Going Live - A $5k Challenge! - SMASHED IT!

Posted 8 years ago

So I've been playing live poker tournaments more regularly lately and have had a pretty profitable year so far playing low-limit MTT's in casino's around Manchester (with buy-ins between £15-£30), so I've decided to set myself a challenge and start blogging so I can keep track of profit/loss etc

I play live no more than once or twice a week, and as I said at lower level buy-ins so they're won't be any big binks or scores unless I satellite into £100 or £200 comps (or if someone fancies backing me to take a shot Wink ) so it's more of a grind, hopefully cashing smaller amounts regularly.

I've had a good run lately, final tabling 4 of my last 7 comps and cashing in 5 of them (usually between 35-100 runners). My results since April look like this:

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With the totals being:

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$3,232 of that total has been earned this year after cashing for $2,500 total earlier in the year but for the purpose of this challenge that won't be included in this.

So total cashes since April is $756 and with half the year left I'm going to set myself the relatively big target of $5k total by the end of the year! Quite a big target due to only playing once or twice a week in comps where the top prize is usually only between £200-£400.

To keep myself interested I'll be taking chip stack photos, money photos, maybe a couple of videos thrown in as well as some hands to get some opinions from those more experienced in live poker! I occasionally jump on the cash tables as well which I'll post on but won't count towards the challenge!

So let's go!

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killjoy1987

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killjoy1987

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Posted 8 years ago
So got this off to a decent start last night, £20 double-chance comp. You start with 15k chips with another 15k chips for free which you can claim at any time up until the first break. I prefer to play with the first stack and get the extra when I bust or have hardly any chips left which I did after choosing the wrong time to make a bluff LOL will detail that in a min but anyway there was 25 total entries I think with £600 Guaranteed so was an overlay of £100. 4 people were getting paid with £240 up top.

I went onto the final as one of the short stacks but doubled up after making a good call on the river with 6-3 on a 1042J6 board after he raised pre, checked the flop, bet the turn and then he set me in on the river (he was a big stack). I put him on KQ/Q9/AQ/AK but he just mucked when I called.

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A couple of short stacks eliminated and I chipped up a little bit but we were soon down to 6. I was 4th or 5th in chips and the big stack, who had quite a big chip lead says "I want to go home... £100 each?"

We were 2 away from the money with 4th paying £70 and 3rd was £110 so it's a no brainer and everyone quickly agreed so a nice £100 in the bag.

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Anyway a big hand which I lost a lot of my first stack with. I started with around 13k. Blinds 100/200

UTG+1 raises to 3x. folded round to SB who calls and I call from the big blind with J9

Flop K89

Small blind donks 1k, I call with the pair and back door draws and original raiser calls as well.

Turn 8

Checked round.

River Q

Small blind bets 2k into the 5k pot. A few draws have got there, it's also a paired board so I raise to 6k.

The original raiser then insta-shoves, and the small blind also shoves! I laugh fold.

Original raiser shows KK for the turned full house...

Small blinds tables 10J for the straight flush!!

Not the best time to stick a bluff in!


Anyway, £100 equals approx $144, so added to the total...

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Posted 8 years ago
Oh sick seems like we are the 2 tourni grinders of the forum now lol!

Looking forward to seeing some pics and watching you crush this! Any reason $5k?
Posted 8 years ago
Ha yea good to see you playing tournies Cheeky

No reason 5k, just seemed a nice number and a nice target plus it would double my current live earnings in 6 months so I'd be pretty happy with that. If I can get a decent run in a bigger event I might be able to crush it.

Also toying with running an online target alongside it but need to make some more time to play online
Posted 8 years ago
Love this Laugh started playing live cash games recently and it's a totally different game!

Surely got to have a few shots now and then tho? Wink there is a sick tournament in London ATM in Fridays, 20k gtd 200 buy in which I may get involved in one week.

Looking forwards to a huge live bink
Posted 8 years ago
CrazyCookie: Love this Laugh started playing live cash games recently and it's a totally different game!

Surely got to have a few shots now and then tho? Wink there is a sick tournament in London ATM in Fridays, 20k gtd 200 buy in which I may get involved in one week.

Looking forwards to a huge live bink


Who are you and what have you done to @CrazyCookie ???
Posted 8 years ago
Jon-PokerVIP:
CrazyCookie: Love this Laugh started playing live cash games recently and it's a totally different game!

Surely got to have a few shots now and then tho? Wink there is a sick tournament in London ATM in Fridays, 20k gtd 200 buy in which I may get involved in one week.

Looking forwards to a huge live bink


Who are you and what have you done to @CrazyCookie ???


Hahaha what dyou mean? Wink
Posted 8 years ago
Live poker and zero criticism of a challenge......you hugging trees now also?
Posted 8 years ago*
Never criticise a challenge Wink especially a realistic one!

