WPT Nottingham Trip Report

Tuesday 18th November

I found the motivation to play more poker so I fired up a £330 satellite on DTD(ipoker network).There were 5 x £3000 WPT seats up for grabs and £600 for 6th. I was getting a lot of heat from a well known regular who I later found out was Andrew Hulme. Almost every time I opened he 3B me. I had to fold all my marginal openings but was fortunate enough to have a few value hands vs him. I think i folded 3 x 2BB opens maybe 4 and 4B jammed x 4 over his 6-9BB 3B's. I think without these mistakes he made it would have been close for me to get a seat. I think most of the field played far too aggressive with marginal and inferior hands.

I was really happy when I won the seat. I rung a good friend who alerted me to the fact that Day 1B was in a few hours time. Yep you guessed it, only me who can play a £330 satellite for a £3000 WPT seat 16 hours before that event starts it's last day 1 and not even know! I didn't sleep much due to thinking about the event and having way too much sleep the night before. Here is a V-Log I made the next day whilst travelling to the event. Looking surprisingly fresh on 45 minutes sleep!

Wednesday 19th November, WPT Nottingham Day 1B £3000 Main Event

After arriving 45 minutes late I got my stack put in play. An intact 30,000 starting stack :) Today we play 10 x 1 hour levels if we don't go broke!

No interesting hands the first 2 levels for me. Had Devilfish on the 1st table. He managed to bluff off 1/3 of his stack by cold 5 betting his BB then B/F a 9h7h2c flop vs UTG+2 open, MP 3B, BTTN 4B. Only him and BTTN take the flop and Dave folded pretty quickly to the BTTN's minclick after Dave C-Bet the flop for half pot. I'd say he had AK, TT, JJ and some random air. Pretty disgusting way to play poker if you ask me. I think alot of the table were laughing inside. I got moved to a tough table after. I had position on Fedor Holz/CrownUpGuy and another player who was meant to be an online sicko. To my left i had 2 prolific peelers so this table felt like my hands were tied. Such a horrible draw.

1st break 29,100

Later I managed to cooler Fedor. Folded around to him he opens@100/200 to 400 from the BTTN. I have AQ in the BB and 3B to 1000 when it's folded to me. He calls and I fire 1500 on Ad-2d-Ac. He calls so I fire again 3000 into 5k pot on the Jh turn. He calls, so my plan for a brick river was to check and let him bluff if he had a missed draw. Sure if he has KJ/TT he is just going to CIB but i feel most of his range here would be diamonds and a smaller part AX. The river completed a Ad-2d-Ac-Jh-7s board. I check and he bet 5600 pretty quickly with only 13,000 behind(I cover). I go into the tank and debate check raising all in for max value but couldn't pull the trigger. If he floated with Js or had A2/AJ/A7 i'd feel like a plank plus it is safer to just call and gain intel at showdown. I still need to research this spot and ask what MTT beasts do here!

2nd break 41,475

3rd break 38,600

Got into a really ugly spot with OOP v UTG+1 i 3B my SB with QQ. Board came Ad-Kd-5c-4h-3c. Bet call flop, check check turn and check bet river. I'm tanking for maybe 2 minutes thinking is this guy bluffing here as the board ran out 4 card straight board. Sure we can value bet this spot all day here with an Ace but he was old and i was trying to figure out of he was capable of V-Betting this spot. I think Fedor's friend tried to tilt me by calling the clock. He said sorry after but I just think he was trying to induce some negative play from me. It didn't work anyway. I waited for the floor to count me down with my chips in my hand contemplaiting the call. The killed my hand then the old guy said "you was never going to call". As soon as he said this i knew i had made the correct decision. I was sure before but this just reinforced it further.

Dropped down to 28,600 few hours after, my lowest point of the tournament.

I got revenge on the guy who called the clock, i picked up a really good spot to squeeze and even made a hand vs the prolific peeler. After my stack was. 39,600 

I think they both tilted in the end. Fedor was unlucky vs me earlier with the AT v AQ on A2AJ7 but there were 2 other spots I felt he V-Bet way too thin and got burned for it. I think that's what happens when you don't make the correct adjustments from online to live.

Last break 34,400

Got up to 43,300 but lost a few pots and didn't get max value from 1 value hand. Ended up bagging 41,500/41.5BB at the end of Day 1.

Thursday 20th November, Day 2 WPT Nottingham £3000 Main Event

I arrived 15-20 minutes late. The structure was 90 minute levels today. Amazing stuff! My table draw was really bad, I got a table full of nits. Seemed like only Tamer Kamel(seat 6), Mike Sexton(seat 5), Fraser Maclntyre(seat 7) and myself(seat 8) wanted to play pots. Only good thing was I had position on them all.

I think the 4th hand I got into a spot vs Tamer who open called his UTG+1 when I 3B a value hand. He check called my C-bet on J85r, turn brought a 4s for a 2nd spade. he checked so I jammed 1.5 pot and he tank folded. Said he had AJ whilst tanking. 54,200/52.2BB 

1st break 47,700

A very short 15BB Gaelle Baumann got moved onto our table. I think she is a decent player. I remember her HU match v Liv Boeree in the 2013 NBC 1st Round. Liv played terrible and got picked off! I hope it's Miss Baumann not Mrs, as I think she is a really good looking woman. Unfortunately my viewing pleasure only lasted 2 orbits, Gaelle busted. We got Tom Middleton in replace of her with 90BB. Great!

