Just finished the tournament with a chance to win a seat to the EPT Grand Final in Monte Carlo.

After 3 hours and 48 minutes I, unfortunately, didn't win it, and got knock out in 34th place with a modest win of $25. Not bad I suppose given that the starting field was 760 players.

The hand I got knocked out on was unfortunate and runs as follows:

PokerStars Game #26764854248: Tournament #144792874, Freeroll Hold'em No Limit - Level XIV (800/1600) - 2009/04/05 18:02:20 ET
Table '144792874 32' 9-max Seat #3 is the button
Seat 1: Phil_Meboots (19986 in chips)
Seat 2: ordinarymark (21539 in chips)
Seat 3: Womaniser35 (24072 in chips)
Seat 4: halfjobjoe (30147 in chips)
Seat 5: smudgeordie (26988 in chips)
Seat 6: the bosun (38020 in chips)
Seat 7: bubbaloo2 (51360 in chips)
Seat 9: feedthegoat (47814 in chips)
Phil_Meboots: posts the ante 150
ordinarymark: posts the ante 150
Womaniser35: posts the ante 150
halfjobjoe: posts the ante 150
smudgeordie: posts the ante 150
the bosun: posts the ante 150
bubbaloo2: posts the ante 150
feedthegoat: posts the ante 150
halfjobjoe: posts small blind 800
smudgeordie: posts big blind 1600
*** HOLE CARDS ***
Dealt to ordinarymark [Ts Qs]
the bosun: folds
bubbaloo2: folds
feedthegoat: folds
Phil_Meboots: folds
ordinarymark: raises 2400 to 4000
Womaniser35: folds
halfjobjoe: calls 3200
smudgeordie: folds
*** FLOP *** [8d 6s Qh]
halfjobjoe: checks
ordinarymark: bets 4800
halfjobjoe: raises 21197 to 25997 and is all-in
ordinarymark: calls 12589 and is all-in
Uncalled bet (8608) returned to halfjobjoe
*** TURN *** [8d 6s Qh] [4h]
*** RIVER *** [8d 6s Qh 4h] [3s]
*** SHOW DOWN ***
halfjobjoe: shows [Js Qd] (a pair of Queens)
ordinarymark: shows [Ts Qs] (a pair of Queens - lower kicker)
halfjobjoe collected 45578 from pot
*** SUMMARY ***
Total pot 45578 | Rake 0
Board [8d 6s Qh 4h 3s]
Seat 1: Phil_Meboots folded before Flop (didn't bet)
Seat 2: ordinarymark showed [Ts Qs] and lost with a pair of Queens
Seat 3: Womaniser35 (button) folded before Flop (didn't bet)
Seat 4: halfjobjoe (small blind) showed [Js Qd] and won (45578) with a pair of Queens
Seat 5: smudgeordie (big blind) folded before Flop
Seat 6: the bosun folded before Flop (didn't bet)
Seat 7: bubbaloo2 folded before Flop (didn't bet)
Seat 9: feedthegoat folded before Flop (didn't bet)

Not bad I suppose for a 2nd try. Maybe next year

After playing small stakes poker for about a year now, last night I finally won my first multi-table tournament.

Over the course of the last year I have won numerous single table sit 'n' goes (at the $1, $2 and $3 levels) and a few 45 handed sit 'n' goes but this is the first time I have won a large field MTT and it has given me my biggest win to date. It's no were near the level of a Pokerstars Sunday Millions or PKR Masters win but certainly a step in the right direction.

The other good news was that as well as being a tournament with a cash prize pool, it was also a satellite to another tournament. This tournament has a bigger prize pool and the winner will get a seat at the EPT Grand Final in Monte Carlo at the end of April.

It looks like the final field for this tournament will be in the region of 700 players so it is unlikely that I'll be the one heading for Monte Carlo, but you never know (God willing)!

