Clintons Cards

Changes to Guarantee tournaments.

2009-03-03T09:10:00.003Z

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

February 09 Review

2009-03-02T11:52:00.003Z

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

A first decent cash of 2009

2009-02-16T22:43:00.003Z

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

APAT Season 3 English Open

2009-02-10T14:45:00.002Z

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

2009 Update

2009-02-05T16:54:00.002Z

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

Thanks

2008-12-24T21:32:00.002Z

I just wanted to say thank you for the kind word that lots of people have either posted on here or who have contacted me direct.

It is nice to know that this blog was being read and helping people.

With that in mind in has caused me to rethink my decision and therefore I am considering starting it up again.

However I am going to leave in the decision in the hands of the poker gods!

I had a post on here from David who has vowed to ensure that he sends me the money from our deal at the caribbean, which is good news as I could really do with it, but as yet I have not received it.

I have decided that if I receive the money I will use this money completely as a bankroll for playing poker and therefore will continue writing. If I don't receive the money then I will not continue down this path and do something else instead.

So if it happens I look forward to seeing you soon, if not then good luck to one and all.

Regardless of what happens, have a wonderful christmas!

ClintonO

My Final Post

2008-11-29T01:38:00.002Z

It is with great sadness that I have decided to end my poker blog.

The main aim of my blog has always been to help others and to give an insight into the world of poker and try to help others on this difficult path.

It seems that no matter how hard you try to help, there are plenty of anonymous people that want to shoot you down, regardless of what the circumstances or how you try to help people make a living from what is ultimately a very difficult game.

I wish all my friends in poker a very prosperous time.
I would also like to thank Mark Phillips aka _Marky_ who made a deal with me in the final event at the CPC for sticking to his word and paying me the percentage we agreed. It goes to show there is class in the poker playing world.
I hope David Lloyd the winner of the CPC shows the same class in coming forward with the 5% deal we agreed.

I have really enjoyed writing this blog as I know there are a number of people who have benefited greatly from my posts.

I apologize to Denlizliz for not posting our heads up match where he completely destroyed me, but I can't find the hand historys. If I manage to get hold of them, I will post them as a one off.

Please enjoy your poker and play within your means.

If anyone wishes to contact me for any advice or just to talk about poker then please email me on clinton.orchard@hotmail.co.uk.

I wish everyone the best of luck and I hope to see all my friends again soon.

Take care one and all
Clinton.

So that was the Caribbean

2008-11-25T22:55:00.002Z

The CPC is over, forever or just another year is yet to be decided, but what a week.

So many great people and a lot of fun, but as for another cruise, thats not on my agenda.

So the rest of the week, I played the $500 and not the $1000. However I did not last long I could not lay down KK preflop and lost to AA.

The main event I did a lot better, but ended up going out in 31st place. Marky himself knocking me out calling my all in with 77, I had A8. Flop gave an Ace first card, but also a 7 and that was effectively it!

I did however do some good business, doing deals with Mark and also David Lloyd, who ended up 4th and 1st respectively. David played superbly all week and was a worthy winner.

Its a shame I could not also cash, but the small percentages in each of them, will provide some much needed funds to get the bankroll going for this attempt at playing poker. I look forward to receiving them so I can get cracking.

I have to thank Bruce at Littlewoods for again being so hospitable and also to Tony Cascarino, Michael Greco, Martin James and Dave Johnson who were great company all week, despite having to put up with me!!

I also ran a Beach Poccer tournament, which was a lot of fun, although the football section was played with the smallest goals in the world, meaning the highest scoring game was 1-0!

Photos and results will be on the website shortly.

So what have I learnt this week about poker.
Some players will play any two cards, some people are much better live than online, whilst others are much better the other way around.

Live Poker is a slow game, in the second level of the main event we played 8 hands in 45 minutes, thats not even a full orbit.

Some tables were serious, some were a fantastic laugh, but like online poker the fundamentals are still the same.

At the end of the day its about your table perception, position and your confidence levels.

So whats next for me, well I still have a lot of stuff to sort out over the next couple of months, before I can settle down full time at this game.

I still want to qualify for these big events, I love vegas to pieces, but my main aim, is to get good enough to have a good stab at the EPT Monte Carlo event. In the meantime its about earning enough money to keep myself going.

I wish everyone all the best, there were some fantastic players in the Caribbean and getting better at this game is going to be very difficult as everyone keeps improving.

All the best everyone.
ClintonO

A caribbean peformance!

2008-11-20T21:34:00.002Z

Last night was the satellite for the main cpc event.

I thought I would give it a go and see what happens.

I decided that I should try and do things differently. Instead of being quiet at the table, I thought I would change my table image and get involved.
I was buying the table drinks and generally just trying to have a lot of fun whilst I was playing.

I definitely annoyed a few people! But I had decided to represent a certain image and therefore had to go along with it. So a quick apology to anyone I upset, I was just acting out a role!

So onto the game, there were 12 seats available for the main event and I am very happy to say that I managed to win my $2700 seat and $10!

The hand that set me up was when I had AK in the big blind. There was one raiser mid position, a reraise from the cutoff and I decided to push.
The original raiser folded and after a while the cutoff called with KQ. I was suprised at his hand but delighted when the board did not bring a Q.
From that moment, I just did what I needed to do to win a seat. It got a bit tense for everyone with 14 left, as the short stacks kept doubling, but eventually 12 remained and we all got seats.

So tomorrow I will be sitting down a the main event.
Its the $550 tonight, so I will playing in that one later tonight.

ClintonO

No defence of the title!

2008-11-19T19:18:00.002Z

It's no back to back titles for me!

On Monday it was the $330 and $440 tournaments, the tournaments that I reached the final table in last year and won the $440. Well not this year!

I don't think I have ever played as well live as I did in the $330, moving from 3k starting stack to 11k at the end of level 3 and up to 16k at the end of level 5. I even had pocket kings and won, I think thats a new record for me at the CPC. However it all went horribly wrong with a big blind special that lost to Aces.

I was feeling good as the $440 tournament arrived later that evening. Only to find myself amongsts crypto legends as Westpark and Denlizliz.
I had a real up and down first few levels and had slipped to about 2.5k of my original 4k, when I raised with KJ. I had one caller and the board was KKA.

I was hoping to somehow to get my chips in the middle and incredibly they did. However I did not put him on KQ! and that was the end of that one!

I decided to play a sit n go, whilst I was waiting for a few other players and made a decision to play the exact opposite of how I should!
It went very wrong in the first hand after I was messing about with 95, but I decided to continue with my backwards tactics.

With just 750 chips left, I raised to 125 with 73 from 2nd position. One caller and then a raise to 375. I decided to flat call half my stack.
The flop comes 7J3 and he puts me all in. He turns over AA and the turn was then a 3 giving me a full house.
I continued this tactic, calling two short stacks all in with 46 off and knocked them both out after hitting trip fours.
I even manage to reraise all in and win with 72 against a monster 85!

I eventually came 3rd after I started playing properly, should have folded AJ preflop!

Who says there is no luck in poker!! I just have to decide whether to pursue this tactic further!

Yesterday was a non-playing day, so I spent the day in the gym and spa before having a few drinks later on.

I have not made up my mind about cruises yet, the weather is really overcast and I keep spending money! The good thing is that there are so many good people on this trip and almost everyone is here to enjoy themselves. So I will reserve my judgement for now.

Tonight it is the 2nd supersatellite, $270 entry, $100 rebuy and $100 double add-on.
Thursday is beach poccer and the $550.

I will update this again on Friday and hope that my ambition to be the number one poker player with the surname Orchard in the world has not been shattered for this year!!

ClintonO

Caribbean Poker Classic - The Cruise

2008-11-17T06:32:00.002Z

Well CPC V is upon is and this is my fourth consectutive visit to the tournament.

This year it is on a cruise ship called Freedom of the Seas.

I flew out to Miami on Saturday and had a day there, half to say from what I saw I am liking Miami a lot!
Boarded the ship Sunday Afternoon - wow what a ship, absolutely incredible. There is literally everything you can think of on this ship!
Although I must say, it could be a little calmer! Either the entire ship is drunk or these seas are stormy!

The first tournament was tonight the $270 qualifier in the main event. This however was a little different to planned as they introduced rebuys for $100 and a double add-on for another $100, so it effectively might as well have been a $470 freezeout.

I dont know how many players we started with but there was 135 rebuys and 85 add ons, so I am guessing a little over a hundred.

I lasted until the end of level 6. The first 3 levels were generally very tight, most raises got through. I played a number of speculative hands, but never really made much progress, moving between 1500-3500 in chips.
I lost a few at the end of level 3 with my only pair of the day 33. Got called by T9 on a 642 board. Turn T river T. lol

So at the first break I had 2k, plus my 3k addon.

At level 4 a new player arrived on the table and bet every single hand. With blinds at 100-200, he raised to 1100, I put him all in with JT, he thought for ages and folded KJ!
Following he played every hand, which made poker a little difficult, but he only lasted 2 levels.

In level six with Antes up at 50 and blinds at 200/400 it was becoming expensive. I raised with QT in the cutoff for the short stack to move all in. I could not fold for the amount and faced AJ. However every card was 9 or under. This left me crippled and when I pushed at the first available opportunity I was called by 55 and AK and that was it.

So a slow start, but with two tournaments tomorrow, I am hoping to do a lot better.
I am blaming tonight on exhaustion and this ship!

ClintonO

Starting Over

2008-11-12T14:00:00.002Z

Poker is one of things that is hard to get right.
You need to play reguarly to give you confidence in your game, yet you need confidence to play your optimum game.

Thats why when your playing well and confident, you should not stop playing!

Right now for me its about rebuilding that confidence.
Since I have started playing again, its gone ok. I played a dozen or so tournaments a couple of weeks back and won 4 of them. Now these were not big tournaments, but they helped me believe that I can still play this game.

I have played 4 small tournaments this week since leaving my job, I have had 3 FTs and bubbled in one, so I believe that the basics are there. I even won a STT! lol!

Today I am going to play some more and see what happens.
I have made one fundamental change to my game and that is to believe in myself a little more.
I have in the past been a little cautious, but one thing I have learnt during this year is that you can play everything perfectly and still end up a loser.

So there is no point being afraid to lose. I don't mean by playing recklessly or not folding when you don't have the real or implied odds to do carry on, but by backing your beliefs. I will still play my game, but I will trust my instincts a lot more and if that means going out first hand or on the bubble, then so be it.

A quick thank you already to the guys that have wished me well. I would love to catch up with you all soon, let me know how you are getting on and what you have been doing.

Right now for me, the aim is get some poker minutes in before the Caribbean, which incredibly is only 3 days away!

If you see me on the tables, don't forget to say hi!

ClintonO

A New Beginning

2008-11-11T16:53:00.002Z

Well its good to be back!
I hope everyone is well and has been enjoying themselves and their poker.

I enjoyed writing my blog because I believed it helped some people and many said it was a good read.
So apologies for being away, but I am now back.

A quick explanation is in order I feel, without too much details!

I always felt 2008 was going to be the year that defined my life, I just did not realise the ramifications of it!
2008 has hit me very hard indeed, I have pretty much lost most things that mattered to me and its now time to start all over again.

But don't worry you can't keep a good guy down for too long.

The Caribbean Poker Classic is only a few days away and its time to get playing again.

I have played very little poker since the Summer, I guess I did not want to lose that from my life as well!
I remember saying to my football team, well at least I have still have my football, five minutes later I broke my foot! LOL. So you can see why I have been careful with Poker!

So for those of you going to the Caribbean, I look forward to catching up, if not I will catch you online soon.

I will be posting on here regularly now, so please check back in soon.

Take Care
ClintonO

Return Date

2008-10-02T20:44:00.002+01:00

Clintons Cards will return again later this year.

The expected return date is Monday November 10th.

ClintonO

Day 6 - Congratulations to UriG

2008-07-06T09:53:00.002+01:00

Once again a member of the party performs well. UriG taking home $8500 for 2nd place in the 304 runner $200 at the Orleans. Very well done indeed. They took a chop with 3 remaining.

I played in this tournament for 5 and a half hours and 8 levels. I never got a pair or an ace with a better kicker than a ten, so it was a real grind. I played well enough, fighting and scrapping for every chip I could get. With 80 players left and the blinds shooting up to 600/1200, holding 8k, I moved from the button with QT, small blind has JJ, AK4, board give me 2 more outs to the three kings, the turn was a King giving me 3 more aces as outs, but the river was another King.

I felt I played a lot better today and will have one last stab tomorrow in the $500 at Caesars. Tonight however belongs to UriG, a fantastic performance. He had just less than me with 80 left, so it just goes to show what can be done.

So far it is just me letting the side down! Tomorrow is a big day.

I would also like to say another well done to Dave 'Dog' Duncan from our Poccer Player team, who won a satellite into the main event yesterday, I wish him all the best today!

ClintonO

Day 5 - Rest Day

2008-07-06T09:48:00.003+01:00

Day 5 was the rest day. We all went out for a big night, before that we decided that the 7 of us in the party would play in a donkament at the Monte Carlo to raise some funds for the evening.

I am very pleased to say we managed the 1-2, with Fenners and Uri taking home $1300 between them.
I once again failed miserably! Two key hands, one I raised with AJ, 1 caller. Flop AQJ.

I bet, he calls. Turn 4 I bet, he calls. River K. I put a small bet in, he goes all in. I fold and he shows 8-T for the straight.

In the next level I raise again with AJ, 1 caller behind me. Flop is KJ3, I know he does not have a king, so I check to let him bet at me, he moves all, I call. He has 88 and the turn is an 8.

Brilliant!
ClintonO

Day 4 - Congrats to Rusty

2008-07-04T20:33:00.003+01:00

Day 4 was the $210 at Binions with just 152 players.
6k starting stack was the order of the day.

Just 3 of the party played this event and congrats goes to Rusty who made the money finishing in 14th place for $525.

I just had one of those days where nothing went right at all.
First hand Qh9h, Flop Qc9c7h. I reraise, Turn Tc, I try and take pot there - called, river Jc. I have to fold.

Second hand, KK on the button, everyone folds to me, the two on my left have not sat down yet!

The game was a funny one, average players in each pot was 6. One hand was raised 8 x the blinds and got 7 callers!

I also saw someone check down the flop when he had the stone cold nuts, incredible stuff.

I fought my way between 4-7k for most of my time in the tournament.
The hand that took most of my chips, saw me call a raise and 2 other calls wih QT in the big blind.
Flop is QT3, initial raiser pushes all in, I call he has KQ and the next card out is a K.

A days rest today as we prepare for a big July 4th party, but two more tournaments to go, to try and achieve something on this trip!

ClintonO

Vegas 08 Update Day 1-3

2008-07-03T15:43:00.003+01:00

Vegas is surely the greatest place in the world.

I have spent 3 days here so far including the arrival day and I am absolutely exhausted.
There is simply too much that you just have to do.

No internet connection for two days has meant not being unable to update anything, but a room change has solved that one.

Having too much to do means that Poker often gets overlooked, even if that is the primary purpose of the trip.

I have played two tournaments so far, with little success.

On Day 2, I played the $340 at the Venetian, where you started with a very healthy 12k in chips and 40 mins on the clock.

738 players! took part with a prize pool of $213k!

Of our party 4 of us decided to play this event.

I decided I was not going to play my usual game to start with and just play as many pots as possible in the attempt of hitting something big. I believe I manage to miss every single flop! I ended up at the first break [end of level 3] pretty much where I started at 13k. 2 hours of play later I was just keeping up with play and had moved to 15k. No significant hands, just picking opportunties to take the blinds.

By level 8, the blinds were becoming significant, I just lost a race against a short stack, I put him all in with AK and lost to TT. This left me on 12k.

Loose guy with dodgy moustache raises to 2.5k, I see pocket tens, as he plays pretty much everything, I was prepared to put my chips in. He has about the same as me in chips. Rock women then moves all in for 9k, so I decide now I am in trouble. Moustache guy, says well QJ is a good hand for value!!! so hes all in too.

Rock turns over AQ and its TT vs AQ vs QJ

8 high non-connecting rainbow flop, K on turn, come on one time! River J. Boom! game over.
Still not sure how he called with QJ not thinking he was completely dominated, but thats poker!

Unfortunately none of my group managed to get past level 8 either and day 1 was a wash-out!

The winner got a massive $59k! A seasoned pro from Canada.

Some of the rest of our group, did bring in some cash though! Mouse finished 3rd in the $45 at O'Sheas for $245 and Fenners doubled his money in a $60 STT so it was not a total loss!

Day 3 - $235 at Caesars - Just under 600 for this one, 7.5k in chips. 50 minute levels.

5 of us played this one, despite having just 4 hours sleep!

I started fairly badly, again trying to play a few different types of hands, to not much avail.
After the first break I had slipped to 5k. The next levels saw some improvement, I had my first big hand of the week in KK and took out a short stack holding AK and shortly after took out another when he pushed all in with JJ on a K3d2d, when I was holding AdKd.
At the end of level 4, I was up to 18k and feeling good.

With blinds escalating quickly, up to 400/800, I turn over AhKh. I raise to 2.8k. Massive fish opposite me (had previously called a 1ok all in with A2 - splite pot, a 8k all in with A6 - lost and another 8k all in with KJ - beat AA, flop was KJK!] moves all in for another 7k.

I am putting half my chips on the line, I figure the worst I situation I have is two over cards and decide to make the call.
He turns over QQ, the best hand I believe he could have, hit my King, but its followed by a Queen.

I work my way back up to 13k, when I get AQ. Newish player to the table raises to 3.2k, seems steady, but 3.2k feels a bit high, so I decide he wants the pot there and then and decide to push all in.
Its about half his stack, he thinks for about 5 mins, before finally calling with JJ. A King and a ten give me a couple more outs, but I just know races are not my thing, the next two cards are no help and its another no cash for me.
UriG put in the best performance within the party finishing just outside the money in 65th, when his KK was beaten by QQ [Q on turn]

Its off to Binions today for the $210, it will be a smaller field of around 250, but today we are after a cash to boost morale in the camp!

ClintonO

A little publicity

2008-06-28T22:45:00.003+01:00

Nothing like a little local publicity before I head over to Vegas.

This could be found on the front page of the best selling local newspaper, the St.Ives Weekly News!

Heres hoping for bigger things in the near future!

ClintonO

The POCCER PLAYERS #8 Ewan Hardie

2008-06-22T12:36:00.003+01:00

Mr Ewan Hardie. Seen here guest appearing in Poccer 2 (Top row - 2nd) for the Angels of Helsby.

Ewan has been in the Dream Team since season 1 and was one of the players who ensured victory in the first ever event, winning a package at the Asian Poker Tour, where he finished 7th in one of the side events.

Prior to that a deep finish in the Caribbean Poker Classic in 2005, is proof of his live ability.

Ewan has since been signed up by Bad Beat as a trader and plays mostly cash games at present.

By his standards Ewan has not had the best year, with just 7 finishes in the points, including one 5th place and 5,210.

Ewan has a lot of work to do, to earn a place in the team for the live final (Top 6 players will represent the team), but it is something he is more than capable of.

ClintonO

The POCCER PLAYERS #7 Lee Hayward

2008-06-22T12:28:00.003+01:00

Lee is the newest member of the Poccer Players. Lee is shown here checking his chip stack (3rd in the top row) at a recent Poccer event, as captain of the Bullens Bullets.

Lee only discovered Poker last year and so is learning his trade.

On the live scene, Lee has limited experience to date, although has performed exceptionally well at recent Poccer events, with two Final Tables under his belt. Online is where most of his experience has come from to date. A 3rd place in one of the Golden Cup events on Littlewoods, is his best cash to date.

Last week a deep finish in the PokerRoom ChampionChip event confirmed his talent and we hope for more big wins to come.

Lee adds a real sense of stability to the team and has the 2nd most point scoring weeks with 14. We just need to convert his deep finishes to final tables, adding a decent 8,720 points to the team to date.

ClintonO

The POCCER PLAYERS #6 Dave 'Dog' Duncan

2008-06-22T12:16:00.004+01:00

Meet Mr Dave Duncan! Seen here top left, captaining the Angels of Helsby in a recent Poccer tournament.

Dave is in celebratory mode this week, as last Sunday, he secured his trip to the Caribbean Poker Classic, later this year.

Dave has proved his poker ability in a number of areas this year. Firstly in live events, a second place finish in Poccer 3, followed by another deep finish in Poccer 4, ensured that his team the Angels of Helsby are the only dual winners in Poccer history.

Online is where Dave makes his biggest mark at the moment, he has at least one $20k guaranteed to his name this year (alongside two 2nds, a 3rd and a 4th).
He is also a winner of the elusive £40k that I can't win!

Dave has been the most consistent Dream Team player this year, with 15 finishes in the points, 3 Final Tables, a 2nd in week 24 and 15,935 points to date.

ClintonO

The POCCER PLAYERS #5 Afzal Hussain

2008-06-22T12:05:00.002+01:00

Unfortunately I do not have a picture for Mr Hussain.

Afzal is another of the team who managed to secure a seat in the EPT Monte Carlo earlier hits year.
He is another one of us who has not yet made a name for himself on the live scene, although he would argue that a 2nd place finish in the Dream Team final last time would prove that point.

Afzal has had a fantastic online year. He won the $20k guaranteed on Littlewoods for the 10th time in May this year for starters, but two big finishes in the two big events has made his year to date.

First up was event #19 in the Full Tilt FTOPS series, where he finished 4th in the $300k . This was followed last month by a 3rd place in the ECOOP series, event #1 $250k.

He was single handedly holding the Dream Team together in the first 6 weeks, and had over half the teams points at this stage. He has made the points 10 times, with a 2nd in the double points week and a 3rd place his best performances, giving him 15,940

ClintonO

The POCCER PLAYERS #4 Clinton Orchard

2008-06-22T12:00:00.003+01:00

Well as this blog is about me, I should not need too many introductions.

At the moment my main focus is preparing for my trip to Vegas, where I will not be taking part in the main event, but using the money I won for the seat on other smaller events.

I have also got the Caribbean Poker Classic to look forward to in November this year, as well as the EPT Grand Final in Monte Carlo next year.

In the meantime, establishing Poccer is my primary concern (www.poccer.co.uk) as well as getting as high as possible in the Internet Player of the year. I only discovered this site a couple of months ago, but at the moment I have reached a high of #66 in the International ranking (non-US) and have set myself a target for the year of the top 20.

As for the Dream Team, I have started to find a bit of form of late, with a 1st in week 24 and a 3rd in a double point week, last week. I have made the points 13 times and accumulated 17,400 to date.

ClintonO

The POCCER PLAYERS #3 Martyn Bebb

2008-06-22T11:48:00.003+01:00

Our next Poccer player is Martyn Bebb. Martyn is the one in the white top above (Picture from Poccer 4 - Bebbys Bluffers)

Another player having a great year. Martyn became Littlewoods player of the month earlier in the year, when he managed to qualify for two EPT events in a couple of weeks, earning a seat at the EPT San Remo and the EPT Monte Carlo.

Martyn has yet to make it in the live scene, but is having a fine year online. Aside from the two seats mentioned above, he also won a seat for the UKPT in Manchester, was 5th in the Littlewoods £100k and also made the final table in the Pacific Poker $147k.

Like Onny, Martyn has contributed points on 11 occasions, totalling 18,500 points. This includes winning week 6 and 2nd in week 11 and two further Final Table appearances.

ClintonO

The POCCER PLAYERS #2 MIHAY MANOLE

2008-06-22T11:35:00.002+01:00

Meet Mihai Manole! Our 2nd member of the Poccer Players. Of anyone in the team, Mihai has had the best 12 months.

Not only has he had the honour of seeing his first ever game at the Emirates stadium to watch his beloved Arsenal, he has had the most exceptional poker year.

Mihai has always had a lot of success online, but the last year has seen the emergence of a fantastic live player.

In November, Mihai showed his live ability when finishing 2nd in the Caribbean Poker Classic, taking home $145k, but in the last 6 weeks he has really shown what he can do.

3 cashes in the Casinos Austria Poker Tour including 2 wins, one of which was the main event, in May, followed by a trip to Vegas for the WSOP, where he has already had 3 cashes.

His 5th place in event 7 $2000 NL, was the highest ever finishing position for a Romanian in a WSOP event. Perhaps more incredibly he managed to win the $20k tournament on Betfair whilst on a break from the WSOP event, which he won as part our team prize for being ahead at the Quarter 3 stage.

Mihai has not had the most consistent Dream Team year, making the points just 9 times, but has two Final Tables, both on double points weeks (2nd & 5th) giving him 19,420 points to date.

Good luck during the rest of your time in Vegas Mihai!

ClintonO

The POCCER PLAYERS #1 Jonathan McCann

2008-06-22T11:21:00.003+01:00

Let me introduce our leading player so far this year - Mr Jonathan (Onny) McCann. (Seen here at the Poccer 2 event)

Onny has a great year this year. Aside from winning a seat to the EPT Grand Final in Monte Carlo this year, he also managed to win the Betfair $100k guaranteed tournament.

Onny has just started to work on his live game too, with two cash finishes this year.

Firstly an 18th in the Norweigan Poker Championships followed by a 2nd place in the £300 event at the GUKPT in Newcastle.

Onny joined our dream team last year and has an added an explosive style to the team. After 9 events of season 3, Onny had not acquired a single point! But since has won 3 events (Weeks 10,20 and 25) including 2 double points wins.

In total Onny has added points to the team in 11 out of 26 weeks, but more importantly 40,270pts.

Providing we don't have a disaster and throw away our lead, Onny will be representing us at a GUKPT event in the near future (assuming he is still our leading member).

ClintonO

The POCCER PLAYERS - Dream Team

2008-06-18T00:23:00.005+01:00

Life is just too busy!

I have totally neglected my blog of late and I do apologise for that.

I will be updating a little more frequently shortly, as my trip to Vegas is almost here! Hoorah!

I do have a number of things to update everyone on, but the first thing I have to do, is talk about the Poccer Players.

I am sure most of you are aware of the Dream Team competition, a competition that is run by BadBeat and hosted by Betfair. It is currently in its 3rd season.

Season 1 I was asked to join a team by Andy Reynolds, who is not only a fantastic poker player, but a great guy to. It was this team that enabled me to meet a number of my close poker friends.

That year we came 11th in the table, but at the live event managed to turn it around and win. Asian Poker Tour packages were given to a number of the team and cash for the rest. I could not make it due to work commitments and the small fact that I was already going to the Caribbean Poker Classic a week later.

