Ruling Inconsistency

As all poker players will be aware, every poker room has its own slightly different versions of very similar types of rules. I have personally played in many different casinos in both the UK and America and seen similar occurrences been ruled completely differently depending on where I was. For instance there has been a lot of discussion on what information you can disclose about your hand while still involved in a pot. This issue came up I believe during WSOP 2011 and there was a lot of debating between Daniel Negreanu & Matt Savage (probably the best known tournament director in the world) about it. Daniel’s argument was that a lot of the mental side of poker is lost by not allowing you to “prod for information off your opponent” and Matt saying that he feels it makes for a “more even playing field” if the rule is just straight down the line that NO information may be disclosed during a hand.  I’m sure people can probably understand both sides of this argument but will always lean one way or another. Apparently the rules have always stated the latter but have just never really been enforced in that way until WSOP 2011.  However, at least in this case the rule has been brought to the forefront of people’s minds & publicised heavily and is being enforced on the back of that.

 

Having said all of that, if you were to play in your local tournament I’m sure you would get away with this kind of talk during a hand. However if you repeatedly did it I would expect a card room supervisor or tournament director to be called over at some point although which way they would rule is anyone’s guess.

 

Another example of rules being interpreted differently includes talking on a mobile phone whilst playing a hand.  I was recently in a pot where my opponent was in a conversation on his phone from when the cards were dealt until the river.  I think he bet the flop & I called, the turn was checked, then after I bet the river he chose to raise.  Now in this example I knew my opponent and knew he was simply on the phone to his girlfriend but I asked for a ruling mainly for future reference. I was told that as long as the person wasn’t slowing the game down or obviously discussing his hand then it was fine for him to be on the phone.  I was stunned, I have never known this rule be interpreted in this way before at any casino anywhere. They told me it was a company ruling now so they are just following head office procedure.

 

Now this brings me on to the purpose of this whole article.  Whilst playing in a North-West  casino about a month ago, the following happened:-

I was involved in a hand with a guy I have played poker with a lot. I have top pair/top kicker & we both go all-in on the flop. At this point I’m pretty certain he has me beaten from the way the action has taken place. Before the turn card is dealt he announced he had ‘a set’ & as the river comes down I release my cards. However, upon seeing the river had given me "Broadway" (and the nuts) I reached towards my cards to show them as the winning hand. My cards were not in contact with any of the cards on the table, nor had they been "mucked" by the dealer. As I had my hands on my cards to turn them over and show the winning hand, the dealer said to wait while he asked for a decision to be made by the card room supervisor.  Unfortunately he was not in the room at the time so his understudy came over & his ruling was that "any forward motion of cards is classed as a muck". I explained that I did not believe this was the case as I had personally seen it happen in that casino on several occasions where people had released their cards then turned them over & the pot had been awarded to them. At least two other people on the table confirmed that they had also seen people release their cards before then turning over their hands & winning the pot.

 

At this point I asked for the card room supervisor to be called over. He arrived & ruled that he was agreeing with the "forward motion" theory. Still unhappy, and with various people backing me up on the inconsistency the casino was displaying, I then asked for one of the casino managers to come down & give his ruling. He again concluded with the forward motion ruling! However I was still unhappy with the decision so I asked to see a copy of the rulebook which specified the ruling. Now if they had shown me a ruling in black and white regarding forward motion then I would have simply bitten the bullet & gone home cursing the fact that I had bore the brunt of their inconsistency but safe in the knowledge that they had indeed followed what were either ‘head office’ or possibly ‘house’ rules in this instance. Whilst I stood waiting for two of the people who had made the forward motion rulings to look through their own rulebook, I had at least two more of the poker room's regulars come over & say they had also seen, recently, examples of people releasing their cards then tabling them & being awarded the pot. After originally saying there was nothing in the rulebook specifically regarding that rule, and the casino manager and I going round in circles, the original decision maker eventually came over to prove his point with their rulebook in his hand. Unfortunately for him the rule he chose to show me simply confirmed that I was in fact correct. The rule stated (and I quote) “cards offered face down over the action line are considered mucked as soon as the dealer touches them”. There was not even any wording in the rules referring to forward motion. Therefore, as the dealer hadn’t touched my cards, my hand was still live & I should have been able to table my hand & win the pot. Furthermore, there is no action line in this particular casino, so it is unusual that their ruling specified an action line at all. However, despite their own rulebook supporting me, the staff & manager still wouldn’t back down.  I was starting to become angry at this point but then I felt like they also started to belittle me somewhat.  As the value of my pot was £250 (250 Big Blinds though), they decided to tell me about how a regular player at this casino (who I believe is also a casino manager elsewhere and/or poker tournament director), had lost a £1500 pot after he was also not allowed to table his hand after releasing his cards. At this point I left the casino as I was too angry to stay. It felt like they were trying to say that as this other man had not been awarded a pot, of much higher value, then I should just accept the decision & get on with it.

