Gaz Walker Exclusive video interview

Gaz Walker Exclusive video interview

Exclusive to the NPF and carried out by our own Cardguard Kid here is the only real interview that was done with DTD Notts Poker Stars UKIPT winner Gaz Walker on how he won the biggest tournament field ever held in the UK

Gaz Walker interview

The Real Card Guard Cup Story

The Real Card Guard Cup Story

Hi kids,

Im here to tell you what really went down at the Card Guard Cup a team game involving 150 of newcastles finest and hosted by teamdobbs very own Card Guard kid.

It began on thursday morning with a call to arms to defend Grovna from a band of nee craics called circus poker, they said the humiliation of people taking money out of their once great casino to give to some to a circus (complete with midgets and monkeys) would be the last straw. I told them nee bother and that Id call in the heavy artillery in the form of klaudia milk cannons and my trusty steed mcguigan. The rest would be mercenaries, forgotten men. The first was sir herbert of hackit whod settled with an african maid and put his motto of "raping over pilaging" behind him. The next ellis and ryan kinsmen of radgies, despite their theory of quantity over quality they still couldnt get a game. Next was packard as his names "thepro" I thought he must be good and as he knows tubbs thought if we are successful we could have balloons all over the kingdom. Jgeek who could only play till 70clock which was obviously plenty of time to fall on his sword. Davey newton apparently a friend of the newtons but with the same name thought it was probably a dobba trick but decided to keep quiet case it was another illegitimate heir of stumpy. Then there was late guy who Ive only seen at circus casino, knew he was a ringer but I had a strategy called "winatallcosts" Id perfected playing monopoly vs my newborn and was confident of victory or at least scamming second.

After the game starts I decide the best use of the first three levels will be spend majority in the smoking cage rambling to willdog and trying to drink 2 buds before the table orders get back- not difficult at grovna. I preceed to play amazing then get move to a table with dreamdobb and a load of other people I knew I was way better than and the rest I soon proved to be better then. I was pissing it easiest game I ever played. Decide to speak to andrizu who I think is sitting next to brennan. Brennan is busy implying someone at his table is gay is a very subtle way not at all using words fag or homo. When I get to his table he gives me a bearhug which was warm and was a little like when a hobo falls a sleep on you on the bus- you know its warm piss keeping you warm but it is 6am and february.

Soon Im downstairs on a table full of dobbas, well Im obviously the best dobbas so Ive nee worries there and before long Ive expanded my chips and totally outplayed xenocode with QQ vs 10 10. At this stage valets must be licking the arse of whoever is betting ponies on the roulette as I havent seen one in hours and the legend that is scoop kindly steps in to ferry buds from the bar to me which was by now a fulltime job. Our teams doing ok but comes apart abit around the bubble and after klaudia goes out 21st its looking like third so I go for the win ;).

By now pretty chipped up and owning everyone. KQ thinks he can push over my raise how wrong he was. From there I dont really remember because I was concentrating so hard.

Final table-

Sat rambling with andrizu over absolute nothing. Put out the last of team circus when outplaying them with A3 vs a better A. Then got a badbeat from costa but shes a girl so needs the help as all women are shit at poker. lots of shit not involving me (so not interesting) and the next hand I remember was calling 44 in BB to someone from hetton. He only had that lass with him to blame as her constant repeating of "welldone gaz" or whatever the fuck his name was was doing my head in, didnt hear her say welldone when I dumped him out of the tourney in 4th.

Rosi and sensh on seeing my unique ability decide to concede the game as they just cant win so I decide to look after them as im just that kind of guy.

Someone gave me a trophy which resembled an under7s wallsend boys club one which was mint as i was always shit at football and I ate sausage and egg mcmuffins out of in true FA cup traditon.

Theres been alot of complaints about the way the tourney ended. Theres alot of holier then thou players out there but tbh I just do what I feel is right in the moment and dont really give a fuck what anyone thinks.

Wills doesnt want to run the tourney anymore after his integrity was brought up. TBH hes spent years around the scene stopping people being bullied, improving the way the game is played and providing amazing games for people including myself who are too lazy to do anything about our problems in newcastle poker. He also always speaks his mind doesnt matter who that puts him in opposition too. I did say he didnt say no what I mean is he didnt slap me across the side of the head and say stop fucking about- drunk people dont listen. If people want to question integrity look a little closer to home; many of the people criticising werent there, didnt play or are too shit to understand grey areas. These are the kind of boring fuckers who regurgitate newspapers and judge without any thought of the consequences. He is the best at what he does and alongside scott and dave revolutionised poker in our area. Unfortunately moronic people will post the same criticisms again and again until people who run things think why am I bothering, they dont understand what goes on so why should I put my name or reputation to anything. Quite simply people will do whatever they like and alot of people posting on NPF need to get real.

