RTR Premier League 2 Game 3 Report

Thirteen players lined up this week - to take a pop at league leader 2Much2Drink - and no matter what they threw at him - he wan’t going away (Dyson, did someone say Dyson??)

Early absentees were Bullmeist, and bad beat exits for both Mair and Cloud, Cloud going out when his AA met Hooverman’s KK.
BurnleyMik and Amatay were also gone relatively early, and with Amatay sitting in second place, this was an opportunity for the guys around him to move ahead. Next to go was BurnleyJoe when his KQ was beaten by a ten on the turn against Sidney Suckout’s K 10.
Would MattyH manage it again??
He had KK again, and was up against Kenn’s AA.
The board showed a King!!
But it also showed another two Aces!!
And the league leader was gone!!
Next to go was season one runner up, and season two debutant Acornman, whose A 10 failed to improve against Raffel’s pair of sevens. Raffel then won a massive coin-flip against Kenn, and got revenge after last weeks heads up defeat, when his AK beat Kenn’s 77, which left Kenn reeling, and then Raffel’s AA knocked out Poker4Ever with his K7. Kenn departed soon after when he pushed his small stack with A2 and ran into RickyRosa’s 77 - and we were heads up.
Last seasons champ RickyRosa against Mr Consistency Raffel69.
The game was won when RickyRosa’s JJ met Raff’s A8.
So RickyRosa’s defence of his title is now up and running after a slow start!!
Can he make it two in a row???

(And at no time were my comments regarding Dysons, Hoovers or Suckouts influenced by my going out with AA - honest…)

RTR Premier League 2 Game 2 Report

Week two of the RTR Premier League season two saw fifteen players taking part – and there some questions that needed answering.
Would league leader 2Much2Drink extend his lead, or would the field come back to him?
Would Raffel ever get over the colour purple?
Would Burnley ever stop producing poker players?

Poker4ever was the first to go this week, after his runner up spot last week, with Bullmeister and Mair next to go. Necromancer finished 12th, and then season one champ RickyRosa went next, followed closely by week one winner 2Much2Drink. Already the table is looking a little topsy-turvy, as the top two have crashed out.
Kronsdat is the first to depart on the final table – and then the hand of the game happened – forever to be known as “Amatay’s Burnley Buster”. It was a 3-way showdown – all-in pre-flop - BurnleyMik with JJ, BurnleyJoe with QQ and Amatay with KK. The board showed undercards, and the Burnley boys were both gone.
Cloud was next to go, when he called his low stack with pocket 8’s and ran into a pair of Jacks and didn’t improve, and then SwingSwingSwing finished 5th 5th 5th when his A10 ran into Kenn121’s pocket Kings.
Bubble time now and the four gladiators are Amatay, HullJimi, Kenn121 and Raffel69.
HullJimi went when he lost a race with Kenn (AK against 77), and Amatay loses out to Raffel69 unluckily when his AK loses out to KJ.
So we were now heads up – Raffel the cash specialist up against Kenn the MTT supremo. A long tactical battle looked over when Kenn was all-in with A9 against Raffels AK, but Kenn hit a nine on the flop, and another on the river for good measure, and now he had the upper hand – and after another lengthy series of exchanges, Kenn won out when his 7Qs hit a flush against Raffels 10 J.
Congratulations Kenn!!

The league table sees 2Much2Drink retain his lead in a close run battle with Kenn and Amatay in second and third respectively.

Bad Players

A very interesting post from the forum yesterday - when Raffel69 responded to a thread about people complaining about having bad players at a table :

When I start playing a session, it all starts with finding the right tables. Of course I am looking for tables with bad players, beginners, maniacs, callingstations, whatever…
All you need to do then is adjust your game to your opponents style. If I have a very loose and wild table with lots of preflop action, I play tight ABC poker, trying to get the money in with premium hands and get payed. These are the tables where I have an easy time to fold overpairs and the like and just wait for reasonable hands to get paid. I call this type of play “donkeystacking”, and if you are patient enough, it can be very profitable.
But usualy I am not looking for these wild kind of games. I prefer a good mixture of loose-passive and tight-passive guys at my tables. These are the games where I controle the action and I don’t need much of a hand to play a strong position game.
When I am sitting with good players, I adjust my game and play more tricky.
Simply all I do is, I try to play any single hand as good as possible. I try to make the right decisions and force my opponents to make the wrong decisions.

