Well this month I have been running rather short of sleep as we are busy attempting to get the house back to its former glory. Apart from going down to Guildford to see my son and pick up some gorgeous fireplaces (One in Central London and the other in Suffolk- My old Camper van has been earning it’s keep!), which we found on ebay, I have been playing in Aspers every night. The £5 - £5 Dealers Choice is still going strong despite some of our players visiting Hong Kong at the moment. I am generally there till 6:00am so by the time I get home Lynne is waking up and after a chat is just about ready to get up to let in the, joiner, the plasterer, the electrician etc My sleep as you can imagine is interrupted by a cacophony of noises! As well as this we seem to be continually covered in brick dust, soot, plaster, wood chippings etc, so much so that even the cat is sulking! It should get even more fun as we are planning to build an extension and planning permitted a new garage which will enable us to turn the old one into a gym or games room.

I am pleased to say that I have been really enjoying the cash games and with only two days left of this month January should be showing a healthy four figure profit, but of course it’s not over till the fat lady sings! As I have mentioned before we only play high games, Omaha, Irish and Hold’em. I have been having fun recently picking 3 card Omaha and have been trying to get my head round the hand values and betting patterns. I have been also having a reread of some Omaha books. The one I am looking at is Pot Limit Omaha by Jeff Hwang. It is an excellent book and well worth a read. If you click on Links. I have listed 5 Omaha books which are worth getting.

If you are tempted to start playing Omaha I reccomend that you get and read some of the books which I suggest on my Links page, then go online, obviously at William Hill, and open four tables at really small stakes and get to see a lot of hands very quickly. In all forms of poker it is very important that we see lots of hands so that we know the different ways the story can unfold. I am sure that you will enjoy the challenge and I really feel that Omaha is going to continue to grow, especially in cash games. Tournaments are different as Hold’em really seems to be the perfect vehicle for them, however Omaha tournaments could be improved if they were double or triple chance. This is necessary as the game has more big head on clashes.

Well I have just watched Newcastle get a 0-0 draw away at Leicester who only had 10 men from the 30th minute. It was hard to believe that we are the league leaders and Leicester’s ten men certainly deserved at least a draw. Oh well another point but I can’t believe that we didn’t get a striker. False economy in my opinion!

Well time to get ready to battle my way through the 4 inches of snow which arrived last night and make my way to Aspers. I will be looking out for some interesting omaha hands to relate to you.

Hi after writing my last blog on Thursday night, I made my way to the cash game at Aspers. As has been the current trend we had a £5 £5 Dealers choice and it was a great game as always. I played a hand in 5-card Omaha which raised a few eyebrows when I turned my cards on their back. The money all ended up going in pre-flop, straddle, raise, reraise etc, with three players. I was involved in a larger sidepot than the main pot which influenced my decision, as my hand played better heads up than multi way. I had Ah As 6s 6d 6c and my sidepot opponent had Kc Qc Qd 10h Js and I had called his all in. Although my hand looks a little ugly it is still a favourite heads up against my opponents pretty hand but interestingly enough some good players in the game said that they would prefer the other hand. They would have been right this particular time however,  as he spiked two 10’s!

On Friday night Lynne and I made our way down to Watford. The following day we went our seperate ways as she went to play the £100,000 guaranteed at the Empire and I made my to the River Card Club Stanmore where the TIPS seminar was taking place. TIPS is Paul Zimblers’ baby and I am pleased to be one of the Poker Professionals involved in it. On Saturday there were four of us……Paul “The Marbella Kid” Zimbler, Paul “Actionjack” Jackson, John ” Kunkuwap” Tabatabai and myself. The club was very comfortable and the food and drinks which were provided were excellent. There were three seminars, some single table tourneys where bountys could be won and a shootout for some great prizes. All these were dealer dealt and the pros were spread out amongst the tables.