People questioning wills or npf dont belong there as they dont understand it or the figureheads involved. Steve Wills is one of the most generous and thoughtful people Ive ever met and his contribution to games is not negotiable- if he isnt there youd know and be the worse off for it. Ive apologised to wills for my part but I feel theres a host of others who didnt think before they posted and dont get the implications of accusing a proud guy of lacking integrity who owe some massive apologies.

Team crush the CGK Cup

Team crush the CGK Cup

Saturday saw the lads of Teamdobb at the G casino Newcastle for the anual Cardguard Kid Cup Team competition up against another 14 teams of 10 players from around the North East. Basically at full strength with the exception of Mr Entertainment who was working & Phlmc who didnt think he would be available and then became available at the last minute but obviously the team of 10 had already been confirmed then.

Great tournie this with the majority of the field made up from the NPF and alot play with the full intention of having a fun day and getting totally smashed.

Instructions to Cowhead are plain and simple before the off " Get ya finger out, nit up and score some fkn points" and advice to inform KQ4Eva is play tight and go deep mate into the points. No point in giving advice to Fatfish as he was off his head with the drink already and the rest of the squad simply know the crack in team games and dont need being told anything.

Get great table and the banter flows from the start and Im very comfy adding slow but steady to my stack. On the drink early doors and before too long we are nearing the 40 players left where the points come into force.

Advice to Cowhead is of no use as he busts out 1st being vul tbh as he gets 2 coolers AA v KK and is followed by Can Only Get Better who doesnt live up to his name. Cardguard and Jimmy Chipmunk bust before the points leaving 6 of us still in as we go into the points and we had the most players left from all the teams with only 2 real dangers to us. One of them is The Mis Fits who were lead by Dobba regular Phlmc and the other is Team Circus.

Phlmc takes Xenocode out QQ v 10 10 and then takes Mag1892 out hitting his Ace with mags holding KK. This continued when KQ4Eva is brought to my table and soon joined by Phlmc who has a big stack now at the late stages of the game. The curse of KK continues as KQ4Eva shoves over Phlmc raise to get a call and Andys KK is no good to the river Ace of AQ from Phil.

3 left and last 15 players and we have the competition totally sewn up now as I bust after simply laddering the points and letting my stack get to low which leaves Stumpy & Fatfish left in.

Get awful situation where Stumpy ships AJ only for a very pissed Fatfish who had less chips wake up to find AA in his hand. He actually makes the call in fairness to the tourney and cripples Stumpy but then a triple up puts Stumpy back in the game but he finally busts on final table bubble when he shoves 88 and the huge stack of BB Stevie Sensation calls with Q4ss. 4 on the flop finds another 4 on the river and Stumpys run bad continues.

fatfish goes to final tabl;e and busts in 8th but the Dobbas cruise to the winners podium 25 points clear of the 2nd placed team. Ironic as well as Phil "PHLMC" McNally wins the overall event to prove simply what a strong squad we have here at the Dobbas




Great day, great fun, great people and superbly ran & organised by Cardguard Kid and the staff at the G who simply do everything then can to accomodate us and let us do basically what we want which you cant say many other Casinos would do.

Roll on the next do of the NPF birthday & awards which should be taking place 2nd week in April we think

Keep enjoying it T.D.

King, well not really, but doing ok...

King, well not really, but doing ok...

Hopefully if your reading this, then you may know me from the local poker scene in Newcastle. This is going to be my first blog entry, and if u do know me from NPS, or NPF you will know I have already gained a reputation for long and rambling posts, so be warned.

My real name is Andy Blair, my NPF alias KQ4EVA, and if you want anymore general background I suggest u go read the interview I did with Dan Trett, which he has up on the fulltrett poker blog.

Ok so I first thought about blogging just bf Xmas, and I was gonna do an account of my online year, but never got around to it, then I thought about a new year goals blog but never got around to it. I also considered a blog post about some of the mixed online games including a bit of strategy, oh and then a month or so in to this year I considered an entry about how I was running live, cos I was and am running and playing ok, but well I aint got around to it so far. So all these thoughts and none of them materialised into an actual write up so far, cos well I am a bit lazy basically, there u have it - I put things off. I procrastinate and this is not just with blogging, but many things, even poker. I mean theres so many times I was going to schedule my poker week ahead and so many times the next week was going to be so much more structured, well none of that has ever happened either. So perhaps I will just need to accept I wont ever be right on top of things, organised, scheduled, ahead of that same schedule. Sometimes u just have to recognise what kind of person u are and if your not the organised regimented type, well of course u could try and change, but u could just accept that your the rambling, flit from one thing to another type and that will just have to do.

