Sam Trickett Blog

I haven’t blogged for a while because I have been really busy with X-mass and I have been spending a lot of time with friends and family. I had an amazing 2010 which has made me really optimistic and excited about 2011.I started the year in good form by playing the £50/100 cash game in The Palm Beach casino in Mayfair. I played 4 sessions and played really well and banked 4 solid wins. On my way to Australia I thought it would be a good idea to call into Macau and play the cash game again. I played 5 sessions in the $5000/10000 HK game and ran really well and won all 5 sessions.
I have just arrived in Melbourne for the Aussie millions and I am looking forward to playing some tournaments. I haven’t played a tournament for 3 months so I’m hungry for a deep run. I will play the $100,000 High roller and the $10,000 main event and possibly a couple of other side events.

As I was typing this blog my Good friend James Bord won his shootout match in the $25k invitational. He Had a really tough table draw as well with players such as Phil Ivey/Patrick Antonius/David Benyamine and Andrew Feldman.So well played to him and Good luck in the final…………..

WWW.Titanpoker.com

Comment

I am currently in Macau trying to worm my way in to the big 10,000\20,000 HKD ( $1300/$2600) cash game,i have been here for 2 weeks now and i havent really made any progress on getting into the game.I have played the 1000/2000 HKD PLO ($130/$260) game a few times but it struggles to run longer than a couple of hours.I cant decide wether to stick around and wait for my shot in the game or just fly home today and play the GUKPT grand final.
If i ever get in to the game i will be buying in for approximately $1,000,0000 and this will be the most i have ever taken to a table so iam super excited for a chance.

ill keep u posted on my progress of getting in the game.

1 Comment

I just want to say congratulations to my good friend James Bord on his recent success.

I played the WSOPE main event and made day2.On every break i was talking to James about hands and it seamed like he was playing really well for a change,haha (joke) .I think this came down to the prestige of the event and it really brought out James A game.Its remarkable how much u can learn if u put the effort in and this is exactly what james did.Well played sir,thoroughly deserved!!!! ( also congrats on winning the high roller and making the poker million final – siiiicko!

Next week i am going to make my way to Cape Town and have a short break before i fly to Johannesburg for the WSOP Africa.

I have a $5k golf bet with James Akenhead and i literally cant win so i have got to try and hustle him at pool to get out of it.

Comment

I haven’t blogged for a while as I have been too busy flopping sets and getting AA/KK every hand

It has been a really sick few weeks for me, in total I have cashed for over a $1,000,000 in live tournaments and I have won around £80,000 in the live cash games in London.

My first big result of the year was my 2nd place finish in the $5k NL Holdem event where I picked up a sweet $505,000 pay day. I was really disappointed not to have won the bracelet as I felt I played really well and played all my hands correctly. I felt my performance in the $5k was probably my best performance to date.

My next deep run was in a WSOP $1500 event ,I was chip leader with 18 left and managed to come 17th after running AKhh into AA button on BB and then this hand happened. I had been playing LAG all day and the field was really soft and passive. A Guy raises the Cut off and i flatted QQ on the button, now the BB goes all in for less than the pre flop raise so there is a small side pot of 2bbs.The flop came KQT and the guy continuation bet 135,000 i now raised to 295,000 and he instantly min raised me back to 600,000 it was like a James Bond scene. I then jammed in for 1.1million and he sigh called me with KT and he binked a K ball and i was out. This was the most painful bad beat i had ever had to date, not only because its was a dirty suck out but because i really felt i was winning this event as the field was really soft and i could see the path to the bracelet.

I went onto cash 7 times in the series. I think i broke a WSOP record by cashing in more NL Holdem events in one series than anyone before. Great WSOP

EPT
After Vegas i played EPT Villamoura and made the final as joint chip leader with Toby Lewis,I ran really bad on the final losing 7/8 all ins and i ended up with a disappointing 4th.Well done to my friend Toby though!!!

WORLD OPEN
I played the world open last year and got good some good coverage and thoroughly enjoyed then event so i was looking forward to playing it again this year. The field was really tough and i knew i needed to play extremely well and hopefully get some luck on the way. I won my first heat beating Marty Smith heads up,i ran really good in this heat winning nearly every flip i had.

The final was a bit more exciting. I played really aggressive from the off and created a LAG image and then people started playing there hands really badly vs me.It always helps when u raises every hand and then when you get kings they want to re-raise u I went onto beat Timashenko heads up and claim my 2nd Title.

I don’t want to talk about the hands i played on the final because the show has not been televised yet!

Since the world open i have played the WSOPE and the EPT but got no joy.

I have been really busy moving into my new flat in Belsize park in London.

I will be going to South Africa next for the WSOP.

Comment

I will start by saying i had the worse flight back to the U.K ever,After flying with virgin so much and having ur own individual screen in the headrest to sharing the 1960′s communal tv was a big tilt, Especially when they only showed Fantastic Mr fox.