I managed to get bragging rights with the other pros as I ended up winning the shootout tournament and also collected a trophy and a seat into one of the Poker Stars United Kingdom and Irish PokerTour main events. I think that everybody enjoyed themselves and there were some interesting discussions as well as some good banter at the tables.

Lynne had no joy at the Empire so on Sunday we went to the £50 rebuy satellite at DTD. We had heard that there had been a 13k overlay on Saturday so smelling the possibility of some value tempted us to go. They had about a 5k overlay but sadly we didn’t get any of it, so we made our way back home to the X Factor final while stopping for a Sunday dinner at a carvery on the way.

Sorry for being so lazy with the blog but I am making either a late 2009 resolution or an early 2010  one and will keep it going regularly! For those of you not on Facebook the finish of the Slovakia story was that I got through to day three and finished 16th picking up €6000. Had a chance to triple up on my last hand with a multiple draw hand but obviously missed. I enjoyed the experience however and consoled myself further by winning two more sessions in their exorbitantly raked cash game making it six wins out of six!

Fortune has been a little unkind recently as in November Lynne and I were driving down to the Western Club in London for the last heat of the BetFred Ladies Tour when her Freelander started to make a peculiar noise. I was driving so started to make my way towards the hard shoulder when a rather more dramatic noise occurred. I managed to get to the hard shoulder and we got out the car and witnessed steam coming out the bonnet. Cars were whizzing by on the M 1 so we got back in the car to phone the AA. I was busy finding my AA card then trying to phone up when Lynne suddenly exclaimed that there were flames coming out of the bonnet. We got out rather quickly and in the heat of the moment (excuse the pun) I managed to pick up my laptop and Lynne got her handbag and we moved hastily away from the burning car. I ran back to the rear of the car and was about to try and unload our luggage (We had eight days worth as we were going straight on to Blackpool after London) when Lynne yelled for me to leave it as there was a full tank of petrol. A picture  appeared in my mind of the car blowing up which was enough to make me follow her advise and I rapidly retreated.

As luck would have it we had been very thoughtful with our packing and as well as all our clothes we had our tennis rackets, digital radio for the room, ipod speakers, sports gear etc etc The police came as well as the Fire Brigade, but they could do nothing and the car burned to a shell! We were lucky that an Ambulance pulled up who had been attending the WWF Wrestling in Glasgow and Newcastle and they kindly gave us a lift to Milton Keynes, which was quite a way as we were near Derby. We got a train from there to London then a tube to Hounslow and then a taxi to our Travelodge junction 3 of M4. We grabbed a few hours of sleep and managed to get Lynne to her tournament on time. She played very well despite our traumatic experience but our luck continued and her AK failed to beat KQ. We then tried to get a train back to Newcastle but just missed it and ended up on the 11.15pm Coach. The next day, in true Showbiz fashion,” the show must go on”,  we made our way to Blackpool by train!

The biggest blow is that because I was driving I am only covered third party and the insurance company say that because of that the car was not covered. Moral of the story make sure that your partner is a named driver. Then just to add insult to injury my house insurance say that they don’t cover any of the contents!

I have had no joy in Tourneys recently apart from when Lynne and I came First and Third in a 120 field £50 Freezout at Circus Newcastle. It finished at 5.30am with a chip count, four players remaining and YES Lynne had the most chips! 

I have been playing a lot of cash games recently at Aspers. Dealers Choice (Omaha, Holdem and Irish) has been rapidly growing in popularity and the games have been great. The blinds are £5 £5 (We don’t want £1 chips as they slow the game down) and we pay a session charge of £5 an hour. We even get our Aspire cards swiped each time we pay and they put 60p on our cards which is useful for buying a sandwich or breakfast.

I am glad to say that I have been running well in these games and they are probably some of the best games in the country.

Well its 10.05 pm and I am going to make my way to Aspers for tonights game. I am going to keep my eyes open for any interesting hands which appear and will relate some of them here on my blog.