Wow this rambling is very evident isnt it, I havent even begun to get close to explaining "King well not really" as a title. Perhaps I have begun to touch upon the not really bit, I.E the lack of organisation, the putting things off and so on part. OK I will cover some of the things I mentioned I had always intended to blog about in just some scant detail, to get things going and then I want to talk a little about live poker as a way forward or not.


My Online Year in short.

I could do cliff note style, but hey I dont do short really. I think in a thread I used a quote I believe was from Thomas Eddison the inventor, when discussing his progress on something he was working on. He said "I have not failed, I have simply found 10000 ways which do not work" My online year in 2010 has been a little like that, I tried pretty much every format of poker, game types, number of mans, speeds, gimmick tourneys - whatever I tired it. I am not talking about half a dozen games mind - I try things for at least a reasonable number of goes to workout if I like it, or can be profitable at it. My year wasnt a failure overall, but I guess one of discovery would be a fairer description. The discovery that I wont ever be a heads up specialist, I played in excess of 1500 matches for a very small profit, but simply isnt for me. I wont be a superturbo rake grinder, again I played several thousand of these at all levels and made profit below $50 BIS, but a similar size loss above this level, I raked some points and again decided its not going to be my thing. I played 9 mans in the beginning of year and made some small profits over maybe 5k of games, this has been a bread and butter format over many years, and perhaps my single biggest earner career wise, but I am just tired of them and I cant see me playing many many thousands of them going forward. I played some mixed games and razz etc, and thats been a real revelation for me, in fact my biggest single profitable format of year with over 10k in online profits from this format over a reasonable but not huge sample. I played 18 mans for a breakeven spell of about 1k of games. I played 45 mans for a small loss. I played a sample of just over 1k of 180 mans for around 5.5k profit so this another discovery as I actually quite enjoy these and have been profitable too over a smallish sample. I played all the usual large field small and medium BI mtts for a little above breakeven, but with no super big score.

Ok to summarize a little, I had a profitable year online to the tune of just short of 22k on all sites, all play, add back some bonuses cleared, rakeback and u get above 25k, take off some profits to stakers from a deal I entered in back end of year and your back to pretty much 23k. I discovered razz and horse, ruled out some formats for the longterm, and I also like and think I may concentrate on multi table sngs like 180s and 18s in parts of this year. Meh it was a good year in many senses but also a frustrating one where I never really broke through so to speak, but what can u expect when your not very organised, u put things off, and u spend just as much time browsing and on the forum and reading other ppls poker blogs as u do working on your game and playing your game. I am a better player now to 12 months ago, and have some degree of knowledge about things I definitely dont want to specialise in and things I might like to do more of. So thats a success - Yes !

Goals For 2011

Well I didnt write them up properly - I did post on the thread at forum but I was going to do a poker plan with everything in it, but guess what I didnt do it.

This year though I want to find a format I can call my bread and butter online earner.

This might come from 18 mans or 180s I feel.

I want to have a successful live year, better than last year. I made 7k clear profit last year live after all deduction of expenses - I hope to at least double that this year.

I want to still be enjoying my poker, and make more friends through the game, forum, live and online

I think that will do for me, as its no point me writing a load of garbage I really have no likelihood of sticking to.

My Start to this Year

Well this is actually where the title started out - King (a play on my alias KQ) signifying I rule the poker world... Erm well cleary the not really has to follow VERY QUICKLY as I am writing this I have just as many of u will have done followed the exploits of a certain Gareth Walkaaa and his super fantastic, mega awesome bink at UKIPT Notts. So he is king, but I have had a pretty tidy start to my year both live and online and I think its ok to be happy about ones own start to year, whilst at same time realising it pales to what he has managed to achieve. The funny thing about poker and dont say it isnt true of you (your just lieing to yourself) is that whilst u are definitely pleased to see a local come good, one part of u cant help but wish it was u that made that breakthrough score. I think Scotty said congrats and so jealous, well jealous is an emotion we dont like to admit too, but have to agree with Scotty here - over the moon for u Gaz, wish it was me, u and brett though all fighting it out for those three top spots ...

I have played alot live since turn of year, simply because I have been enjoying it, and playing and running pretty well. In the first five weeks of year I made 10 live FTS and got various chops, and even an outright win to make cashes of £4.2k on the local casino scene, this from around 1k of bis. This bf I also decided to play UKIPT Notts and so u can add 1.68k to cashes and another £560 to the bis column, still leaving a healthy profit form well a month and a half in live play. I also played some but by no means any significant volume online, and mainly because of a few early in the year razz fts, I am in profit to tune of $2.5k online in the same period.

