July 2010 Recap

Hey Guys. I mentioned in my latest entry ‘Grosvenor Club Championships’ I’ll not be looking to update FTP with summarizes of our monthly scheduled tournaments, due to lack of motivation. I will however look to substitute those with monthly recaps where I’ll brush over all events played, and any novelty event’s will still be summarized as per usual.

All though this is my July recap I’ll briefly go over June’s exploits, as my very busy poker summer began. I played eight events across three festivals, this is a product of them being local and thus little travelling. I can say with confidence that I would be a long term winner in all eight events, despite the increased buy in the fields are still littered with soft spots. The reality is one month of live tournaments is such a small sample size, all things said/considered I’m completely satisfied with how things went. I cashed in three of the eight events, which I would have snap accepted if offered ahead of the busy month. Tournament poker is as such you need to make very deep runs to cover your buy-in, fortunately all my cashes were top end with one final table and two splits. In total I invested £1,805 in buy-ins and found £2,600 in cashes, as a result I was in profit by £795 which although nothing fantastic showing a +ROI is always better than losing and coupled with my side action whilst at all these events I made approximately £2,000 during June. In a nutshell I personally feel I’ve ran below expectation over June’s small sample, if all festivals continue returning year on year I hope to have a much higher ROI.

Moving onto July and the first fortnight of poker events/exploits can be found in our ‘Live Events’ section, detailing five events;

Gala £50 (+£5) +1 Rebuy “Unplaced”
World Cup Tag Team “Winners”
Circus £50 (+£5) NLH F/O w/£500 Added “Unplaced”
Grosvenor Club Championship “Unplaced”
Liverpool CBMPT Trip Report “Unplaced”

The weekend after Grosvenor Club Championships commencing Friday 16th July, I decided to head over to support the £10+R over Grosvenor. I had arranged to collect Mark from an evening wedding reception over Tyneside around 22:00 and take him home to Stakeford, this would interrupt my time on the felt but wouldn’t be too detrimental if I could spin up early. However after Mark text me asking to delay collection until 23:00 I kind of couldn’t really win the tournament without accumulating north of 15,000 chips before leaving at 22:45, which considering I had even managed to spin up a tenth of that I decided not to bother rebuying are seven failed bullets. Fortunately I recouped some of the damage over Aspers 50NL, before heading over to collect Mark and turning in myself a little after midnight.

Gala £100 (+£10) NLH F/O w/£1,000 Added
The following day (Saturday 17th July) both Mark and I were down Teesside for the monthly £100 freezeout, this was again well attended with 76 runners generating £8,600 including the added £1,000. I’m certain I’m cursed down Teesside as I have zero luck, several times I’ve been bust before end of level one;

TJs vs. Xenophon Constantinou QQ: 50/100 “18,000” (I open 250 from middle position with TJs, this is folded around to Xenophon in the SB who 3BETs to 1,250. I sense he’s pretty strong but happy to peel in position, it’s marginal considering the over 3BET but I’m cool with it. The flop comes AxKss giving me a flush draw, gutshot, and Qs for the royal draw, after Xenophon checks I bet 1,500 which after some deliberation he calls. An off suit queen hit’s the turn and I’ve found the nuts, after it’s checked to me I bet 3,000 (50% of my remaining stack) and Xenophon check raises me all in. I of course make the call and looking to dodge the board pairing on the river, this unfortunately doesn’t happen as a king hit’s the river to fill Xenophon up.)

Oh well another sharp exit, the most frustrating thing about busting in Teesside is car sharing with Mark means I can’t just head home. Anyway I quickly explain my exit hand to Mark before heading over to Showcase Cinema (I was bust too early so their was no cash games) next door to watch Inception, I’ll give a brief review below;

Dom Cobb (Leonardo DiCaprio) is a thief with the ability to enter people’s subconscious thoughts, this allows Dom to access information otherwise unavailable. He’s lost coveted things through delving too deep with his ability, but is offered a second chance to right his wrongs. Dom Cobb and his team off specialists are assigned to plant an idea in a targets subconscious, in essence creating an dream rather than stealing once which many believe to be impossible.


I guess I haven’t described it brilliantly but it’s kind of difficult in a brief synopsis given the detail the movie goes in to, but it’s well worth seeing and special effects are phenomenal. So I was back over Gala for approximately 22:00 and caught up with Mark who was on a fifteen minute break, after a quick chat and wishing him good luck I wished him good luck and sat at the 100NL. More cold decks as I miss another royal draw;

QJh vs. 35h vs. AKo: £0.50/£1.00 “£350” (I raise £12 from middle position behind a £2 straddle and one caller, this gets called in two spots behind and the big blind. £52.50 in PF before the flop falls AxKhh giving me nut flush draw and gutshot, after it’s checked to me I bet £30 which get’s shoved on by short stack for £51. The BTN smooth calls which of course has alarm bells ringing but I’m never folding with two draws to the nuts, anyway after the big blind gets out the way I call the extra £21. Side pot is now £205.50 and both me and BTN are playing like £75 behind, the king of hearts on the turn gives me the flush but also pairs the board and if you ask me the BTN has kind of played AK face up. Anyway I of course can’t fold so check/call all in to see I’m drawing dead to the ten of hearts for a royal flush, no miracle and I bust my first buy in.)

Rather than auto reload I’m feeling a little hungry so head over Pizza Hut for a sixteen inch cheese stuffed crust pepperoni for supper, after this it’s almost midnight and I’m beginning to feel Mark is good for decent return so back in the casino and name back on the 100NL list.


I sit down for a little while longer before I notice the final table is short handed so cash out and go sweat the action, and for all my bad luck in Teesside it’s compensated in how well Mark run’s, after navigating the 70+ strong field he eventually agreed an even three way split for £1,960 each. Our good friend Sam Akkary was also part of the three way split, so congratulations to those two and keep up the good work guys.

Other than that things have been pretty quite on the poker front during the tail-end of July here at FTP, the following weekend (Friday 23rd July) I hit it up in town with a bunch of the NPF crew for Neil Harvey’s 20th which was good crack from what I can remember. Both Mark and I have played a bunch of the Sunday/Tuesday Circus £20 +1 rebuy with zero success of late, but still hold a very good ROI in this game so looking to get over as much as possible. Anyway moving forward and tomorrow there is a £250 (+£25) NLH F/O ‘Yorkshire Cup’ in Grosvenor, Leeds which I think I’m playing but don’t know for sure yet. Mark is in Nottingham playing the third leg of the CBMPT and the ‘Yorkshire Cup’ didn’t really get met with much interest when posted over NPF so guess I’m bordering on giving it a miss, can’t really be arsed to twiddle my thumbs around Leeds alone if I’m felted early. Assuming I don’t go I’ll be hitting it up with some old school friends tomorrow for an all day Saturday session drinking which is always a great laugh, albeit a little damaging to the pockets but M’EH. Then a busy start to August as Newcastle is playing host to four great events of which I’ll be playing all;

Sunday 1st August (Afternoon): Circus £30 (+£3) Heads Up Tournament
Sunday 1st August (Evening): Circus £20 +1 Rebuy "£2,000 Guaranteed"
Monday 2nd August: Aspers £50 (+£5) NLH F/O “£500 Added”
Tuesday 3rd August: Circus £50 (+£5) NLH F/O “£500 Added”

Then of course the rest of my monthly schedule as well as ‘The G Cup’ towards the end of the month on Saturday 28th August which being a team game will be great crack.

That’s all folks