregior, alex, misshoolie, srry if ive forgotton anyone, fantastic bantor on the rail. I sucked out in a crucial pot, but felt i played well apart from that.

got 163rd in stars million for $1,500 so not a bad night, 5 Gold rings fest on BSQ starts tommorow and im up 4 it bigtime, lets see some gold plz.

Host-Ahmed sniffs panties!!!!

2006-12-05T06:24:00.000Z

title is just a joke i had with said jobsworth who suspended my BSQ chat capabilities on sunday night.
Well i just took down the $5k 3:30am tourney for a little over $2k, to be honest that just about covers the last 3 days buyins. I think i now realise that playing 4/5 comps a night is no good for me and i am a much better player when i am able to just concentrate on 1 or 2. I have decided not to bother posting any more screen shots as i don't think anybody gives a fuck about them.
Especialy small wins like the ones i usually get. I will continue to keep them as records for mtt's.

The 5 gold rings online festival on BSQ is due to kick off a week today and i will be playing all of the events, even the omaha event in which i am dead money but it will be fun so i'll give it a whirl. If i don't win one of these events then it isn't really a big deal because my fingers are that stubby that a ring on one would be like a nose-ring in my 'child-catcher from chitty-chitty-bang-bang-esque nose, not a good idea.

I have had a look on the betting for the gold rings main event, the $500 nlhe f/o and have found a lot of players on here who are good live players but whom are very short. I had to LMAO at LOVEJOY a.k.a kevin O'leary @ 25/1 while Dave'Geeforce' Gent is double that price at 50/1.

Dave has won the sunday biggie 3 or 4 times and Lovejoy is 'in my circle' known as one of the biggest donators on the site. Lord knows why Blue Square insist on putting him in events up and down the country.

QQ can kiss my arse.. unless it sooooooted

2006-12-02T01:06:00.000Z

since day 2 of the green joker poker main event ive been absolutely cold-decked online. Ive been playing online for nearly 5 years now and ive never had such an abysmal run. Running AA KK into flopped sets, hitting a set and getting out setted on the turn. I know i am a moaning bastard but everytime i moan on this blog i seem to get a result soon after.

I think the best thing to do would be to go out tommorow night and get absolutely shitfaced and NOT come in and play 5/10 or 10/20 when i come back in.

Ive had a really good year in all, not just with the poker but with the social aspects of life and i hope that in ends on a high.
------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------

Right fuck the poker for a while on to things i give a fuck about more at the moment...

Music- the hottest tune out at the moment has to be minute second or hour by Jack Penate
a real catchy indie tune that appeals to all folk.

i also obtained the new bloc party album which appears to be a grower. The Long blondes
debut album on the other hand is brilliant right from the start.

------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------

films-- as the people who know me well will know, my daily activities revolve around slobbing
about watching films that i download the night before. The films i have seen recently are
as follows.

You me and Dupree ---- watchable, but on the other hand a bit shit
Beerfest ------- about as funny as a dose of clap
Scoop------ would have been more at home on a sunday night at 9:00pm
Accepted----- Total and utter Shit.

i download all my films from a guy called aXXo who seems to pwn the torrent spy movie market
This guy gets brownosed something rotten. He needs to get some decent films to download.

Right its 1:23am on a saturday morning and ive just busted out of the $99 rebuy with QQ v KK and watching American Beauty on Ukgold2 jeeeeeeez i need to find some other hobbies. Hmmm what time does spearmint rhino shut?????

peace out
rick x

oh to make a boring post even longer. Ive got some piccies from the claimers youth to amuse you.

Geeky rick

thinner rick.

beaten up rick. :-(

hooligan rick

you'll never beat the bandit you know!!

More live poker

2006-11-21T11:40:00.000Z

Last week i decided to nip down to blackpool for the day, my mate from blondepoker booder made the money in the £150 nlhe rebuy so i decided to get on the train and rail booder and play in that evenings £300 pot-limit freez. Booder did extremely well and went from short stack to gain an excellent 2nd place for £9500. Well done that man.

In the £300 comp i played well throughout day one making a few nice moves to keep my stack on the increase. I made the money (last 18 with 58,500) which was exactly average. The blinds were 2,000/4,000. When i returned on day2 i had a tussle with Ash Hussian, the current leader of the european rankings. All passed round to me in the sb and i looked at my 1st card Ad and decided to raise and made it 6k more to ash. Now in hindsight i should have raised more as he is priced in to call here with any two.

so... he calls and the flop shits 3 diamonds in the shape of 7Q3 so i bet the pot 20k and he re-raises and i am forced to call the 20k i have back, he turns over Qs8d and his hand holds.

I played the £150pl rebuy pissed which is never a good idea, but went out for a few beers in walkabout with stu rutter and managed to charm a bird into submission and back to my B&B.

played the £500 double chance on thursday and was completely card dead and busted pretty early. So decided to do one.

This week i am flying to dublin on friday to play the greenpokerjoker 1000 euro main event which is 15k chips and an hour clock and will be a great comp.

May try to nip down to walsall on wednesday night for the £300 double chance but it all depends on if i can scab a lift down or not so we'll see.

choi for now

20k and on for double?

2006-11-21T02:03:00.000Z

ship that 20k 1st prize clamwards!!!!!

got a stack in 15k as we speak with 27 left i got 97k, lets have a double.

in 20k i made one big error 4 handed when i tried to get a guy off his hand, but he had it. Apart from that i didnt put a foot wrong. No outdraws and no suckouts is a rareity but nice when it happens.

rick

2006-11-12T04:58:00.000Z

quote of the day from finalist who i took out with my AT v his Q9 "ffs, taken out by the worst player on the table" loooooool, ship

Ireland and ca$h games

2006-11-12T02:14:00.000Z

Had a very pleasant trip to dublin last weekend with the england team to take on Scotland wales and ireland. i managed to get to the quarter finals, however once i got there i was well and truly taken to school by a member of our team the lovely jen mason. I really enjoyed meeting jen and she has one hell of a game, for my money she is better that 95% of the players whom she reports on week in week out.

I also met pab, (pirate-pab, pab09, paulo69, leadboots) in person for the 1st time. Pab is a very reserved level headed guy, surprising for a guy who has won about $500k in mtt's this year, but not surprising from a yorkshireman.

After saturday nights drinking session, i got to bed at about 6;00am next to my room-mate rod paradise from blondepoker, very nice chap, however his incessant snoring lead for me to stay awake until 11:00am. Not the ideal preperation for the E250 freezout that we were planning the next day.

Needless to say it was rather difficult for the lads to drag my lazy arse out of bed, however booders persistance managed to pay off as i joined kev, pab and flushy in the taxi to drogheda for mike laceys extremely well structured comp.

