Big Chief Poker News

Well it has taken me more than 24 hours to admit what happened in the tournament yesterday as I made the worst mistake I could possibly make.

Here it is…

I was less than 10 minutes into the event and was feeling really confident. I had lots of sleep the night before and no alcoholic drinks for 4 days. I just knew I was going to do well and that I would get good cards. Sometimes all you need is a positive outlook.

I looked down and saw the Ace, King of Diamonds and a guy made a small raise and I called as I have seen this good starting hand lose so many times in the past. There were only two of us in the hand when the flop came down Queen of diamonds, 9 of diamonds and the 2 of diamonds. I had made the nut flush!

The guy raised and I called. The turn came down the 4 of clubs.

He checked and so did I. When the river came 6 of hearts I knew I was home and dry. The best he could do was have pocket queens and he checked. I raised and he re-raised all in. My dreams were coming true as I knew he could not win. What a GREAT start to a tournament this was going to be.

He showed pocket queens and I said I had the nut flush and turned over my cards.

ARRGGGHHH! I had misread the King. IT WAS THE KING OF HEARTS, not diamonds! I left the arena with my tail between my legs and just could not believe what I had done. A misread is a basic error and I admit I did it.

I am not looking forward to reading your comments on this one

So far so good as I am well up on my initial investment.

Having said that, now is the day where I need to win a large amount of money and today’s event should enable me to do just that, cards and run permitting.

This is a three day event with approximately 4,000 runners so making final table would be a GREAT payoff. Anyway, too early to think that far ahead and just have to knuckle down and get on with the work in hand.

Had a good sleep last night and am up for a challenge. Although I am not superstitious I am going in plain clothes today and reward my self with the Indian outfit once I am in the money. That way, people will only remember the Indian for being a winner and not a loser. It also gives e an extra reason to hit the money goal.

Thanks for the comments guys. Keep them coming in as I need all the support I can get.

Was in the Shootout tournament today.

There were 2,000 entrants and for those of you who don’t know what a shootout tournament is, it is when you have to win against all the other 10 players at your own table and then it becomes a normal tournament with the winner from each table playing each other. They are automatically in the money stage.

I had a fantastic start and became the whole tournament leader within the first two hours.

Then my card drought began.

I was still OK with three player sleft on the table but one chap had a huge stack after having two lucky beats against much stronger hands. Then I looked down at my least favorite hand King Queen suited. I was small blind so I raised with only him to act. I knew it would have to be a significant raise as otherwise he wouldn’t feel threatened so I put in a third of my stack. He thought about it and called.

When the flop came down King, 9, 4, I shoved all in.

He immediately called and showed me his pocket Aces.

Day off tomorrow, so I will be doing some work.

Thanks to everyone for taking an interest and following my posts.

Today was amazing.

Just went along in disguise (Normal clothes) and entered a small satellite competition for the main event. The entry fee was $330 and the prize for 1st and 2nd was a main event $10,200 seat!

No cards were coming my way but I managed to hang on in there. If anything, it was to practice for tomorrow’s large shootout event.

Anyway, it ended up with me as one of the shorter stacks on the final table after 5 hours of play. Luckily I managed to get a good read of all the players and after another hour I became the chip leader with 4 of us left. 50/50 chance therefore of winning a MAIN EVENT seat.

Finally my patience and tactics paid dividends and I looked down at pocket kings against the short stack. He raised and I tried to act as though I had nothing but raised anyway. He re-raised and I called immediately. To say he was gutted was an understatement. I stole his chips and just three of us were left in the tournament. Me, Duane and Ralph – See picture above (Duane left & Ralph right).

I now had a massive chip lead with 49% of the total chips in play.

Somebody mentioned doing a deal and I agreed as long as I took $9,200 and they were to figure out their 2nd and 3rd prize pool. After some discussion we shook hands and I was declared the winner.

I have to say that it was an absolute pleasure to play with Duane and Ralph and Had Duane and I knew that Ralph had to go straight to the airport, maybe we would not have done a deal as he would have been on tilt.

Anyway, job done and Main event – Here I Come!

Hello dad.

Happy fathers day and sorry  cannot be with you today.

Here is a message from the best barman in the USA, ‘Stop dithering and get your sorry ass over here – you son needs your support and I need my buddy back’.

Anyway, going down today just to see what’s on and will post relevant news soon.