In Season 2, I took over as team captain, we did even worse in the online events, but managed to fight our way back to 2nd overall thanks to the live event.

This season it is a much bigger event, with 6 WSOPE packages up for grabs and 33 weeks of online play.
At present we have played 25 events and are clear at the top of the leaderboard, making those WSOPE packages looking very interesting indeed.

Alongside the EPT Monte Carlo (which I will use my outstanding EPT package to attend next year) and the Aussie Millions, this is the other tournament that I wish to play in at some point in my poker life.
This is the current league table. (Sorry its small I have forgotten how to load it properly!)

You will need to click into it, to view it properly.

Basically it says we are long way clear

The Poccer Players 25,566 chips each

Puppy-Petters 17497

Dynamic Demps 15988

Chipendales 15248

Pokerchamps 14362

So far it has been an unbelievable performance by the team and I would like to pay tribute to each in turn.

Presently we have got 141,395 points.

These have been earnt as follows.

Onny87 - 40270

M.M - 19420

50kinred - 18500

ClintonO - 17400

Injustice - 15940

Whitedog - 15935

UriGeller - 8720

elvushi - 5210

Over the next couple of days, I would like everyone to get to know the Poccer players and what they have achieved so far!

ClintonO

42 working days until Vegas

2008-04-27T23:43:00.002+01:00

Its not as if I am counting!

This year I am off to Vegas for my 4th consecutive year since starting this poker lark.

This year I am delighted to say we are joined by a number of guys who play in the poccer tournaments.
I am currently planning my itinery for the trip to ensure I play in as many tournaments that count on the poker pages database. Full details will be up shortly.

I am currently number 2 in the world for people with the surname ORCHARD, but my arch nemesis from Los Angeles has cashed again so there is more work to be done!

This is one objective I really want to win!

ClintonO

Poccer 5

2008-04-27T23:39:00.002+01:00

Just a quick update on Poccer, which now seems to be going from strength to strength.

Poccer 5 is on the 24th May for any interested parties and is now up to 18 teams for this one, which if it stays this way will be the biggest to date.

Full details on www.poccer.co.uk

ClintonO

ClintonO on tour

2008-04-27T22:56:00.002+01:00

I discovered an internet site recently entitled internetpokerrankings.com. This site keeps a record of all the major tournies that are held online.

For the crypto network its only includes the $20k and up until the two weeks ago it did not include the tournament held on Saturdays (1 of my wins this year!)

At the moment this is the standings for just the crypto network.

1Mhumph82 505
2WestPark 458
3DontPanic 438
4Chriss005 374
5Bigd11108 359
6Marie1965 359
7Luckylud 353
8Green 345
9pu-sdaeh 342
10Andflex 323
11rxiav 307
12JockScott 306
13logitech 297
14Goose. 286
15IAMTHERNG 279
16Niilex2 278
17The_Gimp 274
18Spongebob 269
19Ste221261 269
20FRENCH007 262
21Loverat 261
22__mac__ 249
23ClareT 241
24ClintonO 231
25Jaypee 231

They are running two leaderboards, one for the US and one for non US.

Now whilst it is too late to try and compete for this title I thought I would try my hand at a few of the tournies that counted towards the points.

To date I have played and cashed on Full Tilt, Pacific Poker and Party Poker.

Full Tilt $40k Guaranteed - 21st/332 $273.90
Pacific Poker $80k Guaranteed - 4th/539 $5,200
Party Poker Super Friday - 6th/318 $3,180.

I will from time to time continue to play in these different tournaments to see what I can achieve.
At the moment with Vegas already booked, the Caribbean Cruise won and an EPT tournament to book in, my options for my live games are incredibly limited, so I have to concentrate on winning some of the big cash prizes in the bigger games.

I will keep you informed of any progress I make in this leaderboard, but right now I am 309th in the International leaderboard. Top 100 is my target.

ClintonO

Excited to read a book!

2008-04-27T22:46:00.002+01:00

It is not often that I think to myself, I can't wait to read this book. Well today I have an exception.

I tend to read most poker books to see if there is anything I can utilise in my game. My bible to date has always been Harrington on Holdem, followed closely after by Phil Gordons blue and green books.

I discovered whilst browsing on the latest poker books, that Dan Harrington had written two new books. Harrington on cash games.
I immediately ordered them!
I have read 1 chapter so far and have won $40! Comfortably paying for the cost of the book. Coincidence - I don't think so.

I look forward to reading the rest!

ClintonO

The Caribbean Poker Classic

2008-04-15T21:20:00.003+01:00

The Caribbean Poker Classic is my favourite trip of the year.
I have been on the last three and get better each year.

This year they have changed the destination, its no longer a visit to St.Kitts, but a cruise around the Eastern Caribben, starting out from Miami.

Having never been on a cruise and looking at the state of the cruise ship (Freedom of the Seas) this was an absolute must qualify for me.

The very first qualifier was for six CPC lite packages from the 1000 players who were eligible to play in the monthly leaderboard tournaments.

The tournament had 489 players and was to be played as a sixpack format, certainly not my favourite type of event, but I wanted that seat.

Level 1 was a fairly quiet affair, but I managed to add 50% of my chips with AK against the AJ of Tere22041 in level 2 to move to 3000 and then double through Agentu when my KK beat AK and I was on 6745.

Level 5 I moved my stack above the 10k mark, taking out Kusken777 who pushed all in on a 9558 board with 66, I had A9.

The tournament continued to go in a postive format and I moved up to 17k in Level 8, when my open ended straight draw on flop became a straight and I knocked out Loveangel who had top pair.
On the same level I had a big decision to make. Holding QsQh with a board 6sAs4d3s9s. I have the 2nd nut flush. Crotchet moves all in with 8500 into 7200 pot. I make the call and he has A9, moving me up to 26k.

Level 11 arrived, along with a piece of good fortune, I raise from the button with A9 and Lukilapi the table leader reraised for the umpteenth time. This time with very valid reason, he had KK.
An ace arrived on the flop, I was up to 40k and now thoughts of the CPC started to materialise.

These were enhanced in Level 12, when Tere05011 moves all in for 34k from the small blind when blinds were 600/1200. I look down at AA and make the call. Tere turns over J6. A 6 is the first card out, but this did not improve. My stack is now 79k and have every chance.

We start to play 4 handed at this point, meaning you have to keep very busy to keep the stack up, whilst numbers reduce to go 6 handed again.

I break the 100k barrier in level 16 when OMGSUCK folds to my AQ on a 2476A board.
We are getting close now, when Ultgamb moves all in from the button for 28k, I have AK in the big blind and make the call. He has K7 and move to over 130k. Now it is simply a matter of keeping my stack up, not doing anything silly and taking one of the 6 seats from the 12 players left.

Seat 1: kingpkl (218727 in chips) - The chip leader
Seat 2: Donn001 (50136 in chips)
Seat 3: OMGSUCK (32574 in chips)
Seat 4: lammemik (67195 in chips)
Seat 5: Fingerama (62918 in chips)
Seat 6: ClintonO (129616 in chips)

Fingerama goes first moving all in on a 4c6h3h board. He has 9hTh for a flush draw. lammemik makes the call with 69 and holds on.

OMGSUCK goes next when his A9 loses to Donn001's AK. We are down to 4, the other table is down to 5. 9 players left, 6 seats! I have 139k.

Donn is next to go, moving all in with TT, Kingpkl makes the call with QJ and hits both.
We are down to three and the other table is down to 4. One more to go.

Seat 1: kingpkl (350072 in chips)
Seat 4: lammemik (84178 in chips)
Seat 6: ClintonO (126916 in chips)

Six hands later.

Thank you for participating in the tournament "MARCH LEADERBOARD 6851793", on Apr 5 2008 9:33PM GMT. Congratulations! You placed 1st and won a seat to "CPC Cruise Lite 6851751" and 2000.00 USD!

A sixth place in the $20k on the same night for another $1k and it was a great night!
Miami here we come!

ClintonO

2 Days Later - 2nd $20k win of the year

2008-04-12T17:59:00.002+01:00

I have always been a firm believer that Poker is a game of confidence and when you have been successful, it makes your game so much better.

2 days after my first $20k win of the year came my second.

It started fairly usual, moving between 2500-3500 in chips in the first 4 levels. However just before the end of the first hour, I pick up 9s8c in the Big Blind.

The only action comes from the button who limps.
Flop [JsTc6s] and I have an open ended straight draw, I get to see the turn for just 200, so that is fine. The turn brings a perfect 7, although it is a 3rd spade. I decide to check to then raise when he bets and take the pot. I check, he bets 400, I raise to 1100 and interestingly he calls.

The river is a harmless 2d. I put 900 more into 2850 pot and get called. He turns over AcAs and gives me abuse for being in the pot with 98. The fact I was in the big blind and saw it for free was lost on him. Oh well I am now double my starting stack.

I move between 6&8k in chips for the next few levels. I then move tables (6360 now) and I am dealt TT in the big blind, first hand on the table. It folds to the Small blind who raises to 850 (150/300 blinds). I decide not to mess around and move all in. He has slightly more chips than 7000, but instant calls. How much trouble am I in? Not that much! He turns over AT and the board does not help him and I am up to 13k.

I make little progress between levels 7 and 11, when disaster strikes. I have 11995 in chips and am dealt JJ in mid position. I raise 3xbb to 2400 and the button reraises to 4800 (he had 10529 at the start of the hand), my warning bells are going off, min raise for half his stack. He has a big hand. That said I am such confident mood, that I convince myself my Jacks are good and move all in. He quickly calls with AA, I lose and I am left completly crippled with just 1466 chips and blinds 400/800 Antes 100. It was a disappointing end to a promising position.

I have 466 chips left after posting my big blind and have Jd 2s. There is an early raiser (2xbb) and the small blind calls, so what the hell, I move my chips in.

Flop (6d,7c,Jh). Do I have hope here? Check, Check.
Turn (6h) I might have a chance. Check, Check.
River (As) Oh god thats me out. Check, Check. Raiser has 2c2h, small blind Qc,8c. My J2 is good, Im still in, I am up to 4798 in chips.
I cant play for the next 3 hands and am already down to 4098.

I get T2 in the first unopened pot, I have to gamble, No callers, I move forward again. Phew.
I do the same with J9 with the same result. I have to keep busy. I get J9 again in the small blind. One limper, so I join in. Flop is Jack high and I move in and keep my chip count going back in the right direction.

My cards are so bad, blinds are up to 600/1200 and I am hanging on with just 6600 chips. I get 7c6c and decide that has options and its time to go for it, there is 3300 in the middle, which would add 50% to my stack.
CHWIN has other ideas thought and isolates moving all in with AcQs, it could be worse though.

Flop is Js,8h,Kd. Thats not good, Turn is 6d and all of a sudden I am survining, the river is a 9d and my chip stack has gone from 466 to 16296. This is some recovery.

However the blinds are so high, I can't slow down. I steal the blinds whereever I can.
The blinds move to 1200/2400 antes 300 as we reach the money and the final 2 tables.

I have just 11646 chips thats just 1.5 rounds, so in 5th position it is folded to me and I move with Tc8h. CHWIN who now has just less chips now makes the call. This time he turns over Ad,4h. I am very happy to see that as he is only a small favourite.

----- FLOP ----- [3d 4c 7d] Thats not good
----- TURN ----- [3d 4c 7d][8c] BINGO!
----- RIVER ----- [3d 4c 7d 8c][8d] WOW! I have had to play this way and won twice when a slight to moderate underdog. Time to use this fortune. I feel I am on a bit of a freeroll, as I already considered myself out. Now I have 26k in chips. However at this stage of the game it is still not a great stack.

We are down to just 11 players. I get Ad,Qs in the big blind. Dastinek who is the short stack on the table with 16722, raises to 9000, in other words committed. I decide though this is my best hand of the night, I am moving in. He thinks for a while and then 11th is eliminated. Now he has guaranteed final table and a bigger pay, he must call. Incredibly he folds and I have 45k.

Here is the final table.

Seat 1: Strom00 (62065 in chips)
Seat 2: __07__ (51513 in chips)
Seat 3: Jon18024 (51876 in chips)
Seat 4: Dastinek (7322 in chips)
Seat 5: kelle (47216 in chips)
Seat 6: Ultgamb (24456 in chips)
Seat 7: lemur (44064 in chips)
Seat 8: Silent33 (119824 in chips)
Seat 9: ClintonO (45532 in chips)
Seat 10: razynut (110132 in chips)

Both __07__ and Ultgamb join me again on the final table.
I am sitting in 7th place, but only two players have double my stack.

Its a fairly agressive table, razymut loses half his stack to lemur AQ to AK.
razy who is now clearly on tilt takes out the first player.

razynut: raises to 6000
Strom00: calls
6000__07__: folds
Jon18024: raises to 43076 and is all-in
Dastinek: folds
kelle: folds
Ultgamb: folds
razynut: is all-in 35968

A min raise from razy, then a call and and all in, razy must have a big hand here as he calls for all but 1108 of his stack.

Jon turns over JJ and incredibly razy has KsQs.
The flop is 2s3dJs, making it interesting for both. The river is a spade and Jons set is no good.
Ult is out in 9th when his AT loses to Lemurs TT.

I am going nowhere fast and get very short (Blinds 2000/4000 antes 500), I have enough for just 3 rounds, 30k.
On the button I get Kc7c and decide the 10000 in the middle is too tempting and push. Razy has no issues getting involved, unsuprisingly with AK. I am in all sorts of trouble here.

The board is Q37QQ, incredibly I have doubled up to 69k. I have got incredibly lucky here and know at this point I am going to win this tournament.

Strom gets very short and pushes with AT with just 7k, Lemur has 73 but with just 3k more to call, its an auto call. 2 more sevens mean Stom is out in 7th.

Lemur continues his run, when he knocks out Dastinek with KK against AQ.
I make some steady progress before 07 (Mick) doubles through Silent. Both their pairs improved to make sets on the flop and carnage obviously ensued. Mick taking a 170k pot 888 vs 444.

Silent then makes a move reraising with 22, but Kelle makes the call with AT and an Ace leaves us with 5 players.

Blinds are at 3000/6000 Antes 750
I sit in last place, but there is not too much in it and I just have this feeling its my night.

Seat 2: __07__ (156576 in chips)
Seat 5: kelle (115027 in chips)
Seat 7: lemur (141979 in chips)
Seat 9: ClintonO (74514 in chips)
Seat 10: razynut (75904 in chips)

At this point where there is actually a little room for play, see razys go all in for the 8th time in 12 hands.
He moves all in again under the gun, I turn over AK in the bigblind, thats good enough for me.
He turns over A5 and my AK holds up. I then take his remaining 11k next hand.

I am now chip leader and play very aggressively from here on in.
I move from 150k to 250k through raising and reraising without a showdown. There are big steps in the prize money and therefore I want to put them under pressure as much as possible.

Kelle takes out 07 in 4th place calling a 53k all in bet with A8, Mich has Q2.

With 3 left, I have 244k, Lemur 181k and Kelle 138k.
I make a good move on Kelle and take 50k from him.
Next hand with 300k I raise with AcJc. Lemur moves over the top for 55k more. I have to call, he turns over 88 and the first card out is an Ace.

Heads Up it is 378k to 186k in my favour.

Hand 1 (6h,8s) I see the flop. ATQ, not much good for me!
Hand 2 (Qs,7s) I check his limp. Flop is Jd,Ad,6d. I decide to bet, he calls. Turn is 2h, I decide to fire another bet, he folds.
Hand 3 (Th,5d) I fold to a raise.
Hand 4 (8h,4h) I fold to a raise.
Hand 5 (Kh,3d) I fold to a raise.
Hand 6 (Ks,9h) I call his raise. Board comes 34J6T. As he has not bet since preflop, I fire a bet and he folds.
Hand 7 (Jc,8d) I raise, he folds.
Hand 8 (6c,8d) He folds
Hand 9 (Ad,7h) I raise, he folds.
Hand 10 (Qh, 2d) He raises, I fold.
Hand 11 (6c,6s) I raise, he moves all in. I think for a what seems an age. If I call and lose I will be 363k to 201k behind. It feels like a race and the way my luck is in tonight, I don't think I can lose. I call.

Flop (Jh,Qh,3c) He has 4 more outs with any ten.
Turn 2d
River 4s. My 2nd win in a couple of nights.

In this game, I certainly got very lucky once with K7 beating AK.
On two other occasions I was behind but hit.
However when you are down to 466 chips, you are going to need a lot of fortune.

I was really pleased with the way I battled back and obviously happy with a second $6k in a few days.

ClintonO

First $20k win of the year

2008-04-10T22:16:00.002+01:00

29th March 2008.

I sit down for the $20k, buoyed by last nights 2nd place in the $4.5k.
First two levels are uneventful, my chips have fallen from 3000 to 2446.

Level 3 I get JsTs, I try a limp after an early limper. Its raised to 300, two other callers, I get odds of calling 250 with a pot already containing over 1k. I decide to call.

Flop 6TT - Bingo.
Dogman003: checks
ClintonO: checks
redmundir: checks
Johnd1801: checks
Action please!
----- TURN ----- [6h Tc Th][Ac]
Dogman003: checks
ClintonO: checks
redmundir: bets 500
Johnd1801: calls 500
Dogman003: calls 500 (Thats so much better!)
I get one caller and I move to 5356 in chips.

Level 7 is next significant hand, I have 4981 in chips.
dealt to ClintonO [Ah Ad] Bullets! 1st time of the night
I get one caller and the flop comes.
----- FLOP ----- [Jh 5s As]
ClintonO: checks
rl1986: checks
----- TURN ----- [Jh 5s As][Ac]
ClintonO: checks (oh my god, quads how the hell do I get action!)
rl1986: bets 1200
ClintonO: raises to 4081 and is all-in
rl1986: calls 2881 ( I guess that answers my question!)
----- RIVER ----- [Jh 5s As Ac][8d]
----- SHOW DOWN -----
ClintonO: shows [Ah Ad] (Four of a kind, Aces, Jack high)
rl1986: shows [7s Ks] (A Pair of Aces, King high)
ClintonO collected 10262 from Main pot

I get to the bubble (21 players) with just 7000, but get to the final 2 tables with 18000 without showing a hand!

With 20 players left I get dealt 99 and end up all against A2 and move up to 28k. I win a couple of nice pots and get to the final table with 46k.

Seat 1: Player010 (57588 in chips)
Seat 2: stagman (26936 in chips)
Seat 3: GumBallR (7861 in chips)
Seat 4: ClintonO (45988 in chips)
Seat 5: Folder (130632 in chips)
Seat 6: Allinnet (134643 in chips)
Seat 7: Homerindo (63658 in chips)
Seat 8: Ultgamb (42678 in chips)
Seat 9: __07__ (18146 in chips)
Seat 10: Fullbak (89870 in chips)

6th place as I enter the final table. I get 99 first hand and end up losing 8k with them.

Mick (__07__) goes in the first few hands, I knock out Stagman in 9th, Gumball follows shortly after in 8th and Fullbak who was so strong finishing in 7th. Player010 goes out the hand after Fullbak and very suddenly we have 5 players.

With 5 left Folder and Allinet have run into a big lead and I sit in last place.
Blinds (3000/6000) Antes 750
Seat 4: ClintonO (45722 in chips)
Seat 5: Folder (181886 in chips)
Seat 6: Allinnet (242898 in chips)
Seat 7: Homerindo (83696 in chips)
Seat 8: Ultgamb (63798 in chips)

I get very lucky against Folder when my AT splits with AQ, that piece of fortune inspires me onwards.

I find AJ in the Big Blind and Homer pushes. He has AT and my hand holds up to move to 126k and I have a real chance now, we have 4 left.

Next up I have JTclubs, get to see a flop and its 8h2cQc. I bet out and Ultgamb moves all in. I am very comitted. He has 83, but the turn brings a crucial club and its down to 3.

Seat 4: ClintonO (224341 in chips)
Seat 5: Folder (199761 in chips)
Seat 6: Allinnet (193898 in chips)
The stacks fluctuate a fair bit until this hand, my favourite of the tournie, if it did not happen to be against Mr Stuart Wardale, a very nice guy!

dealt to ClintonO [6c 8h]
Allinnet: folds
ClintonO: raises to 24000 (lets try something)
Folder: calls 16000
----- FLOP ----- [5s 7h 9c] (nice!)
ClintonO: checks
Folder: bets 166761 and is all-in (THANK YOU!)
ClintonO: is all-in 147341
Returned uncalled bets 19,420 to Folder
-----TURN ----- [5s 7h 9c][5d]
----- RIVER ----- [5s 7h 9c 5d][9h]
----- SHOW DOWN -----
Folder: shows [7c Kc] (Two Pairs, Nines and Sevens, King high)
ClintonO: shows [6c 8h] (A Straight, Nine high)
ClintonO collected 345682 from Main pot

Heads Up its 342k plays 276k. Blinds 4000/8000
Hand 1 (Ad,Qc) - he calls, I raise to 32k he folds
Hand 2 (8c,9d) - I call, he raises to 32k. I fold
Hand 3 (Jd,3s) - We see a flop, JA2, he bets 16k, I call and its checked down, me winning 50k pot.
Hand 4 (Qc,4c) - I call, he raises. Hes not allowing me to limp in.
Hand 5 (6c,2d) - He raises, I fold.
Hand 6 (5h,3h) - I raise, he reraises. I fold
Hand 7 (7s,5h) - He raises, I fold.
Hand 8 (8h,9s) - I limp in and see a flop. JcQc4. He checks and then calls my 8k bet. Turn 5d. This time he check raises me. I call. Turn 6h. He puts a big bet in , I believe he has a missed flush, but I fold. Im now 266-352 behind and being outplayed.
Hand 9 (Ah,3d) - I call his raise, we end up splitting pot as he has A4
Hand 10 (9d,5h) - Missed flop and fold.
Hand 11 (7s, 4c) - He folds.
Hand 12 (Ad,Jh) - I decide its time for the limp with good hand. I limp, he raises to 32k. I reraise to 88k, which to my suprise he calls. Flop (2d,Kh,Kc). He checks flop, I decide to push all in. He thinks, but folds. Im 350-267 in front.
Hand 13 (As,8h) - I see flop ,but he bets out and takes it.
Hand 14 (2h,4d) - Nothing doing here.
Hand 15 (Th,9h) - He folds
Hand 16 (Kc,Jh) - I raise, he folds.
Hand 17 (Kh,Qh) - I call his raise, he bets out on Ace high flop, I fold.
Hand 18 (8h,8d) - I raise x3. He calls. Flop 933, I bet out he folds.
Hand 19 (Ad,Kc) - a nice run of cards here, he raises, I reraise, he folds. 371-246
Hand 20 (5s,4s) - He raises, I fold.
Hand 21 (9h,5h) - Miss flop completely.
Hand 22 (Kh,5s) - I fold to a raise.
Hand 23 (8s,8c) - He folds
Hand 24 (Ac,2s) - I raise, he folds.
Hand 25 (Jd,9s) - I missed straight draw.
Hand 26 (Jc,4d) - I get caught bluffing and he takes 50k pot.
Hand 27 (Tc,6c) - I call a raise and lose to A8. I am now behind 299-318
Hand 28 (Ks,4s) - I have to fold, not really happy way this is turning out, but still every chance.
Blinds 6000/12000 Antes 1500
Hand 29 (Kc,6c) - I missed flop, but bet out, he folds.
Hand 30 (Jh,6s) - I fold to a raise.
Hand 31 (Qd,3h) - I fold to a raise.
Hand 32 (Js,Td) - He folds to my raise.
Hand 33 (9c,3d) - Nothing for me here.
Hand 34 (4h,6s) - Or again. Now way behind 263-354.
Hand 35 (Ts, 2s) - I check his limp. Flop 4d,Kd,Ad. I attempt a steal, bet 12000, he calls. Turn 4h. I will have another go 24000, he calls again. River 5h. Only chance to win is bet again. Complete bluff 60000. He folds. Sighs of relief on my part.
Hand 36 (Ah,Qs) - Back in front, I raise, he folds.
Hand 37 (Ac,Kd) - I reraise, he folds.
Hand 38 (Qh,Td) - I raise to keep pressure on, he folds.
Hand 39 (Qh,7c) - I take a breath and fold to a raise 354-264.
Hand 40 (Ah,Tc) - I raise, he moves all in. He has never made this move before, I think he just wants me out of there. It has been a tough heads up, I have had to make big bluffs to stay in it. I think I am in front I make the call.

He turns over Jc,9h. Board - 7c,Qs,4c,5s,Td. I win the game.

I was not overthrilled by my heads up play in this one, I felt I struggled, however, I played a solid game, including getting chips at an important time on the bubble.
This win would give me confidence. So much so that I won the tournament a couple of days later.

ClintonO

The night after NPC's

2008-04-10T21:57:00.002+01:00

£500 had disappeared in a couple of minutes, so it was time to get it back.

I was really disappointed with the changes in the tournament that was made and by time I got back home I was annoyed with myself.

I got home at 9.50pm and got straight into the $4.5k on Littlewoods, 3 hours later, I had finished 2nd and won £550. Why do I bother with live tournaments I ask myself, stick to what I know best!

24 hours later, I was firmly of that opinion!

ClintonO

National Poker Championships

2008-04-10T21:35:00.002+01:00

Stanleys decided to hold the National Poker Champioships at the end of March, it was held across three venues - Southend, Manchester and Nottingham.

With Poccer being held in the Midlands for season 1, I decided that Nottingham would be the best place to start our live events.

It was a £500 entry and I took part alongside two players representing Poccer, Robbie Jones, Poccer 4 winner and Ian Overson, Poccer online winner.

I had only previously played an APAT event in this country, it was Robbies first real live experience outside Poccer, whilst Ian had also played the APAT and the Virgin Poker Festival.

Unfortunately the numbers in Nottingham were a lot lower than the other two festivals. So we ended up with just 93 players and a £50k prizepool.

The organisers informed us that they were going to play down to the final table on the Friday and come back on Sunday, this was fine by me, as I was making the 4 hour round trip to Nottingham each day. Also Saturday was a difficult day for me to play due to family commitments, so I was pleased that this was the case.

The day started with 10,000 chips and I started well and soon moved to 14,000. Two hours in, they announced they were going to put Saturday back on and play down to 50. This caused me major issues with organisation for Saturday, so I was not best pleased.
10 minutes later I was out!