So 7 hours later i managed to get a quite unlucky 3rd for E1500 and a ticket to the main event there later this month worth E1000. I will be meeting booder there, and it will be an excellent tournament, 15,000 chips and an hour clock with 300 runners expected is not that bad for a bag of sand.

Since ive got back online, ive been playing on 5/10nl quite a bit with very good results so far, even with the 6k pot i lost with kk v AA. I know what you are thinking, but it was 4 handed and i flat called his re-raise pre-flop to disguise my hand and when the flop was 7 3 2 and he led out for the pot i had no chioce but to push. I have laid KK down many times pre-flop in cash... seriously.

As i write this i have a nice $3100 stack on a 5/10 ring game and im in the last 40 of the 5k garanteed so hopefully it will end in a decent night profit wise.
Im only home now because the nightlife in my town is so awful.
wow this is a long post for me, lets wrap it up.
no-space claimer x

wheres a cat to kick when i need one

2006-10-31T01:28:00.000Z

5 left in 10k $99 rebuy after getting my stack up to 39k with flawless poker, i am on the BB with AK soooooooooted and then theres no justice.....

Oct 31 01:13:57] : Hand Start.
[Oct 31 01:13:57] : Seat 1 : pokerjo90 has $64,240
[Oct 31 01:13:57] : Seat 3 : TheClaimer has $39,680
[Oct 31 01:13:57] : Seat 4 : Centinel1 has $76,355
[Oct 31 01:13:57] : Seat 5 : jaymacm has $26,005
[Oct 31 01:13:57] : Seat 8 : SmoothAZN has $43,720
[Oct 31 01:13:57] : TheClaimer is the dealer.
[Oct 31 01:13:57] : Centinel1 posted small blind.
[Oct 31 01:13:57] : jaymacm posted big blind.
[Oct 31 01:13:57] : Game [206] started with 5 players.
[Oct 31 01:13:57] : Dealing Hole Cards.
[Oct 31 01:13:57] : Seat 3 : TheClaimer has Ah Kh
[Oct 31 01:14:00] : SmoothAZN folded.
[Oct 31 01:14:03] : pokerjo90 folded.
[Oct 31 01:14:06] : TheClaimer called 3,200 and raised 6,400
[Oct 31 01:14:06] : Centinel1 folded.
[Oct 31 01:14:12] : Stakes: 1,600/3,200 Current level: 12 Level up in: 2 min. Break
[Oct 31 01:14:13] : jaymacm called 6,400 and raised 16,405 and is All-in
[Oct 31 01:14:15] : TheClaimer called 16,405
[Oct 31 01:14:15] : Showdown!
[Oct 31 01:14:15] : Seat 3 : TheClaimer has Ah Kh
[Oct 31 01:14:17] : Seat 3 : TheClaimer has Ah Kh
[Oct 31 01:14:17] : Seat 5 : jaymacm has Th Qs
[Oct 31 01:14:26] : Board cards [9c As Kc 8c Js]
[Oct 31 01:14:26] : Seat 5 : jaymacm has Th Qs
[Oct 31 01:14:26] : jaymacm has Straight AKQJT
[Oct 31 01:14:26] : Seat 3 : TheClaimer has Ah Kh
[Oct 31 01:14:26] : TheClaimer has Two Pair: Aces and Kings
[Oct 31 01:14:26] : jaymacm wins 53,610 with Straight AKQJT
[Oct 31 01:14:32] : Stakes: 1,600/3,200 Current level: 12 Level up in: 1 min. Break in: 22 min. Players : 5
[Oct 31 01:14:33] : TheClaimer : ffs
[Oct 31 01:14:33] : pokerjo90 : wow
[Oct 31 01:14:36] : Hand is over.
[Oct 31 01:14:37] : Stakes: 1,600/3,200 Current level: 12 Level up in: 1 min. Break in: 22 min. Players : 5

$3.5k $100 freezout

2006-10-26T04:00:00.000+01:00

bad few days this week massive suckouts at crucial times. managed to bag a win in this tourney for the 7th time his year netting a tidy $1400, just gone 3/3 $200 9 seaters and am now involved in the $5k 3:30am comp.

Going to see milburn at the octagon tommorow which will be class. Then Next friday i will be heading off to dublin for the 4 nations cup, representing england for the heads up battle against opponents from scotland, ireland and wales... Up the lions

10k $99 rebuy another scalp for CLAMFISH

2006-10-18T03:00:00.000+01:00

good quality final alot of experience, i rode my luck at times but felt i was in control 3 handed.

Walsall Trip Report

2006-10-17T10:55:00.000+01:00

So zak (overcards) picks me up from our local boozer on friday afternoon, after i had three consecutive winners on the horses at 6/1 10/1 12/1 only singles though im afraid.

We set off to walsall at about 6:00pm in good spirits. The plan is to check into the Premier Inn about 7:30pm quick shower and then meet some of the tribeca lads in the village bar hotel at 8:00pm, i had a table booked in birmingham for 9:00pm for a bite to eat. When we arrived in the village hotel bar, we met James (royal flush) dempsey and his lovely girlfriend jane (ginger) and Tony (THEDADDDY), and later by alex (mralex2u) and tom (LuckyCU) and there non-playing mate simon.

After deciding to bomb the meal off, me and zak asked the table who was up for a few bars and clubs in birmingham. Flushy's hands were tied, so me zak, tom simon and alex jumped into a cab and headed off to birmingham, where we predictably found ourselves in the nearest strip club. We had a great laugh in the extortionate bar and fueled on god knows how many double vodka redbulls and champagne, proceeded to have dance after dance. It was only when tom proceeded to get the shots of tequilla and sambuca in that the night descended into messey-ness.

We Somehow managed to lose tom, alex and simon and ended up in a kebab house and finally got to sleep at about 5:00am.

When we arose from bed on the saturday morning zak and I were feeling as rough as bears arses, however since i was due to play in the 9:30pm sitting i wasn't that bothered.

After railing zak for most of the afternoon until he bust at the 200/400 level it was my sitting.
As i sat down i noticed that i didnt know a single face at my table, and proceeded to make a very shaky start twice being forced to pass AJ on a jack high flop.
Moving into each level with less chips than the previous, it was clear to me that maybe it wasn't going to be my day.

Hitting trips on the turn hollding 36 after calling a raise on the button i proceeded to flat call only to pay off the flush that hit on the river grrrrrrrr.

A few levels later and its desperate, i have 4k and the blinds are 200/400 i see three mid position limps and i squeeze my cards to see AQ i decide that i need to take a stand and raise the pot. All pass pretty quicky apart from the guy to my immediate right who thinks and thinks and then called. Hmmmmm

So i only have 800 back at this point and its going in on the flop of 8 6 4
I was surprised when he showed JJ as i would have expected him to raise himself pre-flop. The turn and river shit two bricks and i was gone.

