Drawings, perceptions and poker players

Well it's been a VERY long time since I posted in this blog. Actually I had almost forgotten I even had it. A lot has changed in that time, I have resigned myself to occasional poker games with the realisation that I lack the pure aggression (other than perhaps one week a month) that is needed to be profitable at poker. Of course I still have a passion for all things poker and this has led me to the subject of today's posting. I have taken to regularly following the EPT and other broadcasts online. My story begins back in Sept 2012 when I came across WCOOP on Pokerstars Radio. They ran regular competitions to win Pokerstars goodies. The first one I came across was to draw a picture of Elky, you were given an entry date and it had almost expired. I quickly rustled up a green haired Elky on Paint and submitted it. Needless to say it was not even mentioned. The next time I was more prepared. Draw a picture of Celina Lin they said. I took to my sketch pad and (still quite quickly) drew my sketch. I had not sketched for many years so found it fun.

This time I got a mention but unfortunately no prize but a lovely reply from Celina on Twitter, not deterred I entered the next one which was a picture of Daniel Negreanu. Even more time was spent on this one and my OCD for detail kicked in.

No prize again but another lovely acknowledgement tweet from Daniel. I did finally win a competition with a witty tweet about sending naked pictures which Nick Wealthall found worthy of a t-shirt. I will leave my tales of sketching for the moment and now fast forward to attending the Irish Open where I entered into some Twitter banter with Kevin MacPhee and his pyramid chip stacks. I was there railing Ed as he had qualified online, we were both excited to see both Kevin and Steve O'Dwyer playing as we were fans after watching EPTs. I had recently followed Kevin on Twitter after he'd had a public meltdown over his breakup with Liv. I wasn't sure what to make of him but he turned out to be the loveliest guy and came over to chat briefly on the last day which I really appreciated. My hobby of poker celebrity had begun! Can I also add at this point that chats, pictures and (even serenades) from Devilfish and Neil Channing occurred that weekend too. Of course that was less of a surprise as they are well know as approachable poker celebrities. Fast forward again to another competition run by Pokerstars, this time on Instagram. (Folks there are so many ways to win Pokerstars merchandise out there). I re-used my previous drawings but needed another one to add to it so why not draw my most favourite poker player of all, Eugene Katchalov.

Eugene loved it and even posted it up on his own Instagram feed. Daniel Negreanu, being his cheeky self, pointed out it was 'fat' Eugene. This planted the seed of doing another sketch of the new worked out Eugene. This one was going to take time and I was going to send it to him. (I had already sent the first ones to both him and Daniel when they were playing EPT London, still waiting for Daniel to say if he got his) Lots of correspondence between myself and Eugene "why exactly do I have a moustache?" ensued until he was happy with the finished work of art. It now (hopefully) hangs in his dad's home.

Eugene has sent me a signed "We are 10 Seasons Prague" which is now one of my most precious possessions.

My conclusion to all of these interactions? You can never tell what people will really be like. Daniel, the chatterbox, isn't that interested (or too busy) in fan mail. Eugene, the quiet one, is an absolute star who will forever be my hero. And finally Kevin, the outspoken one, is a darling who has great taste in TV shows (Winter is coming....) Kevin, you are next on my list to sketch. :)

Virgin Poker Festival, Aspers, 2009 How Pokerbanter fared.

Ok, this will be quite vague. One because most of my weekend is a blur, two because I don't remember hands two minutes after, let alone two days and three because a main event,forum challenge,STT and Terminator end up running together and it's a lot when you've had no sleep and then drove three hours home.

In the main event I decided to play very tight and started that way, playing nothing. A wee while later I get a bit bored so call a couple of hands. Either I get raised or flop brings nothing so I have a word with myself and go back to playing tight.

I then get a run of cards with AK and KQ, KQ. Each time I take the pot unseen. Tight image obviously being noticed. Gradually building a stack.

A big hand I had was with JJ. I think I raised, he reraised and I called. The flop brings K & Q and all diamonds. We both check, turn, check and a diamond on the river. I look again to see which J's I have, if anyone is ever playing me live, don't think because I look at my hand again means it's forgettable, I just have a shit memory! I have a diamond, he raises and I call. He has AA, no diamonds.

Nothing for a long while and I dwindle to 7000. 400/800 with 50 antes. Time to make a move so all-in with 66. I get a call from AK and my 66 holds up. Doubled up.

Again, nothing happens, need to learn to loosen up further in. It's just not easy.

My final hand is 77, all-in again preflop and I'm called by KK. The flop brings a 7 and a K and I'm out.

In my STT game I was doing well ish when my AA was beaten by A10 all-in getting a set! No comeback there either.