 

As if this was not bad enough, the following day I was told that this particular player (in the £1500 pot) HAD been allowed to show his hand & HAD been awarded the pot! I contacted this player directly to ask for his version of what happened to him without specifying what had happened to me the previous night so as not to bias his answer. What he told me was exactly the same as what happened to me, except the casino had awarded him the pot (his words were “I threw them face down but they went nowhere near the muck, therefore not mucked and therefore they were still live”).  I cannot begin to explain how furious I was at this point.  Members of staff & management had used an example of another hand to try to back themselves up when in fact it was a blatant lie.

 

The very NEXT night I was told about a hand happening in the same casino.  Both players had Ace King and by the river they both had Ace high, one guy throws his hand face down over halfway to the dealer and the other guy turns over his AK to scoop the pot. At this point the first guy then reaches in & turns his hand over and they split the pot. It was the same dealer as in my pot & it was the night AFTER my issue.  I was told this by probably the casino’s most frequent poker player.

 

I had posted something on a social networking site regarding what had happened to me and had various people agreeing they had seen the same thing happen in both that casino, and other local casinos, where similar incidents had occurred and the ruling had gone in favour of the person in my situation.  I think partly because of this social networking conversation the casino in question had one of its Management team e-mail me a day or two later asking me to either give him a call or send him an email explaining the situation whilst he had a discussion with the casino staff who were involved on the night. I emailed him back explaining everything I have mentioned above and that I had evidence of the conversation with the person who had been awarded the £1500 pot and, although I didn’t particularly want to get other people involved, I had also had at least 5 or 6 of their most regular players approach me and say they were happy to speak to the casino management regarding this situation as they had all witnessed examples of similar things happening in there where the person in the same situation as myself had been awarded the pot.  

             

From that point it took the casino 6 days to reply to me and invite me in for a conversation about the incident.  So a couple of nights later I drove the 25 minute journey to discuss it with the manager.  We sat down and he clearly wasn’t a poker player from the way he was speaking about it, but he explained that essentially he was backing up the original decision.  There was no apology for the lies that his staff had told me, not even an attempted gesture of goodwill.  Baring in mind that I play poker in this casino 4 or 5 times per week on average, I couldn’t believe the chain of events that had unfolded around this incident and how they had reacted to it and attempted to deal with it.  He could have told me in the email that he was taking the decision to back up his staff and therefore saved me the journey of driving down there, staying all of three minutes then driving back again.

 

One thing that I have wondered is whether the different rulings in this particular casino over these "disputed decisions" has anything to do with the fact that some of their staff might favour certain players. It would certainly make sense when you consider that several of their poker room staff are interacting on various levels outside of work with some of the poker players who play in their casino. I'm pretty sure this isn't allowed but it is plain to see when they put pictures of themselves out drinking with players on their social networking pages. Also, another local card room manager has seen one of the supervisors in my dispute & a player from the card room in question together in another casino in the North-West. It just all seems a bit suspicious and would explain what appears to be favouritism when you see several identical situations ruled differently.

I don’t know if there is anywhere else I can go with my complaint but I feel extremely let down by this casino, and felt that I needed to share this unfortunate incident with the poker community to get some feedback (whether you agree with me or disagree) and air my frustrations.  Please feel free to add me on Twitter (@AndyField_07) if you have any views on any of the above.

 

*** To the casino in question, it is not my intention to bad mouth your establishment. Furthermore I have not mentioned the name of the casino nor any of its staff.  I still consider it to be one of the best places in England to play poker despite this incident leaving a very sour taste in my mouth. I have been back in there since and there was no animosity from either myself or the staff in there ***

Change of Plan – Staking required

Let me start off by saying I am intending on sending this blog to virtually every poker player I know, plus all those that I follow on Twitter.  Now that will include a lot of the pro poker players who are obviously millionaires already!  I appreciate that playing the stakes I play (£1/£1 cash poker in casinos) that I am not going to make any of you high-rollers any kind of money that would appeal to you, but I am hoping to reach out to you on a different level.... i.e. You hopefully see it as an opportunity to help out an aspiring poker player (proven winning player might I add, see below!) who is having some cash flow issues.  And long term, as I progress up the stakes, play some of the big tournaments etc then maybe there could be some decent money involved in it for you.  Anyway, I hope you continue to read the rest of this & I look forward to plenty of offers of help!!!  (Feel free to read over all my previous blogs too at http://flopping-the-nuts-mbn.blogspot.co.uk/).  If you are NOT wealthy, you may still be able to get involved on a smaller scale.... again, please read on.

So….. Since getting back from Vegas & then Ibiza (one of my best mate’s stag doos) I have barely played any poker (massive sigh) as I basically have no money to play!!   My bankroll has been decimated by non-poker outgoings (holidays, season tickets for football, car expenses etc) & an unexpected horrific period of running horrendously.  When I started playing poker full time I didn’t do it in a particularly well thought-out & conventional manner, ie I didn’t have ANY bankroll management plan, and I definitely didn’t have a specified bankroll !!  I just went down to the casino (after the computers crashed at the PokerFarm office one night, so I had been unable to play online for them that night) with £100 & it built from there. However, since then I have averaged 12 big blinds per hour over 15 months.  In that time I have made about the same amount of money as I would have made had I stayed in my previous job as a store manager at Phones 4 u!  That is something I am proud of, as it is difficult to be a winning player in the long term.  Lots of people consider themselves winning players when they play, lets say, once per week over a couple of months. However they have not come across the variance that every poker player will inevitably encounter.  But I was playing 5-6 nights per week over 15 months & have definitely had more than my fair share of variance & runbad!!