Live Play

I mentioned live play and wanting to talk about it more, and I could do u a full ukipt notts tourney report, but it would be sufficient to summarize as folded a hell of alot, made a handful of good plays to keep my stack alive, got outplayed a few times, made a couple of bad moves and having never ever really been in contention exited the tourney in a very std way when shoving a small pair into a slightly larger pair. I played ok I felt, not brilliant, but it was good experience and my first large BI, deep structure so to out last 1000 others some of whom are top top players and to cash has to be something to look back at and say u did ok. So to live in general I am really starting to get confident in my game, hopefully not over confident, but certainly to the point where I feel free to play my A game fairly regularly. I am not by any means the best local live player, but I am gaining a reputation as at least someone who is tricky and difficult to play against, and it appears through various threads, and local banter I am getting a "He runs so Good tag too" - Thats all gotta be good for me and my local live chances wouldn't u say ?

So to end this first post - gosh your thinking at last .... I plan on playing circus tonight for the Tuesday 20/20, and hope to see some of u there. I am King, well king queen actually, Gaz is King. I am playing and running good, and entering another year that I hope is a very successful one for me, and most importantly an enjoyable one, cos whats the point if its not. GL at the tables All..

Feedback appreciated, maybe I will blog more if u want it, maybe this is my swan song if u dont - please let me know..

FML Ukipt!!!!

FML Ukipt!!!!

Head down to Notts DTD for the Poker Stars UKIPT leg with fellow dobbas Stumpy, Xenocode and KQ4Eva. Get stuck in bad traffic then take wrong turn off in Notts n arrive 30 mins late.
Settle in to table pretty quick and pleased its quite a relaxed n verbal table with couple of real characters on it. Only face I recognised was Hit Squader Karl Marenholtz who bust out pretty quick with 2nd pair flush draw K9ss
Get to 17k and guy raises with me holding QQ and my 3 bet gives me the info he aint folding as he 4 bets back so Im forced to fold and soon drop to less than 9k left. I eventually get in afew pots with same guy and I re raise with QQ to be called. Flop of Q9J and I lead out for him to re raise me all in flipping Ace 10 but I hold. Couple of good squeezes and my stack is becoming more healthy but table dynamics are starting to change as players bust out and some well know players arrive at the table with big stacks.
Biggest hand for myslef comes when guy I had alot of action with raises into me holding KK and my 3 bet is faced with him shipping in having me covered by about 10k. He flips AA but the lovely dealer kindly turns the K I need and Im back above avg again. Finish day1 on just short of 39k which gives me not much room to find a dup hand for day 2.
We travel back as hate staying away these days and at least have a full day to recover from the 11 x 1 hour gruelling day finishing well after 1.00am

Go back on day 2 with fellow Dobba Andy "KQ4Eva" Blair and get really good table tbh as stacks are all between 30k and 65k apart from one Mr Dave Colclough on my left who was sitting chip leader and proceeded to virtually open every pot as expected. Best hands I see are 910cc and KJ on the button and down to 27k on my BB 1k/2k 400 ante I shove to Colclough 5200 raise holding JQss. He has a small tank before calling with K9dd. Rainbow flop but Jd puits me ahead only for river 5d to give Dave the flush. Good night and bust out 187.

Stay and rail fellow Dobba KQ4EVA who eventually busts 57th after playing great poker with very few cards. We grab summit to eat and then stop in at Nandos to say good luck to Gaz Papa Walker the last NPF member standing and team captain of Walkers Sensations who was still in and sitting very healthy. Seeking to make back to back final tables in this event would simply be an amazing achievement

Get back and follow Gaz on the forum as he keeps us all well informed via his mobiles and messages back to the NPF.



NPF is going crazy with huge rail and UKIPT thread is getting biggest hits ever as Gaz Walker gets deeper and deeper. 9, 8 7, 6, 5, 4 and the biggest payday of his poker playing creeps closer n closer



OMG late into Tuesday morning and 3 handed Gaz is faced with AA of Brett Angel with KQ. Nee probs for Gaz as he flops a Queen and makes his 2 outer on the river. Can he do it and what makes it so amazing is a piss take thread we had at NPF about Italians and we comically banned Dobba Cowhead 24 hours for a racist remark as he stated he hated Italians. The replies were classic as alot of people took it as serious so imagine if Gaz gets heads up with an Italian. So ironic.

Italian heads up is not to be as Gaz takes him out in 3rd place so its an NPF 1, 2 as he takes on Teesider & NPF member Brett Angel who was the last guy I spoke to as I left DTD and a cracking lad with it as well.