First up I had QQ I raised and got reraised. Flop was ten high, all the chips went in and I was up against JJ, unfortunately the turn was a J and I was reduced by 8k.
The next hand I had 55 and raised with one caller. Flop 57J. I thought it was christmas, but so did the other guy holding 77!

So only 2 and a half hours into the tournament I was out.
Lessons learnt, whenever I play in a live event, dedicate the time to play it. Stay overnight. Forget about everything else going in your life, as you can't play your best.

Both Robbie and Ian did better than me (Not suprising!) However both players did not make Day 2, Robbie lost with AA to KK, K on river. Ian lost to an open ended straight draw. So our first venture and nobody made it back to Day 2.

We must do better!

ClintonO

Time for an update - POCCER

2008-04-10T21:04:00.003+01:00

Well, this is truly the longest I have left my blog unattended.
It has been an extremely busy time where lots has happened.

So without further ado, heres whats been happening in my poker world.

Quick Summary

Took a few weeks off Poker early March after playing so much in February to win EPT seat.

After that, I ran Poccer 4, played in National Poker Championships, 2nd in $4.5k gtd after being knocked out of NPC's. Won the $20k GTD the next night, won the $20k again 2 days later, won the first seat available for the Caribbean Poker Cruise. In fact I won $16k in just over a week and a caribbean cruise, now thats not bad!

So, Poccer first.

I held the fourth Poccer event during March and I was absolutely delighted with the way it went. We had a record 17 teams take part in a truly great tournament.

Incredibly we had our Poccer 3 winners win again - The Angels of Helsby.

This event is really starting to take off now, which I am really pleased about, as I have put a huge amount of time and effort into getting this off the ground.

http://www.poccer.co.uk/

We have our next event on May 24th in Birmingham, so if anyone wants to get involved please let me know. It will be a great day out for all involved!

Due to the numbers I was able to put the Poccer 4 winner into a live tournament. Robbie Jones was the winner and he play in the National Poker Championships in Nottingham.

Joining him was Ian Overson, Ian won the online poker series we ran on Littlewoods poker.

If anyone is interested in getting involved in our online series to qualify for UK events, then the next series, starts Monday 14th April on Littlewoods Poker.

ClintonO

Best possible cure

2008-02-27T22:00:00.002Z

So Saturday I am in need of break and Sunday I win my biggest tournament of the year! Go Figure.
Before I get on to that, a few things to catch up on.

Poccer 4 - SOLD OUT! Fantastic news, 18 Teams its going to be a lot of fun. The online tournaments are picking up as well, 19 players took part this week, currently Ian Overson is leading the way with 4 rounds to go. The poccer website will be updated shortly.

Next up the BadBeat dream team. The last two years, I have entered a team in the contest with some great poccer players. Year 1 we won and won packages to the Asian Poker Tour, last year we were 2nd. Well year 3 is underway, 10 weeks in fact. After 9 weeks we were doing quite well, in 8th place in the table. Well this Monday what an effort, an awesome team performance.

This is the latest situation.

The Poccer Players take a massive lead in Dream Team 3
This week was a massive week for The Poccer Players, with Onny87 getting his FIRST points for the team, but those points being a 1st place and 15,000 points his team aren't complaining. They also managed 2nd with RiggedElvis for 10,000 points, 5th by M.M for 4,500 points and 18th by UriGeller for 1,600 points, a spoonbending team total of 31,100 points taking them to a massive 51,360 team points, 18,000 ahead of 2nd spot!!

1st The Poccer Players 51360
2nd Team Pokerchamps 33470
3rd The Lost Boys 32610
4th DynamicDemps 31440
5th The Crushed Nutz 27330

EPT Leaderboard. With just 3 days to go, I am over 1000 pts clear, so I am hoping to be celebrating this achievement at the weekend. I am exhausted from playing this much!

However the main achievement, well Saturday I was playing and not having any luck coupled with the fact I was playing badly. The one bright spark was I the Vegas Vacation qualifier. It was a $60 entry, which I managed to finish in the top two of, to qualify for Sundays $530 final.

Sunday came and I was bruised and battered from playing football, so playing poker was the last thing I wanted to do. At 3 mins to six, the vegas vacation still only had 16 entries, two short of the required, so I was happy to take the $530. However a late surge saw it reach 19 and we were away.

Basically there is one prize in the vegas vacation, $12k in cash and a hotel in the Rio, however aim 1 is to get to the final ten. Littlewoods kindly provide you with your money back if you make the final ten, so lets play tight and secure this first.

The tournament did not start well and 2500 chips soon became less than 2000. Then KQ appears in level 3, flop J9T. Bingo. Logitech bets 300 in to a 200 pot. So I have to call. Turn is a harmless 3, and logitech moves all in, I have to call. Unfortunately for him he has a set of 9s. An ace on the river and I am above 4000 and safe for the final table.

I make it to the final table without much fluctuation from 4000. With 8 left WestPark (Mihai) is a clear chip leader with 14k and the rest are between 2k and 8k.

I then get QQ and find myself in a race situation all in against Logitech (again) with AK. A very low board of 46743, moves me on to 9k and 2nd place of 7 remaining (all my chips coming from logitech!)

WestPark continued his completed domination of the final table and we are down to 3 players.
Seat 5: WestPark (31675 in chips)
Seat 6: ClintonO (8595 in chips)
Seat 9: kashen (7230 in chips)

After plenty of ups and downs (chips varied between 5k and 13k), we are down to two players.

I have 12495, WestPark 35005.
I am heads up for $12k and a hotel in Vegas in an event where I have done just enough to hang
in there. Its time for the best part of my game to kick in, but there is a lot to be doneBlinds

300/600 ante 75
Hand 1 (4s,7s) fold to a 3xbb raise.
Hand 2 (5s,6h) not a hand to get involved with yet, I fold
Hand 3 (8d,7s) He folds. No action yet.
Hand 4 (Js,6s) I call, we get a flop. Jd,2d,4d. Top pair but plenty of diamonds. He leads out with 600, I call. Turn 5s, he checks, thats enough for me, I bet 1200 and take the pot.
Hand 5 (3s,7c) He raises I fold.
Hand 6 (2h,5c) I see a flop, but 7,6,Q is no good for 25.
Hand 7 (8s, 2h) He folds. I wonder whether I will get a hand.
Hand 8 (7c,6c) I raise and take the blind.
Hand 9 (4c,6s) He raises, nothing to play with here. I fold
Hand 10 (Kh,Qs) A hand, I raise, take blinds
Hand 11 (7d,2c) He folds and its very tight as the feeling out process takes place!
Hand 12 (6c,6s) I min raise and get called. Flop 4,9,9. A nice flop for me. I bet and take the chips.
Hand 13 (Ts,8h) He folds
Hand 14 (4h,4c) I see the flop. 5,9,9 good enough for me, I bet and take the pot. I feel he has been quite tame so far, so think that I will need to take him on soon as he may get frustrated.
Hand 15 (8c,5h) He raises, this is not the hand.
Hand 16 (As,9d) I raise and take blinds
Hand 17 (8h,4c) He raises I fold, its all very tight and Im 3k better off.
Hand 18 (2s,3h) I decide to see a flop. 7Q2. I bet and take the pot.
Hand 19 (8d,3s) These hands are dire, he raises I fold.
Hand 20 (Qd,2h) A picture card, I call as Im being allowed to see flops. 295. I bet and get pot.
Hand 21 (4d,6d) He folds.
Hand 22 (Kd,Qs) I raise and take blinds. This is not making great reading, but its a very tactical game. Being behind I cant afford to make a mistake.
Hand 23 (6c,4s) I fold to a raise.
Hand 24 (6s,Kd) Another picture card, so I min raise and get called. Flop 3s,9d,4c. He checks, lets see the turn. Turn Td. He bets a small bet of 600, thats seems weak, I raise and take the pot.
Hand 25 (7d,3h) He folds. Im up to 18k.
Hand 26 (7d,Th) I call. 9h,Td,4h. Top pair, he checks, I bet and he reraises. Interesting. His first reraise and a check raise at that. I call and see the turn. Turn As. I don't think this helps him, there was no raise preflop. He bets another 2400. This is tough one, I call. River 8d. He puts a big bet of 7200, this call is worth $12k in real cash to me. I have second pair, thats it. What does he have, what did the min raise mean. I am not sure and am not going to risk $12k here. This is a hard fold.
Hand 27 (Qh,7d) I have to step up my game, he raises, there will be a better opportunity.
Hand 28 (Ac,8c) Get with it, come on, I raise he folds.
Hand 29 (2c,5s) I get a free flop, 8d,Qd,6d. I fold to a bet.
Hand 30 (Ad,7d) I raise, take pot.
Hand 31 (Kh,8c) He raises x3. I call. I need to get busy. Flop Kc,Ac,3c. I check, he bets just 600, that was weak before, I believe it is again, I reraise and take the pot. Thats better.
Hand 32 (Qc,8h) Feeling better, I call. He raises, is this a reaction, I am starting to feel more confident about this game. Flop Ad,7s,8s. Ok I am still interested. He bets 1800, a stronger bet, but still less than half pot. Thats enough encouragement to call. Turn 2d. He checks, that means no ace in my book, I check and see what develops. River 8d, bingo 3 8s, flush is out there, but he does not have it. He checks. I bet 3000, he moves all in. Into the think tank.... I have trip 8s heads up, he does not have a flush. Its a huge overbet from him, I only have 8k back, in all honesty its an easy call. He turns over QT and nothing.
Hand 33 (As,8d) I am 30k to 17k in front, this is now strongly in my favour. He folds.

Hand 34 (As,9h) One of my favourite hands, I raise. He reraises to 4800. What is this, a reaction to losing the lead, I have got to keep the pressure on. I move all in. He does not take too long to call. He turns over TT. I just have a feeling this is my night. Flop 9d, 8d, Ac. Its all over! Turn Jd. I quickly check for diamonds, no one has diamonds, but he has 10 outs. Come on deucy weucy. Incredibly it is 2d.

Its all over, I have won the first Vegas Vacation package. $12k and a room a the rio. I am already planning to be in Vegas at this time, I had booked a room at the Wynn. I would rather stay there after already staying in the Rio twice, but there are great rooms, so I am not complaining in the slightest!

After a month of non-stop playing, I really have had enough of poker for a while. My game has undoubtedly suffered from playing too many games, but when I look back on the month from a short term perspective, assuming I hang on for the EPT seat. I will be up £10k, have an EPT seat for San Remo and a hotel room in Vegas. That is not bad at all for a months work. I just hope it has not affected my game in the long run.

Good Luck all

ClintonO

In need of a break!

2008-02-23T17:57:00.002Z

Apologies once again for lack of posts, I have had a very busy month with work, sorting out Poccer 4 and playing poker amongst other things!

Poccer 4 is sold out, which is great news and I am making the final preparations with that. This will be our biggest tournament todate.

I have also entered myself in the Genting Stanley National Poker Championships starting March 28th and will be there along with the winner of Poccer 4 and the winner of the Poccer online series on Littlewoods, so it suddenly feels like it is taking off.

Pokerwise I have made a bit of profit, but below target at just over £1k. However the big aim has been to win an EPT seat for San Remo from the tournament leaderboard. With just 7 days to go, I am in a great position to win this, which would give me a €5k seat, as well as €5k cash, which would most definitely sort out my profit target for February.

Further updates to follow.
ClintonO

Poccer 4

2008-02-13T23:21:00.002Z

Sorry for the lack of updates, but have been very busy organising Poccer 4.

Currently it looks like we will be at our maximum numbers, which is fantastic news, there is still time to get involved but do it quick!

We had our first online Poccer event yesterday, as we prepare to give more live poker events to our players. Congratulation to Ian Overson who won the first one and takes an early lead in the quest to represent Poccer at the National Poker Championships.

As for me I have been playing as much as I can, I have still yet to win one of the big tournaments, but have managed to pick up a couple of wins in the small guaranteed tournaments.

These don't count towards my tally, but it feels great to be winning again. 10 additional final tables have contributed towards a total of 27 for the year and February is in small profit for the moment.

At present I am starting to plan my live poker calendar for the year. As soon as I have the details I will let you know.

Good Luck All
ClintonO

January Review

2008-02-02T20:08:00.000Z

So what has 2008 bought on the poker front.

From a profit point a view a decent start, the books close at +£1500 for January, below my monthly target but a healthy start nonetheless.
The profits have mainly come from my dabbles on the cash tables which has suprised me.
My tournament play has produced a profit but nothing too significant.

No wins - very dissapointing
Final Tables - 18, surpassing by a long way my expectations. The $4.5k was as expected the best tournament for me, with 6 final tables. Although my best finishing position was 2nd in the £2.5k HH.

The $4.5k made me in excess of £500 for the month and a 106% return on investment
% cashes for the month was 25.98% and final tables was 13.39%.

I finished in 54th position in the tournament leaderboard, which qualifies me for the all important $25k tournament next Saturday.

Poccer is moving forwards nicely and Poccer 4 should be a fantastic tournament.
The online poccer tournaments are about to start in the next week, but its not too late to get involved.

All the best
ClintonO

The Last Week

2008-01-25T19:40:00.000Z

Thankfully my form has improved over the last week as January was starting to look like a poor start to the year.

Presently I am going to mile off my previous two Januarys. I am still after that elusive first win to really kick off 2008. I managed a total of 15 final tables to date, which has suprised even me, but whereas last year I would have won 3 of those 15, to date I have yet to win one.

I have finally managed my first final table of the $13k event this year, which means the only tournament that I am not in profit for this year is the main one the $20k. I will have one more attempt over the weekend probably tonight to address this.

I did come close to winning the 4.5k this week, with 5 left, me and one other player had 90% of the chips.
I pick up KK, raise and he promptly puts me all in. I am pretty much guaranteed to come at least 2nd if I fold, but I am playing to win and call. He turns over AK and I go out in 5th. There is always an ace on the flop when you have KK!

I have not had to delve into my winnings for month too much so far and I have managed to keep them at the £1k mark, short of target, short of previous years, but still in profit.

I made the EPT final last week and ended up going out in 6th place, but I will shortly be benefiting from our Poccer & Littlewoods promotion, as anyone who makes the final table and does not win, gets another chance! It may not be this weeks final, but certainly the following week if it is not.

Poccer 4 planning is well underway, 10 teams have come forward so far, including all 3 previous winners, this promises to be a great event and hopefully we will get a few more teams over the coming weeks.
I did a podcast for Poccer on Wednesday, so I will let you know when that can be downloaded.
Also I have put together a couple of online Poccer tournaments, with some nice prizes, so if you want to get involved, have a look at www.poccer.co.uk

Cheers
ClintonO

January Slowdown

2008-01-17T20:13:00.000Z

A dissapointing couple of results recently.

Sunday ended abruptly, I played in a couple of games, went out quite quickly and decided enough was enough. The £40k, the weeks richest tournament on the site was the start of the downfall, I had reraised a raiser with AK hearts. The player next to me called. Ultimately I hit my flush, but the player next to me won with a full house, he had called my reraise with 75!

After losing with TT to 66 and then flopping a full house and losing to quads, it was time to stop.

Monday was better, but not good enough, I added one more final table to the tally, by finishing 8th in the $5k Headhunter, taking me to 7 final tables to date.

Most of Tuesday/Wednesday was spent organising Poccer 4, which I am delighted to say will be held at the Birmingham Broadway on Saturday 15th March.
Anyone interested in playing, please let me know, it will be a fantastic day out.

Tuesday was one bad beat after another, I won't bore you with the details, but it was enough to put me off playing yesterday!

Halfway through January and its a mixed view on performance to date.
I have declared profit of £1k, but am likely to have to reinvest some of this over the next week, so there is definitely room for improvement.

My final table count has been impressive with 7 to date, although failure to win one is dissapointing.

Room for improvement has to be in the biggest two tournaments on Littlewoods the $20k and $13k, whilst I have some cashes, I have yet to make a final table and this where I start making an impact on my profit targets.

I have also been less pleased with my qualification attempts for live events, I have played a few of these recently and not have qualified for the finals.

In other news I have been asked to take part in a pod cast for Littlewoods, which will be taking place next week, so that is something to look forward to.

I will be playing this evening and try to improve results from the last few days.

ClintonO

Poccer 4 - Registration Open

2008-01-17T20:10:00.000Z

Saturday 15th March - Birmingham

The date for Poccer 4 has been confirmed and will be held in Birmingham on Saturday 15th March.
This will be a fantastic day for all involved, so why not give it a go.

www.poccer.co.uk has all the details.

ClintonO

Final Table madness

2008-01-13T18:10:00.000Z

Its five final tables in five nights now and six for the year, but still no win to speak of.

Last night it was the £2k for the second consecutive night and this time a 3rd place finish. I got my chips in with KQ but ran into AQ. I could have held on for 2nd but I wanted to push for the win.

I also made the money in the $20k last night, but ran into Aces and that was the end of that.

It feels like the same old story most nights this week, so the blog is probably getting boring. A few tournaments, a few hours of griding, a final table and an a small amount of profit.

I need to get a good finish in one of the bigger events to kick start my profit quest for the year.

Reviewing my figures, % tournaments cashed has fallen slightly to 29%, but % final tables is now in double figures. Despite one night out of the money the $4.5k is still number one on my tournament favourites. I am currently at number 30 in the monthly leaderboard. I am really pleased with this, getting any higher will prove difficult.

A few congratulations are in order, firstly Fenners_1 who is a regular poccer attendee and part of the Poccer gang off to Vegas at the end of June, won two tournaments last night, the $1.5k and then the £1.5k later on. Nice work.

Congratulations once again to Mr Mihai Manole for taking down thw $20k a couple of nights ago and also Kai (aka Menace) for making his first $20k final table.

Good work all round guys.

I will be playing my first £40k of the year tonight, so I am hoping for a big performance.

ClintonO

Another Final Table

2008-01-12T01:44:00.000Z

I might have to change my aim for final tables this year, with my 4th consecutive night reaching a final table and 5 out of the last 6.

This time it was the £2k, but a dissapointingly only finishing in 9th place. It was a night that promised a lot. AA losing to QQ just before the money in the $20k, and JJ to 77 in the favourite $4.5k. I made the money in the $4.5k for the 5th time in 7 appearances this year, making it clearly my most profitable tournament.

I am currently grinding my way through these tournaments making little but steady progress.
A third of the way through the month and I am about where I want to be.

I have moved up to 41st place in the MTT leaderboard on Crypto for the month and for a part time player that is quite pleasing. I need to ensure I finish in the top 400 to get in the $25k tournie at the start of February and at this stage I really should not struggle to achieve that.

I also find myself moving up the Headhunter leaderboard and now have a rating of 23, probably my highest ever, with 104 all-time kills.

I am still lacking a big prize for the year however, I have not reached the final table in the two biggest tournaments on Littlewoods yet this year, this is something I aim to improve shortly.

ClintonO

Poccer Promotions

2008-01-11T23:10:00.000Z

Just a quick post on what we are doing through Poccer from an on-line perspective.

There has never been a better time to join the growing poccer community and joining our on-line partners at Littlewoods poker. Simply download Littlewoods software from the following link (or let me know your account details) and you will be able to benefit from the following fantastic promotions.

Littlewoods Poker

Poccer Heads up Challenge : We want to find out who is the ultimate heads up player in the poccer community. Starting in February. 1st Prize Apple I-pod Nano
Bubble Trouble : If you play any MTT guaranteed tournament during the weekend and go out one before the money, we will refund your entry fee.
Poccer Players Club : Who is the best MTT player in our community, well prove its you and we will enter you in some live tournaments. Starting in February, win your way into some of the following tournaments. National Poker Championships, the GUKPT, APAT events amongst others.
EPT : Win an EPT seat and we will give you a free GUKPT seat for the Manchester tournament in April.
Second Chances : Make the final table of the weekly EPT final tables on Saturday evenings and do not win a seat, well we will put you in the next weeks final for free.

If you want to join in, please drop me a line.

ClintonO

Poccer 4 update

2008-01-11T23:05:00.000Z

The announcement for the official launch of Poccer 4 has been delayed by a couple of days.
I have been having difficulties finding venues willing to supply dealers for the tables.

Part of the overall poccer experience and the ultimate lads day out is the knowledge for players that they will not have to self deal and relax and concentrate on the game.

I am confident I will be able to resolve this situation over the weekend and announce details for the rest of season 1 at the same time early next week.

ClintonO

Make that 4 final tables in 5 days

2008-01-10T00:42:00.001Z

Another steady night this evening.
Narrowly missing out on the final tables in the $13k (JJ to QJ) and the $2.5k (KQ to 33 on a K5Q5 board), I managed to make it 3rd time lucky in the worlds greatest tournament the $4.5k.

To add to my 4th and 6th in that tournament in the last week comes a 5th place tonight. I was short stacked with 5 left pushed with K9 on the small blind. BB calls having QQ and KK the previous two hands with JJ. AK9 flop was nice, J on the turn was game over.

Another £100 is taken out and added to the profit for the month, which is now moving along quite nicely.
Almost half my profits have come from the $4.5k tournament and my % Final Tables is now up to 10%.

Long may it continue!
ClintonO

3 final tables in 4 days

2008-01-09T20:52:00.000Z

Last night I saw my biggest individual tournament payout of the year (£379.33) and narrowly missed out on my first win of the year when I finished 2nd in the £2.5k headhunter.

I did not have much of a chance heads up as I was 220k to 30k behind. I managed one double up and got to 70k but when A8 split with A5 I new it was going to be tough. I eventually went out when pushing with an ace, but lost to a higher kicker.

The vast majority of the winnings reamins in my poker account, but have taken enough out to get my profit up to £1k for the year.

I am still not playing at my best and making mistakes, so I am happy to be getting some good results. I will continue to work on my game and address some of the issues.

I am hoping to finalise the Poccer 4 event tonight, so full details will be up shortly.

Good Luck
ClintonO

January 08 Week 1 Report

2008-01-08T18:45:00.000Z

After 4 nights of tournament play and a few more hours on the cash table, January has started well.

Suprisingly I have made a great start to the year on the cash tables and just a respectable start to my tournament game. I know one night in particular I was playing tournaments and I was not in the right frame of mind, a sure fire way not to win.

My target for each month is £3k and one week into January, I am just short of £1k in profit, so that appears to be nicely on schedule.

My approximate hourly earnings ratio is £38.29 at the moment.

From a MTT point of view, I have a 32% cash rate at present (i.e finishing in the money 1 of every 3 tournaments) which I think is respectable, but I do believe I can push this higher.

My target was 52 final tables for the year, I managed 2 in week 1. A good effort.
Once again it the $4.5k that is my top tournament.

To date
Played 4
Cashed 3 (3 in succession)
Final Tables 2 (4th and 6th)
Avg Finishing Position 16th
Outlay £110
Returns £444.
Profit £334
ROI 303%
% cash 75%
% Final Table 50%

As yet I do not think I am playing at my best, I have made a number of mistakes. On the final table last night where I finished 6th. I had JJ in the Big Blind, on a King high flop, I knew I was beat, I told myself I was going to fold and yet I still pressed call! I lost to KJ and became short stacked and went out, when I really should have finished in the top 3.

I have a couple of posts one on bankroll on one a general piece of advice, so as promised anything I can do to help I will.

CCC wrote 'Enjoyed your blog. I just wanted some advice on playing the game and maximising any profit I may make. How often do you play? Just MTT's? Do you stick to the same tournies each week? I fin my main problem is doing well in the MTT's but then blowing it all on cash.

Well firstly I think you know your own issue, if your doing well in MTTs and losing in cash, then stick to MTT's it will be more profitable for you in the long run.

The reason I play a little more cash is to try and improve my game, it will not be as profitable for me over an extended period as MTTs are where my main skills are.

The difficulty is with MTT's is that you can go a long period without winning and therefore it can be a drain on your resources.

As to frequency, I played 4 nights out of 7 in the first week, that is probably about average, MTT's mainly. I dabble with cash and STT's but my record is not as good, particularly STT's which need some work.

As to the tournaments, in depends on what I am doing, usually I can't sit down to play before 8 and therefore the tournaments I play are dictated by that.

My good friend Joe asks
All good stuff mate...I was wondering if you could discuss bankroll management at some point...for instance..How much money did you start playing with?..How did you choose what games to play in?....How much were you prepared to lose?..How long before you won?..When you win, how much do you withdrawl?..

Some great questions Joe, will try to answer them all.

How much money did I start with?

When I started I did not know what I was doing let alone bankroll management. I played a couple of games and took out money when I won and put some more in when I needed to. Now I have a seperate bank account for Poker. I keep around 2-3 nights play in my poker account and about £2k in the bank which I break into should I need to.

How did I choose what to play in?

I had no clue to start with, I played in a few 10 seater STTs and found I was doing ok in them, not so good these days though! I started playing a couple of cheap MTTs, before winning a STT to qualify for the WSOP tournament. I was actually playing in a freeroll at the same time I won my WSOP seat in 2005, which was the same one you won yours in.

I learnt a lot from the guys at Littlewoods and what events they had. I would play in the £10k and £15k when I got back, although they were a lot cheaper then at £11 and £33 respectively, but even then I would qualify for them.

How much was I prepared to lose?

Fortunately I have never got myself into position of losing regularly. I had learnt a lot from the stock exchange and how you should never chase losses. I know its hard but when things are not going well and you are losing and you are not at your optimum, you have to stop. There is always another day and another game of poker.

How long before I won?

After my Vegas trip, I kept detailed records of my play from August 05.

In the 15k I had at least once nice result a month.
Sep - 4th £1125
Oct - 3rd £1500
Nov - 3rd £1500
Dec - 1st £4200

I was very fortunate that I was able to learn the game quite quickly, win some good money and most importantly continue to improve.

When I do win, I tend to take out most of the money, I allow a little more in my poker account (4-5 days cover) and then put some in the bank and also make sure I spend some of it, that way it feels more real.

Of late I have a started putting a percentage of wins into a Vegas fund, so that when I get to Vegas everything will already be paid for.

I hope that some of this is interesting, please feel free to drop me a line about any aspect of the game that I may be able to help with.

Take Care
ClintonO

2008 2 playing days in.

2008-01-04T14:15:00.000Z

Well 2 days into playing in 2008 and it has been a steady start.

One final table so far - 4th in my favourite $4.5k
Two consecutive cashes in the $20k, an 11th and 12th and a cash in the $13k.

I have withdrawn £200 from those performances to get my profit for the year into postive territory!

