The Croc Cancer Charity

This entry has been taken directly from the above blog.

everyone knows someone or has lost someone through cancer.i myself lost my mum.the help and support given by the mcmillan nurses was second to none and i now want to repay that help and kindness with this charity drive.
from the 1st july i will be playing online poker tournaments over a 12 month period,any winnings will be placed into an account for the charity,hopefully after 12 months it will be a nice donation.
i am asking poker sites to come forward and waive the entry fees to their biggest weekly/monthly tournaments,i will then play the tournaments and hopefully cash and raise a hefty donation for the mcmillan trust.
i would ask anyone interested in supporting in any way possible to contact me
mickdundon@hotmail.com
every little helps,lets all try and make a difference.

Please help if you can. Thanks

Poker Gone Flat?

Where are the new promotions? Where are the new poker sites? Where is the buzz?

I've been wondering this over the last couple of months and I am amazed that a game that was looking like it was going to take over the world has gone flat all because Americans cannot (legally) play any more. Not strictly true as one or two sites such as PokerStars are supporting these poor unfortunates but it seems that with one stroke of the pen the amendment in the Safe Port Act is knocking the stuffing out of this wonderful game. Or is it?

Although there has been a levelling off of new poker sites (understandably) the ones left standing will be able to provide you with a enough traffic for you to find a game at any time of the day or night.

Also the live poker scene is still on the increase and our local card room (Hanley Circus) is trying to implement good value freezeouts as well as bounty tourney's, and very soon Dusk Til Dawn will soon be opening and will be the premier poker club utside of London if it all goes to plan. Getting a phone call from Simon Trumper was a nice touch.

The guys at Betfair deserve congratulations too for being the first to organise a tournament in Singapore, as another example of the established poker clients trying to find new markets.

On a personal note, I'd like to congratulate my very good friends Paul and Pernille who got married about 10 days ago, and also to Sam who accepted PaulM's proposal of marriage on the same day. My first time in another country and one of the best times of my life.

Wonderful.

This Is the funniest photo I have seen for ages. I hope it makes you smile as much as it does me. These guys are geniuses!

Hello................

This started out as a poker blog and I used to update it on a weekly basis. Unfortunately stuff got in the way of keeping it updated. Plus when I read other blog's I realised how rubbish I am at this lark.

However as 2006 draws to a close I promise that I will try and keep this current.

So, as the time of seasonal cheer draws ever closer, I'm going to do a quick look back at the last year.

Bloody hell, I'm glad that's over. I'm not doing that again!

2007 will be the same as any other, but I can be cautiously optimistic after several years that it will be a good one. Two good friends are getting married, and my wife is finally on her way back to full fitness.

The Dream Is On.... At A Price

On Friday I mentioned how a certain site disgracefully withdrew their offer to send two PuntersLounge friends of mine to the WSoP.

I spent all of Friday morning telephoning Poker Player (UK) magazine and poker sites with whom we had a relationship to see if they would be prepared to help these 2 out, including e-mails to Absolute poker, who incidentally own the network that other site operated through. Although I had no luck fenners did, and Absloute have paid fenners and Joe's buy-in, although they have to pay for their own travel and accomodation.

So well done Absolute, and goodbye the 'mickey mouse' site.

The owner of PuntersLounge had a meeting with Nick Fitt, who owns the mickey mouse site, in an effort to persuade him that some assistance was the right thing to do.

You can read the somewhat bewildering exchange here.

Shattered Dreams

Everyone who plays poker wants to be able to play at the World Series of Poker (WSoP). I am fortunate to be forum buddies with quite a few who will achieve this dream this year. Good luck to them, I truly hope they have a fantastic time, and get a star at their table if nothing else.

However 2 of my PuntersLounge friends have had their dream shattered.

With just over a week to go to the start of the Main Event tournament they have been informed by Goal Poker that they will not be fulfilling there obligation to these players and they will not be sending them to the WSoP, despite both winning their seats.... This is approximately 10 days after the same poker site sent a plane load of poker players (of which I should have been one) to Ibiza to watch the World Cup final on a private beach, with huge screen and topless models a-plenty.

Disgraceful behaviour. Shame on you at Goal Poker. Shame!

STT Stats

Using an excellent spreadsheet from the 2+2 forum, I have finally started to record accurately how I'm doing, and just by keeping a record I think my play has improved.

As I've already said, I've broken the $100 barrier (with $20 odd form that freeroll), and here is a breakdown (if it works) of some of the stats.
This is a pie chart of my finishing positions in these 10 seat STT's. I'm pleased with the number of times I'm ITM, but slightly concerned about the number of bubble finishes.