So I don’t complain about having bad players at my tables, I am looking for them and I want bad players at my tables as much of them as possible. There is no point in joining a cashgame full of experts, because I don’t want to proof how skillful I am. I rather want to make me some money.
And if a bad player beats me with a crap hand because he is lucky from time to time, I don’t mind. These guys need to win from time to time, this prevents them from getting better because they think they’d play good. I also never tell a fish that he is a fish. I hate people who verbaly attack bad players and chase them away from the tables. Don’t knock at the glass! Try to keep the donating fishes at the tables as long as you can, instead of chasing them away. Tell them how good they are, be nice to them and try to give them a good time. This way they remember that they enjoyed their time at the tables even when they lost a good amount of money. And they come back to have a good time again, and they bring their money.

Extracts from a Diary

Extract from the “Diary of a Struggling Poker Player”

It was hot. Damn hot. Two hours he’d been going - and his brain was frazzled. The five minute break was a godsend. He shot upstairs, splashed water on his face, ran downstairs and opened up another bottle of Bud. He held the cold bottle against his forehead, and then took a few deep gulps. He felt the cold liquid hit the back of his throat, and his nerves were calmed.
He sat down again – the lights were off, and the only illumination in the room was the glow of his laptop. The time was counting down, and he braced himself.
There were eleven left, and only the top ten got paid.
He looked at his cards. Three Nine.
“Shit” He folded. Maybe too quickly. He needed the cash, needed the final table.
Ace Four – early position. Another fold.
The blinds were coming round – and he didn’t have enough chips – he had to push.
It was getting desperate.
Ace Ace.
Fantastic. His throat was dry. “How do I play it??”
His mind was made up for him. The first player to act goes all in – he was second to act – a no brainer.
He goes all in too.
The other player turns over Two Seven off-suit. Got him.
Flop – Two Six King.
Turn – Queen.
River - Seven.

He hangs his head. What happened?? Did he really get beat by Two Seven off. He sits there, staring into space. He hates this game. He really hates this game. He slopes upstairs to bed.

Extract from the “Diary of a RaisetheRiverer”

Got Two Seven off. Had to play it. Got lucky. “Result!!!!!”

Forum Posts of the Week!

This week winner is………….

RTR Forum Personality of the year awards by Yorkshire Pudding! - Use the link to pop over to the forum and take a look! Pud basically nomiates different members for different catagories and then the thread takes hold from there!

Other good posts this week:

Strategy

The thread regarding the maximum and minimum buy ins for cash games generated quite a bit of interest and thought. This thread was started by Cloud and he seemed to get a unanimous response from our cash game regulars!

I don’t usually do two posts under one article, but i think i will make and exception for the thread regarding the Tactics for the 180 challenge. A lot of good information can be taken from that thread and is definately worth a read.

Hand History

I am going to nominate the 72o hand i played against HullJimi. I posted the hand to see if anyone thought i could take the pot with a bet on the end. Although it isn’t the best in regards to good poker it is an interesting hand. you can view it HERE

Bad Beat

For once I am going to have to add an actual Post, for the simple reason that this ine post is in the middle of a larger thread, not in the bad beats forum. This was posted by Cloud, after his horrible recent run, his form isn’t changing in the 180’s. Here is what he wrote:

“AA v KK - He hit a King on the flopInvolved in two AA v KK showdowns - one with KK and one with AA and lost them both ”

OUCH!

Comedy value:

TBH I would see the post of the week!

Members Acheivements

A big well done to Kenn who made another score last night in the $100 buy-in on Littlewoods where he managed a very respectable 6th place finish for a four figure score.

Also well done to MattyH (2much2drink) for the highest finish yet in the $4/180 challenge, when he managed a 3rd place finish. I was going to get my name on here for my 6th place finish (thinly velied brag? ;-)), but my record didn’t stand long enough!!! Very well done mattyh, the $4/180 is really hotting up!

Thanks for reading

BM

Poker Third Eye

The “RaisetheRiver Extreme Poker League” gets off to a hairy start.

Yorkshire Pudding and Amatay play a closely contested game of heads-up.

Tim was down on his luck in Vegas. He had gambled away every cent of his money and had to borrow a dime from someone else just to use the men’s toilet. The stall happened open, so he used the dime in a slots machines and hit the jackpot. He took his winnings and went straight to the blackjack table and turned his small winnings into 5 million dollars.

