Nah, attempted the Party Fast Forward challenge, but fuck, I can't play cash, not online anyway.

There hasn't been much to report on the live tournament front, played 3 comps I think since the last update, 2 bounties and the deepstack tourney I won a ticket for as a mystery bounty prize. Bricked them all so a quiet couple of weeks really.

Except yesterday I played Day 1 of the $109 Grand Prix Poker Tour at the 235 Casino in Manchester.

Started with 20k stacks




Got up to 30k+ pretty quickly after flopping the queen high flush against an Ace high flush draw. Went back down to 18k, got it back up to 20-odd.

Then made a good call on the river for half my stack with

J6

on a

J894Q board. I was leading from the blinds and got raised on the Q spades river. Was a very opponent specific call.

But anyway that got me to this stack





Which I then kicked on with, and have ended up with just less than 200k at the end of Day 1 (in top 10 stacks with I think 3 more Day 1's today), the average from our flight was 105k so fairly pleased.

Back for Day 2 on Sunday, won't know how many runners or how many get paid etc until the early hours of Sunday, but min-cash is usually around $330 I think. Not bad considering I'm freerolling

Played the Day 2 for the above yesterday, my just under 200k was a good for a Top 10 stack at the start of the day. 107 players returned with 62 being paid a minimum of $330.








The stack didn't get any bigger unfortunately!

Took a big hit early on, blinds 1500/3000/500. Had QQ UTG+1 so raised it to 11k. Only the big blind calls. Flop is 942r, BB checks I bet 15k. BB calls, turn 10. BB checks, I bet 25k, BB calls. River 9 and both check. He's got A9

2 hands later a short 8BB stack shoves and just me calls from the BB with 66. He's got QQ and holds (nice for him), so down to just over 100k early on. Chipped up a bit, down a bit, up a bit, but it wasn't long after this for the money bubble to burst. I had 70k (11BB) and got it in with 77 and doubled. Was then moved tables and my very first hand get dealt KK UTG+1 so I just shove my 20ish BB. Few comments about it as I pretty much hadn't even sat down yet so I'm like "Yeah, I don't like the look of this table, I wanna go". Anyway 2 more players shove! So a huge pot. And I'm up against JJ and AA! And that's that.

So finished 50-something and cashed for $360 . Fairly disappointing but don't think I could have done much different, but glad to get a cash after a bit of a crap run and the first cash of July (left it late!).

Must be nice having local casino's with big games on all the time!

How do you find the standard live compares to online? Are you still grinding online MTTs?

Aye, pretty lucky really, there's like 6 or so casinos in Manchester and a couple more in Liverpool and not that far to like others in Bolton or Stoke etc so plenty of choice.

I don't think it's something you can really compare, completely different ball games, especially the local £15-£50 comps, a lot of the players don't have that much of a clue. There's a couple of decent players but generally it's soft, but also quite shallow stacked comps so if you can get a half decent stack early you can take control of the table etc.

Not playing online as much as I'd like, and also not as much as I hoped during the Micromillions. Started off pretty strongly and was in the routine but then life stuff happens and fucks up all the plans! Was going to play the Main Event as a minimum yesterday, but go to log on on my phone and get the "You are logged in on another computer" message, even though when I got home I wasn't!! So annoying.

Well after a shit July it's been a good week Although disappointed to only finish in 53rd in the GPPT Mini, $360 isn't to be sniffed at.

Tuesday I played the regular £20 + £5 bounty comp at my local casino, one I regularly final table and cash in. To be honest, I played good, Good calls, good folds, good bluffs, picked good spots, was playing well and feeling confident.

Went to the final table as chip leader, and amassed 6 bounties already for £30 so freerolling anyway.




I soon took out another player for another £5, and with 7 left I had 1/3 of the chips in play with 4 getting paid! Then it went tits up!

Lost 2 big pots against the same player 2 hands in a row when he called from the blinds with 73 both times, and hit a straight both hands! I then hit the low end of a straight and the same guy had the top end! #unreal.

So ended up busting in 4th place for £25! With the bounties it's a total of £60 but with the stack I had, I should have done better.

I made a big fold with 2 tables left which I would like thoughts on.

Blinds 300/600/50. I've got about 40k.

I'm in the BB with A2. Folded round to the button, an older gent, quite a tight player who min-raises. SB calls and I just call.

Flop 494.

SB checks, I lead 2k. Both players call

Turn 4

Checks all round.

River A.

SB checks, I bet 4k.

Button raises to 10k and the SB thinks and says "I guess we're chopping it then" and shoves for about 30k.

I tank fold then the button says "Oh, I didn't see there were three 4's on the board, I fold" and shows 10J for the rivered flush.

My cards are still on the table so I turn the ace over showing I've folded the full house and the others players can't believe I've folded. The SB just shows an 8 and mucks the other card. It's only the dealer that said he would have folded as well given the action.

Just after other players thoughts.

Long run it worked out as I knocked 2 players out shortly afterwards and had I called and been wrong I wouldn't have had the chips to take them out for the bounties, and then built the big stack.

Yesterday I headed to the Ricoh Arena in Coventry, the Goliath wasn't on the agenda this year but Thursday's side event was.

£25+6 Joker Wild event with 1 joker in each deck. There was also 5 bounties playing, each with prizes ranging from a bounty chocolate bar to £550 seat on their heads. There was a high hand honey pot, with the first 20 quads or better hands getting £50 cash. Plus an extra £50 cash to final tablists.

