Martin’s Blog: Dundee G Summer Series (Saturday night)

I overslept on Saturday and missed the £330 main event.  I came in about 7.30pm and found a £1/1 NLH cash game running filled mostly with visitors from Edinburgh.  I took the one empty seat and bought in for my standard £100.  I immediately found a good spot after calling a raise to £7 from the BB with KQ in a straddled pot with 3 or 4 other callers before me.  The flop came king high and I checked to the pre-flop raiser (an Edinburgh player who is not famous for folding), he bet out and I check-raised to £45.  He then shipped it all-in and I called my remaining £50.  The turn and river were relatively blank and my hand was good.  Ten minutes later another notoriously loose and fishy Edinburgh player raised it to £15 after a few limpers.  He had a stack of about £400 vs my £200.  I had position on him and found AKo.  I made it £45 and it folded back to him.  He immediately moved all-in and I insta-called.  AK against this guy is always the super-nuts even with 200 big blinds.  I showed my hand and he then declared that he only looked at one card (an ace).  He turned over his kicker which was a 10.  I held up and got to £400.  Shortly after this we changed the game to £1/2 NLH.  The stacks were very deep and the Edinburgh guys are used to playing £1/2 so I was happy to go with it.  I now had a £400 stack to play with which was fine.  The dealer informed the poker desk that the game was being changed and they approved it.

After about an hour of playing the game as £1/2 NLH the notoriously loose Edinburgh player (the one that doubled me up with A10 vs AK) lost his remaining £200.  He was apparently in the game for around £800 having been shoving blind for £200-300 before I arrived.  He has plenty of money and, in my experience, is also keen to reload to try to chase his loses.  When he is on tilt like this he is great to have in the game.  He went to the poker desk and asked for £500 to rebuy with.  Vinnie was on a break or at least out of the cardroom doing something else at the time and the GUKPT organiser guy told him the max buy-in was £300.  The player said ok, took the £300 and started walking back to the game but as he was doing this he paused and then turned around, suddenly realising that £300 didn’t sound right for a max buy-in for the £1/2 game and queried it with the guy.  He was adamantly told again that £300 was indeed the max buy-in.  The discussion between the two of them relocated to the table as the player wanted to hear what the other players and the dealer had to say.  Not a single player at the table had any problem with him buying in for £500 or even £5,000 if he really wanted to.  He was losing heavily, ready to gamble and therefore a great spot in the game.

I didn’t say anything at first but the ruling was so clearly wrong that I couldn’t help but get involved when it looked like he wasn’t going to change his mind.  I was really worried that they would chase the player off which would be a complete disaster.  The GUKPT guy just kept explaining that the max buy-in was there to stop people buying for ridiculous amounts and bullying the table.  I prefer an unlimited buy-in game but if they have a max then I will abide by that.  The real problem was that the amount of the max buy-in he was telling us (£300) was so obviously incorrect.  I asked him how the max buy-in can be 150 big blinds but he had no reply.  I then asked if the max buy-in was related to the blinds and he said yes.  My next question was to ask what the buy-in is at a £1/1 game in that case.  He replied £300 and my head almost exploded with the stupidly and utter lack of common sense or logic from what he was saying.  We made it quite clear from the start of the conversation that this was a £1/2 game but still he was talking complete nonsense.  How can the max buy-ins for £1/1 and a £1/2 games both be £300 if they are related to the blinds I asked him?  He had no reply apart from insisting that the max was £300 and there was nothing he could do about it.  Madness.  Vinnie then arrived back and clarified that the minimum buy-in for all games is 50 big blinds and the maximum buy-in is 300 big blinds.  This is not ideal but it is infinitely more sensible than the £300 max that the other guy spent 15 minutes insisting was correct.

This correction from Vinnie meant that the player could now buy-in for £600 max which is more than the £500 he wanted to buy-in for in the first place!  Now the point was clear but the player was so insulted by the way he was treated that he said cheerio, got in his car and went home.  This was a shocking ruling that had a detrimental effect on the game.  It is an example of staff not looking out for the players.  The guy could have checked the maximum with other staff members or tried to find it in writing or on the computer but he refused to do all that and just stood there arguing his point.  This is not a criticism of Vinnie or the other regular staff at the Dundee G casino.  It was just a horrible decision and terrible customer service from this one individual.

After my great start in this game I lost a few pots after having to fold repeatedly when getting 3bet pre-flop or having my continuation bets raised on the flop and not being able to continue.  I felt like I was getting abused to some extent but I had nothing to even make a hero call down with.  Eddie G and Sam arrived in the game after a couple of bust-outs and fortunately both were to my right.  In one unfortunate hand Eddie raised to £7 after Sam limped and I called on the button with Jh9h.  Sam also called out of position and we went to the flop three-handed.  The flop came Jd9d6c.  Sam checked, Eddie bet out £25 into the £23 pot.  I made it £55 to go and Sam tank-folded what apparently was Ad5d for the nut flush draw.  Eddie moved all-in for another £80 on top of my raise and I called, covering him.  I turned my hand over on the flop and Eddie was shaking his head and saying “Brutal” to himself as the turn came down an off-suit 7.  He said “That’s brutal” again just as the river came down a 10 but then quickly added “…for you!” as he slammed down his J10 on the table.  Very classy.

Shortly after I decided that the £1/2 game was not worth staying in.  Sure, there were three £1,000+ stacks but these guys just weren’t getting involved and I didn’t see any other real value at the table.  I therefore relocated to the second table which was the standard Dundee £1/1 NLH game.  I have no problem playing where I think the best value is.  I don’t feel the need to be the daddy and play in the biggest game in the room if there is a better spot at another table.  I got off to a good start at this table but it went downhill again.  Sam copied my move and relocated here from the big game.  He successfully slow-rolled me in a pot which wasn’t appreciated.  I had raised in early position with 88.  He called with A3 suited and another player called too.  The flop came 345 and I bet out, Sam called and the other player folded.  The turn was a 3 for his money card and I bet out a chunky £35.  He had about £57 left in total so the obvious move was to immediately move all-in and it would be £22 more to me to call into a pretty big pot.  However, Sam decided to tank for an eternity before getting it in.  It wasn’t exactly a river showdown slowroll but it was close enough to annoy me at the time.  He later explained that he thought he had quite a bit more behind and wanted to make sure I called.  In general though, slowrolls seem to be becoming more common in the Dundee games.  Can everyone please stop it?  It’s not nice.

I played on quite late on Saturday night/Sunday morning and ended up losing a whopping £82 for the day.