This is a summary of my stats. I hope the Winning Confidence % stays that high!

Costly Mistake

Last night I played in an Inter-Forum Challenge on Pokerstars, representing PuntersLounge. There were 2047 runners, and at the start I didn't hold much hope of doing anything. This changed with 2 hands, my AA vs KK, and a multi-handed all in that I came out on top of.

This massive increase in my stack allowed me to play my normal game, and to lose the odd confrontation against shorter stacks, but all in all I generally stayed top 100 for most of the evening.

Its been a long time since I've done so well in such a large field, so I should be pleased, however a couple of things annoyed me.

One was when a much larger stack arrived at my table, and tried to use his chips as a lever. I got annoyed on more than one occasion when I went into the hand ahead pre-flop, and got outdrawn. I was so happy to have got the better of him that I couldn't help sharing my joy with PL, only to discover that the 'villain' was not only a member, but was reading what I'd written.

I believed he'd only joined that night, and so embarassed myself even further by thanking him for calling my all in QQ vs 99 which set me well on the way to a top 50 finish. Stupid, petty, and anything but 'valiant'.

Part of the problem was that there were a lot of 'bad' players getting lucky, and it was a constant battle against your inner demons, who are asking you, "Why are you putting up with this shit?". I was struggling against tilt almost all evening, and this showed when other tables for other tournies popped up. as I had no patience and went out pretty quickly.

I managed to beat the tilt by getting and winning a couple of good hands, and was sitting top 10 when the bubble came and went.

This is when things started to go wrong for me, or work against me. After the fourth break, and 4 hours of play, I was 11th, but only had about 1/3rd of the chips of the chip leader. I needed to steadily build my stack at this point, but unfortunately the cards dried up, and when I had half decent cards, I was being asked to commit a sizable portion of my stack in calling an all in, which I decided against. So for most of the 5th hour of play I had few opportunites to increase my position. So I was starting to get anxious, and then I got moved, for the firt time. I was placed with the cheap leader and about half of the bigger stacks, and the good cards were all going elsewhere.

So I have about 11 blinds left and get dealt pocket 4's in 3rd position. I hoped to make a steal, and raised 3xBB (36,ooo chips). All folded round to the BB (a player I perceived to be LAG), who called. When he checked, I assumed he had Ace rag, and the flop wasn't scary enough for me to fold, and I was scared of losing the intiative, so I shoved, hoping for the fold. He paused and called. In the split second before I saw his cards I thought, oh well I'm behind, maybe I'll catch a 4... then I saw he had trip 7's and my tourney was over.

Silly really that I beat 2,020 players, put the best score on the board for the forum, yet still fell as though I let everyone down. Ah well, tonights another tourney.

On the STT front at Pokerstars, I have broken the $100 barrier (from $4), and when I break $150 I plan to step up to the next buy in, as $500 will take a long long time.

Chip n A Chair

Well, last night I reached the final table of the Mansion $500 added. I was completely card dead after I fluked an A vs 99, and had I not I'd have probably been first out.


Well slowly but surely I was falling behind, and the first half decent hand I had I was pushing. It turned out to be K 10 os, and I walked into pocket 4's (no really). I didn't improve, and had less than 1 BB left, with the blinds approaching.

Anyway on my BB, after ante's I had 130 chips left. Now I would have liked to have seen the flop, but Dave488 raised me. Now conventional thinking is I should push, but I had 83os and I was really pissed off that I'd been given that cack hand (where was my heroic 72os?), so I thought, for comedy value, I'd fold.

I was crying with laughter, and the whole table was (I think) stunned. I didn't win or anything like that, but survived another round, by getting 66 and beating 44 (of all hands), then the very next hand I had AA!! lmao!!

