32Red Poker Blog

Well, I guess just a usual day of poker really. Full of ups and downs, and alot of fun with a bunch of nice people. Oh, and as always seems to be the case, one older guy whose ego just can’t deal with someone playing aggressively against him. You come to expect this, however, amidst a whole lot of pleasant people, and a tiny bit of needle maybe even adds to the fun.

I didn’t play too well today, but luckily a whole lot of people played worse. In a bizarre turn of events, the cold decks luckily went for me, and I’m buzzing to be coming back for the second day with 60,525. Here are some of today’s key moments:

Blinds 75/150, my stack 10,200

 At these GUKPTs events, I always seem to have  the frustration of watching other players just gifted chips, but not having the festive spirit extended to me. Fortunately, that turned round today after just two hours, as I had the fortune of an aces vs queens cold deck. The fact that we were 75 BBs deep is not enough to deter alot of these players from getting it all in before the flop, and I was elated to dodge the queen, and jump up to 20k.

Blinds 200/400, my stack 15,000

I raised it up to 1,300 with ace-king in the 3-seat after Rob Cowan had limped. He actually passed, after the small blind had called. The small blind was the guy who seemed to take it as a personal attack that Rob and I were playing aggressively- the kind of bad player I like to describe as having more aggression in their character than their play.

The flop came AcQx3c, giving me top pair, top kicker. The small blind player led out for 1,600, and I liked this alot more than a check. He quite clearly had either a flush draw or ace-jack, and I decided to take advantage of an easy read by flat calling in position. The next two cards both came kings, even better that the river was the king of clubs! My bet of 3,000 had been called on the turn, when the small blind checked to me on the river. This now seemed to make ace-jack more likely than a flush, and so I was at a tough decision as to how much of my remaining 7,500 to bet. Of course AJ is an easy pass here on a AKKQ board where the flush has come, but of course it did not feel like this guy was in the mindset to pass. I decided to bet 6,500 rather than go all-in, and got a slow call. It was a great pot to win, and had me rocking up to 31k.

Blinds 500-1,000, my stack 29k.

I found aces with perfect timing, ten minutes before the end of the day. I raised to 3,000, and it came to a young guy in the small blind, who seemed a pretty good player. He brought good news by re-raising! The re-raise was a little bizarre, to just 7,500, and I was not quite sure what to make of it.  I decided the best value was in shipping it. To his credit, the guy did not like to make the call, but it would have been really tough for him to put down his AcKs here. What a great spot, and the board brought no worries at all, coming 1010622.

I’m really excited about tomorrow, just hoping to get into some tough spots, and to get them right. Updates on day two coming soon!