In all honesty, I would rather not be in this position at all as I don’t like to give away 50% of my profits and there WILL be profits as I am a proven winning player over the 15 months of playing live poker fulltime.  However, I LOVE playing poker & it is killing me not being able to play. I have just been asked to start writing articles for an online poker magazine called http://ontiltmagazine.com/ which is exciting but does not give me anywhere near the buzz of playing!!

So... THE PLAN.... Well that very much depends on any opportunities that arise from people reading this blog.  I guess there are a few possibilities:-

1)      Somebody decides to stake me long term, on a 50-50 profit sharing.

2)      Somebody decides to stake me short term, (again on 50-50 profit scheme)with a view to reviewing the situation after specified time scales

3)      I get several friends/associates to jointly stake me, i.e. 10-20 people stake me £100-200 each. I put this money together as a bankroll then on a monthly basis I return the profits to them for the month (plus the original staking money if they decide not to continue).  Just to clarify this, say 10 people gave me £200 each that would give me a bankroll of £2000 to play with. After a month lets say I had made £2000 profit, I would keep £1000 of the profit & split the other £1000 between the 10 people staking me (£100 profit each).  Plus they could take their original stake back too (if they didn’t want to continue, although I am guessing they WOULD want to continue.... There are no banks offering that type of interest rate!!!)

** Any staking money I receive will be getting used to play £1/1 cash poker at the Manchester casinos (235 casino & Didsbury Grosvenor mainly) **

It looks highly unlikely that I will be playing poker full time for the foreseeable future, as I hope to get a job soon & I am currently job hunting.  But I envisage playing poker a minimum of 3-4 nights per week if I get a part-time job, and 2-3 nights per week if I get a full-time job.  If the scenario pops up whereby somebody is willing to stake me but insists that I play full time in return for a different type of staking deal then I would also be willing to discuss this. 

Let me try to break it down a little bit for you.... I generally play for about 5-8 hours in any poker session.  So if I played 3 nights per week, based on my 12 Big Blinds per hour then I would make £78 per session (based on 6.5hr sessions) £234 per week and £936 per month (assuming every month only had 28 days!).   If I managed to get back up to 5 nights per week then it’d be £78 per session,  £390 per week & £1560 per month, again based on every month only having 28 days.

I hope that I have given you a little bit more of an insight into my background & enough information. However if you wish to discuss further with me then please don’t hesitate to contact me on the details below:

Mobile Phone number: - 07794 223423

Email Address: - andyfield_07@hotmail.co.uk

Twitter: - @AndyField_07

BBM Pin: - 231EA3B3

Many thanks for reading my blog & I hope to hear from you soon.

Andy

Vegas, Summary

Ok, its been about 2-3 weeks since we got back from Vegas, but it seems like forever.  I really would love to be back over there, for ever to be honest !!  The lifestyle is unreal (and not just with regards to poker), I love virtually everything about the place.  One thing that has tilted me since i have been back was when i worked out my wins & losses at the different stakes over there!  Playing $1/2 & $1/3 i made a combined amount of just over $3400, a tidy profit i'm sure you will agree!! However, playing in the $2/5 games I lost $3700, the majority of which was in horrific coolers!! The problem is that i had to win so many more pots at the 1/2 & 1/3 games to get that profit compared to the few pots i lost in order to lose at 2/5.  I was buying in for $500 each time at 2/5 so losing $3700 is basically only 7 buy-ins. I lost with Queens vs Aces & also with Kings vs Aces for 2 of them, also lost with Aces against a flopped set, and with 2nd nut flush vs the nut flush.  Basically ran like arse at 2/5, which is pretty annoying as I could potentially have had an extremely profitable trip to Vegas under my belt.  For those of you thinking "why didnt you just stick to $1/2", well we had agreed before i went that i was going to be playing mainly 2/5 so we just stuck to that. If i had been playing on my own money then i probably wouldn't have even touched the 2/5.  We live & learn i guess, i know playing at 2/5 felt pretty normal to me, i wasn't intimidated or anything & i didnt feel like the standard was massively higher than 1/2 especially at The Venetian anyway.

Anywayyyy enough of that, time for a summary of the trip....

HOTELS!!