Love ‘The Chief’ x

Pondering

OK. I am not sure if anyone is reading this but it helps me get things off my chest.

Today was a weird one because I had no sleep at all last night (still on UK time) and therefore did my best to give the players and the cards the respect they deserved.

The problem that all you poker players know though, is that when you don’t get the cards, you have to take a few risks.

After 5 hours of tension, concentration and interviews I felt like I had been sat at the table for a week. Not only that, but I hadn’t had a great hand all day.

Having held my own for quite some time I saw people around me make crazy moves and often get away with things that frankly should have put them out of the tournament.

Soon huge chip stacks started to appear all around me and I had to make a move before I was swallowed by the ever increasing blinds.

I was on the button and had King, Jack suited.

I raised about 5 times the big blind so I could cover the antes as well, and the big blind raised over the top of me. (He was also short-stacked but just had me covered).

I thought about the situation and to avoid being blinded out decided to call even though I had half an idea that he was making a move. I was right.; he had Ace 3 unsuited.

I felt good about this but slowly felt doomed when a colourless flop hit the table. two cards later, I realised his Ace had held up. On balance, I still think I made the right move and am proud to say that I didn’t put a foot wrong all day. Anyway. another day – another dollar! Or less in this case.

Posts will continue soon.

Well, here I am again and although I say so myself, I have already made an impression. Not having been here for more than 10 minutes, I was asked to sign autographs – weird!

My first event is the $1,000 No Limit event which could run to four days. I am keeping my strategy on this one a closely guarded secret as there are too many top players sniffing out any information they can find.

All I can say for the moment is that I am prepared, focused and wish all you Torquay boys were here to share in the fun. I shall try to update this as often as I can and will implement a live Twitter feed in the next few days so I can post directly to the site from the table. Need to get my head around that one!

Anyway, as promised, here is a picture you can al smile about of the Manager of the card room in the Mint Casino in Torquay.

Matt, do I really look that handsome in my outfit? LOL

Tournament Donkey

Just a quick post to say that the Torquay crew were all after my guts in the Friday night re-buy tournament.

After announcing that I had found a new technique and I tried it last week with optimum success, everyone wanted to exterminate ‘The Chief’.

With over 50 runners, the pressure was on. But, the final table consisted of Dave ‘The Dish’ Milby, another Dave, Scotty and myself. Dave was unlucky when he went all-in with A, Q and I looked down on pocket Aces. Shortly after knoking Dave out I found myself heads-up with Scott. We both had so much respect for each other that we were heads-up for nearly an hour.

Finally Scott was all-in due to a low stack and I had pocket kings. Needless to say I was fortunate enough to pull through and win, collecting a whopping £830 prize money and a free seat into the monthly £100 tournament on the first of the month.

Thanks to everyone and I look forward to winning the next one to keep my streak going.

Decided to see if I could sit down and I thought why not make my first outing at an actual poker tournament.

The Tom Molloy memorial poker tournament was held in Tiverton golf club last night and we had a great laugh with some right characters. My father was there and he usually goes by the name of Iron Man however he was renamed to ‘pensh’ by Mark ‘Sweet Cheeks’ Woodman.

Everyone wanted a shot at me because of my recent Las Vegas experience so I had to work and think deeply about the plan of action. I decided on a non-caring attitude where they saw me make some crazy play and I let them believe I was drunk.

This worked well as they saw me go all-in with 7-2 when I was about 90% certain I wouldn’t get a caller and I could have had a re-buy.

The final three in the tournament were Sweet Cheeks Woodman, Little Big Card and Krafty Kieran. Both were desperate to knock out the Chief as I was extremely low chipped.

After a slight bit of skillful play, major luck and good timing I was soon heads up with Krafty Kieran. All night he had been telling me about how he hoped he would knock me out, and this was his chance. Sorry Kieran, it wasn’t to be.

I just wanted to thank the organisers at Tiverton Golf Club for putting on an excellent night and, in particular, another Mark for being such a great Tournament Director. I was pleased I won and with the prize money, but I was most touched to have received the half sovereign with the engraving in the box for Tom Molloy.

The Chief has just had a back operation and so unfortunately will not be able to play poker until the mid-October.

I must say, I am looking forward to getting back on the circuit and you better watch out as I have had time to read every poker strategy book on the planet. I am not actually sure if that has helped as so many people have different ideas, I think I may well stick to my own strategy. After all, it hasn’t worked out too badly so far.