Last Chances To Qualify! Failed!

Having now dropped out of the top forty I have only a handful of chances to qualify for the Betfred Social League Final this Sunday and a shot at the £1000 first prize. As the league has progressed the number of daily entrants has increased to just short of two hundred. To move up the league table you need a final table spot which clearly is not easy. I have been more focused over the last few days and have given myself a chance to do that on a couple of occasions but ultimately have fallen short. If I don't make my third final table appearance of the league by Saturday I will simply not qualify for the final. Given there are probably only one hundred regular players, not making the top forty would be a big disappointment and an opportunity lost. 

If I don't make it good luck to those who do.

............................

I write this as the worthy finalists prepare to do battle for the £1000. On the final day of qualifying I did it, I made another final table and finished seventh. However my prediction that this would be enough was as impressive as my overall play in this league series - pretty poor. Whilst I have not seen a final overall league table I expect my final position was around forty-fifth. I made a pretty good fist of it over the last few days of the competition but it was not good enough. The three positives I take from it are as follows:

Playing this early at night is not a good idea.

I returned around £45 from £25 invested.

It reaffirmed the need get stuck in and play to win in tournaments. 

I am taking a few days off poker to lick my wounds and re-focus on my Maui Jackpot strategy.


Good Luck

Storming Result And Betfred League Update

Last Sunday I played in the weekly Sunday Storm $11 tournament on Pokerstars. In coming 1754th of the 35269 entrants I cashed for $42 but more importantly found some renewed confidence in my multi table tournament game.    One of the main reasons I played was to help me focus on the latest Betfred league game running at the same time. Strangely when I am playing only one or two games at once I easily lose focus especially if they are low buy in games or freerolls, so I had six games open and enjoyed a profitable few hours. The Betfred league is now at the halfway point and I am starting to struggle after a good start. In the first five games I had two final table finishes (8th and 3rd) which established me in the top ten overall. However the last week has seen me slip down the table as I have failed to put in any solid results. I have not given the games the time they deserve, I have been distracted and also sometimes a bit unlucky. To qualify for the final and a chance to win the £1000 first prize I need to remain in the top forty. I need at least another couple of solid finishes to make it. Part of my problem is that these league games run quite early for me and coincide with other stuff going on in the Tomlinson household. For example the early tournament stages run alongside the kids bedtime. This can be a stressful time not conducive to playing A-game poker and reminds me why I tend to play poker when everyone else is asleep! Sometimes as a result the poker and real world combine in a bizarre way. One minute I am deciding push or fold, the next ham or corned beef for tomorrows packed lunch!   Not really complaining about my situation which is generally wonderful but as a family we can be guilty of trying to fit too much in. Me playing these league games is an example of that. I don't really have the time - but I do like a cash generating challenge.   Corned beef please.

Betfred Poker League Returns

Under the new title Social Poker League a new league based challenge has returned to Betfred. I do enjoy this kind of structure and am planing to get very much involved. Over twenty five nights you compete in a tournament with added cash in the prize pool. Over the league your best seven cashes count towards your final league position. The top forty UK league players then play in a final league game with £2500 added including £1000 to the winner. This final also includes the top ten players from a Rest Of The World league.   Given the league structure and the top heavy cash payouts in the daily tournaments the key is to get to the final table, (hopefully seven times) so it is worth taking a few chances to go deep and secure a good score. Two things help this approach. Firstly, there are some poor players taking part. Secondly, the structure does allow for some play so there is no rush to make your move. After playing two games I have made one final table (finishing 8th) and now lie 14th in the table overall. With around one hundred playing each night so far and £100 added each game the games are good value in every sense. Went the game starts you are instructed to "Enjoy the table banter and the free cash." This I guess is what makes it a social league. So far the social element seems to be a mixture of berating each others bad play, complaining about the software favouring donkeys mixed with the occasional polite good wish. I will see how the banter develops and take the cash with a smile, hopefully the £1000. Cheers and good luck.

Betfred Poker League Result

The final week of six in the recent Betfred Poker League saw twenty eight players battle it out to see who would end up with the top five prizes. With the winner already decided the pressure was on those in the top ten. Being placed in sixth I knew I needed at least a seventh place to come fifth or better - but that that may not be enough.

 

From the start I was always in the bottom few and struggling. Whilst I never had a worthwhile stack I managed to duck and dive, keep myself alive and stay out of trouble. One of the benefits of playing a gazillion sit n gos is knowing how to play a small stack. Push or fold poker baby. As the game progressed I was hanging around like a bad smell while some other major contenders went out including overall winner Van Persie20. I was 20th of 24, 13th of 15. Eventually we were on the final table bubble and another tactical double up propelled me to seventh of eleven. Maybe I could now do it.

 

Whilst two key players above me were out and seventh would move me up two places to fourth two other players just behind me had much healthier stacks. It was time to get the calculator out and adapt ones strategy accordingly. This is the great thing about a league structure and something we missed out on in week five. The final table bubble burst and I had a real chance of seventh but other players to consider. Three key hands then played out to seal my fate.

