Need to find time to grind 180men! (Warning: explicit gay content not included!)

Hi, due to being busy in the days with golf, tennis and squash, I haven't played much in the evenings because I don't want to play too much when tired! So a short post wooooooohooooooo!



In around the sixth time a few Durham lads played a $4.40 180-man together, I finally managed to cash, and luckily it was a good one for 2nd, scoring a tidy $145. With around 50 left, I made a huge play to near double up, and if my memory serves me correctly should be able to post most of the hands.



I had a stack of around 5.7k ish (won a huge pot with KK vs AJ and something else fairly recently), and had KJ in the big blind. Two limps, the SB completes and I check.



Flop JQ3...SB checks and I put a feeler bet of 400 out here. Fold, call and SB folds.

Turn 7... I fire out 1k, not putting my opponent on a Q and he flats.

River 5...I feel I'm good so check, trying to induce a bluff and also to control the pot if I am beat.



Here, he fires out 3k, surprising me quite a bit. I dwell for around 5 seconds (quite a long dwell for me!) and I call...he has K10 for a missed straight draw and I near double up. This relieved some of the pressure a prominent Mr_Rahl was putting on me, sitting next to me 2nd in chips with a pretty huge stack.



A few hands later I had 77 on the button and raised standard (obv means 599 blinds 100/200)



Flop A97 (weee nice, two spades though) Checked by BB and I raise 999 or something. Flat call.

Turn 10 spade...not too nice...I think about checking to be fruity, but bet 2399 instead. Flat call.

River 9...happy days...I have around 5k, pot around 8-9k...



Here I have 3300 written in the raise column and just about to raise...and I think if he calls that he calls a shove. So I shove. He folds, don't know what he had, probably ace x. Maybe a raise would have been better.



At this point i was in around 4th, Isaac still in 2nd, with 1st place to my left. He was a huge fish and I quite a few pots vs him value betting top pair and calling down with 2nd pair. In no time at all, I was up on 25k, Isaac had chipped up to about the same, and we were in 1st and 2nd I think! :-) I was dreaming of heads up vs him, but as the bubble burst, we went our separate ways, and his luck run out.



He finished in around 12th for a cash but a disappointing end to a superbly played tournament. A bad run of luck and cards at the worst time hurt his chances but he's proving his $515 score was no fluke! (maybe a little bit of a fluke!! :P)



My table had another huge stack and a guy I recognised from a leaderboard somewhere. I sharkscoped xmachine888 and found stats of...



17,962
$1.59
$7
34%
$28,599



Huge 180man grinder with sick results. He doubled up to get a stack near to 20k, but by this time I had worked up to 44k with aggro play and people folding to most of my c-bets.



Here, 6-handed 12 left in the tournie, I took a huge hit from the guy in 2nd. I had k10 on the BB...(blinds 300/600 some ante)



Pre- Limp, Sb folds, I check

Flop...1082 I bet 1.5k...flat call

Turn 5 (2 diamonds now)...I want to control the pot and learn more where I am in the hands so I check. he bets 3k, I'm concerned so I just flat.

River...3rd diamond 7 i think.



I put him on a small pair pre which is why I was cautious because I thought he may have trips...and he bet a large bet of 8k in to the pot. Here I knew he was strong, but couldn't fold, and sure enough he had me beat. He had 910 though, both diamonds, so I was quite badly outdrawn. Still, I should have folded the river and would never have known.



This took me back down to around 30k, and I won a few and lost a few from here, and started getting resistnace from people who were re-popping and I had dwindled down to 20k. I got a double up here from the shark guy who pushed 88 and my AK hit trips. So the final table, and I had 27k. Chip lead had around 50k, and the blinds were still small like 600/1200, crazy for a final table but a testament to the skill-favoured structure of the tournie.



Here, I went on a sick heater. In the space of about 4 knock-outs, I think all by me, I had shoved AA, AK and another couple of hands to knock people out. 5 handed I was tied 2nd place roughly, but the 5th player went and I managed to get all the chips from the guy out in 4th. With an aggro image, I re-shoved AQ to a min raise and was insta-called by K10. I hit trips on the turn leaving him dead and had a huge stack. I looked to dominate from here but faced tough resistance from a player called cellmax. We were passing chips between us as 3rd guy whittled down, but then I lost a huge pot to the guy in 3rd.