We stayed in enough hotels to give you some do's & donts! 
* Flamingo. we stayed here for the first 2 nights, not spectacular but still very nice.  Comfy beds, decent shower & working modern TV.  Good positioning in the middle ish of the strip, walking distance to Venetian, Bellagio, PH & Aria.
* Imperial Palace. we stayed here for 4-5 nights. My advice regarding this place would be to avoid it unless someone actually has a gun pointed at your head & insists that you stay there otherwise they will end your life !  Upon getting dropped off here by the taxi driver, it felt like we were being dropped into the middle of a horror movie. Not one sign for the actual hotel lobby, finding the lobby was like completing every level of Total Wipeout FFS!!  When we DID find it, the queue was ridic long & the whole floor stunk & the carpet was sticky!  It was also FULL of young annoying Americans. When we got to the 4 or 5 lifts to take us up to our floor, it literally took over 5 minutes for us to get into one of those lifts. Ohhhhhh and when we got up to our room, the TV was one of those old style ones with the massive backs on, and the remote control didnt work & the buttons on the TV itself were stuck !!  Just friggin jog on Imperial Palace you absolute joker!!  OH YEAH, and when we looked out of the window, all we could see was just a huge horrible, unstarted, building site! If you used your imagination a bit, we could actually imagine that we were like one of those TV reporters reporting from war-torn Afganistan, taking shelter from the bombs & gunfire!  BUT IT IS CHEAP, so if you are on a budget then this could be the place for you !!!
* Bellagio. Wow, talk about one extreme to another. Jas said he was going to upgrade to a bigger room & therefore me & Gra moved into probably the most famous hotel in Vegas! It was amazing. They wont let you into the elevator lobby area without seeing your keycard for your room first.  The room itself had a TV in it bigger than all the TV's in my house back at home, the bathroom had a huge bath & pretty sweet walk-in shower kinda thing! Bellagio we LOVE YOU !! We ended up staying here for over a week i think it was, however its pretty bloody expensive so unless you are loaded or go on a great winning streak out there then it might be best to put your money towards other things
* Circus Circus.  My advice regarding this place would be to avoid it unless somebody has a knife to your throat & are threatening to end your life unless you stay there!!  Once we eventually got checked in, we had to walk what seemed like about 19 miles in 40+ degree heat to some outbuilding. Getting into that building was like a level of the Crystal Maze, the electric card just wouldn't work unless you were born in Moscow Hospital on Friday 14th May 1976, and even then you had to have been a twin!!  I mean how hard can it be to gain access to a friggin block of hotel rooms that you have PAID to stay in!! Once we got inside, we wished we hadn't, it absolutely stunk! I don't, to this day, know what it was. I think it was some sort of air freshener, but it must have been in the stock cupboard since about the 14th century cos it made me want to hurl every time i set foot in there.  So, next step of the Crystal Maze is to hold your breath from the door of the block to your actual room. Once inside your room, the next bit is trying to not get devoured by all the bedbugs or whatever it was that was making my skin feel itchy as hell in there. . . . . . .  I think you get the idea anyway, DONT stay there!! 

Thank the absolute lord that we only had one night in there cos that night, Jas reappeared in Vegas after having flown home!  Let me explain, we left the Bellagio cos Jas was flying back to England that day. So me & Gra went online & booked CC (Circus Circus) for the night followed by the last few nights at Flamingo again.  However, having checked in to CC, we decided to have a powernap. When we woke up we had a message on Facebook off Jas saying "be at Planet Hollywood at midnight" which confused us as he should have been landing in Manchester about then! Anyway, we were going over there anyway & at about 1am Jas strolled in!!!  He had reached his transfer in Chicago and thought "nah, i dont wanna go home yet" so then flew back to Vegas!! Hahahaaaaa, still makes me laugh !!  However, his luggage was still on its way to Manchester so he lost that!!  Anyway, he had booked into a single room at PH (Planet Hollywood) for first night then next few nights in one of their suites, which me & Gra could move into with him!!  Which leads me onto the final hotel of our stay....

*Planet Hollywood.  This was on a par with Bellagio, mainly cos we had a suite. It was just awesome, our own pool table & Fussball table, several tables in the lounge, huge TV, two bathrooms etc etc..... Oh and an amazing view of the strip, Bellagio etc.

Our view of The Bellagio from our room at PH

Where To Play Poker

Well, this is kind of down to personal preference!  Personally I found the Bellagio the toughest game anywhere!  A lot of very good players at even the lowest stakes, we didnt play here very often after the first few days. Also, i found that all the tables were too close together. Was always getting my chair banged by waitresses & anybody walking past!  Highly annoying after first few times. We did see lots of famous poker faces in here though, most of which were playing in Bobby's Room there. Johnny Chan, Doyle Brunson, David Benyamine, Sammy Farha, Eli Elezra, Ming Li. I'm sure there were others but i cant remember right now!!!  We also played at The Aria during the afternoons on the first 2 or 3 days, mainly cos we went into their Sports Bar for a Sky Burger (which were gorgeous). Aria was well organised & a good room, but we found it pretty sharky again so stopped going there.  Next up is Riviera, its a pretty mingin hotel & i dont actually know why we ended up in here during the afternoon one day. They only really ever had one table during the full 2 days we played here, $1/3, but it was ridic soft!!  There was one maniac playing in there (called "Pizza", and yes he was fat) but the rest were either tourists or just shit players basically. The second day there were 3 super-dooper-UBER nits there but rest of the table was again terrible! Due to there only ever being the one table though, we decided our 2 trips there were enough!  The Venetian was one of our favourite places to play, however after 2am ish the standard seemed to get much better (probably all the regs arriving i'd imagine).  So, the best times to play there are from late afternoon til about 1am i reckon.  My personal favourite place to play, and we only found it towards the end of the trip, was Planet Hollywood. It seemed to be mainly tourists in there playing which is always good. The only other place we tried was MGM but we stayed for a grand total of about 20 minutes i think. The 3 of us were all on different $2/5 tables & all felt that it was completely Reg-infested, lots of metagame stuff going on and that we had probably arrived there too late.  We only went there that night cos it was the Pacquiao fight so we thought it'd be full of tourists wanting a game of poker, but we were very wrong!! Aaaaah well !!   Ohhhh, we also played in the Rio. In all honesty, again we barely played cash in there at all, but we did play a WSOP Event..... Did i mention that at all ?!!