The heads up swung from one way to another until eventually they have made a deal Gaz took 90k Brett took 80k and they played on for the rest and title. Eventually Gaz takes it down and it seemed the whole of the NPF wentr crazy

Well done NPF legend Mr Gaz Papa Sensation Skipper Walker



So how do I run so bad you may ask???


bust out to runner runner flush

dont swop 10% with Andy Blair by forgetting to mention it by mistake

enter £100 satellite for the £1500 high roller but end up on alternate list and dont get game

Me & Milo enter a £150 one hand ten seater satellite for seat to high roller event and decide to split 50% if either of us win it. We both have a King on a K high flop and get rivered by guy with 89 for 2 pair

play cash and call raise with AQcc to gob shite Welsh guy who wants to own the table and total pain in the arse. Flop comes Jc 10c 3h and I re raise his £40 bet all in for £150 n miss

DECIDE TO NOT ACCEPT GAZ WALKERS OFFER ON MSN LAST WEEK OF 10% IN UKIPT NOTTS FOR £50

omg and fml

keep enjoying it and roll on Saturday for the Cardguard Cup Teamgame as we go into battle with a no doubt very drunk and loud Walkers Sensations team. Bring it on!!!!!

when will it end

when will it end

The pain continues after my points bubble at apat i play the £50 game at circus and after knocking mrs stumpy out to put me in the badbooks when i picked up kk twice versus her 99 and aq.theres 13 left when i reship jj and im versus ak and aq out when flop is kk.This is followed by bubbling the g £30 f/o when 3 shortys dupped and i miss out.The next night ive got a bigstack and theres 17 left and have to call a shortys ship then i reship with 99 and run into qq out again.

Next game i get it allin on a flop of j104 v aj and kq and turn is a jack goodnite me.Then at circus thers 13 left and george lawson ships kc8c in the sb and i look down at 2 ks weeeee surely i cant lose this one?Yup he hits flush.then the next night i get to the final table of the superstack on full tilt when there is 7 left blinds 12k -24k utg raises to 55k and gets 3 callers!! I have asqs in the sb and ship 330k all fold to last man and he calls with a9 and hits the 9 on the turn and im out for $450 ish.

Headed down to dtd for the ukipt hoping my luck would turn had some really good players on my 1st table julien thew being the best known have to say what a gent at the table .I lose about 4k then get upto 21k from ss of 15 when im moved tables to prolly the softest table you will get to sit on in one of these event and i chip up to 50k when the av is 30k without been allin once until 3 levels left and every raise i make i get shipped on and have to fold and im down to 29k when i hit top pair on a flop of aj2 and my bet gets shipped on and i make the call with a 10 and he has the fd and hits the flush on the river.

Next day play the £50 game at circus playing well and picking up chips until i 3bet to 6k with qq and villain flats leaving himself 4k behind lol flop 8910 and he ships the 4k and i call he has 77 yup turn 6 and i hit the road again after i ship my last 3k in with atc.Move on upto the g and get it allin with 1010 v shortys kk and bs aj for decent side pot bigstack hits jj and yup im out again move onto the cash table and tbh was feeling the worst ive ever felt in poker since i started playing the game but made £90 on the 25p/50p game to make me feel a little better NOT haha.Good job dave "cameltoe" atkinson has had a couple of good results as whenever we play in the same game we take 25% in each other so got back a £190 from dave wpwp.

Keep on smiling stumpy

3rd week and going strong

3rd week and going strong

3rd week into the better living and loss of 3lbs which is bang on taget for what Scott wants and I actually feel 100% better already. Feel stronger and more alert and all in all its even getting easier the exercise. Not missing any of the junk but must admit to sneaking one Ferro Roche per night from Xmas left overs after my dinner.

Play the G on Friday which wakes up everyone for the great value its offering of £1000 added and nearly 100 runners show up. Good table and going well with steady add to stack when pick up KK. Raise into Janmie Dales BB and he ships in for about 4k left and Im up against QQ. Flop comes the lovely Q 10 10 for a fml feeling and another 10 on the turn to rub it in but wait.................. weeeeeeeeeeeeee anutha 10 on the river and the pot comes my way. Was raising alot of hands and getting alot of re ships through but played this tactic once too many when re shipping with 99 from my BB and guy had KK. Nature of the game and need for chips in this one so sat at a very strong looking 25/50 cash table after busting out which had alot of NPF regs on but the crack was great and played virtually every pot and within a couple of hours left with £250 from my £50 sit down.

Tuesday I take in the £2k gtd at Circus and get off to good start making flush to take decent pot but then guy who had not played a hand raises utg and I make the call from my BB which flops me up n down. I lead out to be flat called and make straight with 7 on the turn. My pot sized bet is called but J river makes it an awful board but I still lead out to be flat called for guy to show Q 10 for top end to my bot end. Cudda been worse but given tilt button when I raise KK to be shipped on by BB shoving 100bbs in with 10 10. 1st card out is 10 and my stack is wrecked. Same guy is raised to 400 from the button on the next orbit and he shoves 200 bbs in showing AK. I raise 10 10 to be flatted by button but low stacked BB shoves so I re ship and button folds JJ. Im up against Ace 10 and flop comes Ace (case Ace) Jack and I lose most of what I have left. Finally ship button with 8d7d to unopened pot and get call from the BB with AQ. Flop up n down n even make flush draw on turn yet miss the pack and go out reasonably early.