Not too happy with my play but there isn't much you can do in four hours of pot-limit play with AQ and 55 as your best starting hands.

Was nice to meet alot of new people, just think my live game needs to be worked at.

since ive got back only one result when i took down the 5k speed yesterday for a little over $2k, but im predicting a win in the 20k this week.
rick

As well as the poker...............

2006-10-11T04:03:00.000+01:00

I also like to keep my mates updated with the best of new music, kind of like a zane lowe jnr. Now i am into all music and every week i will bring you 3 songs i have recently downloaded which are quality, and my playlists top 3 for the week.

top 3 downloaded

Guillemots ---- made up love song 43
Frattelis ----- whistle for the choir
jamie T ------ if youve got the money

Top 3 playlist

Dirty pretty Things ----- doctors and dealers
The tony rich project ----- nobody knows
razorlight ---- i just can't help this feeling ive got

Grosvenor Grand Prix

2006-10-11T01:03:00.000+01:00

Qualified for this badboy a week last sunday. My mate from school zak, aka overcards qualified last friday after i insisted he had a pop. So we head down to walsall friday afters.

I have booked a table at a restaurant called brasserie blanc, and have invited a few tribeca regulars. Dunno who will turn up prob just me and zak lol. Will be having a big knees-up on friday whatever, always good to be fresh before a main event.

BANG

2006-10-05T04:14:00.000+01:00

very very very happy with my performance in this comp, probably the best ive ever played, won the 3k earlier for $1200 so its a daily double

hectic week

2006-09-26T10:25:00.000+01:00

Quite a busy week it has been since my last update.

On wednesday a mate of mine rung me and said theres some dollars in his ladbrokes account and do i want to use them up. I said ill have a go at qualifying for some of the LEOCOP events, however there were none around that time. So the first thing i do is win a $20 9 seater to pay for the $100 high stack, $1000 added freezout which was starting at 6:30pm.

While i am playing this i check the account and see that i have $13 odd dollars left in the old acc. So i decide to play one of those crapshoot $11 rebuy turbo mtt's to get into the daddy tournament at 8:00pm that evening. So after some very lucky situations i win a seat and get ready for the daddy at 8 bells, while still going well in the $100 freez.

Well.... ended up finishing 4th in the $100 f/o for........$0 only top 3 here for the 27 entrants to fight for arrrgg.

But in the daddy i managed to play a short stack well all comp, made a couple of errors of judgement but overall i was happy to get 5th for $3800!! not bad for the $50 odd dollars that was in the account.

The next day i rung my mate and decided to give him £150 for his troubles while i collected the £1700 from the local laddies (ship it) in readies and proceeded to get involved in a big all-day session which culminated into a beaver patrol around fresher ridden sheffield town centre.

Thursday night i played the $100 super league f/o on bluesq and got a decent 4th place, HOWEVER BIGVRAJI cannot miss at present and ended up winning the comp and basically securing his spot as winner of the September league. WP GG (GIQ)

Friday i went out at 4:00pm couple of bets in the bookies, and a game of poker in the pub, only £10 stt's but great fun, then round a few pubs witht the lads.
Decided at about 11:30pm that i could not in the slightest be arsed stopping out until 3:00pm so did a sneaky one in a taxi back home and fired up the $99 rebuy 10k garanteed comp.

With only 64 runners and my recent pissed up form i fancied my chances, esp when i got to last two tables with 65k (20k clear of 2nd)

Final table arrived with me still holding a big advantage, even more so when i knocked 2 players out on the first hand with AA (card rack city)

what happened after, i don't know as i have repressed these thoughts deep into my unconscious. I picked up $1690 which i think was 3rd ::::-----((((((( (donked maybe???)

didnt play saturday, then played the 100k on tribeca sunday, fought my way to final table, played flawlessly all comp, (no mr Big head) got AA first hand of final at blinds 10/20k raised it to 50k in the cut-off and i needed a speedometer to see how fast they folded, it was like lightning!!. arrrrrrrg

30 mins later and were still on 9 players, but the blinds have gone up to 15k/30k i had about 260k and raised utg +1 to 110k with AKc the player to my left put all his chips in and i had him covered my 26k. I call, he has QQ and he wins( sob sob)

Fling em in a few hands later with QJsoooooted and run into BB AJ and looose.
Got $2k for 9th but it seems like buttons with $27 lumps for 1st.

This week im playing in some of the ladbrokes LEOCOP events under username JdhJon
lost in $150 rebuy last night. so im playing these other 2

Event#5 $200 plhe f/o
Event#6 $500 nlhe f/o

I might squeeze the $300 limit f/o in aswell, we'll see.

Finished 3rd in the blue sq super league, Played 3 less events than top2. My fault.
Got a stt to play on wednesday at 7. the winner gets a seat in a main event in southampton, But its pool league night so dunno what im gonna do yet...

Ok ive rambled on enough
rick

Upadate

2006-09-19T00:39:00.000+01:00

couldn't be arsed in 15k bombed the freeroll off, cus i didn't want 4 tables up, lost with A7clubs on a 2c 7d 4c flop to 444 in 8k and thats it for that,

got 2nd in the $100 f/o for $880 BigRraji got 3rd though but at least Flush Royal and Bond -007 didn't pick up many points, ao bout £200 up so far and 25mins to 5k gauranteed,

whether or not i can be arsed to play it...... errrrrm we'll see in a bit, if theres a decent film on i mat give it a miss, quite bolloxed to be honest..

Sunday no good.. again

2006-09-18T21:14:00.000+01:00

i nearly always do crap in the sunday night tournies, this, usually if the due to the fact that i still have a hangover from saturday's night out but this time it was due to me being drunk after a meal followed by a couple bottles of rougue and a bottle of bollinger, which followed the all day session while watching the football produced.

So its SUPER monday for me i hope ill be playing a total of 5 tournies, and i will write up a mini report on each as soon as i find my geeky notebook.

The most important tourney for me is the super league $100 freezout which i bombed in last night. I am currently sitting in 4th but ive played 3 less events than the other guys so im playing to win tonight, and hope flushy, BigVraji and bond -007 all have stinkers.

The comps i am playing tonight are

$100 super league freezout 10:00pm
$15,000 gaur rebuy 10:45pm
$8,000 gaur $200 freezout 11:00pm
$5,000 freeeeeeeeroll 11:30pm
$5,000 gaur freeez $36 1:00am

AYYYYYYYAAARRRRRRR

2006-09-16T06:01:00.000+01:00

was pissed when it started, sober and 2.3k up when it finished!, thanks to chad (im_losing) for railing me.
in 2nd place in the super league after playing 6 out of the 9 events, gonna play the superblinds $150 f/o on sunday and the rest of the events, see if we can't get ourselves a trophy ;-)

btw the picture you might see in the screenshot is my face super-imposed onto a flamethrower torching his money as I always tend to do.. rick

super league

2006-09-13T01:23:00.000+01:00

won the $100 3.5k super league freezout for i think the second time out of four, which should put me quite near, if not top of the league, i think the 1st prize is a couple of grand, ill have to check. If it comes to the crunch which i hope it will, i don't wanna have to be playing on a friday night at ten bells when the lads are in the boozer!! only had 1365 in chips 12 handed so i was very pleased with my performance.

