Tuesday, March 03, 2009

Changes to Guarantee tournaments.

March has seen a few changes already to some Guarantees.

Cryptologic
10am £800 GTD has been reduced to £700 GTD
4.30pm £900 GTD has been reduced to £800 GTD.

Expect crypto to keep a eye on their guarantees over the next couple of weeks as they wind down. They are usually very good at ensuring there are no big overlays out there.

Last night though the numbers were down on a night that is usually strong for them. Might be worth watching the £9k figures tonight, especially as there are a few Premier League games on, which usually affects the numbers.

Betfair
10.05pm $1200 GTD has been reduced to $1100 GTD.

Betfair has been highlighted as one of the sites with good value at the moment, so we shall keep a close eye here.

ClintonO

Monday, March 02, 2009

February 09 Review

For the first time in what seems like an eternity, I can actually post about making some steps towards getting my game back together again.

Its not been an exceptional month and it doesn't cover all the outlays I have, but my records will show that February 2009 was a +£1.6k month and that is a step in the right direction.

The main profit came from the 4th place in the Littlewoods $20k, but I also had a 2nd on Inter as well as having a postive ROI on STTs, yes honestly I made some money playing Stts!.

I have been playing these 20 seaters on Littlewoods at $20 and $30 and apart from a minor blip yesterday I had a 69% ROI, unheard of!

So although there is a lot of work still to be done on my game, I feel that I am finally moving in the right direction.

Poccer Season 2
I am delighted to announce that I am once again going to be running some Poccer events. The first one is the 28th March at the Grovesnor Casino in Walsall, if anyone is interested just let me know, it will be a fantastic day out.

CPC Deal.
No update on this I am afraid to say, I have not heard anything more in the last couple of weeks and now that we are into March, I can't see me being paid my 5% that was agreed.
Really dissapointed in this, as I was relying on this to get my bankroll going again (everything else gone into buying a house) and it just makes you wary of trusting people in this game, something I never thought I would be.

Overlays.
The tournies to keep watching are on Littlewoods and Betfair. Last week the $20k on Littlewoods had a $6k overlay one night.
It is also worth keeping an eye on the Party Poker 8pm, now that they have moved to $30k guaranteed, as this is not yet meeting its guarantee.

The main value tournament at 25% was the 8pm on Littlewoods. This has now been reduced from $2.5k Gtd to $2k Gtd, but its entry fee has halved from $22 to $11. This if anything has increased the % overlay!

Good Luck in March
ClintonO

Monday, February 16, 2009

A first decent cash of 2009

Well its been a very long timing coming, but on Saturday night I actually made a decent cash!

Admittedly I do not play the bigger games that I used to, but I can finally remember what is like to win some money.

I played in the Littlewoods $20k on Saturday, I still am not a fan of the software and I hate playing without antes, but the overlay is great and at $50 its affordable.
I finished 4th for $1.4k, a little dissapointed that my 88 went out to A4 with an Ace on the turn, but considering with 65 left I had 1900 chips left and just put 1200 in the Big Blind, I was more than happy (everyone folded!).

I would post the hand histories of a few hands, but I can't work out whether they get recorded anyway on the software.
I need to dig out my old Poker-Spy software!

Hopefully I can now start playing with a bit more belief and can't start to make some inroads into building a bankroll again.
Everything I had is going towards a new house and unfortunately without my expected Caribbean money it been a real grind!

Before September of last year, my average profit for a month, since I started in August 2005 was £2920.
My profit in the last six months is less than my previous average for a month!
Not very good when it is your only source of income at present.

A quick Hello to Mr AlexB, thanks for your note, I look forward to catching up with you soon sir!

I have been keeping an eye on all the networks of late and following Poker Rooms increase the guarantees in 2 events, Party Poker have gone further and increase 5 guarantees.

7pm $7500 to $10000
8pm $25000 to $30000
9pm $18000 to $20000
10pm $10000 to $12000
11pm $6000 to $7000

What is also good is that have kept the buy ins the same.

The value in the marketplace remains on littlewoods with 8 of their guarantees in the top 11, all averaging over 13% overlay.
Betfair have now become the number 2 site for overlays with 5 of their guarantees averaging over the 13% overlay mark.

Of the 225 I keep track of, 42 are showing overlays over the last couple of weeks.

I think the cryptologic software will be worth keeping an eye on over the next couple of weeks as they draw to a close. Their are usually very good at keeping track of overlays, but with people and skins migrating elsewhere, they may well be some value.

I am also hoping to confirm the next Poccer event to be the 28th March, I should get the go ahead this week, further details to follow.

ClintonO

Tuesday, February 10, 2009

APAT Season 3 English Open

This weekend just gone I played my first live event of 2009.

It was the APAT Season 3 opener, the English Open held at the Grovesnor Casino in Cardiff.

I don't know what it is about casinos in this country, but I always seem to feel a bit dissapointed, because they are just not Vegas! A big ask I know!

Anyway the casino managed to fit in the 20 tables for the 200+ runnner event and mostly keep the event running smoothly.

I like the idea behind APAT, putting on a good tournament for amateurs at the cost of £75 for a deepstack tournament and have a lot of time for Tony Kendall, who runs the show.

As for my performance, well I made the dinner break! A personal triumph!

I started the day with 10,000 in chips, moved up to 13k within the first 2 levels before losing the majority of my stack.

A scottish guy next to me, had been drinking vast amounts of lager throughout the day. I asked him for some change at one point and he took about 2 minutes to count out the chips, gave the wrong amount and then stared at them for 5 minutes trying to work it out.