Dave488: ??????
DEALER: Dave488, it's your turn
Rooney1: all in??
DEALER: Dave488 wins 43,500
DEALER: Game starts, Hold'em, hand #1462092
DEALER: Your hole cards are 6 6
Dave488: what happened Mr V
Valiant23pl: you raised I folded
DEALER: The flop is 2 5 8
chelskired: lmao
DEALER: Dave488, it's your turn
chelskired: chip n a chair
DEALER: The turn is 6
DEALER: The river is 9
Valiant23pl: ;)
Dave488: your back
DEALER: Dave488 shows 4 4
DEALER: Valiant23pl shows 6 6
daznkidd: wow nh
DEALER: Dave488 wins 42,600 with a pair of fours
DEALER: Valiant23pl wins 750 with three of a kind, sixes
DEALER: Game starts, Hold'em, hand #1462108
DEALER: Your hole cards are A A
Rooney1: charge
DEALER: daznkidd, it's your turn
DEALER: Valiant23pl, it's your turn
Valiant23pl: lats have a looksee
Dave488: lol
Dave488: gl
DEALER: nutziwish, it's your turn
daznkidd: gl
chelskired: GL Mr V lmao
DEALER: The flop is Q 4 5
daznkidd: wow
DEALER: The turn is 7
Rooney1: lol
DEALER: The river is 10
Dave488: on a roll
daznkidd: you win
DEALER: daznkidd shows K A
DEALER: Valiant23pl shows A A
DEALER: daznkidd wins 13,650 with ace high
chelskired: PL CHAAAAAAAAAAAARGE PMSL
DEALER: Valiant23pl wins 3,300 with a pair of aces
DEALER: Game starts, Hold'em, hand #1462136
DEALER: Your hole cards are Q 2
daznkidd: that sucked { THIS was uncalled for imo :\ }

This was the end;


Valiant23pl: btw Dave, I had 83os and thought the opposite of ' it' y know
Valiant23pl: I thought I'll just hang on
Valiant23pl: ;-)
Dave488: fair enough, but with 150 left thought you had to call
daznkidd: nlw i will go broke first
chelskired: liar, you was to busy laughing to press call
nutziwish: wp in hindsight
Valiant23pl: I know mate, but I would have loved to have seen your face
Dave488: at least you had 2 live cards
Dave488: enevthough they were rubbish
New level: 4,000/8,000 ante 400
DEALER: Game starts, Hold'em, hand #1462268
DEALER: Your hole cards are 8 3
Valiant23pl: oh no
Rooney1: gl all
DEALER: Dave488 wins 10,000
DEALER: Game starts, Hold'em, hand #1462281
Valiant23pl: gl guys
DEALER: Your hole cards are 9 7
Dave488: u2
DEALER: The flop is Q 7 J
DEALER: The turn is Q
DEALER: The river is A
Valiant23pl: booooo
Valiant23pl: dam A
DEALER: Dave488, it's your turn
daznkidd: no good
DEALER: nutziwish shows 3 A
DEALER: Valiant23pl shows 9 7
DEALER: nutziwish wins 11,600 with two pair, aces and queens

So bloody funny! But whats daft, is that once I'd finished laughing, I was really pee'd off that I got rivered!!!

Ever Pressed The Wrong Button?

Things for me have been quite uneventful on the poker front. On Friday I had a long trip, and when I got back I was looking forward to playing a bit of poker, so I regged for The Mansion Triple Chance World Cup tourney.

Its a gimmicky MTT, with extra prizes depending on finishing position, and bounties. I was ticking along, until this happened.

Quote:

DEALER: Your hole cards are 6 heart 5club DEALER: Ace and King, it's your turn DEALER: The flop is 2diamond 3heart 2heart DEALER: Valiant23pl, it's your turn (Here I click all in! ) Riffmish: sorry Valiant23pl: oh shit DEALER: Riffmish, it's your turn DEALER: The turn is 6spade Valiant23pl: wrong button DEALER: The river is 6diamond DEALER: Riffmish shows Aclub 2club DEALER: Sherman shows Jheart 8heart DEALER: Valiant23pl shows 6heart 5club DEALER: Valiant23pl wins 2,784 with a full house, sixes full of deuces Valiant23pl: I swear DEALER: Valiant23pl wins 22,660 with a full house, sixes full of deuces philossify: nice catch MrV ............................ Riffmish: expletive Valiant23pl: Riff I'm sorry philossify: no yer not :-) Valiant23pl: well okay Valiant23pl: but it WAS a mistake

That put me 2nd in chips, after I was in serious danger of going out in 20 something. The good that came out of this was how sporting the other guy was about it. I think he was so amazed that I had absolutely nothing after the flop, yet hit runner runner to decimate him. I was delighted obviously when I had won, but felt terribly gulty I had inflicted the mother of bad beats.

Although not much for me has happened in MTT's, in STT's on Pokerstars I've had a fantastic amount of success. I deposited $25 then proceeded to lose almost all of it (I was down to my last buy-in!). From that last buy-in ($3+40) I've managed to get my balance on their up to $80.80, just by playing the $3 tables.

I may not step up until I have $500, which is a long way off, but think I need to make gradual step ups, rather than rushing and risking.