Went to the st ledger at york on saturday, had a really great time drinking champange and looking at the gorgeous women. will have to do one of these trips again sometime, maybe cheltnham in march which ive went to in 2005. Cheltnham is the bollox!!

A few songs i have found which are absolute quality and well worth a download are...

happy as annie --- larrikin love
america ---- razorlight
black and white --- upper rooms
chronicles of a bohemian teenager ---- get cape wear cape fly
creepin up the backstairs ---- fratellis

enjoy!

sod the reports.....

2006-09-05T13:36:00.000+01:00

won the $27 rebuy $3.5k comp this morning for about $1500, On for the hatrick, but ran outta ciggies grrrr, went to final table about 5th in chips and was big low stack 4 handed so pleased with win.

3.5k enjoyed this one

2006-09-05T01:30:00.000+01:00

won a few chips (a bit luckily) at the start and got to final as chip leader, this final had a cracking line-up and i was happy to scrap it out for victory. the next tourney i play im gonna write notes so i can do a report on here.

very frustrating.....so far

2006-09-01T01:03:00.000+01:00

played really well in the 20k got 16th and never got above 60k in chips. went out with AA v QT sooooooooooted in a 70k pot.

15k just gone out in 50th without ever getting above 10k, its been a real grind so far, 5k freeeeez happenein in 1 min...... let me get a stack please tribecca god!!!!

to cut a long story short

2006-08-31T17:14:00.000+01:00

back on bluesq same name theclaimer (no space) wizard avatar. annoying 6th in the 20k on tuesday, even more anoying 5th in the 15k last night.

Got 5 tourneys im playing tonight are

$20k rebuy 8:00pm
$15k rebuy 10:45pm
£36 freez $5k guaranteed 1:00am
$5k rebuy 3:30am
$7 rebuy 5:00am

so it will be a long night, i will write an update on the comps while i am playing them, see if i can't get me a couple of wins.

Bleeding credit cards

2006-08-04T10:42:00.000+01:00

Since cashing out from Blue square, (i am changing my account name) it has been a nighmare getting the money as banks do not like having Credit on a credit card and it is gonna take another week or so to get the dollar into the old current account grrrrr.

I decided due to the above to put $500 onto the ladbrokes account and test their site out. What i found was a very slick site with great structured tourneys and the easiest cash games i have ever encountered. Cash game which, last night saw me sitting in 2 $300 max sit down 1.5/3 nl tables with $2700 on one and $2400 on the other. Now i am not really a good cash player so this shows how weak the fish i was tackling were. Therefore, this cash session and few good tourney results have seen the account grow from $500 to $4,975 now i know this aint massive money but in less than a week i feel i have done really well, and may even have ladbrokes as my main site in the future.

August the 17th 18th and 19th sees me and a car full of lads heading for the lowlands music festival just outside amsterdam. check this out for a lineup www.lowlands.nl the highlight will definately be the arctic monkeys 2 hour set @ 8:00pm on the last night.

Also got tickets for paul weller at the octagon in sheffield in November!! and for the rifles (these will be big) at leadmill in october. Oh and going to see the rolling stones at don valley on the 17th of this month.
xxx

something to post about

2006-07-23T12:36:00.000+01:00

won the 20k comp last night for, i believe the 1st time this year. Its been an awful month poker wise so far so i hope this is a catylst to a great end of the month run, thanks go to im_losing, flush royal, portfolio and my mate the 'other' claimer for railing me in the final, it was muchly appreciated.

Cash mecall heads for the wsop main event next week and i wish him all the best. He's gonna be texting updates. He's a good guy with a good game, i hope he is able to get a stack together and make a run at the money, me and him have been discussing strategy on-line and i know he can do well here.

So after scooping 1st prize last night the time was 1:30am and with the local late-bar opening until 2:30am i thought id get a taxi down and see the lads for a drink. the last round was a cracker, 2 bottles of magners, 3 cherry vk's and 3 double vodka lime and lemonades. It really is amazing when you arrive at a pub sober when everyone else is intoxicated. The lads had found out about a legal drug which is like an ecstasy tablet available from some herbal shop in sheffield, i believe it is called a pepe or summat. LOL lads, just because it is legal doesn't mean it is right.

had a great night friday, went to see milburn at the leadmill in sheffield, these guys are gonna be big, check out some of their tracks, on limewie
ciao for now
rick

thEcLiMeR vs Junglecat03

2006-07-04T14:29:00.000+01:00

fellow blogger and good player/kipper, and seems a good lad, Junglecat03 and myself have a challenge regarding the 5k $36 freezout. I challenged him to play the freezout 16 times in the month of july, and the most profit wins.
We are not wagering for money but the loser will have to adopt the winners avatar for a month. the cat played his 1st comp last night and got a decent 7th my 1st will probably be tonight.
I expect junglecat03 to grind out probably 3-4 final table apperances, but i fancy myself to get a couple of wins to secure victory........ updates to follow.

May the best man win!

update--- 3 down and -$108 :-(

You Lucky Little B#]tard

2006-06-30T13:39:00.000+01:00

below is a nice little 1 outer which cost me $600 odd

E-video!!!

2006-06-28T13:01:00.000+01:00

ive decided to record a tourney i play in using a camcorder. I will be talking through my moves and analysing my plays. I am doing this for a few reasons;

1) so i can see where my mistakes happen.
2) so better players than i can TELL me what im doing wrong or what they would do differently.

3) so people can get an insight of one night in the life of the claimer...

comming sooooooooooooon..............

Get me Drunk!

2006-06-24T09:57:00.000+01:00

Came back from pub at about 3:00am and loaded the $5,000 guaranteed up and absolutely murdered the comp from 2 tables out, Some of the drunken moves i were making were very good, and i was surprised that the all got through!!! stop and going, re-re-raising pre flop with rags. calling turn bets and check raising the river with garbage. When i got to final 6 one guy on the cut-off raises and i go -over the top with AdKs he flat called and left 11k back, the flop was beautiful
As Js 7s now i gotta like that, he had QQ and the spade on the river secured the victory. Once i got 3 handed i had 420k against two 60k stacks and hu started with the same lead against a buddy of mine cash mecall.