Just a quick post to let you know that I am in Slovakia for the WPT event. It all takes place in a cardroom called Golden Vegas which is in Bratislava. I have entered three of the side events, a two day €50 rebuy (3000 chips and probably the best structure I have seen for such an event).  A  two day €250 freezeout and a €200 1 rebuy or add-on.  I went very deep in the first two then actually cashed when I made the final of the third one.  One of the players was late getting to the final and fate had a laugh when I pushed my chips in from late position and he found JJ the first hand he played. To think if he had had a weak bladder and had gone to the loo first I might have been ok! I finished 9th for €640 which made a very small profit as I had had the add-on.

I begrudgingly played the cash game as the rake is 5% capped at €20. The games are pretty loose however and there seems to be a lot of money flying around.  I can’t  believe that in these games the house are still charging the players for their drinks. Just as a comparison you can be playing in the Bellagio or the Venetian where the rake is capped at $4 and all your drinks including alcholic ones are free!

I just played tight aggressive and so far have won four out of four sessions (+€200, +€115, +€974, +€569). I have been quick to stop playing or change tables if the game got short handed as the rake would be even more lethal.

I have just played day one of the main event which is $4000 + 400. No surprise that it is a maximum 10%!  Mind you for that huge reg fee we got a dinner and free water while we were playing.

The turnout was incredibly disappointing with only 37 runners however they are expecting a bigger field tomorrow.  I was on a table with Vanessa Rousso and a young guy called Va Shon “Julian Verse” Watkins who won the FTOPS main event in 2008 collecting a massive $450,000.  The three of us were sat next to each other and we got on really well and had plenty of laughs.

We started the tournament with 30k and when I was moved to their table Vanessa must have had about 46k.  She then had a vicious spell of missing flops and running into big hands such as a set of Aces.  She then flopped a straight only for someone to hit their flush.  Finally she pushed all in for 7k with AK suited only to be called by KQ.  An Australian (still licking his wounds after the ashes), another Julian, cried out that he had passed a Queen however the cased one landed and it was bye bye Vanessa.  It was a shame because in poker you are permitted to stare at someone as if you were looking for tells!

Julian had been very low but was incredibly patient and managed to regain a respectable stack.  There were 25 players left at the end of 8 hours play and the chip average was 44,400.  My low point of the day had been 24k but I managed to finish on 47,400 and felt quite happy with that.  Huck Seed, winner of the World Series in 1996 was playing and managed to get through but with only about 11k.  It is day two today,  Tuesday and I will play again at noon on Wednesday.

Please keep your fingers crossed for me!

I played day 1B of the main event of the Irish Classic which took place at the Macau Sporting Club in Cork.  There were 158 entrants with 66 on Thursday and 92 on Friday. We started with 20,000 chips and the levels were one hour fifteen minutes starting at blinds of 25 - 50!  Every blind level you could imagine was included and it created an amazing tournament.  Paul Bracken said that he has been playing at Cork for the last eight years and I can understand why.  As well as a fantastic structure they also provided everyone with the most amazing buffets, with a perfect blend of quantity and quality.

The first day we played for seven and a half hours.  I can’t remember having such a rollercoaster in such a slow structure.  I started off at my first table being very busy and had a mixture of well timed and badly timed bluffs but was on the right side of it and was very sad to have to change tables after creating an unusual image for myself. I had to change tables twice more that day and fluctuated between 13k and 36k and unfortunatelyI lost the last hand of the day finishing with just over 24k.

Day two was a marathon which actually I quite like (mind you if I don’t start exercising again soon that might change), and although a few players started to amass giant stacks I tried not to be jealous and concentrated on how much play I had in my stack.  The target was for us to play until we reached the last sixteen which was the start of the money.  This took nearly 12 hours.  The God of poker wasn’t feeling very generous and I had to rely more on situations than cards.