ClintonO

2008 The Objectives

2008-01-04T13:22:00.000Z

Here I am on day 4 of 2008 and I am still debating what my realistic aims for 2008 should be.
I have a feeling this posting might end up being a brain dump, so apologies if I go off on tangents!

Last year whilst I met the basic fundamentals of my objectives, I got far too carried away into trying to get to play in many live events. I have a full time job, which unless something major happens, I am simply not going to be able to play in many live events. So this year you won't see a long long list of ideal events, it will be case of seeing how it goes.

So what do I want out of poker in 2008. To be honest I can't really expect much more than I am getting at the moment. I will not be able to play any more frequently, or devote any more time, so realistically it is going to have to be something similar to last year.
The difficulty then comes if its not challenging then you lose interest or do not perform to your best.

The question remains how big a part do I want poker to become in my life. Right now there is no more space left for it to take up, so to do more, something has to give, at the moment there is nothing I wish to sacrifice for it, so it must remain to be a profitable sideline.

I then ask myself will I enjoy the results of my efforts, will it be challenging enough for me, am I going to have the desire to see it through. At the end of 2008, would I be happy with the same as last year.

I have questioned since I have been playing, what elements do I enjoy.
Winning, is the main one of course, I am very competitive by nature, winning is a big deal.
Money, I can never see a time where the value of money makes little difference to my decisions, in the £40k last year, with 5 left, I played for the top 2 as opposed to out and out first. Looking back I do not think I would do this differently if played over, the differences in money were too large.
Improving. I love to get better at something. Maximising the return from each winning hand and minimising the losses really matter.
Learning from mistakes, making a mistake is often a good thing, because it gives you a learning situation.
Teaching. A strange one this, but I love the fact that I have been able to help many people improve their game and seeing their results improve, gives me great satisfaction.
Friendship. I have met a number of great people through this game and I hope to continue to do so.
Bad Beats. What I hear you say! Well without them the game would be dull and predictable. It is a game of skill, but nothing is certain in life, so it should not be in poker. You can make all the right moves and still something goes wrong. Whilst I don't want too many bad beats, I would not do without them.

In summary to that there is still enough that I enjoy from this game to play at the levels I do, as long as I keep challenging myself and my game is progressing then I am going to be satisfied with a similiar level of return for effort.

I knew it was going to be long post!

So where does that leave me with objectives.

1) To be the top career earning live player with the surname Orchard!

What on earth is this, I hear you say.
Well its a lot more difficult than you might think!
Right now David Orchard from Los Angeles is in front with $29,949. He has had a great year with 7 live cashes. I am sitting $11,000 behind, so a lot of work to do.

2) Live Events

I am not going to go overboard this year.
I am going to Las Vegas during the World Series, so I will have a going at qualifying, but I will be playing most of the time I am there.
The Caribbean Poker Classic, wherever this ends up being, this is an event that is simply above everything else, so this is a must.

Everything else becomes a bonus.
GUKPT - I realistically have to play in one of these this year. I still find that I could never voluntarily pay £1k for a poker tournament, so I will have to win my seat, but I do need to play in one of these.

EPT - Ideally San Remo sounds like fun. I was 3rd in a qualifier a couple of weeks ago with the winner off to the EPT, I qualified for Dortmund in 2007. It is not within my ability to qualify for one of these.

Aussie Millions - I have never been to Australia and would love to go. I don't have time to go to this event, so probably won't even bother trying, but it is still something I would like to do.

3) Total Profit.
£32k in 2006, £33k in 2007, well my target for 2008 is a small increase £36,000. Working out at £3k a month. A very challenging target based on playing a similar amount to last year.

4) Tournament Wins.
It was 11 last year (13 if you include my 2 live wins, 1 CPC and 1 in vegas). I will keep this target to online wins and aim for 12, 1 a month.

5) Final Tables.
A real tough one this, I am going for 52. 1 a week.

I am also going to set some targets of % time cashed and some smaller targets, but I will post these when I have thought about them more.
Also I will have some aims for Poccer over the next few days.

ClintonO

Title 11 for 2007

2007-12-30T01:07:00.001Z

Well its been an interesting few days, culminating in winning my favourite tournament the $4.5k.

I am back in the situation I was in last year, deciding what to do with my future, something that I am sure happens with a lot of people with a new year approaching.

I am still working on my objectives for the next year and I will post them over the next few days.

On a personal level, I would like to have a go at playing more live tournaments that would help improve my stats. There is a David Orchard from the US who has more live career earnings than me, so being the number 1 Orchard in the world from this persepective is certainly one.

I played in qualifier last night. The winner got a $2.4k package for a tournament in Nottingham in March. I managed to get heads up, turn a 12k to 6k deficit into a 12k to 6k advantage, before having it stolen away from me!

I will play in more qualifiers to get to these live events. I could never pay a substantial amount of money to enter an event, so I will have to win my way there.

There is a 20000 MPP tournament on Littlewoods in May, which has 25 WSOP packages up for grabs, so getting in there is one objective. I won the 200MPP version tonight, so I have the 2000 to go next saturday.

As for tonight, I was playing in a few tournaments, cursing my bad luck as usual, when the $4.5k came along. 120 runners tonight and the guarantee is up to $6k and 1st prize $1800.

By level 3 I have already had to split a pot with AA againt A2 and lost with a flopped set to a gutshot, but I am desperately hanging on.
I decide that KJ is a raising hand, and raise 3 x BB to 150, Mugu99 min raises to 300, so I call.
A flop of QT3, gives me a open ended straight, potential outs with a King and a backdoor flush, so I put my remaining 900 in the middle. I get called by AQ and I hit a King.
I get all sorts of abuse from Mugu99 and make a note that knocking him out would be funny.

2 hands later I raise with A9 and Mugu calls. Please let me hit, I can knock him out. Flop 829. I bet the pot to make it look like a steal, he is all in, I have to call. He has A6 and he is out, I am up to 4055 and now need to start playing properly.
I ignore my advice and am up and down between 4 and 6k in the next few levels.
As we approach the business end, I never really get above the 6k mark and am hanging on a bit at the bubble and throughout the last 20.
I scrap my way to the final table and the situation is as follows.

Seat 1: Kim27072 (15708 in chips)
Seat 2: Ric220456 (29890 in chips)
Seat 3: Daddy_g (14891 in chips)
Seat 4: Elgregi (47516 in chips)
Seat 5: Clive0407 (6984 in chips)
Seat 6: Don_dingo (11205 in chips)
Seat 7: Lee27015 (19148 in chips)
Seat 8: Icejam (9646 in chips)
Seat 9: Vict13093 (13692 in chips)
Seat 10: ClintonO (11320 in chips)

So whilst I am not last, I am not in that good shape with the blinds at 400/800.
Clive goes first when Elgregi rivers an Ace with his A4 against Clives QQ.
Icejam goes the very next hand when Don_dingo calls his all in.
Its AK vs A5. TJ554 is the board and Iceman goes in 9th.

At this point I become very short stacked and just think about hanging on until I can make a move.
Meanwhile Daddy-g goes when his TT loses to Rics AJ, with an Ace on the river and two hands later Elgregi takes out Don_dingo with his 55 against AQ.

Now it is
Seat 1: Kim27072 (18758 in chips)
Seat 2: Ric220456 (41481 in chips)
Seat 4: Elgregi (71503 in chips)
Seat 7: Lee27015 (29846 in chips)
Seat 9: Vict13093 (11242 in chips)
Seat 10: ClintonO (7170 in chips)

Time to get very busy blinds 800/1600.
I push at the first opportunity with Q9, Elgregi calls instantly with A6.
A board of 5989A allows me to double up and work out how I can win this.

Kim takes out Lee in 6th when 55 beats A8.

I find AK and a raise of 9600 from Elgegi, I push and get called and am up against 44. The Ace comes on the Turn and now I have 50000, this could be the night. Two coin flips gone my way in a row, I know I am on to something!

2 hands later sitting in second I get 99 in the Big Blind. Vict is short stack pushes from the small as he has been doing. I have to call a 3rd of my stack, but its a no brainer from here.
He has JT. Board comes T (No) 9 (Yes) 3 AA. From nowhere to 68k and vying for the lead.

Seat 1: Kim27072 (18762 in chips)
Seat 2: Ric220456 (20223 in chips)
Seat 4: Elgregi (74751 in chips)
Seat 10: ClintonO (66264 in chips)

I now get AT on the button against the short stacks, so I have to raise and keep the pressure on.
I make it 7200 (3xBB) and Ric pushes his 19k. Its 12k to call to win 42k, its a no brainer. He turns over JJ. The gods by this time are on my side.
The board is [8d Th As Ac][3h]

Elgregi knocks out Kim in 3rd with KJ, versus KJ. 4 running hearts! and we are heads up.

Seat 4: Elgregi (98913 in chips)
Seat 10: ClintonO (81087 in chips)

Hand 1 (4s Js) Elgregi min raises to 4800. I call
----- FLOP ----- [Kh Jc 4d] (v.nice)
I check, he bets a massive 24000, easy call.
----- TURN ----- [Kh Jc 4d][Qc]
ClintonO: checks
Elgregi: bets 69813 and is all-in (wow another major bet, I have to call)
ClintonO: is all-in 51987

He had K8 and the title is almost mine.

Hand 2 (8c 5s) knowing he will go all in - I fold as it is 162k to 18k in my favour.

Hand 3 (8h 5s) same hand.
He calls, so I see the flop.
----- FLOP ----- [8d 6c 4s]
Very nice indeed, I will check and see if he does the same.
ClintonO: checks
Elgregi: bets 16626 and is all-in
ClintonO: calls 16626

He has Q3 and its all over.

My 11th title of the year!
Sometimes you need to get very lucky to win. I effectively got two crucial coin flips to hold up to win the tournament from a very short chip stack.

The heads up first hand was beautiful, I really did not expect him to make an all in bet after I called his massive overbet, but thankful that he did.

Now time for bed and to think more about what on earth I do with this Poker lark. I need to play a lot better than this to be successful, that much is for certain.

ClintonO

Review of 2007

2007-12-23T12:06:00.000Z

Whilst I have a few minutes spare (a real rarity these days) I thought it might be a good idea to see whether I managed to meet any of my objectives for the year.
All the comments in red, I posted at the end of 2006.

At this point, I am still undecided about my career, do I make poker a more prominent part?

Well the answer to that was a resounding no from a playing sense, I have played less poker in 2007 than in 2006, although I have also started up my Poccer business, so I guess that makes it a more prominent part.

At the moment if you look me up on the internet on poker pages or the Hendon mob web sites, you will see no record of me, I have never cashed in a big live tournament.

Well thankfully that is no longer the case, thanks to the caribbean tournaments in December I now have a record!
http://www.pokerpages.com/players/profiles/104546/clinton-orchard.htm
http://pokerdb.thehendonmob.com/player.php?a=r&n=95766

My wife Rachael also made it on to the database as well, so that was a nice bonus.

Objective 1) – Cash in a major live event.

I only played one major event the EPT in Dortmund, so the answer to this one is a fail on that front, however the two tournaments at the carribean poker classic enabled me to achieve the main objective of making the databases, so I am going to take the overall objective as a pass. Grade B+

Objective 2i) – Make the final table of the £40k

Definite success here. I have not played it that often but I do now have 3 final tables to my name. Grade A

Objective 2ii) – Win the Sunday £40k

Well this is no. I did manage a 2nd place and you can't get much closer than that. So a good effort, but improvement required. Grade C

Objective 3 MTTS) - To win 10 online tournaments in 2007

Well I just made it
1 x £12k Gtd
1 x $20k Gtd
1 x £6k Gtd
1 x £2.5k Gtd HH
1 x £2k Gtd
4 x $4.5k Gtd
1 x $3k Gtd.

Thanks mainly to the $4.5k which was clearly my favourite tournament!

To Final Table in 40 online tournaments

Another just about, I have 43 that I have recorded, so thats good enough to pass this one.

10 x 1st
6 x 2nd
7 x 3rd
5 x 4th
4 x 5th
3 x 6th
3 x 7th
1 x 8th
1 x 9th
3 x 10th

To cash in 20% of all tournaments played

I have not kept good enough records this year to count this one effectively, but I am confident I have comfortably achieved this.

To achieve a profit of £40k

Well this is a fail unfortunately, unless there is some major miracle over the couple of days that I have left to play this year.
Also this combines all play not just MTTs.
I am currently £300 ahead of last year, at £32.5k. So a definite no, but it would have been a lot worse without September, October and November which generated 55% of my profits for the year.

Overall I have to very pleased with my online MTT play and look forward to continuing this next year.
Grade B+

Objective 3 STTS) - To achieve a sharkscope profit of £5k
To move my sharkscope ROI to 5%
To move my £20 & £30 sharkscope ROI into positive territory

Oh dear, big failure
I still have not got my STTs into profit, let alone make £5k. I will keep trying on this, but accept, I do not have the game or the patience to get this into this region. I will continue to try to move into positive territory, but thats about the extent of my realism in Stts.

My ROI is still -2%,. so a long way away.
£20 & £30 still a way to go.
Overall Fail, Grade D

Objective 3 Cash) - To achieve a profit of £5k
To make a profit of 500 big blinds at each level I play
.15/.25 - £125
.25/.5 - £250
.5/1 - £500
1/2 - £1000
2/5 - £2500

I did ok when I played cash this year, but did not play to the extent I envisaged nor keep seperate records of my performance.

Objective 4 Qualifiers) – These are vital for my plans in 2007, I must play in more live events.
This list will be a ridiculously tough target to achieve and I will have to play occasionally on unfamiliar sites to achieve it however these are my aims.
Feb – EPT Deauville
Mar/Apr - Monte Carlo Millions
May - GBPT Nottingham
Jul - WSOP
Aug - UKPT Luton
Sep - EPT Barcelona
Nov - CPC (or equiv)
Jan - Aussie Millons

Well that was a failure of the biggest proportions! I was not geared up to play these events. Simply I was not able to commit enough time to play these and I was not successful in the qualifiers I did play. I played in the EPT Dortmund and whilst I went to Vegas and the Caribbean only played in small side events. No Grade Achieved!

Objective 5) Defend our Bad Beat dream Team title.

We gave it a damn good go, but ended up in 2nd place.

My next objective is to find a flat screen HDTV to spend my winnings from last night on.

I even failed on this one! All winnings have gone into a new house and starting up Poccer.

All in all its been a good year, I achieved my ambition of making a poker database.
I have not had the time to play anywhere near as much as I would have liked to, but thats part and parcel of it being a hobby and having a full time job and a family to look after.

Every so often I have the desire to try and make more out of this hobby, but lets be honest for a second, there are some incredibly talented players out there and I am quite simply not in their league.
I don't rule out the possibility of playing in some live events this year and with a lot of luck (of the good variety) who knows what might happen.
I have already booked my trip to Vegas in the summer, so I will certainly being playing more live poker next year.

The other thing I would like to do is build up the Poccer business. I get a lot of pleasure from seeing people enjoy playing poker in an environment that is friendly and played in such great spirit. I promise you, you will will enjoy these if you come along. There are a number of people who have played in these events that are very talented people and I would like to help them where possible and see what we can do with them in this wonderful world of poker.

I have always thought of myself as a better teacher or coach than a player, so I am considering a poccer players club this year. Mostly it will depend on how much time I can create.

I also would like to say a big thank you to all my friends both new and old that I have met through playing poker, there really are some nice guys out there amongst the bad reputation that certain players get.
To everyone I play against 2008, good luck to you all.
If anyone is interested in getting involved in Poccer from a playing side or wants to find a medium to play more live events, please let me know.

If I can do anything to help or advise anyone, also drop me a line. Equally if you just want to tell me where to go, then thats allowed to. Nobody can be everyone's cup of tea!!

Merry Christmas poker players of the world.
I hope you have a good one.

ClintonO

$400 Nl Holdem Champion

2007-11-30T15:36:00.000Z

Yet another objective completed and its time for celebration as I win my first recognised live event.
Last night I won the 144 runners, $400 NL Holdem Tournament, also making back to back final tables.

Ultimately we agreed a deal at the end to divide the money up fairly, but I was chip leader at the time, at took home the top prize of $10k and the title!

The day started well, as I raced through the first level taking chips everywhere. That was not to last long however as both JJ and QQ were beating by worse hands (55, AT). From this point it was a matter of hanging on and picking my opportunities. With 45 left I doubled when 99 beat 88 and then with 30 left and 3 hands before the dinner break, I reraise a loose player with A8 and my hand held up against KQ. A further win before dinner saw me back in it.

When I had made the money and 17 left, I had my first bit of fortune. I reraised with AQ and was up against KK. An ace was the first card out and the crowd cheered! I was very relieved. From that moment on, I continue to pick up chips at pace and by time we were going to the final table, I was amongst the chip leaders with around 90-100k.

On the final table I was fairly aggressive taking down 2 pots early on. With 9 left, the following situation arose. Matt (Noseyboy) Osborne pushes from 3rd place with 29k. I turn over AQ spades and decide to isolate, incredibly though the big blind moves all in for about 40k. I know I am in trouble. Matt has 88, me AQ and big blind KK.

At this point everyone is on their feet and we have a big crowd. Flop comes 245. The kings are still in front. The turn brings Matts 2 outer, a 3rd 8, then the river brings a miracle 3 and I take the pot to the delight of the crowd. (PHEW!)

We eliminated one more player and then decide to talk deals with 6 left. Blinds were up to 6000/12000 and it was becoming difficult to play. I had about 17ok, 2nd 120k, 3rd and 4th 90k and 5th and 6th 70k. We did the split, $10k, $8k, $7k,$7k, $5k, $5k and I was happy with that. $10k and first place was a great days work.

I then had a quick photo shoot with Poker Europa and an interview for the TV Cameras!
I would like to thank all the guys who cheered me on to success, it was very much appreciated. I was also offered a deal to get me into the main event today by a great player, but I declined the very generous offer as my brain needs a rest after 2 full days of poker.

Today it is time for a rest on the beach and then to start thinking about Beach Poccer.
Good luck to everyone in the main event today.
Now where did I put my towel!

ClintonO

St.Kitts $300 NL Holdem - Objective Complete

2007-11-29T16:31:00.000Z

Well it was a long time coming, but after tomorrow there will be a new addition to the Hendon Mob database under the name Orchard. In fact not just one new name but two.

With 131 runners, both Rachael and myself made the money and in fact the final table.
I went out in 9th, with as usual Rachael out doing me by finishing 8th.

Tomorrow, I will proudly call up the hendon mob database and see myself with an entry and career winnings of $820!

It was a day, where I had to fight and scrap for everything. The most premium hand I had was TT and AQ in eight hours of play.

Starting from 3k, I moved to 4k by the first break, 14k by the second and 13k (average) by the third.
I managed to knock three people out AT versus A5, with AT4 on the board. AQ versus 88, who was short stacked and AQ versus A8 with just 11 left.

As we were approaching bubble time, I was as usual towards the back of the field and managed to claw my way onto the final table, culminating in me moving to the final table with 35k. Rachael had 18k on the final table, although had been up to 30k early in the tournament.

With Antes of 300 and blinds 1500/3000, even with an average chip stack, I could not hang around.

We lost one player and then after the antes and blinds taking care of 12k of my stack, I find AJ hearts on the button after being folded to me. I raise to 10k and the loose small blind moves all in.
With just 13k back, I decided I was going to move especially as the had just done the same thing with J5 to knock out the guy in 10th. However this time he turned over AA.
The flop was Q73, 1heart, the turn bought the 9 hearts and suddenly there was faint hope. Be red, be red, it was red by a diamond. Out in 9th place.

Rachael has become shortstacked at his point and with the other shortstack moving all in, she called in the big blind with KJ hearts. Her opponent turned over A2. The flop was 6QT, giving her 14 outs, but an 8 and another ten followed meaning she left in 8th place.

Finally I have made the money in a registered event and I can live happily ever after knowing I have made a live poker database with career earnings of $820. However now my wife sits with more career earnings, I have to keep going.

Today it's the $400 NL Event and lets keep this run going!

ClintonO

Super Satellite Results.

2007-11-28T17:36:00.000Z

Some people have too much money!
On table 19 of the qualifier for the main event last night. One guy who thought he was the absolute nuts, found it upon himself to rebuy 16 times at a cost of $3200. He lasted about 20 mins once the rebuy period was over.
Thankfully he managed to give me a few chips, reraising my aces with 46 diamonds, let him buy in again were the shouts.

There were 8 seats available with all the rebuys and add ons and two cash prizes but I found myself missing out going out in 21st. No bad beat story here I was getting short and had to push at the first available opportunity. Unfortunately that came when I was holding 47 offsuit, but the chips had to go in. It was 600/1200 antes 200 and I was down to 6000, it was folded to me on the cutoff, so in they went. Called instantly by the button with KT.
First card out was a 4, but a ten also followed on the flop. 45T, a six on the turn bought me all sorts of hope, a flush draw, a straight draw and any 4 or 7. Unfortunately it was a 9 of the wrong colour.

5 and a half hours play and no prizes to walk away with.

The one biggest change when playing live is just how slow everything happens, your patience is tested to the absolute maximum.
One nice hand yesterday though did see my Jacks hit a third on the flop. I then found myself up against aces and rather than the usual miracle ace, the last jack came down giving me quads.

Today sees me play the $300 NL Holdem event, cashing is the aim of the day.

ClintonO

Caribbean Poker Classic - St.Kitts Version 3

2007-11-27T23:07:00.000Z

Once again apologies for the lack of posts.

I will try my upmost to keep updating whilst I am in St.Kitts.

Of late I have been fairly successful, I had back to back 3rd place in the $13k and a 3rd in the $4.5k last week also.

I flew into St.Kitts yesterday with the aim of finally cashing in a recognised tournament.
Today was game 1. $200 NL Holdem.
2000 chips starting stack and from the off it is very aggressive.
We get to level 4 and I still have my 2000 chips, I am just waiting for a big hand to double up.

Blinds are now 100/200. As usual we get an early raise to 600. I turn over KK. Lets play this carefully. If I call now, I can guarantee the rest of his chips go in on the flop.
Here comes the flop JK4 rainbow. Perfect. He moves all in, this is going to plan perfectly. He has JT. Of course, I get up to leave as I have no hope here.
He of course wins with a straight and I lose a 3rd tournament in St.kitts after flopping a set of kings.

I am shortly going to play in the super satellite for the main event, lets hope it gets better from here on in.!

ClintonO

2008 Poccer Calender

2007-11-09T21:49:00.000Z

For all of you who would like to know whats going on with Poccer, but also all the live poker events for 2008, then please download the 2008 Poccer Calender from www.poccer.co.uk.

I hope you find this Calender useful, I will be adding more events as they are announced. If you are aware of anything not on there please let me know.

ClintonO

My biggest cash ever

2007-11-05T21:53:00.000Z

Last Sunday, I played the £40k for the first time in two months. I played as it change and I just fancied having a go.

I had reached the final table twice before, both times coming 10th. Tonight, I would go a fair bit further!
A slow start, but I managed to chip away at adding to my stack. I made three sizeable jumps in the first hour, every time kessel1969 paid me off. Firstly with AJ against 76 on a board with an Ace and a six, the second when holding AK on a QAA board, kessel could not let go of KK, which moved me up to 5300 chips and finally when kessel called my all in reraise with K9 on a 9T45 board, I had JJ. Meaning at the end of the first hour I had progressed nicely to 7460.

Hour2, I fluctuated up and down, playing a lot more hands than usual, I lost a fair amount with QQ, but moved forwards when Robonose continued to try and bluff nothing (J9) against my AK which had hit a King. I also made great progress when Garfy move all in with AT on a Q8J flop, I had AQ and had to call for 30% of my stack. I ended Hour 2 at 17022 and in great shape.

Hour 3 I intended to slow up and consolidate, in reality I slowed up too much and played very little, my stack had dwindled to 12297.

Hour 4 I needed to play more and was helped right away by Daddy_g, who reraised me all in with AK, when I was holding AA. Immediately up to 19k. I doubled up in level 11, dolk reraised me preflop and I called with AK. The flop came JKA. I checked, he bet half the pot. I moved all in and he called with AT and I was up to almost 38k! Hour 4, ended on 36864. So far so good.

Hour 5. Blinds are now 800/1600, so we have to keep busy. I split a pot with TrustInMe when we both had KK. However 9k disappeared from my stack when my AQ lost to KJ on a 3KA flop, A Jack on river hurt! I tried to take a few pots to get back into it, but lost another 5k with KQ and another 5k with TT. I am in trouble.
As we hit level 14 I am last of 23, with just under 10k, its time to get busy.

I steal a couple of pots, before I am caught stealing with QT, claypole has AT and it looks all over. The flop is 29k, I have a gutshot Jack or a queen my only hope. The turn is an 8. The river brings the miracle Jack and whereas the Jack on the river 30 minutes earlier sent me spiralling downwards, this time it put me on a high! I am back to 30k and I decide to get busy.
Spongebob the chip leader is raising everything, so I move over the top a couple of times and gain 14k to my stack. The third time I try it, I have 77 and Spongebob calls me with AQ. My sevens hold up and my stack is 83k. 9k a few minutes earlier, I am playing like I have nothing to lose, as I thought I was out.

As we approach the final table, my AK takes out Gav1000's AQ and I hit the final table with 124k in chips.

Final Table

Seat 1: Steveh1 (138544 in chips)
Seat 2: Spongebob (189164 in chips)
Seat 3: thedingo (104959 in chips)
Seat 4: ClintonO (123780 in chips)
Seat 5: plan9 (97586 in chips)
Seat 6: Clarkiej (51244 in chips)
Seat 7: Jespe2707 (50922 in chips)
Seat 8: Luffus (149943 in chips)
Seat 9: Learna (59690 in chips)
Seat 10: Skinnyman (84168 in chips)

I am determined not to go out in 10th place this time. I am sitting 4th surely that wont happen.

Spongebob continues his bluffing and wastes 40k on the first hand to thedingo.
I get a couple of useful hands and continue to grow my stack. KK on a 4A5 was worrying, but fortunately Luffus folds. At this point I have 190k and am in first position at the end of hour 5.

Hour 6, I will never be in a better position to win this tournament.
Learna goes out first. 44 no match for Spongebobs QT, who incredibly called an all in and another call with QT. 77 was the other hand. Spongebob continues to raise and races into a lead.