So for £25 it's great value and looked to be a fun comp, and with a joker in the deck... very interesting!

Had a slow first level, only played 2 hands and won them both. Hadn't seen sniff nor sight of the joker.




Although the guy to my left and a Russian guy a few seats to the right had had the joker in their hand 7 times between them!!

Played tight for a few levels, didn't really pick up any hands and with a joker to think about, the play wasn't as aggressive as you can never really have the nuts or the best hand!

I was down to 3.5k and in the BB (150/300). Aggro player raises to 750 and I had 46 two players called so I just called from the big blind.

Very nice flop for me of 435 so I open jam my pair + straight flush draw. Original raiser calls and others fold and he tables AKos.

Brick on the turn, and the joker on the river! Straight flush for me! As our hand started, there had been a cheer on the table next to us, one of the players had hit quad aces... and that was the 20th quads or better hand! So I missed out on the £50 cash by literally 20 seconds! That felt like a bad beat, with it being early on and being short stacked / card dead, doubling my buy-in would have been a success for the night!

So back to just under the 10k starting stack, and the very next hand I get the joker for the first time (about 2 hours into the comp). UTG makes it 3x and it's folded to me. It's quite tricky to play the joker, you can play it aggressively but it sort of gives it away, because who is 3-betting without a joker??! So I just flat and the BB flats.

The flop is bingo for me. 995r. I check, BB checks and original raiser half pots it. I raise. I could just call but I think the call looks more suspicious on this dry of a flop. BB folds and the raiser jams it in. I snap and he turns over QQ. Board bricks out and I double again.

Now we're rollng.

Anyway long story short. There was 280 something entrants, so a nice prizepool and I took 14th for £80 (26 were paid).

Sucks to come close to the final table but I was so card dead it was ridiculous, didn't get 1 sniff of the joker or even an ace since about 10 players from the bubble and until I busted (about 2 hours). There were pre-flop all-in's pretty much every hand so couldn't do anything. Shoved 20BB with AQss, and the big stack wakes up with the joker. I don't improve so good game me. £80 is £80 though and 3rd cash in 3 comps in 7 days so pretty happy with that

First time reading through this thread, some great posts throughout! Subbed for sure.

Are there many pokerVIP folk in the Manchester/Liverpool area? If there is a decent event on I could potentially be convinced to head over, if there's a few people interested we could make a weekend of it!

There's a few in the North of England for sure, and a few I'm sure would travel up for a PokerVIP event! @Jon-PokerVIP get it organised!


Challenge Update

Have played a little last few weeks, plus a couple of live satellites but no cashes. Closest was in a £10+£10+£6 bounty Comp, took a few bounties so was freerolling the comp and I had nearly 1/3rd of the chips in play on the final table but was first out on the final table lol.

So cashes since the challenge started is lower than I would like, but also working hard has given me less chance to play live but anyway, no excuses!





3 months left to get to that $5k, so some work to do, however with a couple of decent comps on this week I'm hoping to add to that,
starting today with the "Manchester Meltdown"




Nice concept, and a nice prizepool for just a £25 buy-in. Will be having a buy-in or 2 tonight!

This weekend is also the GPPT Mini in Manchester again (finished 53rd last time for $360), will be playing this Friday or Saturday, initial aim to make Day 2 but ideally to finish better than last time!

Best play your A game in this tourney tonight @AshVIP no re-buys needed I'll see you later! Let's crush it, final table and we'll take a split yeh?

Ha, I won't be in ATC card mode tonight

Aiming to make the break without re-entering and I'll be happy haha I'd see that as £31 won

@AshVIP A2CA - Any 2 card Ash think of the $5k challenge!

On the break and half way through the Day 1. Started with 15k sat on 48k ish. Very busy cardroom here

I'm loving the idea of the challenge and I really wish I could go on a similar live low stakes MTT spree. Guess I'll have to live vicariously through you by reading this journey thread. Good luck sir!

HaHa thanks Matt

Finished Day 2 with 230k, average for our cardroom was 90k and mine was 2nd biggest stack here. Need to get the figures from all 4 of the cardrooms to know where I stand exactly but I think I should be top 10 going into the Day 2 on Sunday. 38 are getting paid a minimum of £50 with 1st place just shy of £3k. Not bad for a £25 comp!

@killjoy1987 Absolutely gutted that I bust out in the second to last hand of Day 1! Some players make no sense on how they play! Then again some people probably think that about me

Ya that sucks! Least you're going Malta!

I'm in Top 3 of stacks for Sunday, and in the seat draw, and apart from 1 (who's got 90k) the rest are short stacks. Don't know if this is a good or bad thing! Going to be lots of all-ins, just need to not keep doubling people up!

Yes I am!

That's good then mate, how many people have actually made if through? 32 getting paid surely only works out at about 7%? What happened to Grosvenors '10% + 2' rule

Just play your game like you did last night and you'll be perfectly fine!

63 made it through with 38 getting paid. I asked Lee and he said it's done by "brackets", this bracket is 380-419 players so it's 10% of the lower end. 1 more entrant and it would have been paying 42 I think lol.

I played well last night, good calls, good bluffs, good spots, got lucky once. I should play properly more often

Decided not to play the GPPT Mini today, as Day 2 would be tomorrow, the same as the Day 2 I'm in already in. Could possibly have done both (the casinos are about 1 mile away from each other) but it may have been a pain, so will just concentrate on the one I'm already in and the OPL!

Sounds like a reasonable approach. Fingers crossed for good scores both live and online!