Champagne Bubbles

Good end to the year as I won a Betway $1050 London Poker Weekend package. That ends my qualification efforts for the Aussie Millions, Venice's Sky Sport €1,100 tourney and the first GUKPT Channel 4 £1,050 Event in Bolton which all clash.

Nevertheless, I'm pleased as I have a live game lined up for my DaMatrix Live! phase and especially since, overall this year, I made over 160% of 2005's Poker Profit without actually improving much.

2006 though was marred by bubble finishes which not only prevented my first visit to the WSOP in Las Vegas but cost me over $40,000 in packages/profit. My last bubble of the year fortunately wasn't really the bubble as there were 5 seats guaranteed!

DaMatrix Live

Played just 10 live games in 2006. That's not very good is it? Worse - I only cashed in 2 of them! These figures are what prompted the new DaMatrix Live! phase.

1. Blonde Bash 1, Broadway Casino, Birmingham £20
2. Maxim King of Poker 2006, Cafe de Paris, London £0
3. JonnyTexas Poker Invitational, Birmingham £2100
4. Betfair City Aces Challenge, Poker Bunker, London £0
5. Blonde Bash 3, Walsall Casino £20
6. PaddyPower UKPT, Broadway Casino, Birmingham £110
7. Poker Player UK Open, Loose Cannon Club, London £20
8. APAT UK APC, Aspers Casino, Newcastle £75
9. Gala Casino Xmas Special, Nottingham £525
10. Broadway Casino Boxing Day Freezeout, Birmingham £55

Merry Xmas!

The new DaMatrix blog for 2007 is now live!

Click the picture above to go there.

DaMatrix

Gala Casino Nottingham Xmas Special

Played in the £250 plus 1 Rebuy Xmas Special at Gala Casino, Nottingham today after winning a $1200 package online. With 10,000 chips and in good form I fancied my chances of taking it down. The event was a sell out with 100 players - amongst them Julian Thew and 2005 WSOP bracelet winner Laurence Gosney. 40% (£15,000) of the prizepool to 1st.

After a few early skirmishes where I layed down AA on an 8 high flop (to a set of 8s) and lost a few chips with AK v K8 on a K8x flop, I took my rebuy at 4,700 chips so that I had 14,700 during the last rebuy level.

With blinds of 200/400, and early position player makes it 2000, I reraise with AA and he goes all-in. I call. He turns over AK and someone says he folded KQ. I am in the best shape possible especially with an 8 high flop I think. Two clubs but I have Ac. My opponent needs to runner runner the remaining 2 Kings out of the 30 cards (9 handed at the time) in the dealer's hands. He gets his 435/1 shot!

Shortly after, I am out after gambling with my few remaining chips before the break

Road to Nottingham: Wish I hadn't bothered...
RESULT:

£250 No Limit (1 rebuy)
100 Entries
54 Rebuys

1 Richard Shepherd £11,300
2 Julian Thew £11,200
3 Chris Bruce £3,700
4 Nick Hicks £2,800
5 P Attridge £2,240
6 Dave Nisbet £1,850
7 A Jackson £1,450
8 Raj Kanabar £1,160
9 Dave Smith £1,000
10 P Kelley £800
11 Constantine Paparestis £250
12 John Harrison £250
13 Adem Omer £250
14 S Yau £250

Follow the White Rabbit

Betfair Xmas Tree Climb Challenge Update:

9 Dec: +1600
10 Dec: +300 Failed
11 Dec: +1550 (run of 1-2-1-1-2-1-1-1 saw me make it from -450)
12 Dec: +1000/1500 (STT) and +916.25/1000 (MTT) Failed both
13 Dec: Donk Donation Day but won chip set at Nordic Poker!
14 Dec: No Play
15 Dec: No Play, considering ending the challenge.
16 Dec: No Play. Challenge stopped.

Special Announcement: Like the Connected to DaMatrix blog, DaMatrix Reloaded will end at the end of the month. A new name and home for 2007 has already been created...

Betfair Xmas Tree Climb Challenge

Set myself a challenge to reach the top of the Betfair Xmas Tree. For the route I have chosen, I need to score at leat 1500 sit & go points on 6 different days. I achieved the target on my first attempt very easily by picking the lowest level ($2.5 and $5 s&gs) and I thought it would be a walk in the park to reach the top. The next day though I couldn't score in a brothel and the donx got the better of me. Normal service resumed today.

Results so far:

9 Dec: +1600
10 Dec: +30011 Dec: +1550 (run of 1-2-1-1-2-1-1-1 saw me make it from -450)

APAT UK Amateur Poker Championship

DaMatrix looking good before blowing it (Photo from APAT.com)

Finished 9th/211 in the APAT UK Amateur Poker Championship at Aspers Casino, Newcastle today.

Very disappointed that I didn't finish in the top 3 but I managed to blow a 212k FT stack - the last 87K by going all-in blind UTG like I did at the Poker Player Open. This time I had 59o instead of 52o!

Day 1

Day 2: My 83k starting stack

FT Stack: 212,000

9th/211

AMATEUR POKER ASSOCIATION AND TOUR

UK AMATEUR POKER CHAMPIONSHIP

2ND-3RD DECEMBER 2006

ASPERS CASINO NEWCASTLE

£75 FREEZEOUT

RESULT

UK Amateur Champ - Max Ward (Photo from APAT.com)

1 Max Ward - £3,750 and 2007 WSOP Main Event Package
2 Steve Lacey - £2,500
3 Thomas Hunter - £1,500
4 Adam Spratt - £750
5 Raymond Norton - £750
6 Steve Talbot - £750
7 Leon Rossiter - £750
8 David Groom - £750
9 DaMatrix - £750
10 Vicky Glynn - £750
11 Robert Ingoldby - £250
12 Gary Collins - £250
13 Scott Henderson - £250
14 Dan Brown - £250
15 Caroline Burgess - £250
16 Kevin Shutt - £250
17 Tom Phipps - £250
18 Richard Stevenson - £250
19 Geoff Keddy - £250
20 Matthew Milne - £250
21 Paul Taylor - £250
22 bubbleman £75

DaMatrix Chip Stack Progression and Key Pots

Day1
a) 10,000 - 8,100
b) 8,100 - 43,700 [AA v KK, QQ v KK]
c) 43,700 - 61,600 [KK v AA]
d) 61,500 - 83,000 [TT lost to AK, 63 v AK]

Day2
a) 83,000 - 212,000 [QQ lost to JJ v AK v 99 - AK raises, 99 calls all-in, I push all-in for over 100k, JJ calls all-in, AK calls all-in (JJ won main pot c.200k, I won very small side pot v AK) JJ v AJ]
b) 212,000 - 132,000 [AQ lost to A8] Terrible play/fold v new player I hadn't played. Cost me the game.
c) 132,000 - 0 [59 'UTG blind' lost to AJ]

Read the APAT Newcastle Tournament Report.

See the APAT Gallery.

Read the Winner's Interview.