Bust out hand 35BB effective stack.

I open TsTd UTG+1 2BB, all fold to Mike Sexton in the SB who completes. Tamer Kamel comes along for the ride in his BB.
Flop: Th-Jc-9s
Both check to me. I bet 2.5BB into 7BB, Mike raises to 11.5BB pretty quickly and Tamer folds. At this point I'm going into the tank deciding how I'm going to play the hand. I decide no way has Mike got a straight here. I think he just flats a ton more than he raises as he risks losing 2 customers if he decides the latter. I think his range here is: JQ/T9/J9/JT/99 maybe QT? But definatley the 5 other hands. With his range constructed in my mind, i decide to click it back to 20.5BB and with the speed he shipped it in i knew i had him. We snap him off for a monster pot. He tables Jd9d and we table out TsTd...... as you can see in the picture, Jc-Ah runnout sends me to the rail.

Pretty much a 75BB pot takes me right onto the last few tables barring coolers. I was OK about it at the time but really upset the following day. I played my best and didn't make any mistakes, that's all you can do.

GG WPT Nottingham

During the event i had been chatting with Sofia Lovgren and her boyfriend Luca Moschitta during a few of the day 1 and day 2 breaks. Not sure they knew many people to talk to and I only knew a few people in the field. After i had busted i played cash, but told them I'd come back to rail Luca if he went deeper in the event. I thought i was known for being a beast on the short stack, Luca did incredible! I think he was a short stack most of the tournament then grew his stack in the last stages of the tournament. Incredible run with no chips for sure!

Luca finishes 7th 

Luca just missed out on the TV table after losing a big pot, then losing a flip 5s v AQ aipf. UL mate, GG.

I resorted to stacking £1/£2 chips nice and neat to keep me occupied.

Grabbed some last minute pictures for the fans. Luca had just sorted out a bank wire at the cage for his£32,000 7th place finish.

I think i made some joke here that made us all laugh. Luca was obviously feeling bad inside for not going deeper. I was just trying my best to cheer him up :)

I think these guys are good for poker. Young, good looking, smart and humble. This is what's needed to introduce more players into the game.

Nice to meet you guys, see you in some other event no doubt. Maybe the PCA :)





November as a whole was really swingy. I managed to make money and play my A-game through-out the month so this was really good. I played my first £3000 EPT Main Event for minimum damage £330. Had a nice experience (apart from being  2outtered by Mike Sexton) and become hungry for poker success again.

The last few days of the month I have been really ill. I even played £2/£5 cash game on Saturday night feeling pretty ill. I managed to win in the game but there were not many great spots. This blog has been saved as a draft more times as I just couldn't concentrate on writing.

Anyway, looks like i'll be grinding £1/£2 in the city throughout December, unless I bink an EPT Prague seat!

GL at the tables

Mat/PartyScout

Another long overdue update,where do I start?

August
Overall a pretty disgusting month!
I traveled out to Barcelona to take a holiday with my now ex-girlfriend.

We had visited last year and I wanted to go again around the time of the EPT. The plan was to bink a satellite for the main. Well I burnt a lot of £££ trying, so I gave up. I remember a £320 hyper sat I played, which was filled with online sickos and such as Tom Middleton, Toby Lewis and basically 17 other players who were beasts….then there was me :(  I ended up getting it in with 67s v 2s BB v BTTN for 14BB or something.

I ended up playing the side games in Barcelona, the action was sick! The wait-lists were like nothing I've ever seen before. I mean, I've played online years ago where the biggest loser on PartyPoker sits and the wait-lists go from 3 to 20-30 pretty quick at a 6m table. Well the lists at Barcelona blew my mind! We are talking 170-200+ and then I didn't bother checking after that so who knows what the max number was? I got 116th for 3/6 so felt lucky. I lost chunks, didn't play my best. I cannot blame anyone but myself. Me and my ex had fallen out the day I first played. I think that I had distanced myself from this and I’m sure that this didn't have any impact on my thought process whilst at the tables. I just made 3 really big mistakes in big pots and got toasted for it.

After I got back me and my ex both agreed it was time to part ways. I really respect her and I think that she really respects me. We have some nice memories and I’m sure it’s going to be really hard to meet a woman of her substance. I’ve dated some really good looking girls (don’t ask me how?), but this girl has been a cut above the rest. So why did we decide to end it? Maybe it was down to me not wanting to turn my hand face up(commit, go all in). I’m 34 now so I suppose marriage and children will soon be calling for me. I always thought I would be married off by 35 and be happy. I think I could have been happy with this one but there was something just not quite right for me. Also I think she felt the same, I’m just not quite right for her. We remain in touch and there are no bitter feelings, so I know we will both still be friends.

I ended the month on a positive note, I got unstuck and actually made a small profit.