With 9 left I have KK, I raise to 12000, plan9 calls and then Jespe2707 moves all in for 79k. I call he had AQ and the cowboys hold, I have 256k and am neck and neck with Spongebob.

thedingo goes next with the same hand AQ losing to KK. Luffus slow played it very well.
Looking at the stacks now and the way the prize money is allocated, anything less than 3rd will be a major dissapointment.

Seat 1: Steveh1 (62854 in chips)
Seat 2: Spongebob (265800 in chips)
Seat 4: ClintonO (255202 in chips)
Seat 5: plan9 (89586 in chips)
Seat 6: Clarkiej (65988 in chips)
Seat 8: Luffus (271402 in chips)
Seat 10: Skinnyman (39168 in chips)

Spongebob hits a miracle 2 outer against Luffus and moves further in front.
I then get QQ.
Luffus raises to 16000 and I call. The flop is 49T.
I lead out for 16000, Luffus raises to 40000, which I call.

The turn is a J, I check to see what Luffus is up to and he bets 40000. Its a big bet, but even if I am behind at that price I have out, I call.
The river is a 4. It gives me two pair, so I am only behind to a set , as he wont have KQ.
We check the river down and he has JT. This is a major pot for me taking 100k of Luffus.

Seat 1: Steveh1 (50854 in chips)
Seat 2: Spongebob (402050 in chips)
Seat 4: ClintonO (335952 in chips)
Seat 5: plan9 (69336 in chips)
Seat 6: Clarkiej (43140 in chips)
Seat 8: Luffus (74832 in chips)
Seat 10: Skinnyman (73836 in chips)

Luffus loses a few more chips to Spongebob and it is at this point, I decide that I am happy for a first or second position and rather than play to win, I will play to ensure I finish in the top 2. At £6.4k that is well worth having.

Steveh1 goes out in 7th his A3 no match for Spongebobs 52!
Plan follows he moves all in for 50k on a 8A6 board, Spongebob calls with 77 and beats Plans 33.

Right now, my aim is to just avoid Spongebob!
I come up against him with AQ and beat his AJ and take 60k more for my stack.

Spongebob continues his annihilation of the final table. Skinnyman moving all in with 82 on a 49A board, Spongebob calls again impressively with 89. He is playing most hands, but making some great calls.

Clarke is next to go. Spongebob calling all the way with QJ and hoping for a gutshot. The board is T87A. He has already called 78k at this point, when the miracle K river gives him what he needs to take Clarke out.

At the moment Spongebob had knocked out 6 and me 1 of this final table.

Moments later Luffus moves all in with A5 and is called by Spongebobs KJ. The board is TK7QA giving Spongebob a straight.

Heads up I am a mile behind. 193k to 867k. I never improve on this. I decide to fight back against another raise with Q9 and he has a hand with AT. The board misses us both and it is game over.

I could have played the heads up better, but I was a long long way behind. £6.4k though meant I was very happy indeed to settle for second this time.

ClintonO

Headhunter £2.5k GTD 20/10/07

2007-10-27T18:07:00.001+01:00

I had not forgot about this one, just was struggling to find the logs.

I am already heads up, the blinds are 800/1600 antes 200.

Seat 4: ClintonO (48151 in chips)
Seat 6: 4cornwall (92849 in chips)

I am quite a way behind, 4cornwall is a very decent player, this is going to be tough.

Hand 1 (Tc,6h) I get to see the flop for free, JAQ2J board, it gets checked down he wins with 88.

Blinds up 1200/2400 Antes 300
Hand 2 (Th,2s) I limp in, board us 78Q, I bet and take the pot.
Hand 3 (9h,8d) He folds.
Hand 4 (Kd,Td) I raise and take the blinds
Hand 5 (8d,4h) Flop is free, board 4QA, I bet to see if my 4 is good, he calls. Turn 9, check check. River 9, he bets 4.8k, I have great pot odds, I don't think the 9 has helped him, he bluffs a fair amount, my four could be good, I call and he shows K5 and I take a 20k pot.
Hand 6 I am only 63k - 77k behind now (4s,3h) I call and see the TKK board but then I am out of there.
Hand 7 (Qh,7d) I fold to a raise.
Hand 8 (Ad,2h) I raise to 7.2k which he calls. Flop 647, he checks, I likewise. Turn 6, check check. River 6, he bets 7.2k, I again don't believe him and call. He also shows A2 and we split the pot. I am reading the game well at the moment.
Hand 9 (6c,3s) No match for a raise.
Hand 10 (Kc, 6c) I pay to see the flop, (4d,Kd,6s) Perfect, I decide to slow play. He checks, I also. Turn 8c, He bets 2.4k, I call. River Qd, he bets 4.8k, the diamond worries me and I just call. He turns over 46 for a lower two pair. I played that hand very poorly, I had a great chance to raise on the turn, but did not take it. Although I win the hand, I am not happy with my play.
Hand 11 (8h,5h) He folds.
Hand 12 (Kd,6s) I see a flop, but then fold to a bet.
Hand 13 (Ts,Tc) He raises to 7.2k, I go over the top and he folds.
Hand 14 I am now in front 71k to 70k (5d,2d) I call from the small blind. Board is checked to A4K9Q. I bet and take the pot.
Hand 15 (5d,2h) same hand but this time I fold to a raise.
Hand 16 (8d,4d) I see the flop, but fold to a bet.
Hand 17 (Ac,2d) My raise is called. I fold to a bet on a 67358 board. I am playing a little weak.
Hand 18 (Ts,4c) I see the flop and fold on a J82 board.
Hand 19 (Ah,7c) I call a raise and another bet and lose to a flush. I am now 53k to 88k behind.
Hand 20 (Js,9h) I need to be more aggressive, my raise is called. I bet out on a 7Q4 board and take the pot.
Hand 21 (Ad,6s) He folds.
Hand 22 (8s,5h) I call. Flop is QT3, I bet and he folds.
Hand 23 (Ah,2c) I call his raise. 852. Check check. Turn 7, I call a bet of 2.4k to see if it improves. A 9 on the river is no use and I fold to a bet.
Hand 24 (2d,2h) I raise to 7.2k, he calls. Flop K6T, I bet another 7.2k he folds.
Hand 25 (Kc,Qd) I call a raise, board gives me an opened straight. T8J checked to the river, 8A. Ace on the river gives me a straight. I bet 9.6k, he calls with A7. I am now 77k to 64k in front.
Hand 26 (8c,4s) I get to the turn on a QA65 board, he puts in a small 2.4k bet. I decide to call it. The river is the perfect 7. I fire out a 7.2k bet and get called with 47. Its now 90k to 51k.
Hand 27 (As,4s) I check preflop, I fold to a bet after the flop.
Hand 28 (Kh,4h) He is not raising my limps, so I continue to get to see the flops. 4J4, perfect. check, check. turn 5, he bets 2.4k I call. River 6. I bet 4.8k and he calls with 57. Again I probably could have raised to better effect on the turn. 96k to 44k.
Hand 29 (6s, 3d) I fold to a raise.
Hand 30 (Kd,Jd) I raise and get a call. Its checked down to the river and my KJ beats K3.
Hand 31 (Kh,Jh) I check, when I should of raised. I get inolved in a board that is 76736 and end up losing 12k to a full house, 69. Bad Play.
Hand 32 (Ad,8s) I raise and get a call. Flop K85. I bet 7.2k and get a call. The turn is a 3. I bet 26k he raised all in for another 13k. I am most likely beat, but call the last 13k. He has K4 and the river is a 6 and no help. I have undone all my good work and am 32k to 108k behind.
Hand 33 (Qh,4s) He folds
Hand 34 (Kh,5c) I limp, miss the flop bet out and he folds.
Hand 35 (Ks,4s) Its free to the turn, but get out with no help.
Hand 36 (7d,4s) I limp in, hit bottom pair, bet out and he folds.
Hand 37 (Kd,Ts) He folds.
Hand 38 (Qs,3d) I am still allowed to limp in. I bet 2400 on a 395 board. Another 3 comes on the turn, I bet 4800 and get called. River is an ace. I bet 9600 and get called by 96. 57k to 83k, thats a bit better.
Hand 39 (9d,8h) I call a raise and win a checked down board of 92Q6J vs K6
Hand 40 (Qs,Js) I limp in, call a 2400 bet on the turn of a K492 board with the intention of betting on the river. River is a 3 and I bet 7200 and take the pot. Thats better.
Hand 41 (Ah,Js) I raise his limp and I am back to level
Hand 42 (Tc,7h) I miss the flop.

Level up - Blinds 1500/3000 Ante 400.
I mixed level, I made a great recovery got nicely in front, only to throw it away. I'm back to level and its all to play for.

Hand 43 (5d,4s) I bit bottom pair, but have to fold to 9k bet on the river after calling 3k on the turn.
Hand 44 (Js,5h) I fold to a bet after a missed flop.
Hand 45 (Js,6s) I have lost the last four, so raise pre flop. He calls, I bet out and he folds.
Hand 46 (9h,9d) I raise and get a call and bet out on a 537 board.
Hand 47 (Ah,6d) I check instead of raising and have to fold.
Hand 48 (Kd,7c) I limp in and take 3k more off him when I dont believe his bet on a 965 board. 77k plays 64k
Hand 49 (Jh,8d) Nothing to play with here on missed flop.
Hand 50 (Js,8h) I limp in and hit top pair on a Jd,Th,5h board. He bets 3k, I call. Turn is a K. He checks and I bet 6k. He calls. A check call after a bet on the flop, my warning signs are going.
River is an Ah, there is a flush and a straight out there and my alarm bells are going off. He bets 9k and yet I call him, what am I thinking. He has Q9 and the straight, which he hit on the turn. I knew I was beat, but paid him anyway.
Hand 51 (Qc,6h) I check, hit middle pair and bet out.
Hand 52 (9c,9s) I raise to 9k and he calls. Flop 8c7cTh. I have a open ended straight as well as a good pair. He checks, I bet 12k and he moves all in. I have 34k left. He could have a flush draw, a straight draw and may even have the Ten. I decide being left with just 34k is not enough at this stage and take my chances and call. He has TJ. I am in real trouble now. A nine is no good unless, I also pair the board. My 8 outs for a straight are actually 7. At best I have 7 1/2 outs. About a 30% chance of winning. Turn is A, river is that Jack. I got lucky there and need to make sure I win from here. I am 111k to 30k in front.
Hand 53 (Ac,Qs) I raise to 9k and get a call. I bet out 12k on a 428 board and he folds. He has just 20k left.

Hand 54 (Kh,8h) I limp in and he moves all in. It is 16k to call.I decided to take that chance. He has Ah,9s, so I am a little behind.

----- FLOP ----- [Jh Jd Td]
Nothing happening here
----- TURN ----- [Jh Jd Td][7h]
That now means I switch allegience from Kings and Eights, to Kings and Nines.
----- RIVER ----- [Jh Jd Td 7h][9d]
The wonderful river card brings a straight again. I take the title.

Certainly not my best heads up performance, but I battled well from starting behind and got myself in a place to win it.

The game was won by the 99 versus TJ hand, sometimes you need to get lucky and there I was a 2-1 outsider and I hit.

Another title though.
ClintonO

$4.5k title number 6

2007-10-27T17:06:00.000+01:00

This tournament has comfortably become my favourite and on Wednesday it was title number 6.

Just 9 left as we start the final table.

Seat 1: ClintonO (17577 in chips)
Seat 2: BINGO! (17100 in chips)
Seat 3: Edwnyusuk (22106 in chips)
Seat 4: Seabring (10188 in chips)
Seat 5: adamy125 (12888 in chips)
Seat 6: Ultgamb (8931 in chips)
Seat 7: And061256 (6708 in chips)
Seat 8: Ant110225 (31170 in chips)
Seat 9: Markb2301 (12832 in chips)

We soon lose Seabring, Markb and Adamy at the 800/1600 level.

As we approach the 1200/2400 level we have 6 left and the chips have moved around as follows.

Seat 1: ClintonO (30834 in chips)
Seat 2: BINGO! (31112 in chips)
Seat 3: Edwnyusuk (6506 in chips)
Seat 6: Ultgamb (19512 in chips)
Seat 7: And061256 (12816 in chips)
Seat 8: Ant110225 (38720 in chips)

I am nicely placed in the top 3.

Hand 1 (Ac,9d) I am on the button, I raise and take blinds.
Hand 2 (Ah,7h) I raise and take the blinds.
Hand 3 (3d,2s) I fold, Edwyn is all in for his last 2300 chips with AK and beats QJ from Bingo
Hand 4 (8h,3c) Nothing to play with here.
Hand 5 (As,9h) BB - all folded to me.
Hand 6 (Qh,5d) SB Ultgamb is all in with QQ and beats Bingo's AK.
Hand 7 (As,Ts) The cards are being nice, I raise and take blinds.
Hand 8 (7s, 5d) Edwyn is all in with 5k with J8 and beats 69 from ultgamb.
Hand 9 (Ts,2h) I have 46k now and am in front, so dont need to place this.
Hand 10 (Ks,9h) And is all in with 76 and Ant knocks him out with A7. Down to 5
Hand 11 (Qd,8h) BB - I get to see the flop for free, AA4 is not much good for me.
Hand 12 (Kc,5h) SB - I raise and take the blinds.
Hand 13 (As,2d) I raise and take the blinds
Hand 14 (5s,5c) Ant raise under the gun with QQ, Bingo is all in with AK, hits and doubles up to 26k.
Hand 15 (Ad,Jc) I raise and take the blinds
Hand 16 (9s,6c) BB - I see the flop for free, 28Q means I can't call the bet on the flop.
Hand 17 (8d,3d) SB - Bingo and Ult are all in, Bingo 99, Ult AK. AK wins again.
Hand 18 (Ks,Jd) I put Bingo all in for his last 7k in chips, he has KQ and wins.
Hand 19 (9h,7s) Bingo is all in again, nothing I can do about it.
Hand 20 (Kd,4s) Can't play this under the gun.
Hand 21 (Qc,6d) BB - Its all folded to me.
Hand 22 (7c,5d) SB - I fold to a raise from Ant.
Hand 23 (9c,6h) Nothing to do here.
Hand 24 (Kh,8d) Ant is raising again, nothing I can do about it.
Hand 25 (9d, 3s) In the muck. The cards are drying up.
Hand 26 (As,Ah) BB I spoke too soon, come on the raise. Edwyn has 7.5k left and limps in, how do I get all his chips in, I raise to 4.8k, he calls and is now committed. Flop Td,Jc,Kc. I put him all in he calls with Kh,7h. Turn is 9s, river 8h, incredibly he hits a runner runner Jack high straight.
Hand 27 (Ks,3h) Sb Down to 36k, but marginally in front. I fold.
Hand 28 (9h,4h) Edwyn doubles again through Ant Q7 beats 77.

Level up - Blinds 1500/3000 Ante 400

We lost just 1 in the last level, I have made slight progress, my aces losing means it all very close.

Seat 1: ClintonO (34528 in chips)
Seat 2: BINGO! (18040 in chips)
Seat 3: Edwnyusuk (35844 in chips)
Seat 6: Ultgamb (33312 in chips)
Seat 8: Ant110225 (17776 in chips)

Hand 29 (Ts,3d) fold.
Hand 30 (Ks,7c) Ant moves all in with 9d2d on a Two diamond board. Edwyn calls with A4 (Flop KA5) and he holds on. 4 left
Hand 31 (Ad,Kc) BB Ult raises to 9000 and I move all in, he folds.
Hand 32 (8h,5d) SB I fold to an all in bet.
Hand 33 (Jh,9h) Bingos turn to be all in.
Hand 34 (Qh,3c) Edwyn the destroyer! Bingo moves all in with JT, Edwyn calls and wins with AT.
Hand 35 (7h,5c) BB I see a flop for free, Ult moves all in on a 3Q4 board. I fold.
Hand 36 (6d,2c) SB I fold.
Hand 37 (Td,Th) I raise and takes blinds.
Hand 38 (Ah,Jh) BB All folded to me.
Hand 39 (Js,8c) SB I call to see a 3 way flop (7s,4s,9h) but fold to a bet.
Hand 40 (Td,9h) Edwyn and Ult get involved. The board is Ad,7c,5c,Tc,2h. There is 19200 in the pot. Edwyn moves all in for 58k. Ult calls for his remaining 22.5k. Ult has top pair with As,3d. Edwyn has the top pair also with Ac,Qc but had the flush as well! We are heads-up.

Seat 1: ClintonO (39728 in chips)
Seat 3: Edwnyusuk (99772 in chips)

Edwyn has done very well to get here, was down to 2k chips, also beat my aces with a runner runner. I feel he has been quite weak, until the last few hands. He does have a big chip lead though.

Hand 41 (Qc,7s) I am in the big blind. He calls, so lets see the flop.
----- FLOP ----- [7c 5h Qh]

Well thats perfect, lets check and see what happens.

ClintonO: checks
Edwnyusuk: bets 96372 and is all-in

96k into a 7k pot, thank you very much. I call.

----- RIVER ----- [7c 5h Qh Jd][Kc]
----- SHOW DOWN -----
Edwnyusuk: shows [Qd Td] (A Pair of Queens, King high)
ClintonO: shows [Qc 7s] (Two Pairs, Queens and Sevens, King high)
ClintonO collected 79456 from Main pot

I now have a 79k to 60k advantage, I feel I can take this.

Hand 42 (Qc,7c) Same cards, I feel I can get to see a flop so I call. He checks.

----- FLOP ----- [7d 2d Qd]
Top two pair again, the all diamond board is slightly worrying, so I will have to play this one carefully.

If he checks, I will bet and keep pushing my advantage.

Edwnyusuk: bets 56644 and is all-in

He has done it again! He does not have the flush, is he drawing, maybe he had a Queen again. I am in the front, I have to call.

----- RIVER ----- [7d 2d Qd 4h][9d]
----- SHOW DOWN -----
Edwnyusuk: shows [Th Qs] (A Pair of Queens, Ten high)
ClintonO: shows [7c Qc] (Two Pairs, Queens and Sevens, Nine high)

He has QT again and moved all in for 57k into a 6.8k pot.

Heads up last 2 hands and two identical hands takes the title for me.

I need to play that tournament again!

ClintonO

The 4.5k Title

2007-10-23T22:56:00.000+01:00

As promised a while back here is the run in for the $4.5k title I won on the 6th October.

We join the action with 5 players left and I am the short stack, blinds are 1200/2400 with Antes of 300

Adri03043 46k
ClintonO 13k
Ultgamb 20k
fckrogh 35k
Lucky222 38k

Hand 1 BB (4h,6h) Lucky raises to 9600, this is not the hand to move in with.
Hand 2 SB (6c,9c) Adri is all in for 44k, I cant defend with this.
Hand 3 (4h,9d) I need a hand soon, this is not it.
Hand 4 (9c,3h) Ult is all in, I am out of there.
Hand 5 (6h,5s) No option but to fold again.
Hand 6 BB (Tc,9h) I have gor myself too short I will have to make a stand. Only action is from Adr who moves all in with 44. I call. Board KJJ9A and I move back to 16k. Now I have to play.
Hand 7 SB (9s,4h) No option now, I need to keep ahead, I move all in and take the blinds.
Hand 8 20k now (Ts,4c) No need to play this.
Hand 9 (8h, Qs) Again no need to play.
Hand 10 (As,7s) First average hand in a while, I move and take the blinds.
Hand 11 BB (4h,6h) I get to see a flop, but hit nothing and fold.
Hand 12 SB (Td,9h) Everyone folds to me, I need to keep up my chips, so I move and take the blinds
Hand 13 25k (4h,8h) Its a no action game at the moment, all raises are folded to.
Hand 14 (Ac,Tc) I raise and take the blinds
Hand 15 29k (Ts,6c) No action all folded to Adri in the big blind.
Hand 16 BB (Ks,6h) Ult is all in, I fold my big blind
Hand 17 SB (4s,8c) Our first piece of action in a while, Ult has KK, Lucky QQ. The Kings hold up.
Hand 18 (9s,5s) fck all in.
Hand 19 (Ah, Th) I raise and take the blinds.
Hand 20 (4c,8s again) Lucky is all in with K3 and beats Adri Q7. 20 hands in and still 5 of us.
Hand 21 BB (7h,8d) Have to fold to a raise here.
Hand 22 SB (Qd,As) I raise and take the blinds.

Blinds up to 1500/3000 Antes 400

Adri03043 30k from 46k
ClintonO 30k from 13k
Ultgamb 33k from 20k
fckrogh 33k from 35k
Lucky222 25k from 38k

A great level for me, one coin flip kept me alive when I allowed myself to get too short.

Hand 23 (3d,Qd) Fold to an earlier raise
Hand 24 (3d,6c) Lucky and Ult get involved all in preflop. Ult all in with J4 from button, Lucky calls with KJ and it holds
Hand 25 (3s,4s) Nothing toi play with here
Hand 26 BB (Jd,Jh) First real big hand and its in the big blind. Lucky raises to 12k, Im all in for 28k. He calls with 88 and my hand holds up.
Hand 27 60k and chip leader SB(4d,9d) Ult is effectively blinded out Q3, loses to Luckys QT. We are 4 handed
Hand 28 (9h,Th) I limp in on the button, there is no small blind. fck raises to 11k. I call. Flop Kd,3c,As. Fck is all in and I have wasted 11k of my stack.
Hand 29 (Ah,3d) I raise and take the blinds
Hand 30 (Jd, Ts) I decide not to get involved this time with a marginal hand.
Hand 31 BB (2h,8d) No good here
Hand 32 SB (3h, Ts) Nothing to play with.
Hand 33 (8c, 2s) I'll sit this one out.
Hand 34 (Ac,3s) Take the blinds time.
Hand 35 BB (Kc,9d) They all fold to me.
Hand 36 SB (Qs,Td) Adr is all in for 36k, I cant risk 2/3rds of my stack with this.
Hand 37 (8s,2s again) fck is all in with K2, Lucky calls with A2. Board 3T7JK. The river is not lucky for lucky. We are 3 handed and its close. 53k for me, 56k for fck and 42k for Adri
Hand 38 (2s,7d) My hands are getting worse.
Hand 39 BB (7d,9s) I have to fold to a raise.
Hand 40 SB (3d,7c) I fold to a raise
Hand 41 (Js,6h) Nothing to play with here.
Hand 42 BB (7c,2d) Adri is all in I have no choice.
Hand 43 SB (Th,8h) adr limps that worries me, I call. fck checks. Flop 2c,Tc,7c. 3 clubs, but top pair, I check and hope to reraise and take some chips. Everyone checks. Turn Ks. Not a good card. I check, everyone does. River Kd. Its less likely someone has a King now. I check and hopefully take the pot. Fck bets 6k, I have a choice of 6k the pot is already 16k. I am priced in. He has A5 and I take the pot.
Hand 44 (Ah,8h) I raise and take the blinds
Hand 45 BB (3s,2d) I get a free flop. A53. I get a free turn - 2s. Two pairs, although any 4 and Im in trouble. Adr bets 3k, I call. River is a 7 and is checked down and take a small pot.
Hand 46 69k SB (4c,8c) I call from the SB to try and see a flop, but fck moves all in
Hand 47 (Ks,4h) Not for me.
Hand 48 BB (9h,5s) They fold to me.
Hand 49 SB (4h,6s) Can't play this.
Hand 50 (4s,3h) Thats no good.
Hand 51 BB (Kd,3c) I get to see a flop. 4JJ, no much kop. Turn 3h. Adr bets 6k, its worth a call. River 6d. He checks, if I bet, he only calls if Im behind. I check and he hit the 6 on the river to take the pot.
Hand 52 SB (Ad,2h) I raise and take the blinds.
Hand 53 (Jh,8d) Best out of this one.
Hand 54 BB (Th,3h) Folded to me.
Hand 55 SB (Ts,8s) I call and get to see a 3way flop. 6s,3c,As. I have a flush draw. All checked. turn 8h, that helps a bit. All checked. River 3d. Adr bets 6k which I call and win with my 8.
Hand 56 (5c,3h) No thanks.

Blinds are going up 2000/4000 Antes 500

Adr 44k
ClintonO 73k
fck 35k

I have this within my grasp.

Hand 57 BB (9h,9c) Folded to me. Shame
Hand 58 SB (9c,6s) They are both all in pre flop fck JJ and Adri K8. Board 6KA2A and fck is out.

Heads up, I am slightly behind 78k to 74k

Hand 59 (8s,7d) I limp but get reraised and fold.
Hand 60 (8h,3s) He raises I fold.
Hand 61 (9h,4c) I decide I have to play as I am falling behind, I raise to 12k, he moves all in, I have to fold. He shows Ad,Td
Hand 62 (Tc,9s) Free flop. 9c,Kh,8c. I check, he bets 4k, I call. Turn is 7h. I have open ended straight. I check he bets 8k, I decide to call. River Qh. I miss. He bets 8k, pot odds force me to call. He has KJ and wins.
Hand 63 I am 124k to 28k behind, I have to go to work now (Ad,5h) I am all in, he folds.
Hand 64 (Qc,7s) All in, he folds.
Hand 65 (Qc,4d) Not this time, I fold
Hand 66 (Kc,3d) Hes all in, I fold.
Hand 67 (Td,4c) I have to move, he folds.
Hand 68 (4c,5s) I get a free flop, but K6QJ board is no good, plus he shows AT for a straight.
Hand 69 (Kh,6s) I am all in, he folds
Hand 70 (4d,3d) Free flop 64k. I move all in, he folds.
Hand 71 (2c,7c) Cant play this.
Hand 72 (9d,2d) He folds.
Hand 73 (Qh, 7c) I move again, this time I am called. He shows As,3s. Board 8s,Jh,4d. It looks all over, 7c, back in it, Qc definitely back in it. Its all level 75k each.
Hand 74 (Th, 5s) I fold to his raise.
Hand 75 (Td,9s) I limp he calls. Jh,Qc,3d - Open ended straight for me. He bets 4k, I have to call. Turn no good 5d, He bets 8k, I am priced in. River the magical 8s. He bets 12k, I raise to 36k, he calls with Q7. I take a huge pot. I am 126k to 26k in front.
Hand 76 (As,7c) He moves all in , I decide my hand is good enough. He has J8. Flop comes AT4, turn is a J. But river is a 7.

I am $4.5k champion for the 5th time.

I also played a few games on Saturday, where I won the $2.5k Headhunter. I will post this one shortly

Cheers
ClintonO

Introducing Eyesight Snr

2007-10-23T22:40:00.001+01:00

A quick break from the absence of posts to introduce Mr James Cairns.