Tomorrow sees me travelling down to DTD Notts for the Poker Stars UKIPT leg with Stumpy, Xenocode and new Dobba and man in form Andy "KQ4EVA" Run good juice please cos Im deffo due some and be nice game to get it in.

One time is the call!!!!!!

2 weeks in and feeling good

2 weeks in and feeling good

Quick update on the last 2 weeks.

Weigh in on 2nd week and Im still exactly the same weight but feel totally different. My aim was to change my eating habits etc and to lead a more healthy lifestyle more so than being on a huge weight loss diet and up to now its going great.

Im having a good solid nights sleep and not sure if its the change in food Im eating but do also seem to be sleeping better. Never missed a good solid start to the day which consists of scrammbled eggs , fruit etc and a balanced diet with real meals each day and snacks of fruit if feeling peckish. The numerous cups of tea & coffee at work have stopped completely being replaced by a 2 litre bottle of water but I allow myself a cup of tea around 10.00pm

My exercise is being followed through with squat work and squats with weights supervised by my PT Scott. I normally follow the squat session with a jog around the block and this is simply getting easier and easier although still need muscle build on my legs for sure as thats where I feel the most ache. 1st thing in morning and last thing at night I also take the dog for his walk around the block.

Downside is the weather and keeping motivated but up to now the motivation side has been fine considering and by the time the decednt weather is here I should be in decent shape I hope so able to enjoy it more.

Poker wise has been very limited to be honest but the odd game Ive played locally I have at least enjoyed. Played the Friday night £500 added at G Casino busting a couple of tables out and then played bit of cash for a small profit. Finally left table which had been good banter when 3 obvious mates all sitting in a line played this hand. Young lad who had hardly played a hand raises to £4, his mate on his right folds and his other mate next to him makes it £8. All fold back to raiser who goes into big dramtic speech play asking his mate if hes got AA. Tell me if ya got AA hes saying, ya must have AA. Eventually my mate says to him ffks pal its only another £4 call or fkn fold. Lad eventually calls and they both see a flop of J84. Check check to turn of 7 check check and river of 4 sees then both check check again.
Surprise surprise and KK v QQ is shown!!!!! After telling them what a load of crap that was I gather my chips n leave about £80 up.

Weekend sees me & Scott off down to Bolton for the weekend and the APAT Team Challenge with the NPF. Great squad we had and I had high hopes we could take it down.
Aim is to get at least 4 players into the points of last 50 players from the 200 runners and we fall just short when Stumpy goes out on the bubble very unlucky when we have 4 left AK v JJ that hits his K but oppo had hit Jack on flop when AIPF. So go into day 2 with 3 myself, Jimmy Chipmunk & Mark trett still in and 32 players left. Good shape cos no other team has more than 3 players and only 4 teams in contention to win it with us obv being one of them.
My intention going back was to simply ladder the points for the team unless I picked up some monsters and Im sure Chipmunk had the same idea as we had Mark Trett in great shape and he was crushing the field tbh. I then pick up my 1st decent hand of 99 to see an early raise from early pos to which for some reason I ship in when its obv the guy wont fold especially stack size related. He calls and flips 10 10 and Im gone in 31st. Chipmunk grinds it to just short of final table and Tretty is hoovering up chips all over and goes to final table clear chip leader. As the final table and placings were it works out we cant win due to one of the teams having players still in better shape but we did have chance of 2nd depending where they finished and looked good for at least 3rd if Mark could out finish the guy from Blackbelt. Unfortunately Mark goes out in 3rd and guy from Blackbelt wins it meaning we finish a gutting 4th place.
Great performance by all the team and a great weekend but so so disappointing for all the effort put in to come away with nowt.

