Happy Sunday at The Pomme...

The £30 + £30 tournament was going well for me. I hit the final table with 30,000 chips and unusually, the whole table (albeit some begrudgingly) decided to chop the £3000+ pot between all 10 players, so it was £300 in the bag and we played on for the points and the remaining £120.

Of course we all played differently when the money was all but gone, and I called two all-ins with 5, 6 suited to hit two pair and take down the pot. I then pushed again with Ace, 8 and rivered a full house making me 2nd in chips. I was keen to improve on my previous 5th place finishes and this boat put me into at least 4th place, so I was happy.

Eventually, I find myself heads-up with the chip lead and we agree to chop the remaining £120 too. I then bluff off most of my chips and go all-in blind to a (not surprisingly) 2nd place finish... my best placing yet, although I accept that if we hadn't chopped the money with 10 players left, I probably wouldn't have made it so deep... I certainly wouldn't have pushed with 5, 6 suited!

Onto the cash game, I'm steaming (and felted) pretty early on when I'm re-raised after popping the pot with pocket Jacks. A third player calls (unbelievably bad call) for all his chips with Queen, 9 suited and flops his Queen. The Re-Raiser had Ace, 10 off but fails to find his Ace from Space! The winner loves being Suited and Booted my boy (apparently)!

I re-load and get my revenge on the very same player when he bets at me all the way to the river with his Ace, Queen only to run into my Ace, King (an Ace came on the flop and the board paired on the river). Shame.

I'm card dead for three hours, missing nut flush draws and open-ended straight draws but I'm happy with a HUGE laydown I make pre-flop. I very rarely lay down Ace, King pre-flop but the other player just seemed so strong and I felt he must have been holding pocket Kings or Aces. I popped the pot and he re-raises me for £120+. I hate throwing away £50 when I'm holding Big Slick, especially when a player throws another £100 into the pot. I ask him "Are those Aces or Kings?" and he says "Aces". I tell him I believe him and show my Ace, King as it hits the muck. He is gracious enough to show the table his pocket Aces.

I'm card dead for another hour and we hit the final three hands of the night. The first hand is my Big Blind and as per the rest of the night, it's a raggedy piece of crap and I fold.

Penultimate hand and I'm dealt pocket 10s. A few callers limp in and then Shaky pops the pot. I call and we're heads-up. The flop is a peach, 9, 10, 3 rainbow and I check my trips. Shaky bets the pot again and I Hollywood the call. He even comments on my Bond-esque acting skills! The turn is a 6, still a rainbow board, so nothing is beating my set. I check again and amazingly, Shaky pops the pot for £300+, which puts me all-in. I can't call quick enough and show my trips and he turns over Ace, Queen - drawing dead.

Beautiful...

Up £1000 on the day give or take a few quid.

Friday is HEAT 5 of the FHP Autumn Series and the week after that, it's the £1000 final table and more interestingly, The BOUNTY HUNTER TOURNAMENT... see below.

jT

BOUNTY HUNTER TOURNAMENT

Click on the banner below:

Are you good enough?

November 28 - 7PM SHARP!!!

Big Pomme Cash...

Luck isn't about hitting big hands... we all get big hands.

Real luck is hitting big hands when other players are hitting monsters too, only not as strong as yours.

I went out of the tournament on Sunday one before the final table. I thought that was unlucky.

The first hand I play in the cash game I get Ace, 6 suited and flop top pair (6) and four to the flush.

A guy bets, I call and another player calls. The turn is a blank for me. The original bettor puts all his chips in and I call, as does the other player. The bettor flopped two pair and the other player in the hand was chasing the flush, so clearly he was drawing dead. I hit my Ace on the river for a stronger two pair and trebble-up... nice one.

I then take Scallops chips when my King, 10 hits a 10 on the flop and the nut flush draw. I don't like the Ace, but I don't think Scallop has it so I call his all-in. He turns over pocket 9s and I river the straight.

I then have an insane run hitting full house after full house. I felted The Beast when I rivered a house beating his own weaker house. That's the real luck, he knew he was beat but it's one of those hands you can't lay down.

I'm then in a monster pot with another player. I raise it up with pocket Queens and get three callers. I flop a house when Q, 6, 6 comes out on the board. I check, another player checks and someone takes a stab for £40. The player to my right raises to £100 and I call. The original bettor folds as does the other original caller. The turn is a blank and the guy bets another £200. I call. On the river, it's a blank for both of the flush draws on the board and the player bets £200. I raise £400 and he calls with his trip 6s. MASSIVE POT.

And my luck goes on and on and on. In another big pot, a player flops a King with his Ace, King and pushes all his chips in. I call with pocket Kings!!! 

I cash in £1550 up on my £150 original buy-in.