Wealthy beyond his wildest dreams, Tim went on the lecture circuit, where he told his amazing story. He told his audiences and followers that he was eternally grateful to his benefactor, and if he ever found the man who gave hime that dime, he would share his fortune with him. After months of lectures, a man in the audience jumped up and said, “I’m that man. I was the one who gave you that dime.”

“You’re not the one I’m looking for. I’m looking for the guy who left the door open!”

RTR News.

Once again it’s been a busy old week for Raise The River and it’s members.

RTR Premier League Season 2 - The Road To The EPT 

Friday night saw the launch of the new league, season two. Only 17 players turned out, but one again it was a hotly contested game, with the eventual winner being one of the forum’s moderators, 2much2drink. Not only did Littlewoods support the league and put up the excellent prize for the winner, they also gave us a superb rakeback deal that we could also pass on. You can find more details HERE.

It is not too late to get yourself signed up to the league, all you need to do is become an active member at the forum and then all the details of how to play are on there!

for details of how game one went and the report, you can view on the post below, which is an excellent report written by Cloud.

 The $4 180 Challenge

A challenge was set last week by member, acefilleddreams, for everyone to play TEN of the $4, 180 player games on PokerStars. This challenge has turned out to be very popular and, as usual, it’s going to be a fight to the death! As I write this (I have not checked yesterdays results) The Saban husband and wife duo have been kicking some major butt, but there is a long way to go yet and one win from anyone could see them climb into the lead. The current prize pool stands at $220 so far, but once again, it is not too late to enter. As long as you can play the 10 games before the 12th January, then you are elligible. You can read all the instruction and see who is involved HERE. You can also see the current points scored and who is the one to watch HERE.

Raff’s cash game Challenge

The wheels are still in motion to get this set up, we are currently working on a universal exel document for all players to use to calculate their BB/Hr rate, by which the contest will be judged. In a nutshell, the challenge is to start on the 1st January 2008, with $25 and basically, using proper bankroll management skills (which can be found in the rules) you have to build that up to as much as possible. We will also be creating a monthly or possibly weekly league for this challenge. This is so we can offer something to the normally unrecognised efforts of our cash game members. Hell, I am having a go at this myself! You can find out more HERE.

Cash Competition

Another little competition is in the pipeline. Basically we get 6 or 9 members together and all sit at a small stakes, NLHE, cash table. We all start with the same amount and play for 1 or 2 hours. The person with the most money at the end is the winner! Keep your eyes peeled as we already have 6 interested parties, so three more seats are available and then the dates and times can be worked out. You can read about this HERE.

The New chatroom

The new RTR chatroom has been launched. We are still working on minor improvements, but we felt it could add something to the site for all the members, especially during a league game where we may be on different tables and so having one communal place to chat altogether was something we wanted to offer. We are still in two minds whether to leave it open at all times or whether to just open it at peak times, i.e. Sunday evenings and Friday evenings. I guess this is going to be decided on how detrimental it is to the forum. Thanyou to everyone who has used and supported the chat room thus far!

RTR Books Shop

As you may havenoticed we have a “Shop” Tab at the top on the page, this has now increased the range of items we are selling, so if you are looking for some xmas gifts please take a look as you will be helping to support the forum.

UKPS - (UK Poker Scene)

Lots of new bloggers have moved over to join us on this platform. The one thing i like is you can view all the recent posts without having to trudge through all you blog links, which is awesome. Although it takes a little getting used to, the Wordpress software is much better than blogger software. Anyways, thankyou to all who have moved accross and those of you who are in the process of doing so. Watch out for future promotions that will only be available to UKPS members!

Forum News

Acefilleddreams is the latest addition to the RTR Moderation team. He will be taking care of the members forum. So pop in and say hi.

YorkiePud, decided to step down as moderator of Cash games, as he no longer felt this was his game and so he has decided to concentrate on the None poker forum. This means Raffel69 is the man at the helm of the cash forum.

Unfortunately I have no news of any big RTR scores over the last two weeks, but if you know of any members that have or are doing particularly well then please let us know.

BurnleyMik

Premier League 2 - Game 1 Report

Seventeen players lined up for the first game of the RTR Premier league – seventeen of the finest players on the planet(ish) – so surely it would be a highly tactical, tense, drawn-out game?? Wouldn’t it ??

