I remember my last experience of living in London was a losing one, dropping maybe $60-$70K in the four to five months that I was living here. I am not sure what has changed, as I am still living in the same area of London, am still living in a shared flat, and am still playing the same stake of cash games I was back then. I think the only real significant difference is that this time I am living with two other poker players, maybe this is what is having a positive effect on my game.
The last few weeks have been very swingy, starting with my +$40K Sunday, that started off being $12K in the red, and finishing (after a fantastic performance by a friend of mine (and my horse!) in the WCOOP High Rollers event) with a $35K profit. Not bad swings for someone playing $5/$10NL that day! Anyway, since then I have been up and down like a yoyo, which is hardly surprising when you consider the buyins for the tournaments I have played over the past month. The first of the tournaments I played in the month and a half of pure poker-mania, was the PSOP £1K event at the International Club (the new Gutshot), where I managed to bust on a 70/30. The next event was the WSOPE £1K event at the Empire Casino in London. No such luck again, and after running over the first table I was at, I came unstuck and manage to bust after about 7/8 hours under very boring circumstances!
Throughout the series of tournaments I was lining up to play, I played quite a few cash games at the Victoria Casino, some of which I found overly swingy, fun and sometimes pretty damn awful. Playing the £5/£10 NLHE games and up to £10/£25NLHE I found the higher games were remarkably easier than the lower staked games, which was crazy in my eyes, yet I still lost money in the long run, due to a high variance gambling tactic, which involved me playing terribly in certain situations where I wanted to just have fun - not a great idea (I shall definitely be taking the game seriously next time I am down there!). Having £3K swings each time I played, alongside a pretty awful time online, I decided to give poker a break for two weeks, and looked at getting myself a Life Coach!
WSOP Europe Main Event
The £10K Main Event was the pinnacle of this period for me, it was the event that had the highest prize pool, and also the highest buy-in. I really wanted to do well, but unfortunately it was just not meant to be. Taking my seat I knew that my table draw would be the key to a successful tournament, and I could not have got a worse one! I was the third to arrive at the table, and I did not recognize the other 2 players...great news...until Ben Grundy appeared on my left. Then Todd Brunson took his seat two to my left, and just to complete things, Phil Ivey joined directly to my right (as the two seats in between us were empty). Not a great starting line up, especially seeing as Grundy had just lost $500,000 playing online the previous evening...definitely fireworks!
The first few hands I played I lost, when my top two pair of Q5 on a Q52 two hearts board ran into Grundy's turned flush, and then a few hands later my flopped Q6 on a Q684 turn, with double barrel bets, ran into the mighty jacks of Ivey, which turned into a pretty nice looking set when the rivered Jack smashed me in the face! A polite 'your Queens up hands are not doing you so good' from Ivey sent me further into a hole. Nothing got better, despite the banter at the table (which had started to turn into a great laugh) when Chad Brown got moved to my table and proceeded to call every single one of my raises in position, and raise every single one of my big blinds. What's more, ten minutes later Jason 'I win tournaments for fun' Mercier joined the table too! Soon enough the table was moved onto the TV Feature table, where I believed my luck would change...how wrong I was. Decimated to an all-in or fold stack, I proceeded to get AQ in vs Mercier's A5, and split the pot on a double paired board, and then once again AK vs AQ, where this time a queen flopped and no improvement for me sent me to the rail! The only good thing that came from this tournament, except the experience, was my chance meeting with a beautiful masseuse who I managed to beg and plea to meet me for Dinner...result!
After my bust out from this tournament, I decided that the EPT was just not a goer, that I would take a nice week or two to chill out before my next big oturnament - and probably the tournament that I most wanted to win for pride reasons - the PKR Heads Up Grand Slam. This televised event, in association with Matchroom Sports, had appealed to me since I first heard of PKR's plan to set up a televised heads-up tournament. There was no doubt I wanted in, and despite the hefty $10,000 entry fee, I really wanted to play. The invite-only star studded line up, along with four PKR online qualifiers, meant that there would be some top names on display.