Jas bought the 3 of us into Event 33 of WSOP, and it was amazing! Even queuing up to buy in we were stood in front of Kara Scott !! Just bizarre! Gra said she was even hotter in real life, I personally didn't notice cos i was looking at the picture of my girlfriend on my phone (Hiya Laura if you are reading! hahahahaaa).  Playing in the WSOP Main Event is every poker players dream. Sorry, i'm lying.... WINNING the WSOP Main Event is. But playing in it would be awesome, but it costs $10k. So playing in any WSOP event is like next on the list of dreams & I got to do it on this trip! The atmosphere in there is pretty surreal, excitement & a buzz just engulfs the place. When you are not playing, if you walk around it wont be long before you spot one of your poker heroes playing or even just walking around. 


Phil Ivey playing a $10k HORSE Event

Negreanu playing $5k PLO 6-Max

So as you know from my previous blog, Gra cashed for nearly $3k (one of the best moments of the trip, hands down). I went back to rail him for Day 2, partly cos he's a good mate of mine & partly cos I had 25% of any of his winnings hahahahaaaaa!!  He was chuffed at his win, but i was gutted he didn't have the skills to go any deeper & get us a big pay day! Siiiiiigh! Hahaaaaa!

I also met Sam Trickett when I was there for Day 2, and had a bit of a chat with him. Considering how much he's won playing poker, he was very grounded & down to earth, nice guy. He only bloody went on to win $10million in the $1mill "Big One for One Drop" event a few weeks later. Nice one!! Myself & Gra actually had a conversation about all the pros we seen at the Rio during the WSOP. Not a single one of the "recognisable faces" seemed to think they were like superstars or anything, just generally chilling-out in shorts & t-shirts or jogging bottoms/hoodies etc! Dunno what we really expected to be honest, guess we are comparing them to footballers over here who just never seem approachable etc and always seem to think they are above the average person.  I guess thats one of the ways how poker is different from any other sports in the world, you can literally buy into an event & could end up sat next to one of your heroes!

Another thing that did come out of the WSOP experience is just how easy it is to cash in one. I mean, if Gra can do it then anyone can!  Jokesssss! But in all seriousness, I did say to Gra that he wasn't making moves and playing crazy & getting lucky or anything. He did just play ABC poker, and ended up outlasting about 2200 other players by just playing the strength of his cards.  If someday we could afford to just go and play the EPT's, WPT's etc etc then i honestly think we would reasonably quickly be able to start cashing in them. There were a LOT of bad players in that WSOP event, more than I expected anyway.

I am aware that I am dragging on a bit now & that this blog is WAY longer than all my others, so if you are bored then just read the rest later. I don't think i'm going to be going on for much longer, but i cannot guarantee that for you!!  Allllllright, i will bring it to an end now.  The only other thing i want to mention to anybody going to Vegas is that you HAVE to go to Earl Of Sandwich.  Its in the shopping mall attached to Planet Hollywood and is literally a 2minute walk from the poker room in there! Its a little bit like Subway but approximately 7,309,109,482 times nicer! If you go to Vegas & don't try an Earl then you are missing out!!!

Finally I just want to say thanks to Jas for making the whole trip possible, absolutely unbelievable experience & one that I will never forget !!   I just want to go back SOOOOOOOOOOOO badly its unreal !

(Going to be getting another blog out within the next day or two hopefully as I'm looking for some staking for the next few months, more on that soon.... watch this space)

Vegas & The WSOP

Not gonna bore you with too many details but the trip overall has been really good & also very frustrating.  I have got myself a couple of K up a few times then lost it all in appalling runs of ridic coolers.  Vegas itself is just made for people like me, Gra & Jas.  Its a 24hour city, which is required when you go to bed at 10am & are waking up at like 8pm.  I could definitely live here for a few months at a time.

Being card dead & running pretty poorly myself has been pretty tilting, although i truly feel like i have never played better than these two weeks.  Have had to double & triple-barrel bluff on soooo many occasions just to keep myself afloat some nights. If I had gone on some sort of heater out here, then i could have found myself up by a very tidy profit.  Unfortunately it seems like it was not meant to be, unless the last few days are going to surprise me.

So, while i have been up & down the whole trip, Gra has been on one of the most horrific runs i have ever seen. Two weeks of just missing every draw known to man, and getting outdrawn when he has had big hands.  Painful to watch so must be devastating for him.  In all fairness, none of us have run anywhere near to our EV lines. When any of us have had Aces, Kings or Queens i think we must have lost 85% of the time, and i'm not exaggerating !!  The only bit of real rungood any of us have had has been Gra going deep in WSOP Event 33 ($1k buy in).  Jas bought us all into it & Gra finished 117th out of 2750 players for a payout of $2800.  It was amazing playing in a WSOP event, the atmosphere around the Rio was really electric.  Seen loads of the poker pros that I have only normally seen on the TV.  As for my WSOP, well i check raised on the turn with the nut flush, got called, but the river paired the board. He then bet out quite small so I called & he showed the FH obvs! Left me quite short stacked so eventually got it in with 10's and ran into Kings, siiiiigh!