The forum challenge was a bit of a turbo and due to being so knackered I really don't remember a lot of it so the main thing is my departing hand. I went all-in with 66 and was called by 9,10h who thought, hell I'll have a gamble. There had been a lot of all-ins on my table but none from me so far. He got a straight and I went out 6th for 4 points.

In the Terminator on Sunday I was doing really well. Confidence was up and I was taking pots all over the place. Raise or fold, raise or fold.

Got a nice pot when a slow playing straight got busted on the river by my AK getting FH J's over K's.

I then get KK early, I think the blinds were still 100/50 at this point and I raised to 600. Button (I think) re raises to 1200 and I call. He had recently arrived on our table and had a lot of chips and bounties.

Flop comes 7?Q. I bet 3000 leaving me with just over 2000 I think. He moves all-in and I think about it. I think it's possible he is holding QQ but I look at all the chips I've put in and what I have left and call. I also thought he could be a gambler, what with all the bounties he has.

He has 77 and the turn and river bring nothing for me. I should have folded, I know that. 2000 chips would have been fine with the blinds so low but it just looked so little after the stack I'd had. It was funny too because I had just finished slagging off my arch enemy Paul Ross (owner of forum where I was banned) for playing nothing. I asked him if he was just there to watch the football! He said, no point playing when blinds are small and putting your game on the line. Karma.

I was actually glad I went out of that by the end of the day as I thought it was a lucky seat and yen_sid took it after I departed. And with winning hands such as K3, 42 and 53 boy was it lucky (although he says it was all position)

He finished 7th and I'm sure got much further than I could have.

It was a great weekend and a few of our players had some great results with Kristobal getting 7th in the main event £1500, TheFifeFlyer winning the STT challenge £325 +50,000 and yen_sid winning £110 for the Terminator.

We,(Pokerbanter) were 2nd in the Forum challenge and had the most wins in it with SuitedPower, rejmak and yen_sid all winning. The rest of us failed to collect enough points for us to win though.

Not bad for a wee forum like ours, considering one of those forums has 35,057 members and we have 300. Can't wait to see our results when we have that many members.
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Mmmm, haven't updated for a while.

Finished 8th in the Devilfish Bounty game on Thurs night. Quite liking this tourny.

I've qualified for the Virgin Poker Festival in April, another piss up with friends, cant wait.

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June's Virgin League Results

So that was the first month and I was on to finish 3rd right up until the last game. I finished 6th and Phil finished 1st. If he had been 2nd then we would have split 2nd. :-(

Virgin League

Well this is the first month of Virgin's new League, I pestered Joe Legge so he would have it.

So far I am doing okay. It's best 4 of 9 and I'm sitting in 5th place so far with 3 games to go.

The top two get places to a Virgin festival of their choice and 3rd is €100 and down to €5 for 8th 9th and 10th.

http://www.virgingames.com/poker/HotTournaments.aspx#ContentItem1491

The Virgin Festival (And team Daily Punt)

Here is some of team TDP.

Oh dear I forgot I should update my blog with my Festival antics. Better late than never I suppose.

Okay here's my sketchy run down of my weekend.I wasn't happy at the start as a few EMS players kept letting me know they knew what I had but I steadily built up my stack regardless.

Main event highlight was calling a raise with 66 for the flop to bring a 6. Called a raise all-in and took out AA. I played reasonably well but never went massively ahead so it's always a struggle and the need to shove seems to creep up on you a lot. I remember calling a short stacked all-in with KQh but his pair held up. I eventually blinded away as I wanted to hang in there for as long as I could, after telling myself I wouldn't do that again.

In the Forum challenge I went out with AQd against 34d who got a 3 and a 4. Rej and Jez did us proud though, both winning. Ed, well he is going without privilages for quite some time to come for his first hand all-in.

We went back to the hotel at about 4am after a detour round half of Newcastle, think Ed would still have been wandering the streets if I hadn't been there. There was no naked in the corridor incidents this time round but I did have to stop him peeing in the wardrobe twice.

Day 2 had me playing in the Terminator, £30 buy-in and everyone has a bounty on their head. 150 runners and I finished 20th. I took one bounty. I was doing really well in this tourney then I made the fateful mistake of raising to steal the blinds and then seeing that UTG had already called or raised before me so he then went all-in. I had to fold as I had A4, it was quite funny because Jez thought he had seen my hand and was telling Ed I had aces. Their faces were classic when I then folded. A couple of hands later I went all-in with KJ and was called by AQ and out I went.

Meeting everyone was brilliant, I'm not going to do all the name checks, everyone I met was brand new. I drank coupious amounts of stella and was drugged all weekend on pain killers for a sore shoulder so many parts of the weekend are very sketchy.