He started Hu raising a lot of hands and i had to lay them down. he just about drew level in chips before he raised to 60k pre-flop, i got tired and made a stand with TJd which saw a pass. A few hands later i got J3clubs in bb, Cash made it 12k more and i peeled one off. The flop came 8J3. I wanted his chips in at this point, so bet out 18k, cash re-raised to 48k which i flat called with the intention to check raise/call his all-in on the turn. The turn came a blank, I checked he bet most of his stack and i pushed. He had to call with the size of the pot and his T8 was no-good even with the T on the river.

Nice $2400 after playing drunk, i need that agression everytime i play so, Get the beer in

Weekend

2006-06-19T12:52:00.000+01:00

consumed a lot of alcohol this weekend, saturday saw the engagement party for friends rooney and H. I had a very enjoyable time mixing with "all walks of life" and grabbing the mic @ the end of the night for a bit of accepello (sp) mcfly singing!!!

On sunday i finished my novice poker class at the local pub to return in time for the $1m garanteed on partypoker. Managed to come 470th out of 4,089 for a profit of $300.

After this i played in a regular $109 comp and played very very well.

Got shafted well and truly by a guy who i re-raised all in with AA and he called with A9 of clubs and backdoored his flush in a 140k pot, the same guy a few hands later won our flip with his AK vs QQ so i ended up final table-bubbling which pissed me off but by then it was nearly 7:00am so i was cream-crackered.

ciao 4 now

offMYsKuLL

2006-06-17T17:18:00.000+01:00

ive decided to have a break from blue square for the time being, maybe due to bad form,( the past 2 weeks have been just awful!) or maybe because the tournaments on offer are not on par with the other big sites, or most likely because i want to test myself in the biggest fields online in the big million dollar gauranteed comps every sunday.

So ive decided to give partypoker a go still getting used to the software, but unfortunately the bad run seems to be continuing (sob sob)

what made me laugh is i played 3 mtts on party last night, went busto in them all with AA which ran into KK on a K22 flop i read him for AK and was wrong :-(
AQ which turned the nuts on a KT2J board only to get busted by a guy who thought his King with a flush draw was good enough to go with, obv the spade arrived on the river, and AT of clubs on a Ad 2c 5c board the guy had called my pre-flop raise with AA ouch.

So after that i went on blue square and played a $3 feeder to some wpt event and basically went all-in every hand and played like a muppet. needless to say i cruised to a seat by beating AA and Ak with 34 sooooooooooooooooted, they were not bunnies, but i wasn't, id won a $198 seat but done in $400 on party's comps arrrrrrrrg

My name on party is the title of the post btw,
regards rick

2006-06-12T16:30:00.000+01:00

I have registered to play in the PokerStars World Blogger Championship of Online Poker!

This Online Poker Tournament is a No Limit Texas Holdem event exclusive to Bloggers.

Registration code: 3641706

for once im happy with third

2006-06-06T13:55:00.000+01:00

Reached the final of the 20k last night after playing really well, and only sucking out once when i moved my last 5 big blinds in with 22 and ran into QQ, but the 2 on the flop saved me. The final started with me in 8th chip position out of 9 with about 140,00 chips with blinds at 5k/10k fortunately though there was a huge lucksack who by sucking players out left right and centre managed to aquire 1,675,000
chips by the time it was 4 handed.
there was a guy in the last 4 who had been disconnected for the entire final table, he had 80k or so when it was 4 handed and with a near $1k difference between 3rd and 4th i decided to do the pussy thing and wait for him to get k'od.
So when he was all in for 10k on the bb with 10/20k blinds we all decided to see the flop. which came 3 6 9 which fitted my 39 very nicely, i decided just to shove all in for 130k which was called my the CL with 58
yes the 7 came on the turn toseal my fate in third, but if this guy hadnt have knocked all of those players out i would have been probably 5th or 6th with the trash i got from the dealer in the final.
Been a while since ive won a comp outright, probably about 18 days but at least im playing better in the 20k and 15k comps. My time will come

Oh teddy teddy, plays for vc poker and he wins fuck all

2006-05-29T20:49:00.000+01:00

I ve never pissed myself lauging as much as when i saw that vcpoker had sponsored teddy sherringham. Now the vcpoker website is full of annoying cliche's (football related of course)
the thing is while teddy sheringham has won a bit of cash playing in all the top tourneys (lets face it he can afford the buy-in) but i doubt whether he has turned a profit. You may be able to see where this post is going!! Now i now he is a good bloke because a relative of mine is quite friendly with him, although when it comes down to poker... im not sure.
There are a lot of better tourney players on vc and on the tribbeca network than old teddy, an example being pirate pab who has won well over $100k online this year as well as numerous sattelite seats to places far and wide. Why not give a lad like this a chance of playing in all the big tourneys. Teddy has enough money of his own to enter tourneys all over the world, but some internet players, myself included, would struggle all the expences and large buy-in events, however in the long run would for sure turn a bigger profit than super teddy.

I know that vc need a good ambassador probably more than a good player, although it is very possible to get the best of both worlds. id like to see how teddy gets on in the regular vc comps and the live ones he is sponsored for.

the funniest thing is the quote on the site under teddy's image

"poker is the one game i don't mind getting a red card or two in,
see you at the tables"

you bet your bollocks we will teddy, bring a big belt!

Big pimpin spendin G's ( cLAImer StYLe)

2006-05-28T23:01:00.000+01:00

Shudda won the bleeder

2006-05-23T10:54:00.000+01:00

2nd in 20k guaranteed, played a good game all the way through picked my spots in the final and got Hu with surindergit, he started on the same table as me and i still couldn't work him out, the final hand i couldnt get away from the 678 flop with 89, he was opposite sitting with 45, no improvement, was gutted last night but 2/400+ is a good result.

If anyone sees my getting railed, or haing a crack with some people who are not playing, there probably mates of mine.

the claimer- good steady player, likes to give a bit of stick about, but likes good bantor. He is a real threat on the $50stt's if he keeps his mind on the game

TF1- begginer bit of a square lol, likes to play small stakes hu games and give me stick

Crazycrane- small stakes mtt player, of average ability met him once at a home game.

overcards- zak, big )6ft9" ex-england basketball player. quite a good mtt player. has had some good scores for a recreational player.