September/October
I've had some huge days, which have turned into huge months since August has past. I have been running well and playing well. I remember a £1/£2 session last month where I joined against 5 Chinese. I got As 5 times in the space of 2.5 hours. It was the hottest session I've ever had. I got As back to back. Then another 3 times during this period of time. I got paid the full amount of my stack each time I had it apart from the 1st time where I got a guy to bluff the river on A8768r board and he was pissed after I bet half pot flop then he cib the turn and I c/r river.

Also I had allot of success in the PokerStars HU 25c/50c Zoom pool. I was crushing the pool, up over $2k until I ran like dirt at tilted a shit ton of money back into the pool. When you 1 table zoom your getting around 220 hands per hour, times this by 4(max tables allowed) and when your running bad and the results can be disastrous, utterly mind blowing! It's like a new kind of tilt you have never experienced before, 'Zoom Tilt'. I ended around £300 up and cashed out. This game was destroying my life, I was become addicted to action again. It was really tilting I've not played Zoom now for 3 weeks, I've had thoughts about it but I'm far too tired to compete in this pool. My mind is not in the right place for HU regulars and the negative impacts of the HU Zoom players life. I will post some hands in a later blog post. This blog is already turning into a monster today.

Pretty fun few months for sure :)

November
My run good has turned into a run bad. I’m maintaining my A game whilst getting unlucky, with a few blips here and there.

Had to buy a new TV as my old one died. I had been trying not to play throughout the week and was watching a show on Wednesday when it died.

Luckily I know of a spot where there would be a some decent action. I played at 2 places and won almost £500. I spent £350 the next day and a brand new TV.

WPT Nottingham.

First time ever the WPT has been held at Dusk Till Dawn.

I liked the thought of winning £140k for a £500 tournament, but 2100+ runners is just a lottery! Like most big fields I guess. Not a fan of variance so I've stuck to the cash side games so far, which have been pretty sick to say the least. Imagine Zinga Poker Live :) Yep, WPT500 was not for me. Lad I know won the 2nd chance WPT500  lastnight/this morning, so that's pretty sick for him. Congrats Alex.

Might look at binking a satellite into the £3k ME if I get some motivation from somewhere. Been pretty tired recently.

I'm not that big on big upping all the big names and glad handing and what not, but I ran into Dave Ulliott AKA the Devilfish on Saturday. Turns out one of my fellow live grinders used to live in Hull. Him and Dave used to play a ton at £1/£2 NLHE together whilst Dave was waiting for big Omaha games to start up. We were checking out an after party and bumped into him. He was smashed as usual, but seemed an decent guy. Some really good women around which was nice off the table but really distracting on the table. One thing i love/hate about DTD! They even have some nice pool tables and a chill out area for players to come and vent on breaks or after busting. Pretty nice.

What next?

I really want to use the next 6 months to travel. My ideas so far have been vast. Just to give you a taste;

Mexico, Columbia, Bolivia, Peru, Venice, Budapest and Macau are on my 'I'd like to travel here list'

I have been learning Spanish in preparation for any South American adventure i may undertake.

I'm still working on a zero hours contract, some months I had worked 30-40 hours a week but others hardly any hours per month. Really sucks because I really enjoy my job and would much prefer a normal life. I guess I am stuck in this poker life for some time to come. I can't complain, pretty good skills to fall back onto I guess.

I have been known as PartyScout for over 8 years now. The name came from a screen-name change under my PartyPoker account, previous to 25/10/06. I know this because I joined 2+2. Wish I'd trademarked my name, seems now even Microsoft want a piece of me for free. Last i heard they had developed a piece of software late November last year that places Xbox players into similar ability player pools. I'm going to look into this blog and any rights I have under my alias. Too many parties try to freeroll content off the internet, the same way they would try to use my posts and blog contents to drive traffic to their sites if they could!

I've met many people whilst playing poker and met a really nice freelance dealer in August last year. We have kept in touch as friends since. I bump into her maybe 3-4 times a year (would be more if I could be bothered to embrace tournament variance). We ended up having a few drinks last night at her hotel. Later we were drinking with all her fellow colleagues too. It was as a nice change of pace for me, considering it was the weekend when I'm always playing poker. I need to make more time for social life and people who I care about. Pretty funny evening. Veronkikka's not just a beautiful lady. Her speaking English with a Lithuanian accent and playfully joking around was really funny. Some of her stories and friends stories were pretty funny anyway, but with the accent i was in stitches :)

It's late here so I better end this blog, pretty tired after a crazy weekend too.

Take care

Mat 

AKA/PartyScout

Short Update

The last few days I've had a lot of free time and spent from Tuesday-Sunday playing live £1/£2 NLHE at my local card room. My best day was Wednesday. I was in the game for £300 and cashed out £1039. So many suckers live, it’s almost like being in a time machine back to pre 2008 online where we all printed money.

 

The last blog I made was over a year ago. I used to love writing but these days it pains me. I have so much to say but so little motivation. I did promise you pictures of the new whip though.

 

 

 

 

 

                                 

 

GL at the tables

Mat