anomaly16

The bulk of my poker playing is online, but I do enjoy playing live for a change of pace and actually getting to see some real people!

Last year I played in the Office Poker league (a saturday afternoon tournament at the local casino) and finished a respectable 3rd. This year I've played again but it has been a bit of a shambles with a change in ownership and the new owner being out of the country most of the time. It was a great structure and a fun and friendly event but numbers have dwindled down to only 2 tables for the final event this year. I think it may unforunately die if it doesn't get some love and attention early next year. The events are generally holdem although there had been some PLO and a team event. There were some more varied games this year which I loved (especially getting to play PLO8 and win) but unfortunately I think it contributed to the reduction in numbers.

Last year a clear winner emerged fairly quickly, but scattered attendences this year meant that everyone realised with only a couple of events left that the league (and £500 prize) was still quite open. Going into the final event there were 4 of us playing with enough points and a chance to win. Two were knocked out and I reached the final table with one other who was 3pts ahead of me with up to 1-12pts available at the final table. We were both pretty short and it didn't last too long... I shoved JJ allin over a raise but it was a pretty easy call for him with AQ and the turn A ended my chances. Congrats Tam!

I obviously played quite a lot of live poker when I went to Vegas: 1 WSOP event, 1 Venetian Deepstack Extravaganza event, a $200 torunament at the Rio, a few small satellites as well as some live cash. I mainly played $1/$3 live at the Wynn and Rio however I didn't play that great or run very well which curtailed the amount I could play due to bankroll limitations.

I've come back from Vegas more determined to play better live and have definitely played better on my trips to the casino here since. A live cash games usually runs in the evenings but it has a lot of preflop nonsense so I've stayed away not wanting to put in the hours to get through the variance and have stuck to torunaments instead.

I'm looking forward to being back in Vegas this year and will try and play more live than I did last time.