A good end to the year

Been a bit quiet over Christmas on the poker front although I did continue to play the PuntersLounge MTT League on Sporting Odds (the Paradise version) this month.

I consider it another step forward that I have managed to win the league for the first time after four out of four final tables - although the highest individual placing was second. Did little more really than hang on tonight and although my 8th place didn't improve my overall score (best 3 from 4 counting) I hung on longer than the possibly 5 or 6 players who could have caught me mathmatically.

It could have been my last game of 2006 tonight but a good way for the year to end. Roll on 2007 ......

My first ever Poker interview !

Copied from the PokerPlayer magazine website :-

PokerPlayer in association with Maharajah ClubFreeroll winner

Duncan Godfrey is off to Goa in March after winning the PokerPlayer Maharajah Club freeroll

By Chris Marais December 2006

Duncan Godfrey of Bradford West Yorkshire will be hoping to get Christmas out of the way and crack on in the new year as he’s off to Goa to play poker in March courtesy of Maharajah Club and PokerPlayer.

Godfrey, who plays online as ‘runadrum’ won the Maharajah Club PokerPlayer freeroll on 3 December.
The prize was a $7,500 package to the Asian Poker Classic (APC), which will be held at The Grand Resort in Goa, India from 1-4 March 2007.
The APC is the first major professional poker tournament to be held in India and will include players who have won prize packages via satellite tournaments held on the site.

Godfrey, like many people started playing about 3 years ago after watching Late Night Poker on TV, but he says "it took me a while to understand that while any two cards are entitled to win it does not mean you should play them all!"
He only plays No Limit Texas Hold'em and all his wins have all been online, playing live only six or seven times including the final of the Poker Player Grand Prix II.

The freeroll consisted of a field of 200 runners and Duncan’s main aim was to make the top ten places and the money and then worry about winning. He set out to play it tight, but his stack took some heavy dents early on.

He stuck at it though, and came through a tough final table, and he tells the story of an interesting hand to win the tourney:
“I held 5-8 offsuit, so not a classic, but flopped two pair and then made a full house on the turn. Luckily my opponent went all-in after the turn before I could and I can't tell you what hand he held!”
“I was stunned to have actually won as heads-up had been nip and tuck and I thought I was booked for second at one point when I foolishly slow played AA and lost.”

His wife Helen also plays and so she has bagged the place as Godfrey’s travelling companion.
We suspect that poker is not Duncan’s only gambling activity as he continued: “Our main holiday each year involves Newmarket horse sales in November so I am looking forward to spending some time with my wife in the sun for a change.”

“It will be my first tournament of this magnitude so I hope to take in and enjoy the atmosphere, take a big name scalp or two and then worry about winning if I make the final day. If/when I go out I want it to be to a good hand."

“I am very much looking forward to it especially as I have only been abroad twice in the last ten years. I don't know how much of the country we'll get to see but I suspect it is a place you would need to visit more than once.”

but still no word from the poker site about details of the trip !

Long may it continue

Almost been avoiding making another post because the Maharajah Table looks so pretty !

But have to move on (until the trip in March) and no better way than winning another freeroll - and a PuntersLounge exclusive, which are always tough.

This was the freeroll for bloggers sponsored by www.Free-Money.co.uk but only available to active members of PuntersLounge with a current, updated blog.

I also managed to take out the nominated bounty along the way (although I just swept up the debris after someone else took most of his chips) so things definitely went my way.

Time to Goa

...... also in my mind was that if I got home in good time on the Sunday I could play the PokerPlayer magazine version of the freeroll qualifier for a seat at the MaharajahClub Asian Poker Classic in Goa in March in 2007. You may recall I came second in the InsideEdge magazine version so was keen to have another go .....

didn't exactly forget about this but have been trying to get a proper hand history without success. so all I am going to say is that I won it !!!

Newcastle

Went up North for the APAT live tournament at Aspers Casino in Newcastle on Saturday and Sunday.

I was conscious of my effort in the first of these in Birmingham when I survived to the Sunday, only to go out on the very first hand of the second day. That was partly the result of being short stacked in comparison to most and I was determined to either build up a decent stack with which to attack the second day, or go out on the Saturday as a result of trying.

Only a couple of highlights to report - first winning an all-in with A9 v A6 with a flop of A96 (to get me back up to 12k) and two hands later folding AK post flop (AQ10) after a reraise by an opponent holding the straight.

I never got above 15k in chips and went out when the blinds were 800/1600 in what I think was 99th place when my raise with 1/3 of my chips from the SB with A4 ran into an all-in reraise from the BB with KK. I knew I was behind but had bottled out two of the previous three hands so took a stand. I have a good poker face in that I don't believe I give anything away when looking at my cards but I now think there must be something in the weakness of my betting that is my downfall (although the Kings were going to call however strong my first move had been !).

Also in my mind was that if I got home in good time on the Sunday I could play the PokerPlayer magazine version of the freeroll qualifier for a seat at the MaharajahClub Asian Poker Classic in Goa in March in 2007. You may recall I came second in the InsideEdge magazine version so was keen to have another go ..... and I will leave that report until tomorrow !

Money Money Money

Got back from Newmarket late last Friday but only now had chance to post an update on here following a weekend away in Newcastle and a business trip down to Berkshire today.

The second week of the bloodstock sales was for broodmares and fillies in and out of training and saw the highest prices of the fortnight - 4,600,000 guineas and 3,000,000 guineas - both horses bought by Lady Serena Rothschild, buying through an agent.

Magical Romance (above) broke the world record for a broodmare when she was was sold for 4.6m guineas ($9.4m) - she won the Group 1 Cheveley Park Stakes, is a half-sister to the English, Irish and Yorkshire Oaks winner Alexandrova and was offered in foal to Pivotal (the most expensive stallion standing in Britain with an advertised covering fee of £85,000).

We weren't in the sale ring to see the sale topper go through but we did see the second highest price - the 3m for Spinning Queen, who had won the Group 1 Sun Chariot Stakes by an easy seven lengths at Newmarket on her last racecourse appearance. Her purchase price set a European record for a filly sold at public auction.

We also saw Short Skirt sell for 1,400,000 guineas to Sheikh Mohammed. The filly won two Group 3's in 2006 - the Musidora (beating Alexandrova) and the St Simon Stakes - and finished third in the Oaks at Epsom and second in the Yorkshire Oaks.

All in all an expensive or profitable week for some people - depending on which end of the transaction you were !