I arrived in London 1 day before i was pencilled into play the Big game so i made sure i got some good sleep and booked into the Intercontinental which is next door to the Les Ambassadeurs casino,Perfect!

I turned up to the game on Sunday 11th at 8.00pm and almost immediately got involved by playing a £5-10 cash game with 3 big fish and i managed to do my absolute nuts losing £5k.1 hand was against James Mitchell ( newly crowned irish open champion) AQ vs AK, flop AA2xx and the other was all in on the turn with a straight vs a set and he filled so all fairly standard hands.I have got to admit it wasn’t a great idea to play before i went to play the Big Game but im literally to much of a degenerate to refuse a game these days.

I was sat there for about 2 hours after the 5-10 waiting for my seat in the game and i started to feel tired so i decided i was going back to the room to sleep.Of course literally the second i got on my bed my phone rang and i was told i was next on and to come back to the casino.I finally got into the game approximately around 4.00am so after being up 16 hours already i was about to play a really long session of high stakes poker with top players like Issac Haxton,Justin bonomo,Neil Channing and David peat so i knew i had to play well.

I sat down with £10k and stuck to my plan of playing tight until i got a feel for how the game was playing.20 minutes in i was dealt TT in 2nd position and of course i raised and the most aggressive player at the table David Peat RR me from the button and to be honest i didn’t give him credit for a hand because i often 3 bet new players to the game my self ,because i know that they dont want to stack off 1st hand they play, especially when its on the t.v Anyway i thought 4 betting was pointless and id call for value even though i wasn’t thrilled at being out of position.The flop came J56 and the i think its pretty standard to check/call that flop.The turn was a 5 i checked and so did David,i was happy to see him check because if he barreld again it would of been a awkward spot.The river brought a Ace so the board read J56,5,A and as soon as i saw it i knew David was betting this card weather he had a ace or not as my hand is kind of face up and he knows its a bad card for me.because i gave David credit for being a good hand reader i thought he would have a pretty good idea of what i had.He now bets pretty much close to the pot and obviously i only beat a raw bluff but it didn’t feel like a value bet at all so i was very curious,it felt like he was trying to push me off all my 88/99/TT type hands and so after a little dwell i decided to call and he said ‘ u got it’ which is always nice to hear when ur making a marginal call.I then went onto bluff half my stack off to him with 4 high but i was also happy with the way i played that1 i just ran into the top of his range.I played pretty nitty through out the game and every time i played a pot it seamed to be with David.I ended up making a few hands and getting in some nice spots and after playing for 24 hours straight i was asked if i would give my seat up so i did.I ended up profiting £25k and thought i played fairly well although i did make a few small mistakes.

I went to Nobu after the game to meet with some friends and they had just finished eating but there was 2 California rolls left so i eat them and ordered a cocktail to pick me up as i felt tired.10 minutes later the bill arrives and of course its standard to play credit card roulette for the bill and i somehow lost a 6way flip and had to fork out £950 for 2 California rolls and a average cocktail. Marvellous!

I have since come home to see my family and friends for a week or 2 and i will be going back to Cape town for a few weeks before i go to Vegas for the wsop.Im also going to play some tournaments online to try a freshen up my tournament game before i go wsop.

Comment

I havent blogged for a few weeks as i was away in swaziland playing in the All Africa poker tournament.It was 5,000 R(£450) rebuy tournament and was exactly what i expected,it had 120 players and it was a really soft field.I finished day 1 in the top 5 in chips and was very optimistic about the rest of the tournament.As it happens i didnt run well enough in the all ins losing AK to 88 twice and then lost a chip leader pot AA vs 77 AIP and he riverd 7 ball.My exit hand was also pretty standard,i raised J8hh called by sb and bb flop came 9TK rainbow and the bb donk lead 20k into 30k and i had 105k so i RR all in with my draw and fold equity and he actually had the top of his range which was strangely enough AK.Wp not 3 betting my cut off open pre flop.It wasnt all bad news as a freind of mine went onto win the tournament called Darren Kramer-a good solid all round player.Overall a good experience and a very well run tournament.

I dont think many if people know why im in Cape Town but im here working on building a business called the PokerFarm staking players from $20NL upto $2000NL.We have around 70 players in the Cape town office and 12 players in the U.K office and we basically stakes them to play online and help the imporve there games by finding there leaks and working on there game.We have 5 trainers overlooking the office as there playing and if they get in tough spots we havet to help them.So farr its going really well and we are already opening two more offices in costa rica and jo-berg.

I will be flying back to the U.K on the 9th April to play in the Cash Den £25/50 cash game with Luke schwartz,Sammy george,Phill laak,Neil channing,Andrew Feldman and a few other guys i dont know,so that should be good fun

Untill then ile be grinding Full Tilt hoping for a change of luck after a bad few weeks on the virtual felt.

