My Biggest Live Score

I finished 2nd out of 251 entrants for $6,500 Australian Dollars on Sunday 3rd November 2019. This was my biggest live score to date. It was a 2 day (3 venue) pub tournament that "Shark Poker" runs a version of once a quarter. I always make an effort to play these events as they offer an excellent structure for an affordable buy-in.

This tournament was an accumulator with four day 1's and the option to re-enter twice on each day. The idea is you can add your stacks together from each day 1 that you play ($180 per entry) and move them forward to day 2. I played only one day 1 (the one easiest for me to get to) and had 1 re-entry so was in for $360 all-up.

Day 2 was played across 2 venues, the first was a Bowls club and the second a pub. The event was really well run overall and had a good atmosphere. I made day 2 with a below average stack but managed to luckbox my way into the chiplead by the time the final table came around! The structure made for a fairly fast final table with several out busting early in this top heavy event. When we got to 3-handed play though it seemed to go on forever with me surviving on ~20bbs by reshoving and open jamming a lot (to avoid being put in tough ICM spots). The payouts were:

1st: $11,000
2nd: $6,500
3rd: $4,000

The player who finished 3rd refused to deal. Eventually a 3-way hand developed on a paired board where I bluffed the turn and both players called. At this point I gave up with 6 high and the two big stacks collided (full house vs trips with A kicker) leaving one crippled. The next hand I busted the other shorty and was HU vs the other player pictured (left) who had a huge chiplead. After taking down a few pots with shoves pre-flop I had 10bbs but that soon halved as I lost a pot with 2nd pair vs top set. The next hand was to be the last as I ripped 5bbs in pre from the button with T7o and was called by ATs and that was all she wrote! GG.

I'm on TV

Yo! I'm on Twitch.

First ever bounty tournament win!

I won the $27 turbo 6 max progressive Knockout outright for $2.2k including bounties besting a field of 568 players! The difference between 1st and 2nd in a PKO tournament is massive due to fact that you win your own bounty if you win as well so I'm super chuffed to win this one. A key hand Heads Up happened when I got AQo in against JJ preflop and scooped the pot for a 4:1 chip lead. NICE.  

Five Figure Shippage

Just a quick post to announce my first ever five figure score! I finished 2nd out of 5,409 players in the Big $22 $80k GTD for $10,257.28. Well chuffed, despite being owned in the second half of the heads up battle, with this win :-D But how should I celebrate?

On a heater

I chopped the Big $44 25k GTD on Pokerstars this morning for $4k heads up. The tournament had 730 runners and a prizepool of $29,200. Coming onto the Final Table as the short stack I did not fancy my chances too much. David Vamplew was the runnaway chip leader and set about opening every pot he could only to have to fold to multiple rejams once it became clear what he was doing. I doubled through him more than once including a pot for the chiplead where my AKs beat his 99 AIPF and his bust hand where he open limped A7o in the SB and I shoved 20bbs with 33 which won.

He's Back!!!

It's been a long time coming... I haven't had a 4 figure score in years (partially due to not playing a lot) but my second biggest ever makes up for it :) Today I finished 4th out of 10,000+ runners in a SCOOP $5 rebuy event for $8k. Of course I wanted that bracelet but I played my best game and thoroughly enjoyed this tourney which ran over 2 days. The final hand for me saw my ATo lose to AKo AIPF but I can't say I wasn't lucky throughout this monster of a field. A special shoutout to Darren Knaggs who railed me on the FT after busting somewhere in the top 100 finishers on day 2. BOOOYAKASHAN!!!!!!!!!!!!!!

Time to crush!

I've quit my job, after working for 6 months as a 'Consultant Electrical Engineer'. I handed in my notice on the last day of my probation period so I could give one weeks notice rather than 4, tbh I was that desperate to get outta there! It was a pretty tough decision as my life roll is low and my bankroll non-existent (i'm staked atm) but for various reasons I felt it had to be done.

I have about enough of a life roll to survive on til the end of the year, and if I haven't banked any profit from playing low-mid stakes mtt's for my backer by then I will be looking for another job. So not the best of circumstances under which to 'go pro' obviously but that's the way it's presented itself and I see it as an opportunity rather than anything else.

I knew early on in the job that I could either be a very good engineer or a very good poker player and that if I tried to be both I would likely be a mediocre version of both (or have no life at all!). So I knew I had to choose.

You might ask why didn't I stick at the job until I'd built up a bigger life roll through saving wages and or poker. I considered that but I didn't choose to because basically I couldn't hack it any longer, the combination of working 37.5 hrs a week in front of a screen doing mentally challenging things at work and then spending 20+ hrs a week doing the same at home playing mtt's til the early hrs was becoming increasingly unhealthy and the two were affecting each other negatively. My work was suffering as I dragged myself in after late nights playing mtts and my game was suffering as I was tilting easier and blowing off steam when I came in from work. In recent weeks I had decided to keep my sessions to the weekends but that tilted me more, because I was having no social life at all!

Despite all this I've managed to turn a profit of around $3k (b4 split) in my staking deal which has been going for 2 months now. Which is a decent start but I feel I can do a lot better under different circumstances and with more volume. So at the end of the day I decided although not the best timing it was right for me to leave the job a.s.a.p. to concentrate on poker full-time. What will I do if I run out of life funds and the results don't come, we'll see... but whilst I hope it doesn't come to that I am not averse to working in any job I can find, if I have to.

That's my jacking in a good job justification rant over! In other news I'm in Ireland, near Cork, atm with my Aussie family who are over for a visit. Just arrived today but it's been nice catching up with them so far :) They've been trying to persuade me to move back over to Oz and I'm considering it but I need to think about it carefully first. Future blog posts about that decision I'm sure.

For now I'm gunna enjoy a week away from the tables to reset my body clock a bit and enjoy spending time with the 'rellies'. When I get back it'll be time to crush!