Sheffruss- don't even think he plays, but mate of mine from home.

thedog200- still got a bit to learn poker-wise, plays the odd 6 seater and speed comp

My take on Short Stack Play in mtt's

2006-05-10T10:28:00.000+01:00

Invariably at some stage of an mtt, be-it online or in a brick and mortar casino, you will have to deal with short stack play.
.
This may be due to a bad beat or a series of which or just a bad play on your behalf.
When short stacked the number one priority is not to panic. About 70% of online players will panic when short stacked and shove their chips in on the next hand or with any ace. Many authors like TJ cloutier and Doyle Brunson will talk about ten big blinds being a danger level, of course it depends on the magnitude of the tournament and of course the individuals aspirations in said tournament. If a player wants to just sneak into the money then 99 times out of 100 that is what they will do and will often be all in on their bb.
For players who like myself always set out with the objective of winning a tournament I would say that 5 BB is panic station!.
This however depends on the table you are sitting at. If it is possible to push all in and the bb pass to your raise then that is only a good thing, otherwise you are forced to find hands. My advice is try to avoid pushing with rag aces unless in late position, if a move is needed, say in the next 4 hands before the Blinds come round then I would find a hand like JT suited sufficient. This is because if you are called by a small pair you are slight favourite and with a rag ace its near enough even money.
If your preferred tactic when ss is to push all in a few times to pick up the blinds then make sure you have at least suited cards (if rags) or some sort of connectors to open up the straight possibility.
A move of mine sometimes when ss is to push all-in blind in 1st position.
This may seem like a very kamikaze move however there is a little bit of method behind it. A fist position move often indicates a strong hand and if you pick up a caller often the blinds will pass giving you extra value in the pot. This move however should only be used when you have made a conscious decision to not allow the blinds to pass through you again.
Often when ss you are going to have to gamble, but make sure you have been concentrating on the table to see who are the more passive players and who are the more aggressive, I.e. who is likely to call your raise and who is not. Another very important thing is to try and push your chips in against one opponent. It is much better to get your chips in with 7 2 vs. one opponent than JJ against 5,
So The next time you are ss in a tournament try and figure out a way to get yourself out of it. Look round the table and pick targets to steal blinds and avoid raising loose players blinds with garbage. If you pick up a big hand deliberate for a few seconds and shove in, often you will be called by a hand which you are dominating.

Vulgaria trip

2006-04-30T18:11:00.000+01:00

Trip to Bulgaria days 1, 2, 3

So I me and the old man set off from Sheffield at 12.30pm on Tuesday afternoon on what turned out to be a very long and arduous drive to Bulgaria.
We drove down to dover for about 6.30 and had a lovely meal in the Blakes restaurant, watched the arsenal game, had a few beers and got on the ferry for the 12;00am take off to france.
The plan was to drive straight after we got off the ferry at 3:00am but being the pair of lazy bastards we are, we decided to find a hotel and get a good nights kip.
The French bloke first of all put us into a room which still had someones suitcase wide open and all there toiletries in. He said “autres chambre” errrrr yes please mate!
He then put us in a disabled room in which it was essential to sit down to have a shower, after slipping on my arse and having a quick wash it was time to drive through france, Belgium, Holland Germany and arrive in Austria. We were gonna carry on driving at 9:30pm but decided with it pissing it down, to find a nice little motel (which we did in a town called reid ) and a few beers, bit of snap and a good sleep. The restaurant was very nice and after a spaggetti bolognase, 2 glasses of beer, 2 glasses of dry white, and a stomach turning shot of the Austrian local drink, I was very tired.
I has the idea of staying in bed until about 11:00am, but my (on this trip thus fas) busy-body father decided 7:00am was a suitable wake up time , grrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrr’ing and ffs’ing for the next half an hour I got showered dressed and wandered downstairs to see what breakfast was up for grabs!
What I found was a cold buffet which included, stale cold toast, dodgy looking veg, even dodgier looking jam, and a few mouldy apples, no thanks.
We then began our near 24-hour drive from Austria to Bulgaria.

Off to Bulgaria ( back in 4 weeks )

2006-04-23T23:44:00.000+01:00

taking laptop so ill try to get a connection over there and ill try play a few comps in the sofia casino's,
see ya soon

AbOuT BLoOdY tiMe

2006-04-21T10:42:00.000+01:00

won the $100 f/0 on blue square last night and got a 2nd in the 5k f/0 for $1500 and $1100 respectively

was really unlucky in the latter comp, where i limped in Hu with A7 diamonds and hit top pair on a flop of AQK my opponent chiveschive (who i was pissing off by calling clive) made a massive bet which i quicky raised all in, he couldnt lay his K7 down for some reason and the K arrived on the turn.

I hope this continues as these last 4 weeks have been an absolute nightmare, dunno whats going wrong, but i wanna make it alright. today should go well fingers crossed

My Arse is pretty sore!

2006-04-03T16:07:00.000+01:00

getting absolutely bummed at poker in the morning, and getting slightly pissed off with it.
$3500 tourney today get my money in with AA v AK for a 16k pot
the board read A3QJ....T that was nice... then on the $5000 re-buy short stacked with 9k in chips a guy maks it 1600 to go with blinds 400/800, me being in position on the button decide to call to see the flop, which comes 5T5 quite a nice flop, he bets 1600 again and i push for about 6.5k more. the guy calls and flips over......
AA? KK? QQ? AT? nope A7 and proceeds to catch his (2outer as it turns out) on the turn. the tournment i am curently in ive decided just to push all in with every premium hand, because in these tourneys you WILL get called... we'll see how tis tactic works

Boooooooooooooring

2006-03-27T15:03:00.000+01:00

since ive posted ive been bored outta my tits, poker wise and in general...

the prospect of going down town with the lads on a saturday night fails, miserably to float my boat, as does watching 40 year old pill-heads dressed as binmen stinking of B.O dancing like nobs to gatecrasher classics.

Maybe its be being the boring one but, not having the stess and strain of a 9-5 job, makes everyday the same, and turns saturday into "just another day"

The poker hasnt gone too well since the last post, bad form maybe contributing to a few very questionable plays. I need to prove myself in the 15k's on tribbeca, as i usually do shite in these. Maybe i lose concntration after 3 hours of play, i dunno but i need to rectify this as the kippers winning these comps nowadays is frightning.

Brains doing at Cheltnham

2006-03-22T12:50:00.000Z

a few brains were done in last week on the chetnham festival, not only on the horses but on the ale consumed all week including st patricks day where i was drinking in the local from 1:30pm till 3:30am the following morning...

I didn't get to play much poker last week, and since ive got back onto playing 5-6 tourneys a day ive had some rotten outdraws and am generally card dead..

Could be a spot of bad form or just me being paranoid, lets hope its the latter

patience personified.................

2006-03-14T13:18:00.000Z

with a dash of luck...........

1st Win for a while

2006-03-09T13:29:00.000Z

played quite well all the way though.... went to final with big chip lead and took it doooown

turning into a good day........

2006-03-07T04:27:00.000Z

got 2nd place in the 5k guaranteed was 10/1 against in chips so had to shove with 55 v KQ he hit :(

Hills bankroll now on............485!!! squid

2006-03-06T15:16:00.000Z

Courtesy of this nice result......., i can't print account balance as it has account number on it and i don't want anyone pinching my hard earned money (lol)

Creeky noises make my skin creep, i need to get some sleep, i can't get no sleep....