I had j7 suited and limped. Bad play #1

Flop, 568...i check called a pot raise. Bad play #2

Turn, j (2 clubs out now)...I led out 2/3 pot, trying to turn a bad play in to a good one and thinking he was weak. He called.

River, 9...(weee straight card...3rd club though...and sure enough he had k4 clubs when it went to showdown. I could have avoided that by simply check-raising or leading the flop...boooo!



So I'm back into 2nd and we are more evens then before...then a stupidly sick hand!!!!!!!!!!



I have AQsuited on the SB, and cellmax on the button raises (as per...up to 6k blinds 1000/2000)

I have 60k behind but still using my aggro image I shove...couldn't flat and didn't want to raise and be 4-bet...he insta-called with AQ clubs. I had spades...little did he know spades are the nuts!!



The flop was a dream, 2 spades and one club...I said to myself, no club on the turn! The turn in fact completed my flush (weeeeee) and gave me a royal flush draw! A little unnecessarily and showing off to the railbirds, I completed the royal flush and re-established my lead at the top!!!

3 handed I had a top pair which I played fairly well against a guy who was chasing a flush in a quite obvious way so I could easily call his river shove with a pair of Aces.

So when it got to heads up, apparently my speciality, I had a 3.5 to 1 chip lead.

Then there was a really annoying hand...

I managed to get him to put it all with A2 on a board of A10K4, only for the river to counterfeit my hand with a 10. Annoying but I maintain my lead.

Then I lost a bit because he was aggro and taking the plays away from me. At a bit less than 3 to 1 lead I gave him the double up I didn't want to give him, with my pushing after a flop raise with 910 on a 89J board 3 hearts and I have the 10 of hearts only to be instacalled by Q7 hearts, leaving me drawing dead to a house.

Sick...then I lost quite a big pot after limping a hand, representing a big hand, I barreled three streets with air and was painfully called (after much dwelling) on the river by his top pair with a decent kicker, showing my play did appear strong. Anyway, I was slightly down here but then managed to check-shove with 2nd pair after quite a bit of action to get it nearly back to evens. Then I tried to be too tricky. he raised button as per, and I flatted AA. The flop was Q72, not too bad for my hand. I checked and he raised his standard half pot. I flatted, knowing the turn bet would appear as well. But the turn was another Q and he bet a bit less than his usual turn bet. I had enough behind to fold but that wasn't really an option, and even though it felt bad I shoved. he flipped his Q5 and the game was over, I was the loser. Thinking back on it, I don;t beat myself up too much if I lose a $36 heads up after having a big lead, and this is pretty similar. The cards didn't come heads up and when I reduced him to 14% to split, he hit!!

All in all I was happy with the game, and if I hadn't have lost with KK vs J9 on the other $4.40 I played and busted in 39th, I felt like it could have been double success. So I definitely like them tournies and recommend them massively.

My stats for them are quite sick, not sustainable because luckily my cashes have been high but still xmachine's stats show massive amounts can be made at them games.

38
$17.26
$4
392%
$656

Anyway, haven't played much heads up, won around $90ish I think since last post playing heads up, with my overall profit now about $4k for pokerstars sng's!

Also, I deposited another $600, to take advantage of the 40% deposit bonus on stars, so in a couple of months time I should get around $240 which will be nice :-)

I'm going to withdraw the $600 when I get a chance and probably $400 more, so will take $1k or which will be nice :-)

My roll (assuming the $600 has been taken off) stands at $3091, so I'm over the $3k mark, yay! :-D

Adding the quick $100 I made on fulltilt and the $150ish playin live, my spoils since my $200 mission at the end of May shows around $3150 profit, or £1580ish, which is a nice feeling. At the minute though, I'm too tired to play too much so looking forward to coming back from holiday August 5th nice and refreshed and ready to make some $$$ and complete my bonus.

So unless anything exciting happens before then I'll post in a few weeks :-)

Gl all

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