When there were about 40 players left I finally found a hand - QQ.  The blinds were 2k 4k and a solid player in the cut-off raised to 15k.  I was in the small blind and reraised to 45k, an early position limper then reraised all in.  The initial raiser passed.  I only had 45k left and after trawling through my memory banks (I remembered that he had limped with strength before), talking to my opponent (he was confident but still nervous), looking at the betting pattern (third raise is normally a sign of strength) I passed my QQ face up.  My opponent Mark Flanagan kindly quelled any doubts I might have had and turned over KK.  It was a new experience for me at a poker table when quite a few players gave a round of applause!  Perhaps not such a surprise as the general atmosphere at the tables was great.

From my low stack I somehow managed to scramble into the money and into Day 3.

We started play at 2.00pm with sixteen players and with some giant stacks around it was tough.  Eventually I finished 9th, getting 4,500 euro going out in a battle of the blinds when the small blind pushed with 44 and I called with A9.  I missed on the flop and picked up a straight draw, but to no avail.  I thoroughly enjoyed the tournament and want to give special congratulations to the top three, John O’Shea, Darren Taylor, and the winner, Peter Higgins (Knuckles).  They played some very exciting poker and it was a pleasure to be at their table.

Shortly after returning from Vegas, Lynne and I took my 14 year old son Jamie to Benidorm. Lynne was very skeptical about going (thought it was naff) but thankfully we had a brilliant time, as I would have never heard the end of it!

The weather was amazing and the Hotel Melia where we stayed had the most beautiful pool area I have ever seen. It was within easy walking distance of the beach and the centre of Benidorm. The Hotel accomodated a lot of nationalities which made our regular participation in the Water Polo, Water Volleyball and Table Tennis even more fun, stretching our powers of communication. We didn’t  play poker but we played numerous other card games whenever there was a quiet moment and my son happily kept us informed about who was winning and shows a lot of natural talent.

There was loads to do. Terra Mitica is the largest theme park in Europe with incredible rides and shows. Terra Natura is a new generation wildlife park where the animals are given a lot of freedom and is attached to Aqua Natura which is a fantastic water park which is just what you want after walking round in the sun looking at the amazing array of birds and animals. Aqualandia is an amazing water park with the steepest slides that you will ever see in your life. I can’t believe that I was actually brave enough to go down them!

My son, like me, loves live entertainment and especially likes comedians so at night we had great fun dashing from club to club trying to watch as many different acts as we could. They weren’t all particularly politically correct, however, we came across some very funny acts and my son thought it was brilliant. Some even passed the test and had Lynne laughing out loud.  Despite the fact that she does about ten shows a night we decided to give Sticky Vicky a miss!

We got back to England on Thursday night and I played the main event at Luton on Friday. I got off to a reasonable start reaching 12,800 chips, without any danger but then got caught trying to be too clever and went back to my starting stack. After that I am afraid that the rest of the tournament is a bit of a blur in my mind with a bad combination of poor cards and not hitting.

I actually then had a decent bit of success playing two finals in the same day. I entered the £250 on Saturday which is a side event with a good structure. Forty five minute levels and a two day tournament. I got through to day two and started play at 2.00pm eventually finishing 7th for £940. I then entered the £300 Bounty event capturing four £25 bountys and ending up in the last three with Brijesh Das and JJ Hazan. I was trailing in chips and we agreed to do a deal where I got £3,700 and they both got £4,400 and then we played for the seat for the Champion of Champions. The lead did move around and I actually  briefly hit the front but lost the key hand when JayJay pushed all in and his 10 6 beat my AJ. The following hand he knocked me out when his A 10 held up against my KhJh. JayJay got very lucky when his K6 cracked KK and went on to win the seat but overall he played very aggresively in the final and won an amazing thirteen bountys. Jay Jay had been a massive chipleader for most of the final and the disparity of chips made it a very interesting and tactical event.  It was  played in great spirit and we all commented on how much we enjoyed it.

The sad thing is that my success meant that we missed the wedding reception for Dave Maudlin and Caz. I did send them a message and I wish them both all the best and look forward to treating them both to a belated celebration dinner!

welcome to the James Browning Poker Blog.