A few people have been asking about the "best hand i have played" story from the other day, so here goes!  I'm sat with about $270 on a $1/2 table in Planet Hollywood. It was quite a good table to be sat at as it wasnt particularly aggressive & was generally cheap to see plenty of flops & outplay people post-flop. So in this particular hand i have J9o in the big blind & its limped multi-way to me & i check my option. Flop comes down KJ9 rainbow. SB & myself check & it ends up checking round. Turn is the 8c, bringing second club & the SB bets out $11, i decide to just call here with so many people to act behind me as i dont wanna bloat the pot in an unraised hand where the board is so wet & potentially dangerous. I figure if i get to see the river for $11, or not too much more if its raised behind me, then i can re-evaluate then. The guy next to me also flat calls & another guy sat opposite me calls too.  The river brings an offsuit 9 to fill me up with 9's full of jacks. The SB bets $20, I want to raise here but when i look at his stack he only has $33 left behind. If i raise I probably get the rest of his money but i might scare off the other two guys still to act & they are both equally as deep stacked as me. I decide to flat call after a bit of a sigh & some acting (like i'm weak), in the hope that one of the two guys behind me will raise or maybe one or both call.  Guy next to me subsequently flat calls too & then the last guy announces raise, then makes it $120 more. PERFECT. SB folds, i think for a bit then ship it all in! The guy next to me then tanks for quite a while saying he was definitely gonna call the $120 extra but he felt for sure that i was folding & that my all-in had totally altered his perception of the hand.  He eventually folds (later saying he had QT for the flopped nuts).  The guy who had raised the extra $120 then says "well if u have got me beat then u have really played this like a world champion but i have to call" and then shows 89 for a smaller full house.  About 4 or 5 of the players at the table congratulated me on how i played the hand on the river & its always nice to get plaudits off your peers at the table, it felt good!

Going to sign off now to watch the latest match of the NBA Finals, I have started watching it out here & its awesome entertainment.

Viva Las Vegas!!!

Ok, so I'm typing this from Las Vegas. No I'm not dreaming, I'm actually sat in Bellagio in Las Vegas. I know I haven't updated this blog for a lonnnnng time, so what better reason to start than a 3 week trip to LAS BLOODY VEGAS eh!!

So yeh, about 2 weeks ago I get a phone call off Gra about 2 in the afternoon telling me to get myself on Facebook for a 3 way convo with him & Jas. At the time I had just woke up & was therefore pretty confused but I logged on anyway. At this point Jas basically offered to bankroll myself & Gra for a 3week trip to Vegas. WOW !! Everybody needs friends like Jas, trust me... This guy is a legend! (No more smoke to be blown up his arse if I can help it, hahaaaa. But on a serious note, really was an incredible offer by him & I'm so grateful for the opportunity. I hope I have a storming run out here so that he makes some decent money outta me too). 

So this was like the last few days of May & Jas was planning on flying direct from Thailand to Vegas around the 5th of June and he wanted us to get there about the same kinda time!! So off we pop onto all the internet sites looking at deals, and find a decent flight for the 5th. Me & Gra (in our wisdom) decide to just book a hotel for the 1st two nights, then we will just go round to all the hotels while we are in Vegas to sort the accomodation for the other 19nights. 

Fast forward a few days & we are at the airport at 6:30am on the 5th June, checkin in then sat in the departure lounge having a beer & literally giggling and super excited like 2 kids on christmas eve, we are off to Vegas... The thought of the 15hrs of travelling & waiting does ZERO to dampen our spirits!! Banter is flowing & morale is at an all-time high. The first leg of the journey (into Newark) is broken up for me by watchin 21 Jump St, pretty good film which I wud recommend to you all. Unfortunately we have to endure some of THE worst in-flight food I have ever seen & tasted too but nevermind eh!! The 5hr wait in Newark for our connecting flight is broken up by us watching episodes of High Stakes Poker on my laptop while drinkin beers in an Irish Pub. 6 hours later & we are in Vegas, popping down an escalator to baggage claim & we are met by Jas who has a sign saying "Fish" as though he is our taxi driver! I thought it was pretty funny anyway! As we go outside to get a taxi some limo driver says to us "need a riiiide guys?". Before I can say "no its alright, we are just gonna get a taxi", Jas has pretty much accepted this guys offer & we are in a limo heading down the strip!!! 

Despite both being pretty tired, we dropped our luggage off in our room at Flamingo, grabbed a bite to eat & were over in Bellagio waiting for a seat to play. Jas is staking both Gra & myself to play $2/5 but for the first night we decided to just play $1/2. Gra ran up a profit within about 2hrs and headed off to bed! I was more hardcore & managed a good 8 or so hours, more than doubling my buy-in. Happy days & good start for us!