Love live poker, not my main grind by any means but +EV is +EV Cheeky
Posted 8 years ago
Haha, after talking about online, I went deep in an $11 6-max on Pokerstars yesterday, 1800 runners and came 18th. So sick though, I was 4th with 30 left but lost 4 flips in a row Sad Gutted, was $2.2k up top, don't think I could have done anything different with any of them either, just sucks how it happens. Just needed to win 1 and I'd be sitting pretty

Playing live tonight I think, £20+£5 bounty, have won this one twice and is always a nice one to play
Posted 8 years ago
So played a bounty comp last night, I quite like this tournament, it's £15 + £5 bounty + £6 fee. There are also usually 3 "Mystery Bounties" which award a seat into Monday's deepstack comp worth £35. I've won this tournament twice before, and although it's not hugely popular and there's no guarantee it's well structured and is fun to play with the bounties, I am surprised this doesn't get more runners.

Starting stack is 17,500 with 30 minute levels starting at 25/50. Got off to a half decent start, Attached Image
but did lose a chunk with A4 on an A25103r board, villain obviously had 46 lol. So was down to less than 10k but soon got a double up through the same guy who called my A7dd all-in with A2os
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and I kicked on from there.

There was only about 20 runners altogether I think with re-entries so Top 4 got paid and we were soon on the final table. I hadn't won any bounties yet and had just below average stack so had some work to do but the fortunate thing was there were 2 big stacks, couple of avg and quite a few very short stacks so the bounties were winnable and I soon picked up a couple, including a decent pot with 55 on a K5788 board. One of the bounties I won was a mystery bounty with the £35 seat on so straight into profit!

Went a bit card dead on an active table but we were soon in the money with 4 of us left. £25 for 4th locked up plus 3 bounties worth £15 and the £35 seat so happy at this point and had a playable stack to try and win this thing

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And win it I so nearly did!

Won a chunk with KQ against AK on a Q104K6 board I got lucky on and I was a big chip leader with 3 of us left. The guy that had AK that hand shoved not long later with 34 which I snapped with AK but he hits his 4! And then I called the other short stack shove with AJ against his Q10 which hit one of my Jacks for the straight on the river. The other 2 then went against each other and ended with a knockout so we were pretty even heads-up. He was quite an aggro player and I decided to check-shove him on a 943 flop with 55 but he had 88 Sad GG

So I took 2nd place for £80 Attached Image

added to the £15 bounties and £35 seat it was a decent night but I wanted that first! Having won this one twice I wanted the hat-trick!

For the purpose of the $5k challenge I'm only adding the actual cashes not bounties or anything else so £80 = $114 so we are well on the move! Very happy with 2x $100+ cashes in the first 2 comps!

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Also, I found out last night that the casino are running a weekly leaderboard, where you earn points on finishing positions every night, and the winner at the end of the week gets free entry into every tournament the following week! They run a "wildcard" which you can use once a week to earn double points that night, I used mine last night so as it stands I'm in 2nd place in this leaderboard. So I'm going to play again tonight to see how I do and if it's worth carrying on going the rest of the week to try and win the leaderboard! Tonight is a freeroll with 2x £10 rebuy/add-on. Not generally a fan of the super loose and fast structure but will give it a go!
Posted 8 years ago
CrazyCookie: Love this Laugh started playing live cash games recently and it's a totally different game!

Surely got to have a few shots now and then tho? Wink there is a sick tournament in London ATM in Fridays, 20k gtd 200 buy in which I may get involved in one week.

Looking forwards to a huge live bink



There's the "Summer Sizzler" coming up...

* £20,000 Guaranteed prizepool (the last one got over £70,000 so will be well smashed!)
* £100+£10 entry
* 20,000 starting chips
* 30 Minute Levels throughout.
* Starting Flights will have 12 x 30 minute Levels.

Will play a satellite or 2 for this or maybe sell some action and play it
Posted 8 years ago
Sounds sweet, once I'm comfortable with live games I'll begin jumping in some MTTs try and share the deep runz Wink

How many players will the sizzler get?
Posted 8 years ago
Solid work buddy!

Not sure on stacks but the 55 its better to just jam pre rather than check jam flops.
Posted 8 years ago
Jon-PokerVIP: Solid work buddy!

Not sure on stacks but the 55 its better to just jam pre rather than check jam flops.


Taaa. As a rule I generally hate getting stacks in pre-flop, maybe it's a leak, but if I'm called I'm flipping at best which I don't really like doing FTW. We were pretty even with about 150,000 each at 3k/6k blinds. He was bet-folding a lot and with that flop, he's folding most of the time, unless the flop comes 3 overs neither of us are getting away this time.