1 Comment

I have been in Cape Town for 4 weeks now and have settled in nicely. I am finally getting into a healthy routine of waking up at normal hours, going to the Poker office, grinding, and then going to bed at a reasonable time.

I went to play my first tournament of the year last week in Johannesburg, it was the Emerald classics 18k ($2400) buy-in. With 30k start chips and capped at 100 entrants I fancied I could have a deep run in this comp. I thought best way to play this comp was by playing lots of small pots and slowly build my stack but third hand in I played a pot with with Jd Td on Kd Qd 8x flop and did 15k of my stack. I managed to go on a heater after that though and cruise through to day 2 with 60k chips.

Day 2 started well and I was finding it really easy to accumulate chips and took the chip lead and really thought I was nailed onto final. However with 16 left I lose a monster hand with AK vs TT and this changed the dynmaic of the table as I no longer was going to open every pot because I’m not a fan of raise-folding with less than 20 bb’s.

Then this hand arrives , Folds round to me and I raise A2 on the button and the BB defends, which I wasn’t over the moon with, as he was such a active player that didnt fold too much. So I didnt think I was gonna take it down on too many flops. Board comes 2c 4s 4s, he checks and I checked back because I wanted to get to showdown and didnt want to play a big pot (looking back I hate this check and think it was a mistake). Anyway, turn came a 8c and he lead into me for nearly a pot size bet and i called. By this time I was pretty sure he was putting me on AK/AQ or maybe he thought i picked up a flush draw on the turn. So I was expecting he would only bet small on the river if he had a hand, as I didnt look strong.

The river was Jd, kind of a brick, and he now shoves all-in for 105,000 into a pot of 80,000. Now I had a really tough spot as I couldn’t work out what hands he was shoving for value with and why he shoved all-in when I looked so weak. After around two minutes some grumpy old nit clocked me, and it tilted me hard as it was such a tough spot. I was really leaning towards a call and was convinced this shove was a bluff, but couldn’t stop thinking about this man clocking me. Before I knew it I timed out and was steaming. I later found out that the guy had KT for missed flush draw and was really disappointed I hadn’t called. Of course I got knocked out the next hand when the button raised and I jammed pockets 4′s from small blinds. He had TT and held, I finished 14th when ten got paid. sigh

Other than running bad in that comp I have been running sick hot on Full Tilt and iPoker, I have been playing $1/2 , $2/4 and $5/10 PLO and have won around $30k across the sites in last two weeks. I think I’m actually addicted to Full Tilt though as I find the software is head and shoulders above any other site and it is really easy to multi table on there.

I will be playing the All Africa next month and will be expecting another deep run as I’ve heard the field is really soft. Until then will be grinding it out on Full tilt.

2 Comments

2009 was a real disappointment for me and happy its out the way.I was really optimistic about the year and was expecting sum big results,i decided i would grind cash games for the 1st few months of the year up until the wsop and then just play as many mtt’s as possible to try and final another bracelet event and hopefully ship one this year.

Welllllll ive got to say playing 13 events and getting no cash’s and losing some brutal pots started to frustrate me and i began to convince myself i was running terrible and couldn’t win a pot anymore.I ended up taking a break for 5/6 days before the main event as i wanted to be fresh and relaxed and hopefully would have a deep run.I decided to play the last start day because i wanted to have as longer break as possible.So i turned up the last day with $10k cash ready to buy in and of course for the 1st time in wsop history they decided to refuse players and cap the field,as u can imagine i was super tilted and tried everything i could to get it in but when i saw players such as Patrick Antonius and mike sexton getting refused i knew i was drawing dead.I now knew my wsop was over and was life tilted at getting no results so i thought that i would spin my main event buy in to $8,000,000 some other way and went to play high stakes roulette steaming and obviously bricked every number and had ironed out my remaining $14,000.Time for virginatlantic.com.GG wsop

I then proceeded to bubble some big tourneys online and also bubbled the Unibet open final table,I was ready to take a long break from mtt’s and grind sum of the losses back on cash games but Wsope and Ept came around pretty quickly and couldn’t resist playing them.Again i got no cash’s in the events and no deep runs,i made day 3 of the main event but couldn’t ever get going properly as i was super card dead.The ept was to be the final tourney for 2009 and i lasted only a few hours and was kinda relieved to get knocked out early and begin my break.So i booked a flight to Cape town to see my friend and grind sum really soft live cash games and have a decent break and look forward to a fresh start in 2010.

2010,so Farr has been great for me and i feel i am playing really well again and also running loads better so confidence is back and i am optimistic i am going to have a big year.I am currently in Cape town Helping my friends poker company out ‘The poker Farm’ teaching and mentoring his players on a daily basis whilst grinding loads of hands in the process.I love Cape town and the weather is sick so i think i will be staying here and maybe fly to a few ept’s and high stakes tourneys but mainly i will be concentrating on cash games at least until Wsop anyway.

Comment