Wednesday, April 23, 2008

More April Wins


$47.70





$44



$54

Helskini win


Well from a small acorn (€2 sat) its now matured into a healthy cash tree! I won the 2nd Sat to the Helsinki Open final on Boss media. But im going to be away this weekend so ive decided to cash it in for a €215 win in tourney tokens. Cant grumble!!


100 MTT WINS!!!!!


Well after much goading and many 2nd place finishes i eventually get my 100th win. It was the saturday of the Calzaghe vs Hopkins fight and im determined to play as many MTTs as i can to win my 100th.....no sleep for me it seemed til i entered the €2 rebuy Helsinki Daily!


WON IT .....HAHAHAHAHAHA WHOOOO HOOOOOOO....sorry haha!


Virgin Poker Festival Aspers Newcastle

Well i lasted 80 mins in this one!

My AA raise, reraise and all in beaten by 99........9 High flop and im gone! Wont bother with much else haha.

So on i go to the STT Champions heats, where i manage to win 3 STT's and finish 2nd in another 2 of them, and make the final 20 which continues on the sunday.

Im playing well, picking up cards and make some ballsy moves and end up on the final table with over 50% of the chips in play, i decide to slow it down, which was to my downfall as i let other people into the game, and eventually finished 2nd when the blinds were too high to play to be honest and i walked away over £500 up for the day!!

Well done to JAG from EMS who beat me heads up

Wednesday, April 09, 2008

WSOP 2008, $1500 Bracelet Event Share Deal

Ok, i wanna attempt a WSOP Staking, Im looking to get $1500 (£750) to play in a bracelet event in Vegas.

Im offering a 1% share in me for the $1500 event at £7.50 each, you can buy as many as you want up to a maximum of 100 shares.

Ill be giving back 80% of any winnings from this event to my shareholders so if you bought 50% of my shares for £375 you would then get back 40% of anything that i win.

Thanks for reading and fingers crossed i win! The payment button is on the right hand side in my sidebar, once you have purchased ill post your name and % in my blog!

The event ill be playing will be one from the following:

Thu, Jun 19th No-Limit Hold'em (Event 36) Freezeout Structure Sheet $1,500

Sat, Jun 21st No-Limit Hold'em (Event 39) Freezeout Structure Sheet $1,500

Ill need to sell out all my shares in order to play, so come one guys n gals, anyone up for it? If i havent sold out 1 week before i travel, ill pay the cash back to you all in full before i go.

Click the Buy Now button in the sidebar to purchase

Aspers Tuesdays £5 rebuy

Yesterday at Aspers they were offering a very good deal.

Simply turn up and the give you a free poker set...... so i went along for a look!

The set was ok, 50 chips, dealer button and 2 packs of cards, ok for nowt i suppose, and then i saw another deal, have a meal in Freya's restaurant and geta a fortune cookie and win a prize. I have a steak and win £5 bargain, half price meal!

Then comes the poker, £5 rebuy with a £2 reg fee, well we have 2 dealers to share between 101 runners and i end up on a table of 5 new player, 2 of which speak very little english...we self deal for a round and im fed up, i decide to take control and deal for the table, where a nice bloke bought me a drink for doing it and the table was finally getting some hands in!

I never pick up a hand all night and after £30 i bust out when my A4o is busted by 45 spades all in pre-flop and they hit a flush lol

Good laugh tho and lots of friendly banter!

APAT Regional Leg 4

This weekend i played in the APAT regional Leg 4 in the Grosvenor Casino Newcastle, its a £20 freezeout and often attracts less than 20 players, with the top 3 getting medals, and top 10% get seats to the National final around 4 weeks later.

Today i had 3 objectives!
1. Make the points (top 10)
2. Beat Gordon MacArthur (gimac) who was Regional points leader after 3 legs
3. Get to heads up and at least win some money and a seat in Edinburgh

Well 15 players showed up for the 2.30pm start (60min alternates) and i managed to make the final table pretty easilly, with a few decent shoves to steal the blinds, not any hands of note in the 1st 2.5 hours! 1st objective reached tho, so onto number 2

Objective 2, knock Gordon MacArthur out early!! After being a short stack (again) for most of the final table, Gordon finally went all in with a raggy Ace, i called and 1 other did too, i had KJ and i was fortunate to flop my K and take a decent pot and cement my number 2 objective, Gordon had gone in 6th, which meant I had to win to take the lead, or 2nd to draw level

With 4 players left, im sat as the short stack, and need a double up pretty quickly, as although the blinds were pretty low still, they were hitting us very fast! I find myself with KQ hearts and i see a cheap flop, which brings 3d 10h Jh.....an open ended strait flush draw....1 bet and i push all in, 1 caller and the bettor folds... he shows AJ And i turn over my KQh. The turn is almost the card of my dreams , its the 9h....another strait flush to the king, but no royal yet for me!

I get heads up after Jo blinds out with no hands to call Ross who was constantly all in, i didnt need to get involved as i was 3/1 chip leader and only top 2 got paid/seats. Well it turned into an all in fest and i lost 4 big 50/50 shots and went home after doing a chop

I won £75, a seat in the Edinburgh National, A silver medal, 8 ranking points and now the Joint leadership of the Regional Rankings in the UK.

Leg 5 is in May....watch this space

Wednesday, April 02, 2008

Prague Poker Palooza Write Up

A POKER DIARY, BY GRAEME MORL AGED 28 1/2

Monday 24th March

Set off from Newcastle International with my bags packed, my head full of hope and my mate Gary for company for 8 nights in the new party capital of europe Prague. We get there and by god its freezing, thats the last time i ever complain about the weather in Newcastle, -3 and its only 9pm!! We get checked into our hotel which is suprisingly decent and head off to meet the others from the Punters Lounge for a few beers, Pilsner Urquell.....lovely!