Final game Ive played saw me take in the 1st of the month £1000 added at Circus and in the nearly finished refurbed cardroom a disappointing field of less than 80 runners shuffled up n dealt. Got good table consisting of Stumpy, KQ4EVA, Gaz Walker so the crack was great and I went to the game with full intention of trying to build a stack early and proceeded to raise nearly every other hand which resulted in me losing my stack within a few orbits. Bit unlucky tbh in alot of the hands especially I hand I had opened with JQ to find one caller. AJ rag flop saw my bet called and anutha Jack on the turn saw my bet raised and my shove called with him holding KJ.
Decided as it was so early to take the re entry new rule and was sat back at the same seat & table. Played this stack slower and was grinding nicely and got to the break around average. Big chance to get good stack when shortish stack ships early position to find a flat call and I ship AK from the BB. The flat caller makes it up and its JJ v 55 & my AK. Big feeling the pot was mind tbh and when the K hit the turn I thought I was home for sure but dealer kindly put a Jack on the river and the bigger slice of the pot slipped away. I was basically in shove poker positon now and waiting for a hand to do it with. Few raised openers get through and I raise again with 77 to find Teeside lad 2 around from me re raise me all in giving me the big speech stuff and for some reason I didnt think he was that convincing and that he didnt really want the call. I call and he flips over QQ n no saviour 7 for me. WPGGUL.
Enjoyed the game tbh and had some great crack and convo with new Dobba Andy "KQ4EVA" Blair who has been in great form and run good of late and he went on to chop it 2 ways at 4.30am for over £1200 each, WP that man

Games coming up soon see me playing my 1st Poker Stars UKIPT at DTD Nottingham on day1a Friday 12th February with Xenocode & Stumpy then the squad of Dobbas are playing the Carguard Cup Teamgame at the G Casino on the 19th which Im sure all are looking forward to as we go about seeking revenge on the Walker Sensation squad. Bring it on .........................

Till then keep enjoying it

Poker books and do they really help?

Poker books and do they really help?

Well, it's been a while but I've had a busy few months with a new job and all the mind numbingly boring training courses I've had to do.

The odd Poker session has been squeezed in now and then when I've had time.

Rewind back to about September. Working hard, training hard, lots of family commitments to take care of so squeezing the odd session in now and then was a major mistake. I was playing bad and playing formats and structures I dont necessarily like or show a profit from.

My love/hate relationship for the game took a turn for the worst and with a bankroll of almost zero I spoke to a Dobba member I wont name but we came up with a 50/50 agreement both with starting roll and profits. I mainly struck this up so I'd be more responsible and stick to BRM which I used to swear by but rarely practice these days.

Without playing out of my skin and shipping anything worth bragging about I've did ok and made my mate a decent return so far with a pretty healthy roll still in place. Hopefully this will continue and I find more time to play the games/structures I like and do well at.

I can honestly say I'm loving playing again at the moment because I'm not pressuring myself to do well.

Anyway, as the title says Poker books and do they help?

Way back in 11/7/2006 I read my first poker book Harrington on Holdem. Whilst I'd played a helluva lot of sngs since 2003 Id never played MTT's before. I must have played about 50 mtts at the most when I picked up HOH and next day I won my first NLH mtt. A $5 tourney with 206 runners for $267.

COINCIDENCE? I thought so.

Fast forward to 15/11/2007 I'd won the odd tourney here and there but I bought and read HOH volume 2 and sure enough I took a tourney down a few days later. $20 101 runners won $545 and 3 other tourneys in the next 2 weeks.

COINCIDENCE? I still think so.

Second half of 2008 I read HOH volume 3 and Doyle Brunsons super system and went on a massive upswing taking down over 20 tourneys and culminating in a $30 rebuy win for $3k (my biggest mtt win to date.

Coincidence? Starting to doubt it.

From the start of 2009 till today Ive won only 9 mtts. In that time I have'nt looked at a training vid, read a book and did very little leak plugging and reviewing hands through a replayer.

2/1/2011: Kid at work tells me he went away for Xmas and New Year. He has recently started to play online. I've watched him play a few times and his bet sizes and outrageous bluffs were getting him nowhere and he was literally burning money. Without disrespecting the lad he was awful.

So he tells me he bought Phil Gordons little green book whilst away and read it.

2 Days later he wins his first mtt online, it was just a small stakes tourney with only around 100 runners but I railed for a lot of it and he was playing a helluva lot better.

Concidence? I deffo dont think so.

Friday he brings the book into work for me to borrow, I read it by Sunday night and have a session on Monday on Full Tilt. I dont manage to win a tourney but I take 5th from 1310 in the $10 Superstack cashing for just over $800. Bear in mind I've never final tabled a mtt on Full Tilt. I've won 90 and 45 man sngs but not a large field mtt before.

Coincidence? I'll tell you in a few weeks time after I've read my next book.