1) Crypto Name Eyesight: and recently Megan_Fox
2) Site Playing on sunpoker
3) Real Name - Jimmy Cairns (the bro with less of a temper)
4) Age - 22
5) How would you describe your playing style - Patient and with the ability to slip through the gears as and when I feel or is required
6) What is your profession- self employed, loft convertions (wood butcher)
7) How long have you been playing Poker - 1 year
8) How did you get started in this great game - I watched my brother playing (Tom) as he had a serious gambling problem, so when I started watching it was just to keep an eye on him, but then i accidently learnt how to play and am equally as hooked :>
9) What is your claim to fame in Poker - not really been playing long enough, but some very nice online cashes, 2 CPC packages for this year and winning the oxford live event 4 times in a row was quite cool (and no it wasnt a 2 man event)
10) Favourite Poker Moment - my first £1k plus win was nice but also winning cpc package and the realisation that id done it and was going!
11) What are you ambitions in Poker - To enjoy the game and try to banish any bad reputation that for some reason a lot of people have of me (Tom i can understand! lol)
12) Where are we most likely to find you - Colours pool club, I play for the Oxfordshire county team and we were national runners up 2007!
13) What is your favourite move - EASY, its the AA UTG limp
14) How do we beat you - put your chips in the middle, If im in front I lose, If im behind, I lose, so if you can get me to put my chips in you will win on any 2!!!
15) Do you prefer to play live or online - live, great buzz
16) AK or QQ - live QQ online, especially crapto nothing can beat the mighty AK some of the shit Ive seen people do with AK that cant let go is sooo funny
17) What would be your most feared final table on Crypto- Its a hard one to answer as i cant say i particularly fear anyone, but def some amazing players around.
17b) Well who in your opinion are the sites best players - At the risk of being a brown nose I have to say ClintonO, ThierryH/Garfy (easily my fave online player Mihay) 007apr (Andy Reynolds) KingTommo (Mr hot head himself) Onny87, Dontpanic, Whitedog, hard to think there are sooo many good players.
18) One lesson that you would give to new players - Play stakes that you are comfortable with, I know ppl who are very good players but cannot cope with the games they are playing, who cares what your bankroll is, its supposed to be fun too, start small, learn the game and the bigger you BR gets you can think about playing higher stakes, not that i think im some sort of high roller, because im certainly not!! lol
19) Which tournament would you most like to play in - BEERPONG
20) What is the one thing you would improve about crypto - Id take away observer chat again, Its too easy to tell someone how shit they are when youve lost to a bad call etc and ultimately...who gives a fuck!!??? plus it might stop my bro from tilting!
21) Anything else you want to tell us - Yes, I would like to say a massive well done to Clinton on all the success of his poccer events, having experienced both first hand I fully recommend it to anyone who has not played yet, seriously its such a good laugh and on behalf of myself and the Team Sunpoker boys Id like to say a huge thank you to Clinton and Rachel for all your hard work putting it together, it doesnt go un-noticed..............www.poccer.co.uk

Thank you Jimmy, look forward to seeing you in the Caribbean.

ClintonO

Last few nights

2007-10-10T22:48:00.000+01:00

Limited action of late due to yet more work.

Monday night, I played in just two tournaments the $20k and the Littlewoods CPC double shootout final. The $20k started well as I moved from 2500 to 3500 chips, then I completely overplayed JJ from the button, losing to the small blind who held AA. I got far too attached to my hand and even with a Queen high flop, I did not let it go. Bad play on my part. I had a word with myself!

Next up was the CPC Double Shootout, which I was looking forward to, work committments have prevented me trying for my Caribbean seat, so its time to knuckle down, more time please! I had qualified for this final on Thursday and saw this as a great opportunity.
I was dissapointed to see however that the structure was for just 6 minute levels. It meant the tournament flew by. I had a nice double up early on with KK beating JJ and I moved into the heads up scenario. I was a little in front and with blinds escalating I raised with 77, a reraise from my opponent and I moved all in. He called with 55 and surely the final beckoned. A harmless flop was ruined by a 5 on the turn. Next hand I moved with QJ and was called by K4, two fours on the flop said goodnight!

A really dissapointing night, I decided to play no more tournaments. I played two heads up games, as I was a challenged to a competition by Jimmy Cairns, as to who buys the beers in the Caribbean. I was already 2-0 up in the series, I won the first won, but tiredness got the better of me and I moved all in with A7 on a A953 board, he turned over 53 and was on the score sheet at 3-1 (It is now 4-1)

More dissapointment tonight. I had earned 500 mpps to enter a CPC tournament on Inter on Sunday night, whcih I just remembered about and therefore missed. D'oh. I must be working too hard.

Sunday night was a non-event. I played just one game a CPC qualifier, it was a thunder and you had to keep moving. I raised with AT, was reraised and left with not enough chips to recover I called. He turned over KK and it was all over.

Saturday however was a cracking night and got me into some nice healthy profit figures following a great September. 4 games and 4 final tables including a 7th in the $20k.
The highlight was winning the $4.5k, pretty much the best tournament on the site for me, this was my 5th win in this tournament.

When I get a bit more time I will detail the heads up from that event.

ClintonO

Poccer 3 update

2007-10-10T22:35:00.000+01:00

Poccer 3 is shaping up and as I go to press with the Poccer 3 programme, it looks like with have 12 teams, but it such a rollercoaster, with teams changing frequently each day! At this point I would like to stand up and applaud all those people that run their own business or have the belief and courage to go with their dreams because believe me it is hard work. If any of you fancy a crack at Poccer either now or in the future you would be more than welcome.

ClintonO

Thought for the day

2007-10-10T22:19:00.000+01:00

'The measure of our future success & happiness will not be the quality of the cards we are dealt by unseen hands, but the poise & wisdom with which we play them. Choose to play each hand to the best of your ability without wasting the time and energy it takes to complain about either the cards or the dealer or the often unfair rules of the game.
Play both the winning and the losing hands as best you can, then fold the cards and ante up for the next deal' - Joe Klock.

Poccer 3 - Saturday 13th October

2007-10-05T19:08:00.000+01:00

Just over a week to go before the next Poccer event and its shaping up to be our biggest and best event yet.

There are still 4 spaces for teams left if anyone is interested, also if you fancy taking part and don't have a team just let me know and I will try and slot you in.

All the details can be found on www.poccer.co.uk.
This really is a fantastic event, so if you fancy a great day out next Saturday, you won't go wrong with this!

Cheers
ClintonO

Absence makes your poker grow stronger?

2007-09-29T22:51:00.000+01:00

A two week break and right back in the money.

I thought I would try the $20k and see what I could do.
It started slowly, but during levels 4 though 7 I moved into 2nd position in the tournament. Where I stayed until the last 20.

I lost a few chips when I went to the final table and was sitting in 7th.
I fought hard and although I never got a high proportion of the chips, I kept myself ahead of the blinds, by playing positional poker.

By time it got to the last four, I was really struggling but the two in second and third were also getting low.

I continued to battle and got myself into a heads up situation.
I had won my previous 5 heads up in this tournie, but I was 60k to 340k behind.
My opponent was all in, nearly every hand, making it difficult to play any poker. I doubled up once to get to 100k and then got my chips in with AK but lost to 94.

My first heads up defeat in this tournament was dissapointing, but first game back and $4000 better off, I think I'll take that!

I really enjoyed the game and the challenge and saw the game very clearly. A good performance.

I played it again tonight, I was going very well when holding AQ spades on a two spade board, I reraised all in. I was called by 86 spades and he hit his six on the river. Never mind it happens. I lost to a guy called Leevan, who hit everything and is 10k clear at this point with 93 left. I guarantee he won't make the money!

ClintonO

Welcome Back Leonarch

2007-09-26T21:13:00.000+01:00

Finally we have Leon the legend back again!

1) What have you been up to in the last year?
HAD 2 BABYS
2) Are you still doing the same thing - Barrow Boy?
NAH, SHOP OWNER NOW LOL
3) Have you had any big successes in the last year?
HAVE NOT PLAYED MUCH THIS YEAR 2007, BUT STILL UP ABOUT 30,000$
4) Have you learnt any lessons in the last year?
WEAR A CONDOM
5) How has the world of poker changed over the last 12 months?
YES! I DON'T PLAY AS MUCH
6) Has your approach to poker changed during this time?
READ ABOVE
7) Your ambition last year was to win 40k.Did you achieve this? Do you have a new ambition?
NO , TRY AGAIN THIS YEAR
8) Are you still playing as Leonarch on Wm Hill
YES
9) Are you still playing as much poker?
NO
10) You asked for more big tournies on crypto, did you get your wish?- Whats the biggest improvement required now?
BIGGER TOURNEYS
11) Your top players were Thierry H, ClintonO, Tiddles, Sun_Deshi, The Cheese, Oranges, 007apr, Daes265, Andy1965 and Homer2004 has this changed?
NAH
12) Anything else you want to tell us?
DONT GO CHANGING

Thank you my good friend.

ClintonO

Welcome Back Oranges

2007-09-26T21:10:00.001+01:00

Lets see what our friend Oranges has been up to.

1) What have you been up to in the last year?

About 12 months ago I had only just started to play MTTs regularly. I had a pretty good and lucrative run at them for the last few months of 2006. The CPC at the back end of the year was again a great experience and I’m really looking forward to this year’s event.

The 1st 3 months of 2007 were pretty awful but then I had a good and profitable spring on Crypto and a host of other sites. This was followed by a short and profitable (just!) trip to Vegas.

Over the summer I’ve not played as much as I would like mainly due to things you can relate to – pressures of work, family, lots of social stuff etc.

2) Are you still doing the same thing - IFA

Yeh, the day job continues. In recent months it’s also taken up a lot of time in the evenings as well. I’m also in the process of launching a new company which means it’s a pretty hectic but exciting time.

3) Have you had any big successes in the last year?

Depends on your definition of big! Compared to some of the other guys you have interviewed
the answer is a resounding no. However, in the context of this game being a self-financing hobby I’m pretty pleased with how it’s gone. As far as Crypto is concerned I did ok in the early leaderboards on Crypto ( I simply can’t play enough to have a chance at the current fomat) and I’ve had wins and decent places in pretty much all the regular tourneys albeit there have been lots of new ones launched lately.

4) Have you learnt any lessons in the last year?

Oh God yes. I was a bit of a one-trick pony in 2006 as far as MTT’s were concerned – very very tight. My MTT game has evolved since then and I’d like to think I’m far stronger. This is subject to the most important lesson of all – to play well I have to be totally concentrated and focused on the game at hand. Too often, I have played for the sake of it with a million other distractions and they don’t help!

5) How has the world of poker changed over the last 12 months?

As far as the world of the Crypto MTT it seems pretty much the same but the gap between the good and weaker players seems to be widening.

6) Has your approach to poker changed during this time?

Not really.

7) Your ambition last year was to make a final table in a live event. Did you get anywhere near this? Do you have a new ambition?

I think I said I would love to make the final table of a “big” live event and that would be a dream. It still is. But at this moment very, very unlikely! I’ve only played 2 big live events since last year and achieved zilch. I did make the FT at my first live event in Vegas. It was a 180 runner $120 MTT – does that count?

8) Are you still playing as oranges or psorange on Littlewoods

Oranges has just about gone into retirement and psorange is only occasionally seen on pokerstars. I’ve now got about 15 other accounts on crypto skins and other sites.

9) Are you still playing as much poker?

No. During the week it is difficult to play much before 9.00pm at the moment so unfortunately I usually miss out on the $20K. The only tourney I play regularly is the 10.00pm $4500G. For some reason this tourney has been golden for me pretty much all year and as I write this I have had 5FTs out of 10 attempts this month alone.

10) You asked for improvements to crypto including observer chat and time improvements. These have happened- Whats the biggest improvement required now?

Hmm, a $100 buy-in starting at 10.00pm. It used to frustrate me that the 2 highest daily buy-ins were just the $100 and the $50. This has improved recently I know so we are getting there.

11) Your best players were Azimut, Animal, ClintonO, 007apr, Noseyboy and Leonarch has this changed?

Well, I’ve not seen Leonarch for ages. Andy obviously continues to score well in his several guises judging by the leaderboards. Of course you Clinton continue to report successes on a regular basis albeit you are not playing as much due other commitments. As for Nosey, he seems to have returned to MTTs and he beat me HU in the $4500 earlier in the month Simply, he was the most dangerous player on the FT.

Azimut and Animal? I can’t believe I said they were my best players!! Seriously, they both continue to murder on-line games.

Others? Loads – too many to mention but there are so many playing different accounts its hard to know who is who nowadays

12) Anything else you want to tell us?

Yeh, I look forward to seeing everyone in St Kitts for the great Crypto gathering.

Thanks Pete, see you in St.Kitts
ClintonO

The day of the bubble

2007-09-12T13:13:00.000+01:00

Last night was a very frustrating night for poker for myself, bubbling in both the Caribbean Poker qualifier and the $1000k qualifier. Both times the river card destroyed me and after being in the top positions nearly the whole time it was particularly frustrating.

The Gold Cup Series has not kicked on for me earlier, I played in the $200 GC4 event after qualifying a few weeks ago. I was hanging on for quite some time and whenever I got into a position to move on, something unpleasant would happen! In the end I finished 42nd of the 280 odd players and narrowly missed out on a cash.

I would very much like to congratulate Leseth_25 though, this is someone who I have spent a fair amount of time with, helping to improve his game. Last night he finished 3rd in the $50k tournament winning $5660 and was unfortunate not to go on and make more. A great effort.

A quick hello to Brazil, Colombia and the Philippines who have logged on recently taking the countries following the blog up to 53.

Finally watch out for some Poccer updates later today!

ClintonO

Welcome Back Macaroon

2007-09-11T20:15:00.000+01:00

One of the nicest guys you will ever meet.
Sit back relax and make sure you have 10 - 15 mins to spare!

1 S0 Mac, what have you been up to?
I do a lot of competition fishing (ie for money) and have had my best year ever. Fishing is very similar to poker – some luck is involved but not nearly as much as most people assume. Once you realise that your results are largely in your own hands everything clicks into place – exactly as with poker.

Also in the throes of moving – our buyer said she would have our place in September, 2006 but the chain keeps breaking – you know how it is. Anyway the latest is that we shall be moving to near St Ives possibly in October.

2 The other thing I’ve been doing very well is getting older – 65 in October. At that point I will be officially retired. Technically at the time of writing I am still employed as a journalist, but on permanent sick leave because of severe hearing problems which have come about largely because of old age but not helped by being within a few feet of a bomb blast in Ireland in 1984 which damaged my inner ears.

I have been asked what I feel about the IRA, who planted the bomb, and it may interest some of you to know that I have never thought about blaming them for my damage. The fact is that this life is not fair…some people are born badly physically deformed, some are very strong and others very weak, some are mentally deficient, some have accidents, and in wars innocent people are maimed and killed. That’s the reality. I accept my failings, and my misfortunes, with equanimity… though I would like to change them of course.

As a journalist I hope I can look at the situation from the outside, and in many ways equate their actions to those of the French Resistance; both of them did whatever they felt necessary in the circumstances, and innocent people were killed. Of course both attracted men who simply enjoyed the violence; but both showed extreme courage at times.

The fact is that wars are terrible and almost always avoidable…and the sooner governments realise that the better. Having been to Ireland a few times I think I know a little of the background to the ‘troubles’ and understand why British newspapers have felt themselves unable to publish much of the truth about the root of the problems.

3 Have you had any big successes in the last year?
I can honestly say now that since starting poker I am in profit. That is largely thanks to two nice wins in a $5 and a $20 tourney with Victor Chandler, netting me nearly $3,000. But I have consistently been in the prizes since then, and am managing to win enough to cover all my entrance fees, so that balance of nearly $3000 is still there – not bad for a $50 deposit.

I record every game, and write in my winnings, and have a column which I tick if I get within striking distance of the money – if there are 100 prizes I tick if I get in the top 200. I get money or a tick in one third of all my tourneys. I think that is a fair way of gauging my true form, which is satisfactory to me for I can only improve I think.

Interestingly, though I rarely play cash games I win in two thirds of those I play. That’s mainly because I leave when I have doubled my money. I am not ‘in the zone’ on cash games yet, and still have to work out the difference between cash players and tourney players. I also tend to make a profit in STTs though I don’t play many. I tried cash thanks to advice from Noseyboy – thanks mate!

4 Have you learnt any lessons in the last year?
The lessons I have learned include the fact that the tighter I play the better my results. And I have learned not to be afraid of rebuys; in fact I have done rather well in these, latest being the last tourney I played when I was fourth for $150 after re-buying once, after about 50 minutes, when I went out on a real bad beat, and then taking the add-on. So total outlay was $18.50.

PS I went out on a real bad beat – 77 out to AQ…no A or Q or straight came down – I was counterfeited by JJ and KK on the board! He did apologise!

5 Have you learnt any lessons in the last year?
I notice the penchant for players to enter speed and turbo events, which I guess attracts the players who rely on luck. There’s even a tourney on Poker Heaven with one-minute levels! And the tiny freerolls are amazing – hundreds of players competing for £10. Doesn’t make sense to me.

In the tournaments I play I think players are generally better than 12 months ago. I now see some who sit through the first two or three rounds and simply don’t bet. I also now notice the interest in the several big ‘World’ tournaments and saw a discussion on TV the other night about how the true World Champion should be decided (I say ‘saw’ advisedly since I couldn’t hear most of it!).

I also notice that the various sites keep changing their set-ups, generally for the better. I just wish I could work out how to get the Hand History with Poker Heaven! And I see that the TV seems to have less poker now than a year ago; not sure whether that is good or bad as it takes the heat of criticism off a little.

6 Has your approach to poker changed during this time?
My approach had changed, in that I am quite happy to lay down big hands without a second thought in the early parts of tournaments.

I will not now normally willingly go all-in against more than one opponent if it means I could be eliminated – that is unless I am certain I hold the nuts of course. As an example the other day I held KK and there were three all-ins in front of me and I folded (glad I did). Clinton gave me my first lessons in poker, and he is renowned as a tight player, Having experimented with looking at lots of cheap flops with nothing, which does not work for me, I guess I am now probably as tight as Clinton…and that’s saying something!

However, on the final table I now know that one must take chances with lesser hands or the blinds will eat me up. However, I still normally show my winning hands (even if not challenged) in the early parts of tourneys, and I think this pays dividends later, when players will fold knowing that if I raise I have a big hand.

7 Do you have a new ambition?
My ambition was to make a living wage; but I am still serving my apprenticeship. However, more haste less speed, and I am sure that once I step up the money stakes I will make a reasonable profit, as I find the bigger-money tourneys much easier to play, with far fewer loose players. But I am naturally cautious.

Currently the most I have ever paid to enter a tourney was £12. Generally I keep to the £2 or $5 stuff. The $20 tourney I won was the result of a late-night sitting when I had picked up money in another tourney, and felt great (ie not tired). I’ve never entered another $20 game; perhaps I should.

I managed to qualify for the old Littlewoods £15k a few times, best result 10th. And also qualified several times for the smaller one, now $6, but have never bought in.

8 I’m still Macaroon on Littlewoods – Clinton played against a MACAROON recently, but don’t know who that is. I’m also Macaroon on Victor Chandler and Poker Heaven.

9 Are you still playing as much poker?
I’m playing more late-night games, but never more than one table at a time. I really think this helps me get into the mind of some of the other players, as I take Helmuth’s advice and watch them carefully when I am not in a hand – it’s easier to concentrate when you’re not involved.

PS. Hellmuth’s Play Poker like the Pros is one of the worst books I have ever picked up! I’m not even sure what the title is cos I think I threw it away. Contrast that with Harrington’s which are brilliant and I keep them beside me when I play.

10 I haven’t played much on Littlewoods recently. I opened accounts with Victor Chandler and Poker Heaven because they use different software and I didn’t like the way some cards came down on Crypto. Not just my hands – but other players as well. The number of straights filled on the River was incredible.

I once kept a score of the pre-flop all-ins in a Crypto tourney. Out of 18 no fewer than 13 were won by the weaker hand. I understand that no system can yet give absolutely random cards and that a certain number of different stacks are used, the ones used chosen at random. My conclusion is that the majority have a lot of high cards near the top, since high cards come down much more frequently than a random deal should give them, and that since high cards tend to be bet the most frequently, then a high-card straight will be given more often than it should be.

I have not noticed as many anomalies on the other sites. I have played on Crypto recently, and can’t remember any really terrible results, so perhaps the software has been updated.

I look through my book and note the following recent results, all on Crypto: 99 out to 10 10; AK (K tripped) out to 77; AQ (Q paired) out to flush on river; flop 99Q I have a Q he has a 9; KK8 flop I have an 8 he has an K; QQ loses to AK – none of those are real bad beats, also I haven’t seen so many AA and KK dealt together. So perhaps things are better now.

One other thing – some of the chat is quite despicable. I have made two complaints to Littlewoods. I don’t notice this on other sites, possibly because a lot of the players there are foreign, though most seem to speak English or are British ex-pats. I genuinely think that players will be closing their accounts because of this problem on Crypto, which I assume is because many players are young Brits who think it’s normal to speak like they do.

I wish Crypto would show the hand just folded while play is still going on. Otherwise I must say I like the Littlewoods site better than any other.

11 Your best players were Azimut, Animal, ClintonO, 007apr, Noseyboy and Leonarch has this changed?
I haven’t been playing the bigger tourneys on Crypto so haven’t come across the same players I mentioned a year ago. So unable to comment whether they are still dangerous. I assume they are. Haven’t come across any others because in the large-entry small-money games you don’t often see the same players night after night.

12 Anything else you want to tell us?
Another reason I haven’t played as much on Crypto is because of the smaller number of players. I prefer the 500-plus tourneys as I do much better. Also, I qualified for the £12 satellite to the Sunday £40k the other day; came to play the second satellite and it was cancelled because not sufficient number of players. That is so annoying. VC usually has around 1000 for the 8.10 pm $5 freezeout, which I love.

Did OK in my first Headhunter on Littlewoods. Did all the hard work taking all but 30 of one player’s chips on an all-in, but of course get no payment for that! The next hand he tilts of course and goes all-in and someone else gets the payment; I can see why it is popular.

I love some of the blogs – specially Blue Scouse (must be barmy, but very honest); that leads me to Brian Townsend, which is awesome as he makes $100k and more in a day sometimes, and even more; of course he loses sometime. Poor bloke lost almost $1m in a week a month ago. Have recently found Ukgatsby, who like me plays only the smaller tourneys. Came up against him on Crypto a couple of days ago and he went out with an appalling play on his part. Sorry mate! My first port of call, though, is still ClintonO.

I now write a poker column for a local paper, the editor of which is a friend of mine. No payment, but hope I am doing my bit for the game. He tells me his Managing Director loves the column. I state I play only small-money games, and anyway if I played for bigger money there would be lots of complaints no doubt.

Finally, I would like to start a blog, and mention EVERY SINGLE win and loss, as I can’t get a real handle on some of the bloggers because they obviously like to make out they are successful but don’t mention all their games. But I would be unable to write horrendous stories about going out and getting blathered, which seems to be the favourite occupation of some of the bloggers out there…

I could call it the Ramblings of a Boring Old Fart; or perhaps Pensioners Poker!

Thanks Mac, a most excellent interview!

ClintonO

Welcome Back The Deacon

2007-09-11T20:07:00.000+01:00

Next in our interview list has taken part in 2 wsop main events and is a decent guy to boot.

Welcome back Joe.

1) What have you been up to in the last year?
work, poker, parties

2) Are you still doing the same thing - Bathroom Fitter?
yes, it pays the bills

3) Have you had any big successes in the last year?
just a few wins om £2k gtd, $2k gtd. etc..nothing to write home about...

4) Have you learnt any lessons in the last year?
yes, I am very unlucky..i have an above average proportion of bad beats....

5) How has the world of poker changed over the last 12 months?
I think online poker reached its peak last year and will eventually decline further..I think the future is looking brighter for live poker...

6) Has your approach to poker changed during this time?
I am starting to play less online poker and more pub, home tournaments...

7) Your ambition last year was to win a couple of big professional events and turn professional.Did you get anywhere near this?
No...
Do you have a new ambition?
No, poker will always just be a hobby to me...

8) Are you still playing as TheDeacon on Littlewoods....
yes, I do play on a few other sites under different names....

9) Are you still playing as much poker?
No, I have other ambitions and hobbies which mean less time for poker....

10) You asked for improvements to crypto including free rolls has this happened?-
yes, I am glad to see free rolls on Crypto...Though at $100..I would like to see higher value free rolls..
Whats the biggest improvement required now?
Higher value tournaments and free rolls, although if the decline in online poker happens as I think it may, then this may prove difficult...

11) Anything else you want to tell us?
I have tried to make a living from online poker but my bankroll just can't withstand the disproportional number of bad beats that I have experienced over the years...I therefore will treat poker as a gaming hobby, that it is....see you at the tables

Thanks Joe

ClintonO

Golden Cup Series of Poker - days 1 & 2.

2007-09-10T12:12:00.000+01:00

A decent start to the 2nd Golden Series of Poker on day 1.

Each day of 9, has a main event, but also two side events.
The first event of the day was the $15k Guaranteed event, which was exceptionally good value with a $5k overlay.
I made the final table in this first event, but ultimately fell short, finishing in 8th place, winning $450. My end came when short stacked I pushed with AQ. I was called by the big blind who had T2.

Flop was harmless 349, Turn 5, River A. I pair my ace but it also gave him the straight.

The other side event was the headhunter event ($6k overlay), I managed to make my money back through the bounties, but fell short of the cash finishes.

The first main event was the $35k guaranteed (again a $5k overlay), with a starting stack of 4500 chips. I managed to double up fairly early and kept well above average throughout. I got a little short when we got in the money and reraised all in with QQ, unfortunately I was called by K2 and the King paired on the flop. It was a cash finish, but disappointing to go out in 35th when it was looking good.

Yesterday was day 2 of the golden series of poker, but I missed out on the all the games, well they started too early for those of us with families!
I would like to say congratulations to one of our interviewees from last week. Mr Mihai Manole, who did a deal heads up on the final table of the 2nd main event, taking home $13.8k.

Whilst we are on congratulations, well done also to a lower stakes player, Mr Niceguy_77 (Ian Overson) who won himself a seat at the Virgin Poker Festival event at the Broadway in November.