Tuesday 25th March

Its 3pm, we have just surfaced from our slumber and its time to get sorted for the 1st event, the €110 NLHE at the Spearmint Casino in Prague, which has been taken over for the week by VC poker. On arrival we are swiftly checked in and shown through into a nice upmarket but small casino, were given a glass of champagne, some nibbles and then we notice how many tables there are.....6! Before travelling to Prague, we were promised between 60 and 100 runners for the events, now we find its a maximum of 54 per event, which leaves the people who have travelled hundreds of miles a little bemused, the prizepools back home are more inviting than this!

The event starts and were all sitting nicely at the 1st break, then disaster hits us, 5 out of the 6 of us out before the final 2 tables. I had the best finish from the PL crew in 19th, when my K10 offsuit was destroyed by J10 offsuit, flop brings Q92 rainbow, the turn is 3 hearts and then the sucker punch, anything but a K or an 8 im praying, sods law has it and my King pairs the board, giving him the strait, nightmare end to a good days poker. We still have 1 player left tho, Amy Young, yes thats right, the Editors Mrs..........shes destroying all comers, taking down big pots and lands on the final table! Whoooo Hoooo we have a casher at last as Amy finishes 6th winning around £180 and the bragging rights in the Young household for months to come haha.

Wednesday 26th March

Today sees a step up in class, the €275 freezeout which brought a number of new faces into the casino, amongst others Dan Carter (UK Pro and recently 12th in EPT Dortmund) and even he cant beleive the event is 54 max!

Once again the poker starts and were having a good go at this one, 2 tables left and still 2 of us in, Ross Wakenshaw and Myself, we have a chance! I get a slice of luck when my 10's hold up against A9o to eliminate a player and im back in the hunt after being shortstack for quite some time, theres now 10 left and its looking good for a Brit to cash!

Im sat with 22k, Ross is sat with 25k and were in the top 6 chip wise, playing great poker, my reads are perfect and its all looking rosey! Thats until lady luck decides that the Brits aint getting anything, Im the next one out when my sweet all in from the SB with AJo gets called for 12xBB by a player with A8 clubs, im openly smiling and hoping for yet another hold up by the better hand but alas its not to be, two clubs on the flop, one on the turn and my dream is ended, Im sat there bemused, almost motionless, I cant beleive a guy with almost the same amount of chips has called me with that, gutting to say the least. I know my time is up when i hear from the rafters, Morls, you donk!

Ross follows next, with what can only be called the worst play of the tourney, the other table is now being broken and moved across for the start of the Final Table, so Ross sitting in good position pushes all in for 25k with pocket 2's hoping for a blinds steal of 4500 and give him almost 30k for the final 9. Its all looking good, fold, fold fold, etc until the BB, not wanting to give up 3000 chips calls, we wait in hope that its a race, we were right, then our jaws dropped in sheer disbeleif, the call was made with 10 8 offsuit, everyone is looking at each other with wry smiles, hoping that the 22 holds up, it dosen't and a very annoyed Ross has fallen in 9th. We do our best to console him, but what can you say. Alcohol helps a little and we all go out on the town knowing we have a day off tomorrow.

Thursday 27th March

Today sees the $25k student poker/vc qualifier championships, which one of our mates Dan Sims has qualified for after winning a seat via the online satellites. We let him play and concentrate on his own and we hit the town. Its just before midnight and I get a text, "morls, im on final table" . Well we couldnt miss this could we, so like drunken lunatics we race across prague to the casino to catch his final hand, will we get any luck this week? Dan pushes all in and is called instantly, the cards are on their backs and we see Dan punch the air, get in......he has AK vs AQ, what a great chance!!! The flop then sticks 2 fingers up to Dan by putting a Queen on the board and thats it, another good performance shot down in flames by lady luck herself.

Friday 28th March

This is the big one, the $550 main event, my mate Gary has flown home, im on my own and im listening to some tunes on my Ipod, im in the zone, I cant feel any better than I do about my game than I do right now and im hoping that some luck will grace me and I can take home some cash from the week. However, its not meant to be, im sat in the SB with JJ and make a 3xbb raise, 2 callers, the flop is a dream 10 high and as im first to act i fire out a pot sized 2k bet, hoping to take it down there and then, nope, 1 caller and I put him on AK or A10 instantly, a 7 on the turn keeps me thinking im ahead, and i make a massive bet 4500 which was my downfall, he then comes over the top and announces all in, I look down and see that I only have 2k left from my original 10k and have to call. He flips over QQ and im done for, i shake everyones hands, wish them luck and procede upstairs to the bar where i make use of the free beer.

The rest of the PL guys drop over the space of the next 3 hours until we have 1 left, Joe Geraghty, who has been on the drink all night and all day, is steaming and playing poker perfectly (we have no idea how either!) He gets to the final 4 and with the astronomical blinds compared to stacks , he pushes with A5 and get caled by AK and QQ, flop comes 5 8 A K 7, and Joe has gone, excellent perfomance and £3600 better off! Not only that, his performance in this event also places him 3rd in the leaderboard for another £1000, not bad at all!

I wanna end this by saying thanks to all the guys n gals we went over to prague with, your all cracking people and i couldnt have had a better time with anyone else. Good luck to you all and may lady luck smile on us all next time!

Morls

March Results

Sorry all, been very busy of late, just gonna tally up my winnings then do a report on Prague!



= Online wins of $221
+ PL Live win of $150
+ Live Cash for $160
Total for month of $531