Live poker (part 2)

Profit: $37

I felt confident after playing live poker on Saturday night and the evidence of this was clear to see on Sunday morning as I went on a tear and took down a $40 profit in the $10 cash rooms. I was going to move up to $25 but the tables were so juicy that I just hung around and made the money there.

I wasn't going to bother playing live poker again but Nick, from the poker videos (I will do more of these one day), really wanted to go so I went.

The format this time was £100 freeroll with the top three place paid in a 33 man (and woman) field. Blinds were 25/50 on 2,000 starting stacks with 15 minute increase. With the blinds moving up quickly and the nature of the tournament being a freeroll the action was even faster than last night. One guy went all in blind on the first hand and promptly left. Nick, rather amusingly, went bust on the third hand of the tournament and spent the rest of the afternoon playing blackjack.

I decided to play the tournament with a double up asap strategy and then bully big time. My double up opportunity came when I re-raised someone all in with AK and he called with KQ. I can't remember how I got up to 6,000 chips but I did and then called someone's all in (about 2k) when I had KQ and he had AK. The blinds at that point were 300-600 so I basically waited for someone to raise at which point I would reraise all in if there was a good chance it was me and the raiser. I got that when my K6 ran into AK. I flopped a 6. I then won another 2-3k pot and went to the final table with about 9k in chips, about the average.

I had QQ utg+1. utg went all in for his last 700 or so and with the blinds at 500-1000 I raised to about 6k, basically going all in but seeing if anyone else would bite. The big blind did bite with AA. I did have him covered but it didn't matter anyway because I spiked a Q. Up to 16k. Although I had chips now, the blinds were so high that it was a crap shoot. I raised big with 77 and got one guy to go all in. My hand held up and then I went all in with AK against a similar stack who called with AK. We split and then about 5 minutes later we were down to four players. I think the chip stacks were about 10k, 10k, 15k (me), 25k. Not wanting to bubble again I agreed to a deal. The four of us would share £20 and play for the last £20 (so one would take home £20). One short stack soon went out. Then my 85 all in beat 74 all in and I was heads up with the chip leader. Stacks were maybe 20-40k in his favour.

At this point I suddenly realised a small crowd had gathered behind us. It felt like the WSOP final table! Well actually it didn't. The crowd consisted of knocked out players from the freeroll who were waiting for the evening tournament, a very bored Nick (whose pockets were also lighter from playing blackjack) and an incredibly enthusiastic dealer who looked as if he was considering death as a possible career change.

The tournament director said that the tournament was about to finish (in three hands or something) so I just kept going all in. Chip leader eventually called with Q4 against my K6 and the board gave him two 4s.

So I just missed out on another bracelet (in the sense that I've won one other multi-table tournament) but made a profit of £13 from the weekend of live poker. I was pleased with the way I played and was lucky again in sucking out twice during the tournament. Again, though, I was bored and played very few hands. We were down at the casino for four hours. Too long.

I think i will play again (might as well play some of the freerolls) but it's not going to turn into a weekly ritual or anything like that.

Casinos seem sad places to me. As I waited for the cashier to open so I could claim my £20, I saw a lot of sad and sullen faces at the blackjack and roulette tables. The atmosphere in those places is so heavy it feels like you've got weights hunkering you down. It makes you feel drowsy and not able to concentrate. That's probably the idea behind the environment: so that you sit there in a robotic fashion chucking money into the games where the casino always has the edge.

The thing that made me laugh the most was when I got my money. All four of us who got money from the tournament walked in the same direction to begin with. Then there came a fork and as Nick and myself headed for the exit the other three peeled off back into the Casino. I doubt their winnings will ever get out of the place.

As for me, well that £20 gave me a free weekend of poker, pool and food with change to spare.

Hoping to play quite a bit of poker this week as it's half term and I don't have much uni work left to do.