Sounds sweet, once I'm comfortable with live games I'll begin jumping in some MTTs try and share the deep runz Wink


CrazyCookie: How many players will the sizzler get?


Working it out, the last one at Christmas got 700 I assume with the £70k pot but I think summer generally gets less players both live and online so maybe a bit less, there are different starting days at each of the North West casinos with the Day 2/3 being played at the main Manchester G. First got £18,000 last time.



Challenge Update:

Played the freeroll last night with 2x £10 Rebuy/Add-on. It's a crazy comp with 2/3 all-ins pre flop every hand, very much a luck fest. I only took the add-on as didn't need to rebuy and it wasn't worth the extra tenner when you get 5k for the £10 rebuy or 10k for the £10 add-on so just did the add-on so was happy to only be in for £10 and eventually finished 15th out of 40. To show how crazy it is, not long after the add-on break (2 hours in), there was 1 guy who had almost 50% of the chips in play with 20 odd players still in. He was on another table but apparently just couldn't miss.

May play Sundays "Win the button" comp, depending on if I have a chance to win the weekly leaderboard, if not I'll be playing Monday with my free £35 seat, and it might be a fairly quiet night if the soccer ball is on so good chance to get points for next weeks leaderboard
Posted 8 years ago
It is a massive leak if you do not want to get stacks in pre with these hands when you are short or even if you are stacked to put pressure on others. It is way better to jam pre to

1) take it down
2) get them to fold hands with huge equity vs you (any 2 overs)
3) flip
4) be 20%

than to go all in post flop and make life super easy for the villain.
Posted 8 years ago
Jon-PokerVIP: It is a massive leak if you do not want to get stacks in pre with these hands when you are short or even if you are stacked to put pressure on others.


+1 for this. I recently had a guy fold AK for 10bb vs me cause he 'had a feeling'. And if they fold AJ/AQ it's excellent for us
Who says poker is dead?

Are you playing the Goliath at the end of July? I was considering heading over for it! Looks pretty amazing
Posted 8 years ago
I generally don't like getting stacks in pre-flop, especially if I think I can outplay them post flop as it just turns it into gambling. This particular hand, maybe I could have check-called and try to get a cheap showdown, as this player doesn't triple barrel often unless he has it. I think he's bet-folding a lot on that flop but it's something to look at.

@f1zz1cs Yeah I'll be at Goliath, and then play that evenings side event when I'm knocked out LOL that is a tourney you have to go looking for chips loose and fast, is a minefield to get through. Is a good event though with lots going on and the Coventry G is a pretty nice casino to play at.


Played in the Monday Deepstack, 40 or so entries and ended up in 12th. Had 15% of the chips with 2 tables left so was looking for the final table at least but ran into quads TWICE!! The first time I lost the minimum after folding on the river with K10 on a 210JJ3. Villain had JJMy lips are sealedMy lips are sealed

Then literally 10 hands later I had 1010 which I played strongly against an aggro Asian guy on a 99839 board. He had 9J!! My lips are sealedPunch Now short stacked and couldn't get a double so that's that. Think it will be the weekend before I play again, may play online a bit this week or maybe do some studying which is something I never do.
Posted 8 years ago*
Not played much live since this last update. Played a £15 freezeout last week but didn't do any good, and on Tuesday this week played £15+£5+£6 bounty, one of my fav tournaments to play, decent structure plus bounties plus mystery bounties worth £36. Have won this twice and came 2nd a few weeks ago.

Started off strongly, there was 37 entries total with 5 getting paid.

Started on the final table as chip leader, blue tokens are bounties so I'm freerolling already

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A few hands in, I knock out a short stack with AQ > A10, and he was a mystery bounty! So £5 + £36 seat for Monday's tournament again which is nice. I now had 160,000 chips of the 650,000 in play with 9 left and 5 getting paid.

I busted in 7th.

#SickGame

Don't think I did anything wrong, most of it went tits up within a couple of hands of each other. The first one, folded round to the SB who jams 25k on my BB, I snap with A7ss, he's got KJo and hits.

Few hands later, I've got AQhh in late position, open to 11k at 1500/3000/500. Only the SB calls (2nd biggest stack). Flop is Q34r, SB check-calls 15k. Turn is a 7, SB check-calls 20k. I'm putting him on QK, QJ, Q10, JJ, 1010. He's quite a solid player. River is a Jack, not what I want to see. He just checks so I check behind and he's got QJ. 100k pot goes his way and I'm now down to 70k-ish. That Jack doesn't come, he's a short stack and I'm huge chip leader. I think my sizing is fine on each street here?

I have to fold to a couple of 3-bet shoves and then jam myself with JJ, called by Queens and that's the game
Posted 8 years ago
Are you playing cash games also?