I'm gonna leave it there for now, but I will try to get a blog update out in the next 36 hrs as have only just touched the surface here & have another couple of days to update you all on.

Lack of blogging

Afternoon everyone, apologies to all my avid readers (all 2 of you! Hahaaaa) but i decided to take a break from blogging while i was running bad as i was getting bored of typing badbeat stories/“feel sorry for me – look how bad i’m running” blogs etc!  And if i was getting bored of typing them then almost certainly people were getting bored of reading them!!

So whats happened since my last blog?  Well seen as my previous blog was mid-December then friggin LOADS has happened!!!!  Christmas for a start!!   Well, first things first, my staking deal....

Well its still going, although it did not start well.... I lost 20 buy-ins & we agreed to carry on but I didn’t see him for a while to get the money.  When i eventually saw him, a great “ballin” story came from it!  I am upstairs in 235 casino & he walks up with another lad we know. He asks how much i want off him to continue the staking deal, i suggest another 10 buy-ins. His exact words at this point were “well i only have a grand on me”, then he starts lookin over my shoulder & the other lad says “whats that look on your face about?”  Anyway he just walks over to a roulette table, takes a grand in cash out of his pocket & sticks it on Red.  I can’t watch so i walk away, a minute later i look round and he is at the cash desk cashing in 2 grand!!  Utterly ridiculous!!!!!  He walks over to me & hands me £1,000 in fiftys that look like they have just been printed!!!!!!   My life-goal is to one day be as balla as he is!!!  I know that he will be reading this & having a little chuckle to himself !!  That story is a pretty tame one compared to some of his others, i might share one or two on a future blog!

So yeh, that was on 11^th February, and i have been steadily winning back some of the original outlay.  I feel like things are going much better, i feel confident again which is massively important imho. Hopefully this little run of form continues & i will have won the original losses back before too long, fingers crossed!

Banter has been good at the tables too, especially at weekends..... Usually find myself at a table with at least one of Gra, Kez, Fozzie or OD, all from Warrington, which makes things a bit more entertaining.   Alternatively when me & Todd are on the same table we have some small but highly entertaining prop bets, which just keep things ticking along & energy high at the table (well, for Todd especially.... he jumps up to celebrate sometimes like he has scored the winning goal in an FA Cup Final... hahahaaa, quality!!).

I’m playing virtually all my poker at Manchester 235 casino now. For me its just the best place to play, always at least 1-2 good cash tables running during the week and then  7 or 8 on Fridays & Saturdays .  The dealers are nearly all very good at controlling the tables too, don’t get any stupid shit happening & any players stepping out of line are left under no illusions that it won’t be tolerated again.  Just things like rabbit hunting etc  are not allowed so the game runs quicker & more smoothly .  Also a guy got suspended/banned for slowrolling someone a few weeks ago!!  Ok, some people might say that seems a bit harsh but wait til you hear the full story.  The guy FLOPS quads. His opponent rivers a full-house & pushes all-in for about £250 into a pot of about £120 ish.  The guy with the quads THINKS, then says something like “ohhhh what could you have to do that?”, then he asks the dealer to count how much the all-in is for, then he counts out his own chips, then he thinks for a bit longer before eventually saying “ok, i better call then” before whipping over his unbeatable hand & LAUGHING !!   One of the worst things i have heard about at a poker table ever, and the guy fully deserved banning for it.  When he said he only laughed cos he was stoned it really didn’t help his case!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!

I have been to the new G Casino at Didsbury a few times which opened a few weeks ago and, although its a nice place, the games are ridic slow cos the dealers are all new!!!  The second time i went i literally had to leave after an hour or so cos the pace of the shuffling & dealing was tilting me!!!

I cant write this blog without at least one bad beat story, so here it is.... but i’m not telling it in a “FFS” way, i actually think its pretty funny. It was the worst badbeat of my live poker career to date, percentage-wise, although nowhere near some of the biggest pots i have lost which is probably why I didn’t get angry!    So it is the FIRST hand as i sit down at the table, its a £1/2 game and i have pocket 7’s, there is a raise to £11 and one caller.  I have sat with £100 initially to get a feel for the table before i maybe reload with more funds. So I decide to just flat call too, before we see a flop of K73 rainbow.  Pretty much perfect, checks to original raiser who bets £28, other guy folds & i just decide to shove, he calls & shows KQ.  Pokerstove tells me that i am a 98.4% favourite.  Just to confirm that is NINETY-EIGHT POINT FOUR PERCENT !!!  The astute ones amongst you will have already realised that the turn comes a King & the river another queen to give him a bigger full-house than my own!  Absolute shitballs for tea !!!