Screenshot of the tournament results

I've just been watching a couple of episodes of Poker After Dark with Mike Matusow. He claims to be the unluckiest poker player around, but I know he's the second unluckiest one around behind me as the unluckiest one.

Anyway, one thing he did say, which struck a cord with me, was about posting your suck outs as well as your bad beats, so here's todays suck out:

*********** # 79 **************
PokerStars Game #25770224762: Tournament #146559498, $1.00+$0.20 Hold'em No Limit - Level V (75/150) - 2009/03/09 9:03:54 ET
Table '146559498 1' 9-max Seat #9 is the button
Seat 4: kalibershanD (5985 in chips)
Seat 7: zakharin (5290 in chips)
Seat 9: ordinarymark (2225 in chips)
kalibershanD: posts small blind 75
zakharin: posts big blind 150
*** HOLE CARDS ***
Dealt to ordinarymark [3d 3c]
ordinarymark: raises 250 to 400
kalibershanD: folds
zakharin: raises 3500 to 3900
ordinarymark: calls 1825 and is all-in
Uncalled bet (1675) returned to zakharin
*** FLOP *** [Jd 4s As]
*** TURN *** [Jd 4s As] [Td]
*** RIVER *** [Jd 4s As Td] [3h]
*** SHOW DOWN ***
zakharin: shows [Ks Kc] (a pair of Kings)
ordinarymark: shows [3d 3c] (three of a kind, Threes)
ordinarymark collected 4525 from pot
*** SUMMARY ***
Total pot 4525 | Rake 0
Board [Jd 4s As Td 3h]
Seat 4: kalibershanD (small blind) folded before Flop
Seat 7: zakharin (big blind) showed [Ks Kc] and lost with a pair of Kings
Seat 9: ordinarymark (button) showed [3d 3c] and won (4525) with three of a kind, Threes

If I knew this was going to happen, I would've started doing this months ago.

Since posting up my first Bad Beat post, I've not been doing too badly. Currently Titan Poker sucks (ie. this is were I'm getting bad beats) but Pokerstars is currently being good for the most part.

Today's bad beat would be a hand from Titan Poker but I'm not in front of the computer I play on (a hand were I had pocket sevens with a Ten high rainbow board (ie. no flush possibilities) and ran into someone with pocket Aces!).

Anyway, this one is from Pokerstars and isn't as bad as some of the bad beats I've had recently. Here goes:

*********** # 83 **************
PokerStars Game #25770257927: Tournament #146559498, $1.00+$0.20 Hold'em No Limit - Level VI (100/200) - 2009/03/09 9:05:40 ET
Table '146559498 1' 9-max Seat #4 is the button
Seat 4: kalibershanD (5910 in chips)
Seat 7: zakharin (3465 in chips)
Seat 9: ordinarymark (4125 in chips)
zakharin: posts small blind 100
ordinarymark: posts big blind 200
*** HOLE CARDS ***
Dealt to ordinarymark [9s 9d]
kalibershanD: raises 300 to 500
zakharin: folds
ordinarymark: calls 300
*** FLOP *** [Kd 4c Td]
ordinarymark: bets 600
kalibershanD: raises 4810 to 5410 and is all-in
ordinarymark: calls 3025 and is all-in
Uncalled bet (1785) returned to kalibershanD
*** TURN *** [Kd 4c Td] [7s]
*** RIVER *** [Kd 4c Td 7s] [Qh]
*** SHOW DOWN ***
ordinarymark: shows [9s 9d] (a pair of Nines)
kalibershanD: shows [4d Qd] (two pair, Queens and Fours)
kalibershanD collected 8350 from pot
*** SUMMARY ***
Total pot 8350 | Rake 0
Board [Kd 4c Td 7s Qh]
Seat 4: kalibershanD (button) showed [4d Qd] and won (8350) with two pair, Queens and Fours
Seat 7: zakharin (small blind) folded before Flop
Seat 9: ordinarymark (big blind) showed [9s 9d] and lost with a pair of Nines

I have spent some time putting together some online calendars for some of the big poker tours and another calendar of big one-off poker events and they are now available for those who are interested.