Whilst we are mentioning the Broadway (Birmingham), I am delighted to announce that the Poccer team are returning for a 3rd event on October 13th. We have some really exciting news to be announced this week on Poccer, but this will ensure Poccer becomes an even better lads day out.

I will be online tonight for event 3 of the series, let’s hope I can add to my cashing in each event so far ratio!

Also tonight, I will be publishing interviews from The_Deacon and Macaroon, as well as hopefully getting an update on –oo—from the World Series of Poker Europe.

If anyone else who plays on Cryptologic would like to be featured in an interview, please drop me a note with your email address and I will get you included, I know in particular that Chainsaw wants a mention, so here’s your opportunity!

ClintonO

£6k champion

2007-09-08T13:25:00.000+01:00

Thursday night prevented me with a rare opportunity, a chance to play a few games of poker.

I played the $20k, going out in 30th, and also the WSOP qualifier. I managed to bubble on the qualifying but earn $190 paying for the previous two tournaments.

I also decided to play the £6k and ended up winning the tournament and taking home the £1680 1st prize. A very nice return indeed!

I had played very solidly throughout and the final table looked like this

ClintonO (37k)
Dr.Fun (16k)
dlowen (42k)
Therat (40k)
seatopen (90k)
dtrain17 (21k)
catmandu (23k)
Ju$t_Me (27k)
Tere22041 (65k)
kevoheart (32k)

With blinds at 1200/2400, a few of the short stacks were all in at every opportunity.

dtrain17 was first to go, noving with 4c,5c but Tere22041 was sitting in the button waiting with QQ.

With the short stacks moving all in, or Tere doing the same, making a move was becoming very difficult, I raised whereever I could.

I had fallen back to 28k when I was dealt 9s,9d in the big blind.
Catmandu limped for 2.4k and Ju$tMe moved all in with 31k. It was decision time, the table was so aggressive that any limp was usually punished with an all in raise. I decided that Ju$tMe was capable of moving with any two and also an ace or a 2k,Qc,8s,6s came the board and I was up to 62k and 3rd place.

A few hands later Therat is in trouble with 8k and Tere calls I turn over KK in the button and raise it up. Therat has 5c,Ac and he goes out in 9th.
Incredibly the very next hand I get KK again on the cut off, I raise with KK and Dr.Fun moves all in with AT and 21k. The Kings hold up again, we have 7 left and I am in pole position with 110k.
Catmandu goes out next hand to Seatopen T9 on a 6,5,T board against AK. K on turn.
Then for the third hand in a row we lose someone, Ju$t_Me has only 2.5k and loses to Kevo.

5 left now
ClintonO 109k
Dlowen 37k
Seatopen 112k
Tere22041 89k
kevoheart 47k

dlowen then doubles up against Tere when his KJ beats JJ, money went in on a 9k9 board.
After a bit of jockeying for position, I incredibly get KK for the first time on the final table.
This time against Kev who is all in preflop with AJ. Kings hold up again, although they had to dogde a heart on the river.

At this stage in the game, what did I know. Tere had been moving the most, bluffing frequently pre flop, but weak after the flop.
dlowen was calling after hitting any part of the flop. I got him to call a bet on the turn and the river when he was holding Q5, on a 7,5,8,A,K board!
Seatopen was solid, but capable of blowing up.

I just needed to stay focused to win.
Dlowen then calls a 6k bet with A4 on a 2,J,8,8 board and then 12k more after a 4 hits the river and pays a substantial amount of chip to Tere. I can't see this guy lasting.
dlowen moves back up again calling a raise with K2 and hitting two kings. Seatopen is starting to throw his chips away and has lost half his stack.

I call a raise from Tere with AcJc and then dlowen moves all in. It was 52k more to call and I decided to let in go and keep my stack in place and as it is on the evidence so far the weakest player I let it go.

We eventually lose Seatopen when he moves all in with 76 on a 4,7,A,K board. Tere has A2 and calls.

We are down to 3.
ClintonO 125k
dlowen 112k
Tere22041 157k.

I make a move on dlowen with 89, I raise pre flop. Board is 2c,Ks,Qc. I raised again and he calls, he has hit the board. The turn is a third club, I check with the intention of calling a bet indicating the flush. He checks. The river is another K. I believe he would have reraised me if he had a King. I have been aggressive pre flop and on the flop and decide that he must put me on a King or a flush. I bet 3/4 pot and get called with JQ. Sigh.

I am down to 68k. I get 20k back when Tere tries a bluff. I have a bluffer and a calling station, focus. I become more aggressive, but they sense it and come over the top of me on a couple of occasions.

Things have gone very wrong, dlowen starts playing very well and the chips are as follows.
ClintonO 41k
dlowen 270k
Tere22041 83k.

I decide to play against Tere no matter what I have, as I know I can take it away on the turn if he checks the flop. I call a raise with 92 and do exactly that with a Q,K,4,8 board!

I work my way up to 101k at the expense of Tere who is down to 33k. Tere then calls an all in with KT against dlowens 6s5s. Dlowen hits the straight.

We are heads up 92k verus 302k. blinds 4k/8k
Its time to get aggressive. I raise hand one with TJ and take the pot.
I have exactly the same hand in hand two and when he raises I decide I need to be aggressive to get back into it and move all in. He instantly calls with AK.
The flop gives me options when 9,2,7 comes down. Any 8, Ten or Jack now. Turn brings the Jack, River brings the 8, to make it even better.

I am slightly in front now. Hand 3 I let go to a big bet on the river and I have a hunch that he is now tilting and to play even more aggressive.
Next hand I have A9 and once again he puts a sizeable raise in. No messing I decide to take the pot there and then by moving in. He instantly calls with KK. I read that one wrong.
The flop comes T,2,4. The turn brings the glory card an Ace, and the river confirms the comeback with a 9.
I have got very lucky indeed.

Hand five of the heads up, he only has 7.4k and is automatically all in.
---- HOLE CARDS -----dealt to ClintonO [5h 3s]
ClintonO: calls 4000
Returned uncalled bets 1,608 to ClintonO
----- FLOP ----- [5c 4d 3c]
----- TURN ----- [5c 4d 3c][3h]
----- RIVER ----- [5c 4d 3c 3h][6d]
----- SHOW DOWN -----
dlowen: shows [Qd 2c] (A Straight, Six high)
ClintonO: shows [5h 3s] (A Full House, Threes full of Fives)
ClintonO collected 14784 from Main pot.

Finished off in style!

It was a very interesting game of poker and mostly I found my instincts correct throughout. My heads up opponent surprised me as his game changed dramtically for the better late on, as I had put him as one of the weakest opponents. In the end he was very unlucky to lose.

It was nice to back and playing again and now with the Golden Cup Series 2 here, I intend to play a lot more this week. However I am still a little rusty and don't mind some more good fortune like I received in the final few hands here.

ClintonO

Welcome Back Noseyboy

2007-09-06T20:23:00.000+01:00

One of the most successful players I know, Mr Matthew Osborne, how are you sir?

Well its been non stop poker for the last year with a small dip into the romance world that ended in tears, so ill stick to my love for Texas holdem for now. Been a mixed year of ups and downs, The up was beating Joeylove in a race to profit $100k from poker (took just over 4 months) the down was an expensive trip to vegas where i lost around $70k including the week online before and after i got back, probably my toughest period in poker since i began.....trips to Monte carlo and last years CPC were profitable tho with a cash at the cpc main event and a good spell online in Monte carlo with my famous 96 os all in pre flop V aces hand for a $14k pot...
Since returning from vegas ive made good profit playing 10/20 NL on Sunpoker, apart from the odd hickup/tilt session losing sometimes $10k a night... not good but i survived and back on track now..
Im still working in london but playing poker in the office (or id have left by now) and poker is still a far better income than work but i cant seem to find the guts to give it up...probably a backlash of a heavy losing vegas trip....

Ive learnt a few lessons this year but cant seem to abide by my own rules.. the main one is not playing stakes that my bank roll cant cope with.. ie £40/80 NL cash...nice when u win... not nice when you lose and tilt and several times ive had losing sessions of $15k+ beause of it... now that was ok before vegas when i had around £150k role.. but now losses like that do more than just hurt a little.. they actually endanger my poker playing future so i try not to play any higher than $25/50 now... The other lesson ive learnt this year and its not the first time it is if your going on a night out with dubai.. make sure you got deep pockets and be prepaired to empty them in a flurry of VIP treatment....but those who have met dubai know that hes a class bloke and never a dull moment..

As for changes in the poker world the only ones ive noticed is Betfair has worse software and Ecash still havent changed on crypto sites... a downfall to both IMO... nuff said

My ambition was to play full time and still is.. and i still think a vegas life is possible if you can succesfully play cash and use a bit of self control on nights out...but well see what happens this year as i feel its a make or break time because of the dramatic rise in stakes ive been playing compared to a year where i was considered a tourney player by most....and probably still am winning the £15k/$20K mtt on crypto 12 times now since it began....

Yes still playing Poker as 'Noseyboy' on 'Sunpoker' through a quality Rakeback site called 'rakeaddicts.com' ..50% RB...plug plug plug... lol .. you werent gettin an interview without a mention!!!

21,000 mpps last month.. is that enough?? ;)
To be fair many of the improvements i asked for they actualy did do....some of these were software improvements following updates and recent ones were the bigger insomniacs game and the big Eds head hunter game... sadly nothin has been done about Ecash and its poor service.... but watch this space on that as ive not finished yet!

Sadly i dont play these guys anymore as some have moved to other sites.. except a renamed ThierryH but i dont blame them... maybe if someone from crypto reads this they will wake up and smell the coffee... as people like those i mentioned were the heros of Crypto.. now its a little thin IMO... I could really only speak for the top players on Cash now as im lost in the MTT world.... but if i had to name some from each....Mtt would be CUTEMOFO and EYESIGHT, 2 solid players.. and on cash.. well i dont like to say it but Joeylove (who recently won the stars million) and some other who you wouldnt know would be Rotinaj,kirderf,Anonpg1, among many good cash players at the higher stakes on crypto...id probably name about 10 if i had time.

Nothing else to add except see you at the CPC.. and were off to vegas again after for the 5 Diamond classic tournament at Belaggio...and lastly a thanks to all the those who have stuck it out on Sunpoker through Rakeaddicts.com.... for those that make it to the CPC i have a little treat in mind....see you all there... gl

Noseyboy

Thank you buddy and yes of course I expected a plug!

Thats it for now, hopefully have a few more for you soon.
ClintonO

Welcome Back Animal

2007-09-06T20:17:00.000+01:00

One of the players I first met when I started playing is Robert Price. One of the few players I know that is equally effective online and live.

1) What have you been up to in the last year?

CPC Nov 2006
Mansion Poker Dome Las Vegas Jan 2007
Cardiff GUKPT Feb or Mar 2007
WSOP Las Vegas July 2007
and lots online as usual

2) Are you still doing the same thing - professional poker player
Trying to, yes

3) Have you had any big successes in the last year?
Er winning packages to all of the above, biggest online cash was 24 or $25k winning the old Mansion $100k tournament.

4) Have you learnt any lessons in the last year?
Just what i always knew, poker is a grind for a living

5) How has the world of poker changed over the last 12 months?
Dunno really although there seems to be more egos out there than ever, its quite funny playing live and watching them but i rarely play live unfortunately.

6) Has your approach to poker changed during this time?
Yeh think it changes regularly depending on my mood, results and confidence but all those are interlinked.

7) Your ambition last year was to make enough money to avoid going back to an office job, a deep finish in a big live event, sponsorship and to lose 1 stone!.Did you get anywhere near this?
Ah some of those ambitions are for years to come not one year. Anyway i def made enough money not to go back to work yet, although a part time job could be a good distraction from the bad run im in lately. I do have a 10 player playoff in Australia in Jan 2008 where winner gets $50k of sponsorship so fingers crossed. Dunno what i weighed 1 year ago but i have lost 1/2 stone that i put on in vegas 6 weeks ago !

Do you have a new ambition?
Rediscover a good run and some real enjoyment for the game, all too much of a boring routine slog lately. I think autumn & winter i have a different mindset when its dark early and it feels good playing more poker.

8) Are you still playing as Animal on Littlewoods
Very very rarely the grass remains greener elsewhere lets just say !

9) Are you still playing as much poker?
Yeh prob same as 1 year ago roughly

10) You asked for observer chat on Crypto and got it!- Whats the biggest improvement required now?
CPC double shootouts ! 'YES I can't wait for them!

11)Anything else you want to tell us?

pokeranimal@blogspot.co.uk

Thank you kind sir
ClintonO

Welcome back Alfie

2007-09-06T20:10:00.000+01:00

Heres one of my favourite players, who unfortunately does not play as much online as he should.

1) What have you been up to in the last year? -
In relation to poker -playing more live and less on the net-and more importantly LEARNING LOTS!
2) Are you still doing the same thing - mac operator? -
Yeah still tapping away good to have the regular money coming in
3) Have you had any big successes in the last year? -
Nothing major mate I ve had regular final tables at The Western/Gutshot, 2 good performances in the GPT'S, Final tables in Brighton, Luton, The Sportsman and decent cashes on the net including best month ever this August just gone.So not pulling up any trees just yet but we'll get there.
4) Have you learnt any lessons in the last year? -
Too many to list-I have been lucky enough to play regularly with extremly talentled players ie Gary Bush, Praz Bansi,Woody Deck Nik Pesaud etc- It really does help when you sit down with players of this quality, my game has been improved ten fold in the last 8/9 months.
5) How has the world of poker changed over the last 12 months?
Its stll madness mate, still massive, and probably peaking right about now-On a personal basis a lot busier trains,hotels late nights and early mornings.
6) Has your approach to poker changed during this time? -
My love for the game is as strong as ever but my approach has certainly changed from a personal point of view- It is tough tough game to be a sucessfull in- this is something I have realised and a challange I relish.
7) Your ambition last year was to be a regular on the ept- Did you achieve this? Do you have a new ambition? -
No not really Clint but it did change as soon the Gpt was announced - It has been a great tour with marvellous tounaments, - one every month what more do you need-I have played 2 and am playing Plymouth and London in the coming months. The EPT is massive but im am quite happy to concentrate on the GPT for now - so the ambition would have to be to win one!
8) Are you still playing as Alfi17902 on wm Hill -
No (lol)
9) Are you still playing as much poker?
As I said not as much on the net but more than ever live.
10) You asked for observer chat on crypto - you got your wish - what do you want from them next?
Nothing really mate I am quite satisfied.
11) Your top players were ClintonO- has this changed?
Ha Ha Your still well respected on the net mate-Dont really know alot of the top players now though-anyone who can take a bad beat with a smile is a top player in my book.
12) Anything else you want to tell us?
Be lucky

Thank you my friend
ClintonO

Welcome Back Mr Dumbsmuck

2007-09-06T20:06:00.000+01:00

Its a warm welcome to a very good friend and the first person I knew that played this beautiful game!

Thanks for your time Paul,

1) What have you been up to in the last year?
I am playing far more on Pokerstars these days under the username arniejokin. I am currently ranked in the top 1500 in the world and the top 100 in the UK.
2) Are you still doing the same thing - Quantity Surveyor?
Yes
3) Have you had any big successes in the last year?
A few decent wins of around $5k
4) Have you learnt any lessons in the last year?
I have improved my game for the large fields on PS
5) How has the world of poker changed over the last 12 months?
The Americans have been condensed into a few sites meaning more action there
6) Has your approach to poker changed during this time?
I have tried to improve my mid game as this is where I get knocked out of the highest % of tournaments.
7) Your ambition last year was to become a better player and feature in main live events .Did you achieve this? Do you have a new ambition?
I haven't played that many live events, only 4 or so. I actually won 2 of them though. I am happy with my play at the moment and feel I have definately improved
8) Are you still playing as Dumbsmuck/Sharkbait on Littlewoods/Betfair and VC
dumbsmuck plays a bit, and I need to focus my attention towards the CPC. I mainly play on PS though
9) Are you still playing as much poker?
I probably average only 4 MTT a week, things are pretty busy right now.
10) You asked for changes on turn time on crypto, you got your wish?- Whats the biggest improvement required now?
I haven't played enough on there recently to comment
11) Anything else you want to tell us?
Your blog is great, don't neglect it or your game....

Um, yes sorry about that! Hopefully this helps on the road back!

ClintonO

Welcome back the legend ThierryH

2007-09-06T19:59:00.000+01:00

Now we have ProView on Littlewoods, Mihai (ThierryH) can play 18 games at the same time!
Thankfully he gave me ten mins to update what he is up to!

1) What have you been up to in the last year?
Playing cash mainly, now back to mtts
2) Are you still doing the same thing - student?
Yeah, have 1 more exam to pass, in 1 week
3) Have you had any big successes in the last year?
Not really, but cant complain
4) Have you learnt any lessons in the last year?
Oh yeah, always have respect for poker or it will punish you!
5) How has the world of poker changed over the last 12 months?
Hm...good question...it hasnt...same as last year...
6) Has your approach to poker changed during this time?
Yes, big time, wont make same mistakes again (hope so).
7) Your ambition last year was to win as much money as you can and qualify for all major live tournaments.Did you achieve this? Do you have a new ambition?
Well...think is the same ambition, didnt have the run i wished then!
8) Are you still playing as ThierryH on Sun
No, Garfy, still on Sun
9) Are you still playing as much poker?
Yes, and I will play more in the years to come
10) You asked for a crypto player search, this never happened - Is this still the number one improvement required?
Not really, now I want them to do mtt rebuy tournaments :)
11) Your top players were Noseyboy, ClintonO, 007apr, ariston, kinghawko, kpnuts,xcuseme, Sun_Deshi, Leonarch has this changed?
Yes it changed, I havent seen them lately, there are a lot of new good players, but I still rate ClintonO, 007apr, SUN_DESHI as best on crypto along new others like Costy, CUTEMOFO, Onny, Retard, G@briel, Eyesight (both) and Lee! (Sry if I missed anyone...)
12) Anything else you want to tell us?
ARSENAL CHAMIPONS!!!! CHEERS!!!

Thank you so much!

ClintonO

Welcome Back Sun_Deshi

2007-09-06T19:51:00.000+01:00

A true legend of the game. Lets hear from Sun_Deshi.

1) What have you been up to in the last year?
On the Poker front, last year I got my first taste of live poker, first at the EPT Grand final in Monte Carlo, where to be honest with you I played like a Wet Blanket, never made any moves never once reraised or bluffed anybody and totally relied on cards.. In short I was pathetic, but loved the atmosphere and being part of such a huge tournament (biggest in Europe I believe).

Then next live game was the Dream Team Final hosted by Betfair, where I went their determined to make up for the lack of effort in Monte Carlo.. and I have to say I played very well and got HU in a 120 runner field that consisted of some very experienced pro's like Paul (actionjack) Jackson, where I did a deal with the other guy and we called it a day.

Those two events have definitely given me the live bug and I have my sights set on gukpt London, if cant qualify on bluesq, I’ll use my Rake back for this month to cough up the £1k entry fee.

2) Are you still doing the same thing - IT Engineer?
Unfortunately not, I left my job 4 months ago, and have been playing poker full time. 1st week as a full time poker player was great, but then hit a horrid run which wasn’t helped by the fact there was no structure to my game, I was play the game much like I did when I was at work.. More a hobbies then a job.

Fortunately having the right friends who have been doing this full time for a while and talking to them has helped a great deal, in particular Martyn Bebb, about 6 weeks ago both of us were pretty down and very disillusioned with the game.

So as a last ditch effort before quitting poker altogether we decided to "Force the Issue" basically playing poker at stakes way beyond our bankrolls will allow.. Thankfully for both of us it worked great (I think he did £7.8k in 3 weeks, and I did just over £5k in the same period).

Anyway there is a structure to the way I'm playing now, and also managing my bankroll paying myself on a weekly basis and treating the game as a proper job.

Having done this for a while now, I do still think I will get another job (sigh) :(.. This game can be very stressful at times. Although I’m not sure when and what I’ll do.

3) Have you had any big successes in the last year?
The betfair Dream Team Final has to be the biggest success simply because it was only my second live event, and to beat such a strong field of competitors was a great feeling.

Online I’ve won the daily 8pm game a number of times, and a number of other mtts like the Highrollers, but still no FT in the 40k, maybe one day.

I can’t believe I made 10th in that game the first two times I played it, when I knew nothing about the game and qualified via a £30sng. I’m supposedly much more experienced now, yet this bleeping tournament eludes me. Oh well as I say maybe one day..

Also while on the subject of the 40k a very well done to Whitedog for winning the 40k last Sunday.. Fantastic achievement.

4) Have you learnt any lessons in the last year?
Yes, biggest lesson is that online poker is rigged and poker is a mugs game :).. No I’m joking although some of the beats are very hard to stomach.. And we must all feel like that some times.

I think one of the biggest lessons has to be - Don’t criticise bad play, and don’t start to educate the fish at the table. As my good friend Mihai say's "let them play, we will benefit from it".

I have to be honest, I am guilty of trash talking and being out of line with other players, but it’s something I’m working and trying to remove from my game.

5) How has the world of poker changed over the last 12 months?
I think the evolution of poker has to be the fastest growing sport around today. With the TV exposure and the millions of £ on offer, it’s no longer a game for the degenerate underclass’s.

It’s great to see people from all walks of life taken an interest in the game, long may it continue

On the online sng's (which was my primary game) no longer are there any games with super value, simply because a lot of the players now have a much better understanding of the game, and what tends to happen is u get to blinds 200/400 and there are still 4 players left, which then turns into a bingo fest.

I think the days when the likes of HEFFERNAN, MrTurn3, Buzzer, and Kipsterdk were dominating the SNG’s are over and probably won’t be repeated. While these guys continue to make good money from the SNG’s others have caught up and it’s much tougher to win the number tournaments those guys used to win.

6) Has your approach to poker changed during this time?
I am still the same player in terms of playing the game.. What has changed for me specially since becoming full time is record keeping and the importance of analysing my play in games, and also being mentally prepared for a game.

7) Your ambition last year was to be WSOP champion- Did you achieve this? Do you have a new ambition?

hahaha! I chickened out of that in the end, I was running real bad at the time, and I just didn’t have the confidence to go to Vegas and spend a shed load of money when I had no job to fall back on.

But it’s still an ambition to play the main event in Vegas.

8) Are you still playing as SunDeshi, on SunPoker and Betfair?
Errr.. Well I’ve never really exclusively played sun_deshi, it’s just the account that everyone knows. I've got about 15 different accounts on crypto and 2 on Betfair and I use all of them... but SUN_DESHI is the most known and the one that i use the most.

9) Are you still playing as much poker?
Yes, probably more now, especially in the last 4 months... Although for the last couple of weeks I’ve played around 50 sng's and two mtts a day. I've had a couple of good payouts from mtts which always helps ease the pressure of the daily grind.

10) You asked for improvements to the RNG, did this happen, what do you want from them next?
Unfortunately not, and when I said it, it was hope more then expectation. How much better would online poker be if there was a governing body that could inspect/police the randomness of the RNG. Its all well and good saying they are random, but if a neutral professional body could give that opinion then if nothing else it would shut up suspecting idiots like me.

11) Your top players were ThierryH, ClintonO, 007apr, Noseyboy, Leonarch, --00--,laz and MrTurn3- has this changed?

Off course ThierryH, ClintonO, 007apr, Noseyboy remain very dangerous players, Leon hardly plays crypto now, and I haven’t seen --00-- for over a year. lanz and MrTurn3 aren’t really mtt players, I think at the time I was a fan of them because of the dominance in the sng's. If I was to give u a new list it would me

ClintonO, Mihai, Andy, Lukylud (what a week he had in the daily 8pm game), Noseyboy, The_seed, Logitech, Whitedog, Scruff, Cutemofo

But, tbh these are just 10 names that spring to mind, there are so many more good players on crypto, which is a real shame, I’d much rather they were all replaced by grade A fish.

12) Anything else you want to tell us?

PLEASE PLEASE do something about attracting more fish to crypto.. And if anyone knows how to get ecash to go bankrupt so crypto can find themselves a better cashier please come forward

What a great interview, thank you so much kind sir.

ClintonO

Welcome Back --00--

2007-09-06T19:41:00.000+01:00

As promised, its a repeat of the interviews from last year.

First up is our mysterious friend who I met in Vegas in 2006. A truly wonderful guy. So Mr --00-- over to you.

1) What have you been up to in the last year?
Well for the most part poker up until mid summer - mainly tournies and with the huge value on Mansion at the start of the year that has been my main playing field
2) Are you still doing the same thing - professional poker player?
Well actually no!! I was offered a job out the blue and much to the surprise of many, I actually accepted it! After playing poker for a living for 18 months and experiencing all the highs and lows, as well as a sore backside sitting down all the time lol, I decided to accept an opportunity that offered many benefits and therefore poker has reverted back to being a lucrative hobby.
3) Have you had any big successes in the last year?
My main ones have been in the Mansion $100k with 6 final tables - 1, 1, 3, 3, 5 and 6 for over $80,000 profit with many other minor placings paying for the entries. Qualifying for the WSOP 2006 Main Event and the inaugural WSOPE 2007 Main Event
4) Have you learnt any lessons in the last year?
Ooooh yes (Churchill style lol) I laid down AA for the first time and it was the correct decision! It's impossible to play a MTT to the best of my ability / capability if multitasking / multitabling. For me if I am in a MTT it demands all my attention.
5) How has the world of poker changed over the last 12 months?
Well we've never had it so good with the GBPT, the GUKPT and now the WSOPE - no longer does a decent live tourney mean jumping on a plane!
6) Has your approach to poker changed during this time?
I have to say yes, as prior to playing fulltime it was all I wanted to do, but having actually done it for a period of time made me realise that as much as I love the game, it is true what they say - you can have too much of a good thing!
7) Your ambition last year was to play with and beat the best of the best of the best SIR!- Did you achieve this? Do you have a new ambition?
LOL that was my favourite Will Smith line from Men In Black that I just popped in last time you did this questionnaire! No, not achieved - busted Julian Thew out of one of the GBPT's and was gunning for Joe Beevers before I got shifted tables, culminating in my demise )-: played with Jennifer Tilly in Vegas but that's about it! New ambition? The same really - play in an win a major event.
8) Are you still playing as --00-- on Littlewoods/Sun
Very rarely actually, not playing anywhere near as much but either on Mansions Sun/Tue tournies (AlexB) or occasionally on Crypto with __alexb__ or Betfair '''0'0'''
9) Well you have given your name away now Alex! Are you still playing as much poker? Already answered that one really - in a word no! But I'm the kind of person who likes frequent change in my lifestyle as I can get bored very easily so no doubt I'll end up swinging back and forth over the coming months / years lol
10) You asked for MPP's for tourney entries and AA to win more than 16%- did you get your wish - what do you want from them next?
Hehe yes the MPP's for tournies was nice to see and as for the AA that too has definitely improved - that stat was only based on about a months play but was absolutely genuine from my PT figures at the time
11) Your top players were ThierryH, 007apr, Sun_Deshi, Noseyboy, Leonarch, Animal, Azimut, ClintonO has this changed?
I will always have the utmost respect for those guys though I seldom play against them these days, though I bump in to Matt (Nosey) now and again playing $2-$5NL and for some strange reason whenever he's at my table I go card dead and tilt like crazy lol
12) Anything else you want to tell us?
I'm really looking forward to playing in the WSOPE next week and hopefully some of the guys named above will be there too, so just remember to stay off me blinds (-: And to answer the question "Why take a job?" - security for my family, cheaper mortgage, pension, and it seemed like a good idea at the time (-:

Thanks Alex, all the best in the WSOPE next week, please let us know how you get on.