 

With eight players left, me in seventh and one of my key opponents in eighth I was hoping he would get knocked out and let me sneak into at least a fifth placed spot overall. The poker gods had other ideas. I had queens with about only five big blinds left. I could not fold, though given my opponents four big blind stack there was a statistical argument to do so. I went all in and ironically it was my key opponent who called with AK. This classic coin toss felt like it would count for a lot league wise. A king on the flop and no improvement meant I was chip dead and almost certain to go out in eighth. All in against the big blind I managed a double up but still had only around two big blinds. No chips, no fold equity, no chance.

 

However, The next hand saw me under the gun with a pair of twos. Not an ideal situation. I went all in and was called by both the blinds. I managed to flop another two and won the hand which gave me some vital breathing space. Within a few hands two opponents including x were out and sixth place had been secured along with at least fifth spot. Soon I was out myself in sixth with QJ against a monster stacks 87. My other key opponent progressed enough to make fourth and leave me in fifth place.

 

Overall fifth won me £50($80) and I made around another $50 profit cashing in the games themselves. The prize was as much as I deserved I think as my three top tens of third, fifth and sixth out of six games is decent but not spectacular. It has taken a while for me to publish this post as I have been waiting for a final league table in vain. I have been paid out so I should be happy with that I suppose. Congratulations to the other top five finishers. There is talk of a new series in the New Year with a better structure and prizes

 

Anyway, Happy New Year to all and thanks to anyone with a genuine interest in my blog and particularly those who have contacted me over the course of the year. Good luck at the tables in 2013.

Cheers

Jason (Kartajana)

Betfred Poker League Update 2

The table above demonstrates the progress I made in week four of the Betfred Poker League. A fifth place and another decent cash left me knocking on the door of the overall prizes. With two weeks to go and two consecutive top tens under my belt I felt confident I could progress.  Sure top two would be unlikely, but top five is very much attainable.   Controversy was to surround week five however which means the leaders points above remains unchanged following a strange decision by Betfred Poker. The fifth week of six in the poker league was changed from a £5 buy in to 5p!. With the £250 guarantee still in place this meant a lot more entrants. 128 in total meaning the thirty or so regulars were swamped by new players. Non of the regulars were happy about this. You could maybe understand it in week two as an attempt to generate more interest in the league, but not week five. In the end not one player from the leaderboard above got a top ten spot so the leaderboard remains pretty much unchanged with one week to go. I managed a creditable 24th and was one of the last regulars remaining.   Congratulations to Vanpersie20 who is now guaranteed to win. He looked pretty solid for victory before the week five adjustment to be fair and deserves the prize for some fearless play. Enjoy the game and the £250.   Assuming we are back to normal for the final week I need to hit seventh at least I think to get in the top five. This will move me forward at least two places and allows for someone from behind moving ahead of me. Whatever happens I have enjoyed the league and profited from it so can't complain too much.   Happy to go for it again in the New Year Betfred. More weeks within the league, a later start time and no last minute rule changes please.

Good luck to all in week six.

Betfred Poker League Update

See above for the updated league table after game three which sees me in tenth place. Twenty eight players in league game three and I got the decent result I needed, coming third. The well named Vanpersie20 has a clear lead and has now twice knocked me out. He looks set to watch his namesake play against Southampton next month. Thirty two points and cashing for £37.50 though means I will profit from this league whatever happens over the next three games which is satisfying. To hit the top five prize spots though I probably need two more high finishes in the final three weeks. Tough but not impossible.

 

Meanwhile my latest Maui Jackpot push is going well. After around 400 games since the start of October I am making nearly a dollar a game and my win rate is a pleasing 14%. I need  to spend more time working on elements of my poker plan to increase this figure a bit further.

Betfred League Of Online Poker

I am taking part in the latest Betfred promotion, The Betfred League Of Online Poker which takes place on six consecutive Thursdays. I really enjoy playing the same players in some kind of league structure, though preferably over more games than six. Points are awarded for top ten finishes and there are some decent prizes for the top five at the end of the league. The winner gets VIP Premier League Football tickets and £250. Plus there is a guaranteed £250 in the pot for each tournament which costs £5 to play. The surprising thing about this league is that in the first week only 36 players took part and in the second that was down to 31. Then only £155 was staked for the £250 prize pool. Only a few die hard Betfred players taking part could be down to the password being only available on social media sites, the start time of 7.30 and the poor promotion of the league. Probably all three. So have I taken advantage of this opportunity. In a word no, or not yet at least. In both the first two weeks I just missed out on the top ten finishing 15th and 11th having built up a decent stack. In the first week my Jacks lost to Tens in a key all in battle . My opponent went on to come second and now sits on top of the league. I really need to make the points in the third game to give myself a real chance.