The buzz is back

Having complained poker was dull, a very satisfying second place has put me back in love with the game. It was only a Crypto £2.25, and the win was 'only' £100, but it was still pretty enjoyable. I'll have to re-read the hand history - but I don't remember getting really good cards until the final table. I then got AK/AQ/KK/KK in pretty short order. I pushed with them all, but only the last was called - because of my previous action no doubt.

I made a couple of really nice plays, and 1 lay-down with 77 on a 652 board. In the latter hand I raised and was called by the SB. He bet small, I raised and he pushed. I'd committed about 24k of my 60k stack, but I was sure I was behind so folded. Having said that he played like a maniac after this, trying to push the table around, so I may be wrong, but I still think it was correct.

Heads up was entertaining. I came back from about a 5:3 deficit to be even, and we to-ed and fro-ed for a while. I tended to make small stabs at the pot, and my opponent tended to push. I waited for a hand so I could catch him at it, but it didn't come before I decided to push/bluff myself. He called pre-flop and I raised my K7 3x the blinds, he called. Flop 10-x-x. Check-smallbet-call. K-high might be good and I'm planning to take this away on the turn. Turn is a 10, an ideal card I reckon. Check-smallbet-PUSH. Sadly for me he's got quads. gg, nh etc.

I need to find a good tournament at around this time. Assuming I'm wanting to start playing at around ~9.30 I've only got 1 tourny I want to play in for an hour - the 9.30 £2.25. After that is the turbo at 10.00 (too turbo-ish for me), the £25 (too expensive) before the £10 at 10:30. There must be a sensible tourny starting at 10ish I can play in as well as these - I'll have a look at FTP and (possibly) PKR (if I can stand the software).

I know Stars do 180-player SnGs, but they drag on with 15 minute levels, so take about 4 hours to finish. Too late for me if I'm starting at 10.00. Plus the $20/180s actually contain a number of decent players who multitable them. I'm sure there's calmer waters elsewhere.

Karma

Poker can be startlingly dull.

I cashed out most of my winnings after doing well in the £25, and as usually happens this results in me going card-dead for a while. It happens - and I'm not experiencing anything out of the ordinary here - but it leaves me bored whilst playing, and itching for a decent poker session.

Recently I've been logging into a tourny, folding the first umpteen hands ("patience ... patience") only to get short-stacked and pushing with the first semi-decent hand to end up walking into a monster. *sigh*.

There's no other way at the small stake tables. No-one really pays attention (to be fair I don't really at the low-er buyins), and you can't really bluff because so many people will call with anything. So you have to wait for the cards. And if you don't get them you are scuppered - because noone notices your tight play so your table image is of no consequence.

Still, what goes around, comes around and I'm sure things will pick up soon. I'm so bothered about the money, I'd just like some action.

On a separate note there is a poker tournament at my local pub on a Tuesday. Its all play money, but it might be fun as practise for real B&M action. Being alone in my study doesn't encourage one to develop a poker face. Plus, like heroin, the first one is free.

SKY Poker. Strangely unsatisfying

I, like many others, enjoy watching poker on telly. There is something entertaining in watching a decent poker game (which excludes anything with 'celebrity' in the title) and they are usually educational too. Either I pick up on something that the players do, or something the commentators say is new to me. Ken Lennard on Channel 5's poker show (The European Open IIRC) is particularly good at the moment.

So I've been keeping an eye on SKY's Poker Channel. It appears to be one program repeated constantly - a televising of a poker tournament ('The Open') on their own network ('Sky Poker'). Its a £25 pound buy-in tournamant starting at 9pm each evening run, oddly, on 6-player tables.

Despite trying so hard to watch the program I can't like it. Frankly they've turned a pretty good idea - building a program around a single tournament (that *you* can play in!) and produced a show that I think will appeal to noone.

The big thing in the program's favour is its a live event. The poker is going on at the time you are watching it, and poker tournaments have a vast amount of information for the viewer that could be on the screen. Think Gillette Soccer Saturday - where scores, tables, team news and goodness knows what else are displayed over about 1/3 of the screen while a small studio of pundits watch and talk about football. SKY invented this genius, and it seems clear to me that this format should be followed for the OPEN.

On the right of the screen could be the list of players (maybe even colour coded for those who have moved up and down the table, similar to the stock exchange). This information is all in the lobby anyway - stick it on the screen! People are doing anything to get their names on the telly and here is their opportunity.

At the bottom should be the blind structure, the tournament clock, and a ticker bar showing the last people who busted out. Simple. Then Dad can be playing poker, and Mum can check his progress, or Dad can see his name on the telly.

Instead the screen seems to be filled up with lots of open space revealing an impressively large studio, and little else.


The pundits are variable in quality. There is a professional presenter who doesn't really know much about poker, and proper poker player who should. Either Hale or Pace (whichever one it is) is better than you'd think and they pinched one of the presenters from the superior PokerNightLive who was also good value. But there is so much misreading of cards as to put any decent players off viewing.

Twice in 10 minutes the other night there was misreading.
Example 1:
Player 1 88
Player 2 A7
Flop 832
The comment was "only running aces will save him". This was at least from the non poker player, but it should have been corrected at very least.

The other one was even worse in that neither player saw a conterfeiting opportunity - but sadly the river was a blank so the presenters didn't have to flannel their way out of that.

There is so much opportunity for fairly advanced analysis of the play that its untrue, and yet we don't get that. Maybe the target audience would be put off, but I don't think so.

SKY didn't reinvent sports broadcasting by dumbing down, so I can't see why they are doing it for poker.

Success at a higher level, and my largest ever cash!

A paradox this week. I've been playing satellites into the crypto £25 (8K guarantee) in the evenings, as my bankroll won't let me play these regularly (and probably never will actually - I'd cash it out and play lower), and with some success - I've made it in about 50% of the time.

All well and good. Last week I won into the 8K, played and I think played about as well as I ever have. I was getting good at putting players on hands, knew who to pick on at the table, made some decent plays and was doing well. I didn't have too many cards and busted out about 50th, when the top 30 paid. I was strangely satisfied though.

This week I played in the same tournament and came 5th for a shade under £500. Lovely. Only I'm not happy with how I played. I got lucky once when pushing with air post-flop and being called by K-high, and sucking out on the river. I also mis-played 99, when I think I should have let it go against two opponents who fortunately for me both had AKo.

Finally my final table play was terrible. I had a big stack all the way through, but was far to passive at the end, and I think I didn't defend my blinds once. When the money doesn't matter I can accumulate well, but I was the sucker folding away hoping to move up a place. Shocking. Hopefully I won't do this again, should I ever reach such a stage.

Thinking about it I ran deep in the Stars $8 tourny the other day (also final tabling IIRC) and I played that more aggresively. Maybe its not the buy-in, maybe its my perceptions of the other players. Anyway.

I'm pleased that I won the cash, and I'm also pleased I'm able to analyse my play effectively, but not pleased with how I played, which makes it seem unsatisfactory.

Still, thats the other half of my HD telly paid for now.

The question on my mind is whether I would be a profitable played at the £25 level, and although I am at the moment (after only about 15-20 tournies) I'm still far from sure.