He then tried to bluff a pot got rearaised on the river, but decided he should call with K high anyway.
A few hands later, I had AhQh. The board came Qs,5h,2h. When he bet twice the size of , the pot I decided to put him all in and just my luck that he had AA. So down to 5k.

I waited around for a while taking the blinds occasionally to keep above 5k. The amount of times I shook my head during this tournament was frightening.
I saw someone commit 8k of their 14k stack . On the river, the board was King high, no flush no straight and they open folded AA to a bet of 3k. Stunned I was! lol

A few hands later this monster pot unfolded.
See if you can guess the hands involved.

Both players have around 10k, blinds are as high as 75/150.
Under the gun, raises to 450, seat 4 calls. BB calls.

Flop Js5h6s.

BB Checks.
UTG checks.
Seat 4 bets 1200
BB folds
UTG instant all in.
Seat 4 instant calls.

So what do we think - two premium pairs, maybe seat 4 has hit a set. Maybe UTG has AKs. My guess was AKs and either a made set or an overpair to the board.

UTG shows 2s4s.
Seat 4 shows 7h8h.

And I run into aces lol.

For the record the 24 won, he hit a 3 on the turn to hit a straight.
The river was a 8, giving seat 4 an apparent reason to celebrate, until 10 seconds he realised that the 8 was a spade and he had lost to a flush. No-one had the heart to tell him the guy had hit a straight on the turn.

I also saw someone call a big bet on a 2345 board, lead on the river after a T came down and then fold to a reraise!

Quite honestly it was madness out there.

As for me I got going quite nicely and fought my way to 24k. I won a race when short AK vs TT.

My exit hand, was typical for the moment.
I had KT on the button and put an above average raise in. I was called as expected by the BB, a decent player, he was on my first table (he should have been out when the guy folded AA to his Q high) and was now on my 3rd table.

He had about 50% more chips than me at this point.
The flop was K94. He checked, I led out with a typical continuation bet and he reraised, a familiar play that had worked for him many times.
I went all in to which he reluctantly called.

He showed Q9 for second pair, I said good hand as I felt my end was coming and sure enough the next card was a Q. I shook his hand and left to a round of applause and some comments about how sick that was (Everyone got applauded when the went out - well most!)

I has seem some rare sights that evening, those hands I had mentioned. The fact that the 3rd table I played on was a ten seater, but on average had just 5-6 players on it.

Seat 1 played 1 hand in 8 and then just went round the room chatting to each other. Seats 2&3 kept going to the toilet or having cigarette breaks at 20 mins a time. Seat 3 bless her was so drunk, that shortly after dinner she was crying her eyes out, couldn't count her chips and would throw her arms around anything that went near her. (This did not stop her from doubling up 3 times with garbage!)
Seats 5 & 9 would be knocked out within 5 mins of sitting down! So it was effectively a short handed table!

Anyway I won't be rushing back to play in one of these tournaments, but they are a very good way for someone to experience deep stack poker play at realtively cheap costs.


Other news.
Just keeping an eye on the online situation following the latest string of moves. It appears the Ongame network are going well (Poker Room - is the skin I play on there), two of their guarantees have been increased. The 6.30pm has gone from $5k to $7.5k and the 8.30pm from $5k to $8k.

I have continued my work on finding the best overlays and here is the current top 5.

1) Littlewoods Sunday 9.30pm $4k GTD - Overlay 25%
2) Celeb (Boss) Sunday 3pm E7.5k GTD - Overlay 23%
3) Littlewoods Daily 8pm $2.5k GTD - Overlay 18%
4) Littlewoods Sunday 8pm $100k GTD - Overlay 18%
5) Littlewoods Daily 8.35pm $20k GTD - Overlay 17%

Littlewoods currently have 7 of the top 8 overlays in the market at the moment!

Also if there are any Omaha players out there, who may be interested in a good deal, drop me a line!

Good Luck one and all
ClintonO

Thursday, February 05, 2009

2009 Update

Well February is here already.

So whats been happening, not a lot on the poker front I have to say.
I have played a few games with limited success, but my heart has still not been in it.

I was however delighted to see the WSOP schedule released, I just love Las Vegas and I now have a challenge to earn myself enough to get there again this year.

Most of my time at the moment has been taken up sorting out buying myself a house and just getting everything back on line!

I have treated myself to a brand new laptop though, which I hope will give me the inspiration to play a bit more.

I am playing the APAT (Amateur Poker Association & Tour) UK Poker Championship this weekend at the Grovesnor in Walsall, to try and rediscover the poker bug.

I am trying to get a second season of Poccer going and will hopefully have some news on that very soon.

As for the question everyone keeps asking me, no I have not yet received the money from Dave Lloyd.

It was all loooking promising, but I have not heard from him for a month. I could really do with it one to ensure I have a bankroll to play and two just to give me the confidence that all us poker players are true to their word.

I do however have something to offer anyone who reads this blog.
Over the last 2 weeks I have been evaluating every tournament there is, mainly as cryptologic closes at the end of the month, but also to see where the best value is.

I have a long list of tournaments to see which ones have the biggest overlays and therefore arguably the best value.

At present the top 3 can all be found on Littlewoods/Pacific network

1) Avg 18% overlay - 8.35pm $20,000 GTD ($55 entry)
2) Avg 17% overlay - 8pm $2,500 GTD ($22 entry)
3) Avg 15% overlay - 10.30pm $3,000 GTD ($22 entry)

This is where you will find me whilst I am playing at the moment.
I play under the old name ClintonO here.

I am also using up my last few pennies on my crypto account on Inter, where I could not get the ClintonO name, so I play under the name Shamu.

I hope the poker gods are being kind to you
ClintonO