I've compiled them through Google Calendar so each calendar is available in 3 formats; XML (like an RSS feed), iCalendar (can be viewed in a desktop calendar such as iCal or Mozilla Lightning/Sunbird) or HTML (that can be embedded directly into a website).

Here they are:

World Poker Tour (WPT) Season 7
Click here for the version
Click here for the version
Click here for the version

European Poker Tour (EPT) Season 5
Click here for the version
Click here for the version
Click here for the version

Grosvenor UK Poker Tour (GUKPT) 2009
Click here for the version
Click here for the version
Click here for the version

Miscellaneous Poker Tournaments
Click here for the version
Click here for the version
Click here for the version

Enjoy :-)

The new year heralds a slew of new Poker shows on the TV in the UK.

The first one out is the Partypoker.com Premier League III featuring the likes of Annette Obrestad, Phil Hellmuth and Dave 'Devilfish' Ulliott to name but three. The coverage is currently going out on Channel Five every Tuesday night/Wednesday morning starting between 00.00 and 00.15 (for some reason the start time isn't consistent from week to week).

The second one is another helping from Partypoker.com, this time it's their Women's World Open II. As the name suggests this is a women's only TV tournement. The format is six handed, deep stacked, sit and go's with the winner of each episode/sit and go progressing to a final table to play for the title, The coverage is currently going out on Channel Five every Wednesday night/Thursday morning starting between 00.00 and 00.15.

The last one is coverage of the World Series of Poker Europe Main Event of 2008. Unlike the coverage the 2007 event, commentary is being provided by Lon McEachern and Norman Chad, so if you like their commentary style while watching the coverage of the main World Series of Poker then you should feel right at home. The coverage is going out on Channel 4 every Friday night/Saturday morning starting between 01.00 and 01.15 each week.

I'm sure the new series of Poker After Dark will make it's way over here soon as well (if it hasn't got here already) so there is plenty of choice for the UK poker fan at the moment.

I've called my site 'God, Poker, the Environment and all that' as this encompasses the issues that I am likely to talk about on the site and also lists the priority that I give each issue (ie. The most important thing in my life is God and my Christian faith, followed by my passion for playing poker and my concern and interest in environmental/green issues and then any of the other things I am interested in such as T.V., Radio, American Sports etc.).

Some may be able to see a link between Christianity and Green issues but some may be puzzled with the poker part.

In fact there are some (possibly a lot) of Christians that would positively denounce me for even think about playing Poker. The reason? Poker is considered to be gambling and some Christians see gambling in any form as a sin.

Now, I have a problem with both parts of that. Firstly there is an ongoing debate as to whether poker is a gambling game or not. Whilst there is an element of chance to it (as a Christian I don't believe in the concept of luck, but that's a discussion for another day), there is also a substantial amount of skill needed to play poker well and the fact that it is not a game that is wholly based on chance (like lotteries or bingo) or the skill of others (like betting on sports or horse racing) and requires you as a player to apply your own abilities to win, I won't image that this would come under any definition of gambling.

The second point is that some Christians pronounce that gambling is sinful. This is not true. There is nowhere in the Bible that states that gambling is sinful or wrong. The Bible DOES warn about the possible consequences of gambling in the same way that it warns about the possible consequences of drinking alcohol but it does not say that it is sinful. So even if we accept the argument that poker is a form a gambling, it is not a sin to play poker.

If anyone is interested in a more detailed look at this subject, you can check out an episode of the Two Plus Two Pokercast that includes an extended interview/testimony with a gentleman called Danny Robison, a high stakes poker player come born again Christian. I found this mind blowing given this was someone that is effectively talking to a non-Christian audience and I was left feeling blow away by his testimony.

This episode of the podcast can be found here.