ClintonO

Time is still the enemy

2007-09-04T20:26:00.000+01:00

All my intentions to play more have once again taken a back seat.
I am trying to get everything else I need to do out the way before the Golden Cup Series starts on Saturday. I would really like to give this a good go.

September started with £150 in my Littlewoods account and I aiming to stretch this as far as possible.

This month I have played 2 tournaments and some cash games. The cash games have gone well to date. I made £80 profit which I withdrew for a night out and another £100 which paid for two tournaments and left me with a balance of £225.

I played the GSCOP4 qualifier (which I have already won!, would have used the cash to enter another event) and was looking reasonably comfortable with six left (3 qualify). I got into a pot with AQ spades, the flop bought two spades. I reraised a small bet which was called. Turn was a blank, I bet heavy and the guy called all in with J9 spades, he had nothing of board and was drawing to a worse flush than me. River bought one of his 6 outs a Jack! Next hand I had TT and moved all in, he called with A4. 2T8,5,3. Runner runner straight - of course!

I also played the $4.5k, I was down to the last 30, when there was a family pot. QJ hearts, board T87, two hearts. A small stack moves all in, I am behind, but I feel my 13 outs is worth an isolation bet. He has 77 and I missed a heart or a 9. Down to my starting stack, I moved all in with KJ, up against KQ. I hit a J on the turn, but of course the Q comes on the river. Why give me hope!

A quick word of congratulations to a friend of mine Dave Duncan, who has supported me in both my poccer tournaments, Dave won the £40k on Sunday, taking home £10k+. A big win following in the footsteps of a Poccer teammate, who won $104k in a pokerstars event! Maybe poccer has taught them something! LOL!

Anyway to make up for my lack poker playing, I am going to rerun a feature I did a while back, interviewing some of the stars of the cryptologic network. Watch out for some interviews soon!

ClintonO

Lets Play some Poker

2007-09-01T11:35:00.000+01:00

Time is still the enemy, finding time to play in just proving impossible!

We enter September and I look back on August and see how few games I have played compared to previous months.
As yet there is no Caribbean seat secured and that will remain my main aim. September looks to be a really busy month again for me, with October looking a little easier to play some proper poker.

The EPT season 4 has started this week in Barcelona and I must confess to not even thinking about qualifying for it, which was one of my aims earlier in the year.

I would like to say a warm welcome to all those readers from the Wisbech Standard who follow Mac's column. He has given me a little nudge to get my blog in gear!!

There are so many fanastic events to play in around the online poker world and aim to share these with you during September.

I will keep you updated on the games I play starting tomorrow!
I will also be comfirming the schedule for Poccer at the end of next week.

ClintonO

50 UP!

2007-08-16T13:47:00.000+01:00

My blog has now visited 50 different countries in 2007.

With first time visitors from Austria, Lebanon and India this week, I have now reached the half century mark!

ClintonO

2 more final tables

2007-08-16T01:01:00.001+01:00

I managed to fit two games in this evening.

The $5k HH and the $4.5k GTD.
I made both final tables finishing 6th in the first and 4th in the 2nd.

In the $4.5k, I was chip leader with just 4 players left. Then this happened.

HOLE CARDS -----
dealt to ClintonO [Th Td]
Soobydo: folds
Jillyfish: folds
ClintonO: raises to 7200
Paulf1001: calls 4800
----- FLOP ----- [4c 8d 9d]
ClintonO: bets 7200
Paulf1001: calls 7200
----- TURN ----- [4c 8d 9d][Kd]
ClintonO: bets 7200
Paulf1001: is all-in 5825.50
Returned uncalled bets 1,374.50 to ClintonO
----- RIVER ----- [4c 8d 9d Kd][8h]
----- SHOW DOWN -----
ClintonO: shows [Th Td] (Two Pairs, Tens and Eights, King high)
Paulf1001: shows [Qd 8c] (Three of a kind, Eights, King high)
Paulf1001 collected 41651 from Main pot

Followed shortly after by

----- HOLE CARDS -----
dealt to ClintonO [8s 8c]
ClintonO: raises to 7200
Paulf1001: calls 7200
Soobydo: folds
Jillyfish: calls 4800
----- FLOP ----- [2c Ah Ad]
Jillyfish: checks
ClintonO: bets 13906 and is all-in
Paulf1001: calls 13906
Jillyfish: folds
----- TURN ----- [2c Ah Ad][5c]
----- RIVER ----- [2c Ah Ad 5c][Qd]
----- SHOW DOWN -----
ClintonO: shows [8s 8c] (Two Pairs, Aces and Eights, Queen high)
Paulf1001: shows [5s 5h] (A Full House, Fives full of Aces)
Paulf1001 collected 51812 from Main pot

"SIGH"

Still 2 from 2 final tables is a good effort and the bankroll continues in the right direction.

ClintonO

A couple of decent performances

2007-08-15T21:48:00.000+01:00

I managed to find a few hours to play on Sunday. Playing in the CPC Final and the £40k.

Both ended within a minute of each other, but both financially profitable.
I made my 3rd consecutive final table of the CPC, but went out in 7th place. I received $603 for my efforts, but so did everyone from 2nd to 16th!

In the £40k, it a was a 23rd place finish and £280.

Both tournaments I pushed with top pair on the flop, but was outkicked by one card both times. Both were hands I did not to get involved in, but was priced in.

Always nice to push the bankroll forward!

ClintonO

Playing at last!

2007-08-10T16:54:00.001+01:00

How nice to be playing again!

I managed four games last night, which was more than I expected to be able to play but I am not complaining.

First up was the $77 CPC qualifier. I have done very well in these so far, I have previously played in 4 and won 3 of them. 35 runners last night and top 4 made it. Solid poker is the way forward in this type of the event and after getting into 2nd place with 7 left, it was just a matter of playing tight, aggressive poker, putting the short stacks under pressure. I continued my good record to make it through to Sundays $530 final.

Next was the GC 7 qualifier, I wanted to add this to numbers 4,6,8 that I previously qualified for. I made the final table, but was quite short stacked with 7 left and 3 seats available.

I get into a pot cheaply with 34, the board brings 52x and I think this is as good time as any to go for the check raise. I get called by 99, which was a lot better than I expected and missed the help needed.

I played the £6k and finished just outside the money, I managed to get my way up to 7k. Holding JJ, I thought I played the hand really well, eventually getting someone to put all their chips in with K9 and a flush draw with one card to come. He had 11 outs on the river (I held one of the hearts) and hit, to knock me out 4 from the money and robbing me of a chance to move into the top 12.

I also played the $4.5k, for some reason people kept giving me their chips to start with and I had 6k and was leading after the first level.
I stayed in the top ten for most of the tournament.
With 25 left, the button raises me, I have KK in small blind, push all in and get called by TT, a ten hits on the turn.
Shortly after I have JJ and reraise all in to be called by AJ, an ace comes on the river.

I am happy enough with that for a nights work, a seat in Sunday’s final and a couple of unlucky hands which stopped me benefiting financially.

The other subject I want to touch on today is how people react to things that happen during poker.
Someone posted on my blog last night, asking what my views are on the fact that the Eyesight brothers abuse people on line and that abuse can get very strong and yet they claim to be good friends of mine.

I have a few things to say on this subject, which may or may not be controversial depending on your point of view.
Firstly, poker in my opinion is a game of skill, with a greater or lesser degree of luck thrown in dependent on your timeframe and how you approach and play the game.
Some people are prone to more bad luck than others. The tighter the player you are, the more likely it is that when you lose a hand, you lose to a weaker hand.

How you respond to misfortune is a great indicator of how successful you will be in whatever it is you do.

No one enjoys losing with AA to JJ preflop, but it happens and it happens 1 time in 5. However, when it does happen, you don’t instantly turn around and say well that ok, I am due one, you feel gutted and cheated. For those people who think they are the best around, then these hands are almost impossible to take.
I have gone through substantial losing periods with all the big hands and yet if I take a long term perspective of it, the percentages play themselves out whatever you think actually happens.

I do not see the point of abusing people who get lucky against you, what are you trying to make happen, does it affect the way they play, very unlikely. It is more likely to affect you. Poker is a game played in the mind, try playing a game without looking at your cards, that will show you how it’s a mind game.

I have met both the Eyesight brothers, who have been kind enough to play in both my Poccer events.
I had long chats with both of them and they are genuine, decent guys. However when they hit the poker tables they are subject to change!
For a lot of poker players, poker is everything, it’s their livelihood, their bread and butter. What goes with that is a level of confidence and to a degree arrogance. In order to be successful, confidence is a pre-requisite. How you manage that confidence will determine how you appear in the eyes of the all those watching.

I have met some lovely people in the world of poker and I have met some complete tossers! All of these people have confidence in their ability, but how they handle themselves, their levels of arrogance and whether they believe their own hype makes the difference.

I know I can play poker, I know that I am a decent player and am confident when I play. I have been fortunate in that I have qualified for a number of big events and have enjoyed my time in those. I know though, that there are thousands of better players than me in the world. What I do know is how to play to my strengths and make the most of what skills I have and also to take the rough with the smooth.

When I look at Tom, the younger eyesight brother, you can see a decent poker player, with hopefully the potential to do better, who has also won a fair amount online. Not massive compared to some the big names, but credit where it’s due he has done well.

I can’t agree with the verbal assaults he or anyone else gives out when they lose, nor will I try to justify them. At my recent Poccer tournament, he was the only player not be clapped when he went out. What does that mean, if it helps build his image or character as a player, then maybe positive can be taken from it, but let’s be honest, we are not world famous players and you are more likely to open doors with a positive attitude than a negative one. I am not professing to try to be liked by everyone as that is impossible and most unlikely unprofitable! I do suggest though, that everyone has the right to sit down at a poker table and how they play is up to them. All you have to do is work them out and then how to take their chips!

I have met many other young poker players who believe that they are the next big thing, they are cocky, arrogant and so self assured, they honestly believe they are the best poker player in the world. This is not attractive to poker companies, the media or followers of the game, who see so many of these types of people.

Instead of typing expletives down the screen, work out what happened and why. If you genuinely could not have played it better, then that’s just unlucky and it was not to be. If you can learn from victory or defeat, then you are going to be in a much better position for the future.

Now who’s for a friendly game of Poker!
Take Care
ClintonO

Wanted - Time Machine

2007-08-09T21:28:00.000+01:00

How do I find more time in the day!

Its my only my second night on the tables in over a week, I really want to play more, but I just don't have the time.

So whats new, well the CPC is still priority 1, but I need to play more to get into the finals, will try and qualify tonight for Sundays final. Where are the Double Shootouts.

I have decided to try to qualify for as many as the Golden Cup Finals as possible. I have so far made it into finals 4, 6 and 8. Thats $960 worth of entry fees so far, would like to make them all if possible without having to buy in.

It was the 2nd Poccer Cup last weekend, which was a really enjoyable day for all involved.
The Ditch Six (a newly formed team) stole the show with a great performance.

From the feedback so far, the average rating for the day is 9/10, bettered only by Poccer customer service up at 9.5/10. This is always nice to see as we put a hell of a lot in to making this work.

I am putting everything into making this work, so lets hope it does. Was great to see Tony Chessa and Dave Colclough come along to see the event in action.

Please be sure to check out www.poccer.co.uk and look at getting involved when you can.

Hopefully I will be back later talking of some successes!
ClintonO

A great night of poker

2007-07-28T02:23:00.000+01:00

It just goes to show the old saying of when you're hot you're hot. (Thanks to the grammar police for correctly pointing out I spelt you're as your)
After last nights win, my form continued this evening. Although I do feel I little gutted, too much of a perfectionist.

5 games tonight and 5 results.

The Golden Cup #9 qualifier for the $130 was first on the agenda, 2 seats available, duly secured.

The Golden Cup #8 qualifier for the $530 was next, 3 seats, one taken.

Then the $20k - $200 better off for 14. As AK runs into KK

The $4.5k was next, could I defend my crown. Previously in that competition I had come 1st, then 2nd. Well after yesterdays 1st, it was just 3rd tonight. $575 more.

Finally it was the £6k. We are heads up and I am slightly behind in chips 260 plays 240. I get Ts6s. Flop 3sTc9d. He bets I call. Turn 4s. I have top pair and flush draw.
He bets, I reraise heavilly, he goes all in. I think for ages and call, he has K9. He has 4 outs (1 of the nines will complete my flush). Incredibly he hits the other 9. I am out in 2nd place. £1070 better off.

I am really happy with that as a nights work, although it was almost £600 more!

Still Fridays remain a great night for me and the last two days have bought some much needed revenue!

ClintonO

We're Back

2007-07-27T01:10:00.000+01:00

Well after saying how bad I was playing, I guess its only fitting that I then win a tournament!

The $4.5k guaranteed $55 buy in, had 116 runners, $5.8k in the prize pool and $1.74k of it went to me for coming in first!

The evening was made better, due to the fact that I also won a CPC qualifier to the $530 final on Sunday.

I was very pleased with the $4.5k performance. Despite being 3rd with 3 left, I felt very comfortable. Also when heads up, I felt very much in control.

What a lovely feeling to win again, the 3rd success in that tournament for me.

Bed time now with a win under the belt.

ClintonO

Additional note - I just received a comment about tips on winning a tournament. Well one that is particularly relevant, is never give up. With five players left last night, I ran into trips with top two pair, it left me with 943 chips, with blinds at 1200 & 2400. So basically never give up and fight for everything.
Incidently - I had KQ on 943 versus 2 others with lower cards and trebled up, then again when my KJ beat 79 after one guy tried to isolate.
To win the tournament from that position is a very nice feeling indeed!

Poker Update

2007-07-26T19:59:00.000+01:00

Nothing is happening for me at the moment. A couple of games last night, but no good whatsoever. I am clearly not at my best at the moment because as usual I am trying to do too much. I am hoping to improve my recent record tonight.

You will find me in the $20k for certain.

ClintonO

Poccer Update

2007-07-26T19:54:00.000+01:00

With 12 teams confirmed for Poccer on Saturday 4th, it is shaping up to be a fantastic day.

All the runners and riders can be found at www.poccer.co.uk.
Incredibly the eyesight team have been sponsored by Sunpoker. Are to witness the most dramatic turnaround in Poccer history from last place to 1st place!
I suggest if anyone is interested they contact their poker room and see if they will help you out!

There are a couple of teams that are looking for the odd player, so if you are interested please let me know at enquiries@poccer.co.uk and you don't have to be odd.

ClintonO

Blog on Tour Update

2007-07-26T19:39:00.000+01:00

I know this is boring for some, but I find it quite interesting, so just a short posting.

Just a quick update on where my blog has travelled to!
In the last two weeks, its been to another 4 countries taking the total to 47.
Greenland/Lithuania/Bulgaria & Turkey have all paid a visit.

My top 5 countries remain the same, UK, Norway, US, Canada and Denmark.
However if you look how long the average visit is to my site, then its Germany way out in front.

1) Germany 14 mins 7 secs per visit
2) Sweden 12 mins 18 secs
3) Hungary 9 mins 43 secs
4) Iceland 7 mins 10 secs
5) Canada 6 mins 41 secs
6) Spain 6 mins 34 secs
7) UK 5 mins 36 secs
8) Italy 4 mins 54 secs
9) US 4 mins 27 secs
10) Holland 4 mins 24 secs.

I would also like to note that Jamie and his magic cards have become the number 3 generator of traffic this week, so somebodys reading your blog sir!

Now if anyone can come up with a more boring post than that, I want to know about it!

ClintonO

More time needed

2007-07-24T23:20:00.000+01:00

Apologies again for the lack of updates, I just simply don't have enough time in the day to do everything I want to do!

Poker wise, I have had a fairly quiet week.
I played in the Sunday £40k, after qualifying in the £13 MTTs and managed to go out on the bubble in 41st place. I was was sitting in about 36th at the time and I get 99 on the button, the cutoff did his usual raise, so I moved in, he instant calls with K3 and hits not one but two kings!

I have had a couple of final tables and made a little money but nothing special, I also played a few hours of fixed limit cash games, winning the grand total of £50, but did manage to rack up 700 mpps in the mean time.

A few words of congratulations, firstly to my good friend Mr Lee Hayward, who won the NTX last night, for his first significant win, well done sir. Also another good friend Paul Barrington-Light won a nice tourney on pokerstars and took down in the region of $5.5k ,very well done.

Whilst I am on the subject of acknowledging people, I would also like to thank the wonderful people at Littlewoods who sponsered Royal Windsor races last night and kindly invited me along.
The first 5 winners helped me enjoy the night, but a few really nice touches like picking out the best turned out horse, (Orchard House of course!!) made it a really special evening.

Rachael got to present the trophy to the winner of the second race, although unfortunately they had to just sell their horse in an auction, so they were not the most pleased winners I have ever seen!!!
Only downside was the torrential rain, but you can't have everything.

Poccer continues to dominate my time, holidays, weddings, injuries etc are taking their toll on the teams who had previously registered, so I am still trying to fill the remaining few spaces. If you fancy getting involved please let me know, would be great to see you.

Cryptologic have got their Golden Cup series back in September, so that should keep a lot of interest in the site, which is good news for players.

One thing I have been looking at is the chat on the site and how wound up some people get! I have taken down a few conversations that just made me laugh.
Please be wary that some of the language used below made be offensive to some, so if you are of a sensitive nature, don't read on.

The terrible bad beat!

omaplata (observer): nice call with 89 u ****head of a donk
Supernosh (observer): whats your problem?
Russ07125: u fug king knob

The I have not heard that one before!

Stonehead: hilaary playing
Stonehead: monica cooking coffee

The Capital letter attack.

Greatest (observer): ROBE U FUC KIN MOR ON , CALLin all ur stack WITH KQ OFF
Greatest (observer): U FUC KIN MENTALIST
Greatest (observer): IS IT COS UR FROM FUC KIN LEEDS U WA NKER
Greatest (observer): I BET U HAVE AIDS U FUC KIN NORTHEN C* NT
Jodave: what a low life you must be greatest

The blame the site.

Wtf_ant (observer): sites a f u c k i n joke
Wtf_ant (observer): calls with 7 outs
Wtf_ant (observer): c * n t

Multiway Insults.

4ofhearts: muppet
Coop11: up yours to ss er
Contrazur: noob ****
Dan040447: up your kozmik
Coop11: 2 to ss ers top right
Kozmik_k: my kozmik what?
Dan040447: a ssss
Kozmik_k: are you gay?
Dan040447: wot kinda names that u sound like an inbread

The are you ever going to drop it.

Sicurrie: that P RI CK called with K8
Sicurrie: what a W *NKER
Sicurrie: errr YES U YOU FKN MUPPET
Reaves: it was worth it u fool
Sicurrie: only one fool on this table
Reaves: yeh and ur it
Sicurrie: listen muppet
Reaves: t wat faced monkey
Sicurrie: calling with hands like that
Sicurrie: the only final table you will see is at your local mortuary
Reaves: bad loser's like u make me sick
Sicurrie: your right its like bad play
Sicurrie: and you fit that perfectly
Reaves: wasn't bad play cos it was worth it
Reaves: i'm gonna come at u like a spider monkey
Reaves: and stab u with a spoon
Reaves: stupid sicurrie very stupid lol
Sicurrie: watching you too long

Self confessed Fish!

psycocopy: lol i am a fish
boohoopok (observer): your a ****i n fish
DANDAN23: lol
boohoopok (observer): unreal you ******g DONLEY
Ruderalis: and ida flopped 3 tens lol
boohoopok (observer): DONKEY
psycocopy: a flounder i be
DANDAN23: lmao
riverkill (observer): says the one who calls all his chips off with bottom pair

Final table tension

Mhumph82: fishin FU CK WIT !
Testicles: mhump DOES have the hump
Mhumph82: do grow up you fool !
Testicles: im not the one crying like alittle girl am i

Silent treatment

Flyndre: J4?
Flyndre: u call raises with that s hit?
Flyndre: fkn donkey
Andy1963: unreal
Flyndre: what a fkn fish
Andy1963: fish always get rewarded on here

Walked in half way through

Slick20 (observer): If i even actually bothered to explain why it is -17 you wouldent belive me anyway so its pointless
maleuk: 1364 games to be precise, so wen u come on here saying im useless, do sum simple checks otherwise u will embaress ureself
maleuk: no do one and get lost
Boingster: all this over one hand....
Boingster: or did i miss summat ??
Slick20 (observer): OK MALE WE ALL KNOW YOU CANT PLAY
maleuk: boing he was insulting everyone on the table
Boingster: ahhhhh
maleuk: so i am just telling him some home truths
Barr08109: could doyle brunson and kid poker take their chat to a private room
Boingster: lmao
Slick20 (observer): all this becaise he missed a flush draw
Slick20 (observer): can you belive it
maleuk: im fine, it was slick having a go at oplayers fo being useless, till i pointed out how bad he is
maleuk: -17%, u shud take up snap
Boingster: well i try to improve a bit with every game....dunno bout u lot
Slick20 (observer): no actually i called all in with j % and u started saying stuff to mr and i havent spoker " u once before
Slick20 (observer): why?
Slick20 (observer): becaus u missed your lfush and dumped chips off to me
maleuk: u went all in on J5, yet u had a go at lots of players, me inc wen u assumed i was going for a flush
Slick20 (observer): why did you think i did that
Slick20 (observer): i was raising every pot faterwards
maleuk: therefore, if u want to look how bad u r, look at -17% over 1300+ games
Slick20 (observer): i was on supertilt after the a !)
maleuk: if u r any good u shudnt tilt
maleuk: but u aint, so f off
Boingster: but that in itself is a weakness...yes ??
Slick20 (observer): did i ever say i percieved myself as being good
maleuk: yes u did
Slick20 (observer): i dont think i did
Slick20 (observer): you think you are good and it hasnt hit home that your not
Slick20 (observer): you just openeed your big mouth started tlkin " me when i havent spoker " u bfore in my life
maleuk: nh
Slick20 (observer): lol
Slick20 (observer): bye bye
Boingster: gg male
Slick20 (observer): donk
Slick20 (observer): donk
Slick20 (observer): donk

All these without an insult from the Eyesight boys! LOL!

Be back soon
ClintonO

Will people call a re-reraise with anything?

2007-07-16T20:49:00.001+01:00

Lets have a look.

Effort 1, Bet, raise, I reraise all - in. I am called with 2nd pair
Effort 2, Bet, raise, I reraise all -in. I am called with top pair, king kicker.

So I am guessing yes!

dealt to ClintonO [Jh Kc]
xoneshotx: folds
Greatest: folds
Bally1: folds
Lukylendo: folds
smitad: folds
sibor: folds
BOSSE: folds
Chloe1986: raises to 60
ClintonO: calls 50
Kyle0111: raises to 260
Chloe1986: calls 200
ClintonO: calls 200
----- FLOP ----- [4h 9d Ks]
ClintonO: checks
Kyle0111: bets 240
Chloe1986: raises to 480
ClintonO: raises to 1020 and is all-in
Kyle0111: folds
Chloe1986: calls 540
----- TURN ----- [4h 9d Ks][6h]
----- RIVER ----- [4h 9d Ks 6h][9s]
----- SHOW DOWN -----
ClintonO: shows [Jh Kc] (Two Pairs, Kings and Nines, Jack high)
Chloe1986: shows [7c 9c] (Three of a kind, Nines, King high)
Chloe1986 collected 3060 from Main pot

Effort 2

dealt to ClintonO [Ah Ks]
straycat: raises to 100
Eyesight:: folds
adamy125: folds
Mn_punk: calls 100
VanPersie: folds
Loverat: folds
Pokerbosi: folds
Greatest: calls 100
ClintonO: calls 75
Billy1234: calls 50
----- FLOP ----- [8s Kd 2c]
ClintonO: checks
Billy1234: checks
straycat: bets 350
Mn_punk: raises to 750
Greatest: folds
ClintonO: raises to 3065 and is all-in
Billy1234: folds
straycat: folds
Mn_punk: is all-in 2035
Returned uncalled bets 280 to ClintonO
----- TURN ----- [8s Kd 2c][6d]
----- RIVER ----- [8s Kd 2c 6d][Qc]
----- SHOW DOWN -----
ClintonO: shows [Ah Ks] (A Pair of Kings, Ace high)
Mn_punk: shows [Kc Qh] (Two Pairs, Kings and Queens, Eight high)
Mn_punk collected 6420 from Main pot

Not my night again!
ClintonO

Congrats to Andy + Jon

2007-07-16T19:23:00.000+01:00

I just about made it back in time for the CPC final and to be honest wish I did not bother.

I had made little progress in the first 30mins, when I was dealt QQ. I felt all through the hand that I was probably beat and ultimately was by KK. I was the first out and proves the point if you don't have the right planning, you will not play very well.

On a brighter note I watched Andy Reynolds in the PokerStars $400k Guaranteed last night, where he did fantastically well to finish 3rd and win $29k, very well done, unfortunately running into QQ with AQ.

Also well done to 'Skalie' or Jon, who has today made the final table of the WSOP main event. I spoke to Jon outside the Venetian card room for the $300 event there and told him about my Poccer ideas, maybe I have found my wealthy investor!! LOL. At this point he was not even playing the main event! Just a quick note to wish Jon all the best on the final table.

ClintonO