2006-03-06T08:57:00.000Z

The past week's sleeping routine has been a bit strange, usually playing poker from 10pm till 7:00am and sleeping till about 1:00pm, then playing for an hour, then having a litle snooze....

got a third in the new $7k guaranteed tourney at 5:00am on sunday morning for $1459 but other than that theres been nothing much over the past week to shout about.

The william Hill account is up to 91 quid courtesy of a 'good thing' at leapordstown yesterday at 4/5.

got a good feeling about this week, im just gonna knuckle down a bit and hopefully land a tourney win,

Lets settle a score

2006-03-02T11:49:00.000Z

this is the craic, vc poker is down for a while, ive put 20 quid onto my willhill account, and im gonna make it into enough for my trip to vegas in june, this will mean i have to probably make it into 3 or 4 grand before the end of may, this may seem very very optimistic... and to be honest it is but we'll see what happens...

1st update account up to 42 quid after 2 wins in 5 quid 10 seaters and a few losses in mtt satellites into bigger mtt's,

Chezzfish liked my idea and since he's going with us to vegas in june (mainly to attend a mates wedding) he's decided to do the same. He has no chance of getting to 100 quid never mind 3 grand!!!! u can see his quest at www.chezzboy.blogspot.com

in other news, ive started posting on www.overthegun.com as from the 1st of march all my tourney wins go on there...

Ive had a side bet with cobster 315 on who will finish higher in the march leaugue to the tune of a hundered dollar. He made the best possible start last night by winning the 15k tourney for nearly $4.5k

him and his brother Gaz15 are both exellent players, and i feel i have it all to do already to haul back the defecit.
but ill give it my best shotxxx
tHE ClaImer

How can i pass?

2006-02-23T23:16:00.000Z

i didnt he called my re-raise all in with AK and it was noooooo good on 88k now, lets see what happens

Missing in Action

2006-02-23T21:17:00.000Z

have all the players listed below; gone broke?, moved sites, died in a plane crash.......... You get the picture, can anyone shed any light?

Jackjonnes---- won a fair few tournys last year and has vanished since

Edren--- imo a very good tourney player, solid

Fattermarra--decent player

Chris4673---- solid consistent money finisher in mtt's..

im sure there's many more... Where have they got to?

You Lucky Twat Rick!!

2006-02-20T06:13:00.000Z

Got extremely lucky in some crucial pots throught this tourney one was turning over AQ and JK with A8 soooooted which hit the flush on the river.
I also got very lucky when i was heads up hitting an 8 to win with my K8 v KT, however i was quite far infront at the time...

Id like to thank Gaz15 for seating me on the final table, he will vouch for me getting very spawny...

Gaz15's brother Cobster3I5 got a 3rd in the 15k for $1.8k and portfolio also scooped a very nice $5k in the 15k which starts at 8:00pm...

Midway through this 5k tourney ive just won, i realised i was out of ciggies so took a taxi to the 24 hour garage... Im glad i did so now because my nails would have been chewed off my now.

This is probably 1st tourney ive won this month, and by my own admission i haven't been playing too well and spunking away big stacks.
Im sure ill get another one before the end of the month, hopefully in one of the $15k's which have proven so illusive recently.
cheers, rick

Have You Got Lucky?

2006-02-19T17:42:00.000Z

it is important after a win in an Multi-tourney or Sit & go, to evealuate your game, and realise the pots which you won, could have gone the other way.
On very few occasions is it possible to win a, say 100 runner tourney without winning at least one coin flip (50-50) and a lot of the times you may be forced to put your chips in with say KQ v A10 where u are a 60/40 dog.
Often it can be easy after winning a tournament to feel like you have played very good poker and have deserved your win. At times like these you have to remember he times you have been lucky in a single pot and realise that this won't happen in every tourney. My own opinion is that you have to have luck on your side to win a tourney. The differnce between the good players and just the average players is that the good players give themselves the best possibe chance to get lucky by only getting involved in very few showdowns per tournament, this way they may only have to win say 3 coinflips per tourney as opposed to other weaker players who may need to win a lot more, due to their inabilty to steal pots and become more aggressive in the latter stages. I have seen many players who at one time were winning tourneys left right and centre, and they were last seen entering $2 bonus freerolls.

It is very naive to disregard luck in poker. But for a good player the luck comes, by why that they may be lucky not to get unlucky....

Ie they will go into a pot with AK v AQ in a showdown obviously the AK is about 73% favourite but if you are involved in 4 of these coups, you are favourite to lose your stack by the 4th time...

They say that good players don't understand how much luck is in the game and bad players don't realise how much skill is in he game. This is probably right, however bad players often endeavour to learn more about the skill in the game. It is also important for the good players to not learn but understand luck and don't get blinkered into thinking you are invincible, and never forget the times when you get lucky as this will help you take the beats that other players inflict on you.... because as they say "what comes around, goes around".........

is there a worse way to exit a comp

2006-02-17T04:31:00.000Z

got a third in the $5,000 guaranteed freezout tonight for approx $750, i went out in a very cruel way, however im back playin my best game and look forward to tommorows mtt endeavours already....

Not much happening

2006-02-16T21:50:00.000Z

for some strange reason, since the last time i posted, not much has happened by the way of mtt's, made about four final tables, invluding the final of last nights 15k put going out in 9th after running my 1010 into JJ and AQ when the table short stack.
Hopefully this posting will be the start of a revival in my tournament finishes, i have made a few fundamental errors throughot the week, and im working on improving this, the most frequent of these is getting too involved in pots i should just be folding pre flop.
best regards
tHe ClaIMeR

Don't Look back in anger!

2006-02-10T13:28:00.000Z

On Thursday i had a tricky decision to make. It was either go to the oasis Concert at the sheffield arena, or play the 10 quid rebuy at the local casino. I didnt have a ticket for the concert so it was a case of buying one from a tout. I decided the best thing to do was to go to the casino, buy a ticket, then ring one of the lads to see if there were any tickets knocking about. I, however made the mistake of thinking that the casino would only let one person buy one ticket.

An hour later im told that i am 2 seats too late. Due to the asian clique buyng all there late friends a ticket... grrrrr. So I decided it was too late for the oasis concert, so decided to have a bit of snap in the casino restaurant.

4 courses later and a bottle of house white, i decide to go home, ( via doing 60 bones on the devil's wheel) and play vc. Finished the session in profit, which was soley down to stt's because i played like an absolute plonker in the 3 tourneys i played.