Not bad...

jT

Another Uncover Poker final table... and IT'S NEARLY HERE!!!

I still haven't beaten a 3rd place finish at UP, but last night I managed to scoop just over $400 for 6th place in a $10,000 Re-Buy tournament. I was chip leader for the bulk of the latter stages when I got pocket Aces three times during one blind level and they paid twice and stole the blinds the other time! I then got really lucky with pocket Kings and was sat on about 25% of the chips in play as we hit the final table. 

I then saw the eventual winner win a MASSIVE pot with his own Cowboys to sit on over a million chips! 

I got unlucky as the final table battled it out, losing a couple of races where I was ahead. 

Below is my final hand and I can't complain, I was behind going in but when I hit my King the guy was dead to an Ace, and yep, the frickin' river!!! I will be buying one of our 'F***in River' FHP t-shirts and wearing it proudly!

So, I push my 65K into the middle and the chip leader isolates me by raising and flips over Ace, Queen. I hit my King on the Flop... I don't like the 10 on the turn as a Jack will give me two pair but will fill his Straight so I'm chanting 'No Ace, No Jack' and BAM... on the River. Out with $420.

I WILL WIN one of these things this month...

FRIDAY 28 NOVEMBER

Yesssss... it's the £1000 final table of the FHP Autumn Series, but what will the rest of us do whilst the ten finalists battle it out?

The FHP BOUNTY HUNTER that's what...

£0 Buy-in... You pay the player who busts you £25. You can then re-load for £5 during the first 90 minutes.

Starting stacks 2000 chips.

AWESOME!!!

HEAT 4 - RESULTS

Above: The final four players of Heat 4 (Dave Elliott, Michael Le Guillou, Kevin Hodkinson & Richard Hansford) came top in a record field of 50 players and chopped a record pot (£1530). 

The final positions were:

1st - Dave Elliott

2nd - Kevin Hodkinson

3rd - Michael Le Guillou

4th - Richard Hansford

The Autumn Series Leaderboard looks as follows:

Jason Harrison - 27 Points

Ashton De Carteret - 22 Points

Craig Hartley - 19 Points

Alan Beadle - 12 Points

Michael Le Guillou - 12 Points

Dave Elliott - 10 Points

Kevin Hodkinson - 9 Points

Jamie Sullivan - 8 Points

Alan Cadoret - 8 Points

Seb Perez - 8 Points

The top seven players above are guaranteed to make the £1000 final table at the end of the month and those with 8 Points and the rest of the players with less than 8 points on the board have it all to play for at HEAT 5 in a fortnight!

HEAT 5 - FRIDAY 21st NOVEMBER

£1000 FINAL TABLE & BOUNTY HUNTER TOURNAMENT - FRIDAY 28th NOVEMBER

jT

3rd Place in the UP $6000 Tourney...

I didn't beat my last online final table finishing position (3rd) but I did improve on my return... last time I finished 3rd, I scooped $400, this time it was closer to $700... nice one! That's two top three finishes in a month.

I'm actually starting to enjoy online play, especially tournaments and I seem to be getting deep each night and hitting the money (usually for small amounts unfortunately) but I am also finding myself chip leader or in the top ten at the mid-way point in tournaments, which is good for my confidence. I've definitely adapted my play for tournaments and seem to be able to maintain my discipline for long periods of time, which is hard for me with the attention span of a mollusk! I'm hoping it's only a matter of time before I win one and when I do, I'll go on to try the bigger buy-ins (at the moment I am sticking to $5 and $10 tourneys although even these can get expensive if it's a $35,000 Re-Buy structure).

GREAT NEWS FOR FHP MEMBERS & PLAYERS!!!

In the next few weeks, we will be launching online tournaments for FHP players at Uncover Poker. This is going to be awesome as you will be playing against people you see at the Tipsy Toad from week to week AND if it is a success, we will be adding money to the prize pools, regardless of the number of players, but as our membership is over 16o at the moment, I'm confident this is going to be awesome. We're also looking into replicating our Bounty Hunter structure online (No buy-in but you pay the player who eliminates you £25). That one may be a bit harder but we are looking into it!

I'm also keen to work out a way for live players at the Tipsy Toad to win buy-ins to online tournaments and vice versa... WATCH THIS SPACE!

Also, fishhookpoker.com should be live in the next few weeks too, which means you can logon to see your player profile, how many points you have in the leagues, chat to other FHP members in the discussion forum and find the latest FHP news, offers and all things poker-related. 

jT

The Vic... and 5th Place seems to be a trend!

I love business trips to London and that's for one reason and one reason only... The Vic.

The Vic is the mecca for poker in London, even with swanky new casinos popping-up all over the place like the Empire, the Vic is still considered home for players like Neil Channing, Vicky Coren and the Hendon Mob.