Ohhhhh and i nearly forgot to tell you about a hilarious story that happened to me & Gra as we arrived at the casino just before Xmas.  So we parked up in the multi-storey and walked over to the lift, as the doors open we both notice a pair of shoes just sat there on the floor of the lift, with no feet/legs in them, just a pair of mens shoes!!  Me & Gra look at each other, and then proceed to get into the lift! As we both walk in we notice a guy stood up against the mirrored wall, apparently fast asleep stood up with no shoes on (surprisingly)!!  As we pressed the button to go down to the casino, his head moves, he mumbles something then his head falls so his chin is on his chest & he is kinda drooling!!  Well, the whole situation was just too much for me, i’m in dire need of laughing hysterically at this point, as i often am when my mind is telling me to be quiet.  Pretty sure my shoulders were shaking from trying to control my laughter.  I kinda know Gra is in exactly the same situation as me so i’m deliberately looking away from him cos if i see his face trying to control laughter too then i’m gonna just break down in fits of laughter, i just know it !!!  Just as the lift reaches the ground floor, Gra lets out like a muffled laugh, kinda like the noise you would make if you had been holding your breath for as long as possible.  That was it, the lift doors opened & me and Gra burst outta the lift crying laughing, straight into a couple waiting to go up in the lift !!  They looked into the lift, seen the guy and turned around to wait for the next lift!!   It just compounded everything, we had to wait about 5 minutes to compose ourselves before we went into the casino. Truly one of the funniest things i have ever seen cos it was just SO FRIGGIN bizarre!!!!

On that note i’m gonna end my blog cos i’m laughing too much again.   GG & GL

 Andy

Things get put into perspective

Ok, change of tone for this blog..... Its all about positivity for me from here.  Running bad is merely a challenge that i WILL overcome, badbeats are a good thing as it means my opponents are poorer at poker than me!! Etc etc, you get the idea!

And the reason for this, wellllll life is just too short to spend worrying & moaning. One of my mum & dad’s best friends was diagnosed with cancer approximately a month ago, and it has already left her deaf & blind and in a lot of pain. Yesterday, her & her husband decided that she should stop the treatment she was receiving and now basically it is a matter of time before she passes away.  She is one of the nicest people I have met & I can’t begin to imagine how scared she must be at the moment.  Its just horrendous, and i absolutely HATE seeing my mum & dad upset..... it doesn’t happen very often but that helpless feeling is one of the worst feelings in the world.   I don’t want my entire blog to be depressing so i’m going to move on to the positivity side of it again......

All this has made me set myself some goals & decide what i want to do. Some of the things i have wanted to do for a few years, few months or few weeks need to have some wheels put in motion on them

1)      I want to visit Las Vegas to destroy the low stakes poker tables. Originally i said i wanted to do 90 days out there (longest tourist visa you can get) but I would be happy to do 2-3 weeks, preferably before Feb-March next year.

2)      I REALLY want to visit Australia, for about a month.... I would really like this to be whilst also playing poker there to cover the costs of the trip

3)      I want to start dabbling in the stock market, I have been plotting 2 particular companies share prices approx 3-6 times per day, and the threshold of one company is floating between 9.5p and 11p within a couple of days of each other.  If i were to invest 2-3k at the bottom of this threshold, sell at the top, then buy again when they drop down etc etc then i reckon I could make approx £1-2k per month to start with

There is, ofc, a slight problem with these plans.... I need money to do them all.  So if anyone knows anyone with some spare cash that would want to invest then let me know.  Anyone who invests will be entitled to a % of the profits from poker/shares & we can discuss this side of it.

I may not need any investment, I am due to go on a heater of IMMENSE proportions at any time now, I have 2-3 months of chronic runbad that needs evening out. It must be due from today I expect, I cannot imagine me losing a single hand of poker for approximately the next 3 weeks.     Regardless of me having my own money or not, investment in the above ideas would still be welcomed, if anyone is interested.  It just alleviates the pressure on my own scarce (but soon to be bulging again) bankroll.

I have been reading 2 other poker/life blogs recently, both of which are good but in highly different ways, first is Dave Nicholson’s (@lildavefish on Twitter) http://lildaveslife.blogspot.com/ is his blog link..... Good poker read & he sounds a bit of a balla!!  One thing he does say is that to play poker for a living that you have to absolutely love poker, through the good times & the horrific times. This is soooooo true its ridiculous.  I know i have family & friends who either don’t like what i do or don’t think i can do it for a long time/forever, but i have never been more determined in my whole life, i love this “job” and i’m not going to let it just disappear in front of my eyes

The second blog is of Maylis Boardman (@MaylisBoardman on Twitter), http://maylisboardman.wordpress.com/ is her blog link.   Both of them have inspired me in the last few days.  I hope they don’t mind me naming them, I have never met either of them, and i suppose any publicity is good publicity!

One of the things that has come from my “running bad” challenge has been my absolute overwhelming desire to improve my game to restrict my losses as much as possible.  I have mentioned to a few people that I am looking for criticism (in a constructive way preferably) of my poker game from them.  My contact details are, 1) Telephone number 07794 223423 to text me or call me, 2) BBM is 231EA3B3, 3) Email address is andyfield_07@hotmail.co.uk  If there is anything you can tell me about how you think i can improve my game then let me know.   Ed has criticised the way i played one hand in particular, and i would like similar feedback.

I’m also going to try to instigate BRS to take me on as an online staked player,  they agreed to do it in principle a year or so ago before loads of stuff came up & I had to back out.

 I think that pretty much covers most of what i wanted to say, and if not then it can wait!!  I have been awake for 24 hours now & am starting to fall asleep typing so bye for now & GG

Andy