Eight minutes into the game, and three of the field are gone. Dremeber drowned his sorrows with a Stella, and was quickly followed by BurnleyJoe and a frustrated Cloud.
Raffel69 was the next to go (after many complaints about the colour purple), and new-boy G-unit finished unlucky 13th. The players were falling by the wayside quicker than anyone could actually work out who they were – the games being played on Littlewoods poker, and some of the players having different usernames. BurnleyMik wasn’t able to play, but was still going strong by sitting out, and was already guaranteed a top 12 finish.
Necromancer was the next to go, followed by season one champion RickyRosa, and Wooooooot the last to go before the final table.
BurnleyMik was still hanging in there, and then HullJimi departed, followed by Kronsdat and Bullmeist.
We were down to six, and we’d only played an hour.
Finally BurnleyMik departed in sixth (a very passive game for him), and some strange happenings were occurring in the chatbox. Every word was ending in “aments”.
“Nice raiseaments”
“Bloody Fishaments”
“Have you really got 12inchesaments” (referring to Amatays new username)

Mair finished 5th when she pushed with a small stack, and Amatay bubbled when his A8 met 34 on a A 2 5 flop – ouch.
So were down to three. Poker4ever, 2Much2Drink and SwingSwingSwing.
Swing swung once too often when his AK met 55 and didn’t improve and we were heads up after only an hour and a quarter.
2much2drink finally won the game when he pushed with A9 and met Poker4ever’s A4, and neither player hit the board.

So the early league leader is 2Much2Drink (Matty H).
“Well playedaments”

RTR Premier League 2 - The Road to the EPT

Today sees a very big day for RaisetheRiver - the start of the second Premier League - and this time there is a big prize on offer. The winner of the league will take a seat worth at least $500 in a satellite for an EPT event, so there is a very good chance that RaisetheRiver will be represented on the big stage.
The first version of the Premier League started soon after RTR was formed, and the league went all the way to the wire. It was hosted on Pokerstars, and after ten weeks the league was finally won. RickyRosa took the title in the final game, when Acornman just failed to overtake him in the final game.
The league this year is hosted by Littlewoods poker, and as well as the generous first prize, they have offered a very good rakeback deal for all members of RTR (you can sign up here).
I am sure that this league will be ultra competitive again, and after another ten weeks we will have a worthy champion.

Here are a few of the league details :

Venue : Littlewoods Poker
Time : 9pm Friday Nights (16:00 EST)
Duration : Ten Weeks

Forum Posts of the Week

This weeks forum post of the week is… *drumroll*

 By BurnleyMik and is this one:

LOVE IS IN THE AIR

This is regarding the early stages of a blossoming love relationship between two bloggers, but took a twist for the worst when we somehow ended up talking about a calendar for the ladies of the male RTR members with bits of tinsel!! Check it out, it was a lot of fun!

Strategy

When YorkshirePud was bust out of a $4/180 on the final table, his exit hand was the cause for a lot of excellent strategy discussion. You can view it all here $4 180. Some of the early post are as Pud plays through the game, but all the strategy is towards the end, but is definately food for thought.

Comedy

Apart from the post of the week there was another funny post. This was a post created by Cogsgoigne to cheer up all you Monday morning folk. It is a little, clean joke. You can view it here: HAPPY MONDAY. Enjoy!

Hand History

This was an interesting HH that kenn posted during his Live Blogging session. Basically it was guess his hole cards and really gets the grey matter working hard! You can view it here: WHAT DO I HAVE.

Bad Beats and Brags

Also has an ounce of comedy! acefilleddreams, finally had enough of the guy stealing and made a stand, only to finish up with the guy catching ALL 3 of his outs for quads!! LOL. BAD BEAT

Members Acheivements

Firstly well done to forum moderator, Amatay, for beating an extremely tough line up at the DTD Wildcard game. he has now secured himself the last seat for the live game down in Nottingham. Congratulations mate and well doen to all who played.

Also, well done to UKGatsby, who picked up a second place finish in the William Hill £1.5k added super series. You can find more information by following the link.

Congratualtions to Mair, who recently picked up a silver medal in the APAT South American Open for her excellent 2nd position finish. Pop over to her blog to read about it.

On a none poker related acheivment, well done to BrainChylde, who passed all his exams and now has more letters after his name than the alphabet!!! Well done.

I think thats all the achievements for this week, if you know about any good results or you have had any yourself please post them at the forum or email them to mik@raisetheriver.com

Burnleymik

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