Seven out of eight

POKER.

Well after the buzz of the Gala Teeside festival it was back to some sort of normality, whatever normality is.
First pleasing point of the week was the numbers at Teeside last Monday. As mentioned in a previous blog the numbers have struggled of late for the £20.00 re buy. First prize has struggled to reach over a grand most Mondays but last Monday it was £1300.00 to the winner. Over 40 runners so looks like Mondays could be back on the agenda.
Last week I played Tuesday, Thursday & Friday.

Tuesday's £50.00 freeze out was a complete struggle. One of those nights when nothing goes right and every half decent hand is hammerred by better hands. The only pleasing thing to come from Tuesday was with 40 runners left I had no chips but managed to battle down to the last two tables until my luck ran out or was it my constant "all in,s" that annoyed my opponents so much that one called with pocket aces, the worse thing about it was he did not even think, sheesh!
FINANCIAL COST £55.00.

Thursdays comp again was a night of two half's. Sometimes when you have a bad night at the office you arrive next time more determined to put the wrongs right. After a quiet re buy period I managed to maneuver me way to the final and arrive there in a average chip position.
A couple of good hands which were paid of resulted in a chance of a top prize which has been sorely missed of late.
Enter pocket kings.
With blinds of 3000/6000 & me finding KK I raise to 21,3000 everyone folds. Two hands later I wake up to pocket kings again and raise it up to 21,400 a 100 more than last time, why? well to be honest I don,t no.
Anyway the big blind announces all in,I call he flips AK, the flop AA2, well that's me drawing dead then!
Exited in 5Th place for £170.00 & a profit of £120.00.

Fridays again was a struggle never got going until there were about 40 runners left then managed a treble up to put me above average. Then enter the 75/25's again. My pocket queens sending me to the rails when 45 suited hit trips on the flop, ah well that's poker?
Financial cost £40.00.
So overall poker profit for the week £25.00

CASH GAMES.

Only played in Tue,s hold em game at Teeside. Sticking to the 2/3 hour maximum time rule I left wining £165.00

Trading.
Spent a total 11 of hours throughout the week which returned a nice profit of £210.00

SPORTS/FOOTBALL.

Bit of success this week with 7 out of 8 which equates to approx 83%, which is on par with any top tipster.

NEWCASTLE v w brom won profit £176.00
BAYERN MUNICH v frankfurt won profit £142.00
bolton v EVERTON won £194.00
HOFFENHEIM v karlsruhe won profit £136.00
MONTROSE V stenhousemuir LOST -£250.00
EVERTON v fulham won profit £97.00
LILLE v nantes won profit £85.00
GIJON v numancia won profit £141.00

Funny old game football Montrose were my biggest fancy of the weekend so placed approx 5% of our bankroll on this match and it was the only one which lost. However did pass this one on to a mackem maybe he put the mockers on it.

Did have a large punt on n/cle with me own pennies so 4 out of 5 this year for me so far.
Already started me research for next week champion,s league but struggling to find any value at the moment.

So over to our bankroll which stood at £15,147.00 last week

POKER + £25.00

CASH GAMES + £165.00

TRADING + £210.00

SPORTS + £721.00

So overall a successful week with a profit of £1121.00.

This brings our bankroll up to £16,268.00

So this coming week 1% of our bankroll is worth £62,00, 2% £124.00 etc.

Now to a feature weeks which is to look at the careers of some of the top players in the north east and first to have the honour is...

Stephen Liu.

Stephen is without doubt and without fear of contradiction the best tournament player to grace the felt in the north east in my humble opinion.
When I first started out in this game Stephen was one of the players I constantly watched and harassed for advice, why because it was obvious to all he was a winning player.
I never had the opportunity to see Steven play 7 card stud but from all accounts he was practically unbeatable.
The fact that he was able to transfer his skills to hold em shows the talent this man has. For all those who have maybe just come into the game you may now not see the best of him as there are know competitions locally that tempt him regularly.
Steven burst on the national poker scene in the year 2000 when he won what was then the unofficial European championships in Amsterdam. The same festival he also finished 4Th in the seven card stud event.Two years later he finished 4Th in the omaha main event.
A little known fact is that Steven played in the first series of late night poker at the time it was really a closed shop ran by those down south but Steve was held in such high regard.
Maybe one side of Steve that is not shown so much is his willingness to help other players especially those new to poker. Throughout my early years in the game he was a great help and inspiration and I have no doubt I would not be the player I am without his help.
Those players who maybe came into the game after the boom in Newcastle may not have seen his success at local level, but when the old Stanley held there weekly £50.00 re buys and monthly £100.00 re buys he was the man to beat. I reckon he took more out of them games than any other player.
The one down side to Steve is his unwilling less to travel nationally. His poker data base is like stop start or here and there.
Steve showed his ability was not just live play as he adapted to Internet poker winning the poker million on stars then the following week coming second.
Steve is one of only a few north east players who have cashed at the wsop when in 2005 he finished 6Th in the $5000.00 pot limit event, one of only two players from the north east to make a wsop final table
His poker data base shows a career record of over $340.000 in winnings which coupled with his annual wages from the north east makes him my number 1 north east player.

Until next week
all comments welcome
l8