Ive seen oasis twice before, but all the lads ringing up telling me what a good night its been made me think i shudda fucked the poker off for the night and gon to the gig, oh we'll

The Ledgend of crazycrane

2006-02-08T16:53:00.000Z

You may recognise the name crazycrane as a regular railird in the finals of any comps where myself chezzboy, or overcards are in. He likes dishing a bit of stick about so i thought id try and wind him up a little, by saying that i had 20 invites to a $50k freeroll on virgin poker and i would send him an application form in an e-mail. The kipper must have been rubbing his hands at not actually spending his money to lose his chips, when the email arrived.
Crane, its rick, please find enclosed as an attachment a copy of the registration form, but hurry there are only 3 spacs left.

Of course the attachment looked like this

2 nearly's

2006-02-08T16:49:00.000Z

yesterday afternoon i finished 2nd and today 3rd in the 3500 gauranteed jobbie, its keeping my head above water for the week, im having an absolute mare in the 15k's at 8:00pm and 10:45pm, these tourneys are really worth winning but its jut not happening, i seem to be pissing my chips away in dribs and drabs, so ill try to adress it tonight if im not at the pub.

Is it a bad call or is it just me?

2006-02-04T16:08:00.000Z

occasionaly, other players muppetry really gets my goat, this one did as i scrapped my way to final table of the 3500 guaranteed. i have approx 38k when a serial all-in merchant moves all-in for 43k (blinds 3k-6k) i have KK and call, in a flash

The player to my left then begins to dwell up, and decides to call with AK, now i thoght this was a bad call, obviously as the ace fell and i departed in 7th, but he has to be worried about my hand. He must think a pair is out and the other guy has either a pair or an ace(which would give him 1 less out)

he had 40k in chips, the original alliner had 99........ who calls with AK here???

one of those days

2006-02-02T05:18:00.000Z

came 6th in the 5k freezout and 15th in the 5k rebuy, tommorow is gonna be better, trust me

Back Online!!!...... but back in bad form :(

2006-02-02T00:47:00.000Z

after a lot of fukking about ringing aol about 23 times yesterday, finally obtained a aol 9.0 cd, from curry's and fired the old vcpoker up on my new laptop.

I was raring to go, but now at 00:53 ive had one of the most boring sessions of poker ever. never got close in 4 tourneys, never got into it, quite a few bad beats in the stt's played about 10 stt's today won 1 second once third twice, that is not good form for me, i maybe shudda got a couple more wins but a couple of outdraws, and suckouts put pay to that idea.

Gonna give the $5,000 guaranteed tourney a whiz in 4 mins time, to hopefully christen my new laptop with a victory, gonna be a long night thouh with only two ciggies left till i get to the shops.

im gonna set my stall out for victory in this tourney fom the start, i may be prepared to go for a few coin flips early on to get a stack together, otherwise its get focused time tommorow.

back tommorow, can' wait!!

2006-01-30T14:45:00.000Z

back in action tommorow, after laptop fucked up bigstyle, brand new lappie coming tommorow and can't wait to get back into action, feeling very fresh and ready for business, so watch out.

Big Stack Play in MTT's

2006-01-25T03:19:00.000Z

Once Down to the last few tables of a multi tournament, often the big chip leaders make many fundamental mistakes with regard to chip management.
I myself have more than once made the error of being over-aggressive and attempting to be the table captain/bully, when with the assembly of the table, the best tactics would be to pick your spots and attempt to go in at least 60/40 against the low stacks.

Often players get blinkered when chip leader two tables out, thinking of victory before it has happened and counting your money. With the size of blinds in most of the tribbeca tourneys I play, it only takes a couple of bungled attempts at a steal making value calls when pot commited, can lead to the players you double up posing a problem in later stages and will make your likleyhood of getting another raise through highly unlikely.

I do a lot of homework on tourneys that i am not involved in often as sad as it sounds, i watch table 1 all the way to the final, in order to make notes on how players play two tables out with a small/big/and large stack.

This may seem a bit anorakish but i am always looking for anything that will give me an edge over my opponents, and i believe that this has given me an idea of how to play my stack against these players if they show up on my table with 18 to go.

Big stack strategy in the latter stages of an mtt is undoubtably more awkward than short stack play,
I believe that you need to give yourself a goal, ie do you want to place top 3, win it, or make final and see what happens. My usual strategy when in a chip lead is to play hands like i had the average stack, maybe loosen up on your raising hands a little, but NOT on your calling hands, put pressure on the blinds occasionaly, but dont take the piss, and try at all times to keep a tight aggressive image even when you are stealing a little.

I havent covered all aspects of Big stack play 2 tables out in an mtt, but hopefully it may help the 3 avid readers of the blog i have got.
I always love discussing any aspects of the game and analysing hands, so if anyone wants a chin wag or has got any good gags up their kipper sleeves

Ping me on msn ricktrigg18@hotmail.com
best regards
tHE clAIMEr

nearly, a double up

2006-01-24T09:23:00.000Z

still aint been to bed, played in the 3k guaraneed at 7:00am and got 2nd place

Hanging around.... hanging around

2006-01-24T06:21:00.000Z

won my first tourney for a while in the 3:30am 5k guaranteed, i got lucky in a few pots and found some hands at the right stage, i was v patient with 40 left and it paid off, id like to thank cobster315 for sweating me for most of the tourney, ill do a little report tommorow if i get up outta bed.......

Better Rick.... Better

2006-01-22T10:30:00.000Z

decided that i would disregard the affects of sleep deprivation and would play the $5000 guaranteed tourney at 3:00am this morning despite having about 1 hour sleep in the last fortnight...

Anyway it paid of in a way as I played a brilliant tourney, only got involved in one coin toss all night with QQ v AK two tables out made a nice move that ill post, instead of the $1617 i scooped for second as the tourney details have vanished some 5 hours after the tourney finished. I know i mayhave been infront in this hand anyway, but i thought it took a lot of balls..... especially on the bubble

we are 6 handed with 19 players left (18 got paid) blinds were 2000/4000 and i recieve KJos utg... i decide that i will minimum raise to 8,000 to either see a flop relatively cheaply or to recieve the blinds...

The BB decided to call the extra 4,000 ( im on 52,000 and he's on 60,000 chips on the flop)
the flop brings 5 5 5 , mmmm he is first to speak and bets 10k into the 18k pot now, it doeswt take a genius to see that he has no 5, and i believe if he has a pp he re-raises pre-flop, so i decide im gonna have this and re raise to 24k, he calls..... gulp this puts me on 38k approx, the turn comes a 7 he bets 8k which i flat call... still with k high

the river comes an 8.... he bets 12k into a now rather large looking 82k pot i have 30k back and he has 38k i reraise all in and after a dwell he passes..... i wonder what he had he reckons JQ, i reckon more like 22 or 33..

look who got 1st.............& 2nd

2006-01-20T19:37:00.000Z

an imposter decided to join the $50 9 seater with the same name, but with no space in between, not a bad player actually.... but i suppose someone's gotta get 2nd..... pass that sherbert!!!!!!!!