2011

I started 2011 by going on a 2 week cruise around Hawaii, paid for by my results of 2010. Being onboard a cruise is fantastic, most importantly a wide range of food was available 24 hours a day and since it was all inclusive I made sure I got more than my fair share! There were lots of facilities onboard, such as a full gym (which I avoided, I don’t work out at home so I certainly wasn’t going to start on holiday!) and a casino, which of course is where my I spent a lot of time. There was one poker table, it was an automated PokerPro table, which combines online and live poker, you sit around a table that has a screen for each player and one in the middle. Most of the people that played where middle aged / old Americans, even from the first night I realised this could very profitable for me despite the 20% rake charges on SNGs, which had a 1500 starting stack and quick blinds. The play was very loose early in the SNGs and would tighten up as the blinds went up and players were blinding down to 2bb or less, I would press in the middle stages and my strategy paid dividends, I won 6 of the 14 SNGs I played and cashed in 4 others. I made over $1,000 profit I also won a blackjack tournament for $500; due to others lack of understanding in tournament blackjack and some luck of course.

When I arrived back home I had a largely uneventful first quarter of 2011 but in March PKR held a PKR Social event at the Fox Poker Club in London. This included a Friday night SNG fest with free bar; needless to say much fun was had with variety of SNGs played, including doubles and one up Hold’Em.

Riots in London


The $130 event started on the Saturday and I immediately lost most of my stack with KK to a flopped set, I didn’t play the hand too well but I managed to double up soon after shoving JJ and holding v AK after that I managed to pick up blinds and squeeze a few times, no one seemingly wanted to risk becoming a short stack themselves and eventually I got back to a competitive stack. There were a couple of distractions to the poker though, first off there were riots down Shaftesbury Avenue outside the club as can be seen in the video above. Also some of the PKR staff dressed as Teletubbies as part of a lost bet, this made for much fun and laughter and shows the spirit of the occasion. I continued to play aggressive, making moves as we approached the bubble and I made the final table eventually finishing 7th, I open shoved 73d in the small blind but the big blind called with KQ and I was virtually out, down to one ante and despite winning the next hand I lost the next. It was a highly enjoyable weekend all round.


Teletubbies Invade

PKR Teletubbies from Paul Condron on Vimeo.

I won a couple of Montes and the Gold freeroll but finished 3rd in a WSOP Package qualifier, with the top 2 getting tickets which hurt but another couple of Monte wins saw the start of a run of good luck for me which gave me several good results around June time. I was also trying to play more cash games, but lacked the commitment necessary to grind out the number of hands necessary to improve my game, cash was just a table filler alongside my MTTs, but I did enjoy playing in some cash game TV episodes, including the one below which featured several 4 figure pots. I had played a loose game in the cash TV game the day before which was $0.50/$1 which helped give me a LAG image for the $1/2 game the next day which enabled me to win some big pots, unfortunately I lost a $1k pot to Durrrsucks when I had a higher set on the turn but he hit quads on the river, then most of the money went in as I had a loose image I felt my set was good most of the time despite the action he was giving me.

PKR Cash TV June 17th


In August I attended my first PKR Leeds meetup, again this was a great weekend full of poker, beer and general degeneracy. I managed a couple of 4th place finishes but the poker was really an aside to some of the banter. If you have never attended a PKR meetup, I highly recommend you do so as they are full of friendly faces. I also attended a team event in Sheffield, where we bubbled the prizes despite me bubbling the final table and Destacker winning the event, this was also followed by a mini meetup in Southampton which was more of the same!

One of my goals at the start of 2011 was to play more live poker, but aside from the social events it wasn’t until December that I played my first major MTT of 2011, this was the Fox Club Main event, which is a £330 2 day event with a 22k starting stack and 45 minute levels. After 4 hands I was down to 18k, I had played all 4 hands and got outdrawn for small pots in each, still it wasn’t a big problem as it gave me useful information. I struggled to win any big pots all day, but managed to keep my stack ticking along slowly. During the last level of the day I got more aggressive and managed to win a flip which left me with above 60k going into day 2. Day 2 started well, I won a small flip and picked up a few small pots to get to around 80k when the aggressive chip leader opened and one player called, I looked down at QQ and as I only had 20bb decided to squeeze shove, the raiser folded but the caller snapped and he showed KK and he held, which left me hitting the rail a dozen or so places from the money.

A couple of weeks later I headed to the Dusk till Dawn Poker Club in Nottingham for their £1k buyin Monte Carlo event, which had a 30k starting stack with 1 hour blinds and played over 3 days. Day one started well, half the table were absent for the first level which allowed me to collect lots of pots, I only showed down one hand in the first level which was AJ on a ace high board. The second level started and by now most of the table were present, I got dealt QQ on the button and open raised (which I had being doing every orbit with little resistance from the blinds) the sb folded but the bb 3 bet, this was the first time she had 3 bet me, I put in a 4 bet and got called. The flop came QT6 rainbow and the big blind led into me, at this point the effective stacks were about 200bb deep and I figure that she either has a big hand and is looking for me to raise or is betting for info and plans to fold to a raise. I decide that if it’s the latter she is likely to shut down on later streets anyway and as we are so deep I want to try and get all the chips in so I raise and she 3 bets and so I shove as by now I am pretty certain she has a big hand (I am thinking either a set or AA) she thinks for a while but eventually calls and flips AA, the turn is a king but the river bricks and I get a nice double up. The rest of the day was fairly standard, the early double allowed me to change gears when I needed too, tightening up for periods when the action got loose and loosening up towards the end of the day when everyone started to think about day 2. I made day 2 with a good stack but was busted within the first two hours, I ran a set into an unlikely rivered straight and had lost with a straight to a flush and ended up short, I ended up squeeze shoving 15bb when I saw an ace in my hand, I got called by 99 and when I saw the other card was a 3 I was in bad shape and I didn’t improve. After a promising start I was really disappointed to be out so early, but I felt my play had been good I just lacked a bit of fortune in day 2.

Toward the end of 2011 I won a couple of Prime Times having played really well on both final tables but I had bubbled a qualifier for WPT Ireland, my satellite woes continued, despite playing nearly every final satellite going I never quite got over the line, coming close on a couple of other occasions, I just never won a crucial flip here or there and on occasion had become a little too tight hoping others would bust out rather than taking the lead myself. 2011 had been an OK year for me, it wasn’t as good as 2010 even taking out the Masters victory, I had played a lot more higher stake MTTs and despite several 4 figure scores I didn’t have a level of consistency throughout the year and also paid the price for playing lots of big satellites which have a steep payout structure which I failed to cash in on.