The Vic is usually pretty good to me in the cash games, in fact I had my first £1000 win at The Vic.

Last Tuesday, I couldn't check-in to my hotel quick enough so I could jump straight into a cab and head off to the Vic. I got there just after 7pm and found the poker room buzzing and long waiting lists on most of the tables.

As I had time to kill, I signed-up for a Quadruple Qualifier Touranament for the GUKPT events later this month. The Buy-In was £120 and the winner won four seats to the main Hold-Em events in the GUKPT hosted at the Vic, including the 3000 main event. Seemed like good value to me, so I registered and sat down with my 1500 chips. By the end of the re-buy period, I was sat on 4000 chips and feeling good about my play. I stole a few pots and won a big showdown with trip Queens.

In the first hand of the freezeout stage, I flop top pair with a pretty good kicker and get flat called all the way to the river, even after making it pretty expensive to come with me. The guy had flopped middle pair and rivered two pair... I was gutted. I was left with about 700 chips and pushed with Ace, 7 suited. The same player called me, this time with pocket Jacks and I couldn't find an Ace or flush, so was eliminated. The guy went on to win the whole thing, which is amazing considering his play.

The good news is, I got to play some cash from about 9pm onwards. One of the great things about the Vic, is that it is situated in an Arabic Quarter of London and the Arabs are ultra aggressive and seem to take a re-raise as a personal insult and will often push all their chips in with nothing, seemingly to prove a point. They seem to prefer to lose all their chips than fold. Happy days!

I sit down at a £1/£3 table (£200 min) with the minimum £200 and am very pleased to look down at pocket Aces. I raise it up to £12 and get three callers. The flop is a peach - Ace, 9, 9. So I flop a full house and short of someone holding miracle quads, I'm looking good!

I check, and the player to my left checks, the next player bets £50 and I flat call, making it look like I am on a draw (two hearts on the board). The other two players fold and the turn is a blank. I check and the guy throws out £100. I flat call again, but make it look like I really don't want to call!

The river is another blank (If I was chasing hearts) and I quickly throw out the rest of my chips. He insta-calls with Ace, King and I show my rockets.

I run good for about an hour, hitting straights, flushes, two-pair and another full house, and run my £200 up to about £900.

I then go card dead for hours and lose a couple of hundred. Anyway, to cut a long story short, I cash-in about £500 up, which is good enough for me!

Outside the Vic, a snow storm is raging, which is kinda odd for October!

POMME TOURNAMENTS

I've finished 5th in the last two Pomme tournaments in a row... which is cool, but annoying at the same time (I wanna win one!)

Last week, the £30 + £30, 5th place finish earned me £160 and this week, the £50 + £50 generated £500, which ain't bad. It would have been £225 but we chopped when we got down to the last 5 players.

I started off okay, but went bust just before the re-buys ended when I got two callers pre-flop with my pocket Kings. I was looking good after the flop when no Aces came out but the turn put three diamonds out there and a player was sitting on the nuts with Ace, Jack of diamonds... Nice hand.

So £100 for a re-buy and the add-on and I'm sitting on the minimum chip stack for the freezeout period. I sit tight for an hour and players are being eliminated left, right and centre and before long we're down to two tables. I steal some dead money, as I have just enough chips to put the blinds off from calling with raggedy hands.

We're down to the final table and it's push or fold time. I get lucky a few times and steal some blinds and then get called in a key hand with Ace, 9. The player had 7, 8 suited and I turn an ace to double-up.

We're all playing mega tight and it's taking a fricking age to get rid of the short stacks. Catthrasher has a nice trebble-up to take the chip lead and sends two players home. We agree a prize for 6th and 7th place, so players are pushing with weak hands and before we knew it, we were down to 5 players.

The chip leader suggests a chop of £500 for four of us, with him taking £1000 and a play-off for the remaining £900 and the points. Happy days!

I take the money, and find Ace, 5 suited under the gun. I push my 40,000 in and get two callers, one with pocket 8s and one with Ace, 9 suited... Bye bye!

The 8s hold and take out me and the other player.

After 5 hours of poker, my cash game sucks and I push all my chips in after a flop gives me an open-ended straight and four to a flush. One player had a better flush draw and another had two-pair, which improves to a boat on the river.

I'm looking forward to the FHP game on Friday, new WPT tables, tournament software back in action and plenty of chips on the tables!!!

WATCH THIS SPACE...

We'll be hosting ONLINE TOURNAMENTS for FHP members at UNCOVER POKER later this month - more details coming soon...

And I've seen the mock-ups for the FHP clothing line and they look AMAZING!!! We're not talking simply a few poker t-shirts here, we're talking a top quality brand here, with Ts, shirts, hoodies, caps, longsleeves and much, much more... you will likey a lotty!!!

jT