APAT & Monthly Review

APAT & Monthly Review

Alreet Stumpy here,

Mrs stumpy and I set off to Bolton on Friday by train easy journey and get there by 4.30 settle into hotel then set off to g casino bolton have a bite to eat and then enter the £20£20£20 tourney which gets 91 runners and a 4k plus prizepool.We take our seats and im in the next seat to the mrs lol.I lose my 1st stack 5k when i flop bottom pair and nut flush draw and miss, then i hit fh with 64 and get dup 2 hands later flat c/o raise with a10 and flop 2 pair and river house and get another stack.Take addon and i have 17k at the break get moved tables soon after and cant win a hand down to 8k when iin bb with j6 3 limpers and flop comes 632 so ship it in and im called by fd and he misses another table move and i pinch a few blinds and im on about 18k when old guy utg limps 2 more limp in and i ch qd 8c, flop is 8 high 2ds i bet 5k into it and old guy flats now im not sure if i want a diamond or not but the turn is another low d so i ch to see what he will do and he quickly chs behind turn is a blank and i shove for 12k and he tank calls with j10 of ds weeee another move and down to 2 tables still havent had a premium hand all night until i pick up kk and ship 12bbs and im called by kq and dup then 2 hands later guy ships about 12bbs and i have qq v 66 now im upto 87k when its the ft.Ft going well pinch the blinds and antes and get upto 120k when i pick up jj and raise to 25k blinds 5k 10k and the worst player on the table reships for 75k make the call and he has kk lose and eventually ship 35k with q10 and bb hits with his 74 and im out in 7th place for £165.We head back to the hotel at 4.30am and get some well needed sleep.

Next day teamdobb and scott pick us up and we meet up with the rest of the team and im pretty confident we can get a top 3 spot with the players we have.teamdobb checks out the table draw and gives me the bad news im on really tough table and how right he was after about 10 mins realised there was no easy chips on the table on the bright side had metz from hetton poker in the seat next to me and that passed the time well as hes a really nice lad and very good crack

so the key hands of the day

1,jj on the bttn flat mid pos raise flop ak rag give it up

2,qq flat same raiser as before flop aaj chch turn q he bets 400 i call river 2 he bets 1200 i make it 3k he insta mucks

3,utg raises seat 3 flats i flat ak from the buttn flop aa9 2 spades utg leads seat 3 flats i rerase as utg is deffo a player who likes to makes moves and hopefully seat 3 has an a and ends up getting the lot in.utg makes it 5.3k and seat 3 shakes his head in disgust now i know its him with the other ace only got 5k behind so just ship it in and utg insta mucks upto 15k from ss of 10k

4,utg raises to 250 i make it 750 from the button with aa he calls flop 10 4 2 i bet 3/4 of pot he calls turn 7 i bet 3/4 of pot and he min raises me now when i hit a set this is how i would usually play it but for some reason had him on kk from the start so made a mistake of flatting the minraise should of just folded here tbh and he ships the river ob and i fold down to 8.5k

5,utg raise 99 2 callers and get ch raised on flop of k73 fold.

6,99 utg raise and get called off same oppo as aa hand flop is 10d 5d 2c and decide to take a chance and ch call him to get a dup as im 100% think im ahead turn is 5s and i ch call his turn bet

and the perfect river is the 9d and i bet 2k and he puts me allin for 4k more my fh beating his ad

i was ahead all the way but ob perfect rvr card to get full dup.

7.table move and after been on my 1st table this was probably the complete opposite when i get 5 callers when i raise with acqc flop is a nice looking q53 i cbet and get 1 caller turn 5 and i ch call his bet river is a king and goes chch he tables qj and realise this is a totally diff table to the 1st 1

8,raise with aa after raising from same pos 3 times button flats and flop is q93 2 hearts i cbet 1600 and he ships allin for 12k i make the call expecting fd but he tables k10 for gutshot turn is a k but rvr ace and im now on 35k av 14k

9,raise j10 3 bet fold

10,flat call co rase with 99 flop j 10 3 fold to cbet this was mistake as this was an easy 3bet down to 28k when shud of been 35k

11,moved tables and im sat 2 after eventual winner who has a bigstack and is raising most times when passed to him so just waited for a hand to ship over the top of him to pick up an easy 9k this happens when he raises and i pick up ak and ship allin only for the bb to snap ship behind me and its the points bubble fml raiser folds and bb has jj flop j103 and im dead to a q i hit my k on the river and im totally gutted as i realise this is going to make it very hard for is to win with just 3 left in but after 2 minutes soon realise there was nothing else i could of done as i was waiting for this spot and i was just ul for the bb to wake up with jj and also lose the race.

Really happy with the way i played and was cruising most of the day making only 2 small mistakes which didnt cost me to much, but this just sums up how im running at the mo.At the crucial times im losing the races or getting badbeats but thats poker.

Had a great weekend and have to say all those who were down in Bolton from the NPF were good crack and lovely people just a shame we didnt finish in the top 3 which i think our play deserved.

well played to mark trett for finishing 3rd overall and playing some great poker, another awesome result wpwp.

end of month review

live mtts - £8.50p

live cash + £375

online mtts -$2295

online sngos -$283

horses +$400

Still on the worst run ive ever had online and just hope it ends soon

keep on smiling stumpy