PKR Heads Up Grand Slam
I was happy with my how my table draws went. In the first round I met Phil Laak, and although he is not the softest opponent in the field, there were some seriously hot names who I could have been picked against instead (who notably busted out too). Phil and I had a great match, and I managed to get a handle on his game after about half an hour of play. We had some fantastic banter, and great fun at the table, betting on the side to make the game more interesting (even more so than the agreement of the winning player showing every winning hand to claim the pot). After a good fold when I was re-raised all-in by Phil and I mucked A5 vs his AK (I would have hit running 5's after a rabbit cam anyway), I managed to get it in with AQ vs his A9 the very next hand. After a sweatworthy flop of 67T, he also picked up a flush draw on the turn, but the blank river sent him to the rail, and I made round 2.
Without getting into too much detail, the next round I played against online qualifier 'thekabalist' AKA Massimo from Italy. He put up a strong fight, but I felt, as I believe he did, that I had the edge. I think he played slightly too passively, check-calling a lot, which made my aggressive style pay off when I value bet a lot of hands to gain the chip lead. It was far form an easy match, and he put up a strong battle, but in the end, luck went my way when my flopped gutshot draw, and his 2nd pair, turned into my turned nut straight, vs his turned two pair. We both got the chips in the middle, and my straight held, sending me through to the third round.
I had to hang around for about eight hours to play my second match which would be against the winner of the Luke Schwartz vs Lex Velduis match, both extremely good and aggressive players. Lex made it through, and after a long wait we finally started our quarter final match. After waiting for the very tight and arguably kind of boring game between Vicky Coren and Juha Helppi, we replaced them at the feature table, and the match was definitely aggressive, over in about eight hands - one hand for every hour I waited! Three-betting KT preflop to 3,200 at 200/400 blinds, Lex made the call, and he then 3-bet my 3,600 continuation bet to 9,600 on a T93, two spades board. Wasting no time I shipped all-in for our remaining stacks of 40K total and he made the call with 36 spades. I won the virtual flip, despite Lex turning three more outs with a gutshot draw possible, and I was through to face PKR's very own Beyne in the semis!
A meeting with Beyne
My match with Beyne was eagerly anticipated as being a great match to watch, as we are both very loud, charismatic players who are also good friends and know each others' playing styles. We had a few drinks, got in a great mood, and as soon as play started we were bantering, playing strange one card up games and making blind pre flop raises. The atmosphere was great, and the audience seemed to love the banter. We both put on a great show, and both played some crazy poker, but in the end it was Beyne's day as he shipped all-in for my remaining 40K stack at 800/1600 blinds with Q5 and I snap called with A6 clubs. He binked his 5 and his Q to send me to the rail and head to the final against Juha. Although I was disappointed not to make the finals, the match was extremely fun and stood out for the producers. I faced Alec Torelli in the playoff for third place, and unfortunately lost when my river bluff ran into his rivered gutshot draw for the nuts. The game was fun, with side betting as we played, but was just not the same as playing in the semis with Beyne or the final. I still took home a tidy official sum of $35,000, but with some savers and private payout structure changes, I walked away with $40,000 which is not bad for a couple of days work.
The final took place between Beyne and Juha Helppi, who apparently had a 5/95 deficit of fan base in the audience as opposed to the crazy Beyne who had the audience in stitches all day. After Beyne ran over Juha thorughout the match, he finally finished Juha off when his QT diamonds met Juha's short stack all-in of Ax, and binked a rivered flush to send Juha home the runner up. Beyne, your a legend!
GUKPT Thanet
My next event will be the Thanet GUKPT (if I miss the World Open), so hopefully I can continue my luck and take down the GUKPT in my home town, which would mean a lot to me after my fourth place finish in my home county's 'Kent Cup' earlier this year.
I shall be blogging again soon, but am taking a short holiday, and working with my life coach over the next week or so, but shall start writing again shortly after, as well as creating some more poker strategy videos for PKR after my original ones were wiped clean when I reformatted my hard drive! I am also thinking about actually getting fit, maybe starting a 5-a-side football league, and even going for the odd occasional run, but we will have to see how that pans out, as I am very very lazy!
James 'james666' Sudworth
Follow the trio of Team PKR Pros at the GUKPT in this thread.