My On-Line Poker Story and Now Live as Well

To continue updating this space as I have neglected it for a long time.

I played in the WPT-Niagra Falls, Fallsview Casino Event held at the end of October 2007.

The buy-in for this event was $10,000 and first prize was $1,380,000.00.

The boys at work came up with $5,000 and bought half of my action so I could play against the pros and judge my game against them.

I put up the other $5,000. Unfortunately I got knocked out in the middle of day 2 and finished 176th out of 504 players. I was 12 hours and 131 players short of making the money. If I had held on and made the last payout spot (45th) I still would have gotten $21,000. The boys at work would have been happy to get double their money back. Even though I failed to bring back any money for them, everyone of them has said if I plan on going again next year they want to back me a second time.

High-lights from the Tournament.

Day 1--------

         I sat next to my old friend Gavin Smith whom I haven't seen in 10 years or more. Not since he turned pro and went to Vegas to try his luck. Also at my table was Andy Benes. Gavins' game hasn't changed one bit since I last played against him and I found him and Andy to be very predictable at the table. I was able to take Gavin off of pocket AA early in the tournament and because I showed him the bluff, I was also able to wrap him up and get him to pay me off on 2 other hands when I had the goods.

 

Day 2--------

        My position at the table was Kathy Leibert to my left, with Anon Phillipi next to her. I also had Scott Clements, the eventual winner to my right. The table was tighter then usual and I was able to steal alot of chips. I took Kathy L. off a hand and everything was going accordind to plan until I overplayed pocket QQ to a Jack high flop and ran once again into pocket AA. Although this didn't knock me out because I had stolen so many blinds it did leave me severly short-stacked. The very next hand Scott Clements in the small-blind raised enough to put me all-in if I call. I looked at him when he did this and reasoned he was making a move. I called his raise with Q-10, not a powefull hand but because I was short-stacked and I was sure he was bluffing it was as good a place as any to try and double up and get back into it. Scott says nice call and rolls over J-4 spades just what I thought. Unfortunately the poker gods were still punishing me for my blunder earlier and although I had him dominated the board proceeded to make him a spade flush and I was out.

I really enjoyed myself and I now know my game is approaching that of the pros. All of my reads but one were correct and I am sure I can get that one down as well.

The secret now is to get back there and try again.

New Totals

8 Live tournaments---7 CPT, 1 WPT

4 final table cashes

Total won live $34,000

Total won live after expenses $22,000

Total over-all won $147,000

Till next time.

I haven't updated in quite awhile so I thought I better bring this page up to date.

1st-Played in the $500 buy-in first week of October in Brantford finishing 7th for a prize of $2,700

2nd-Played in the $1,000 buy-in the next night finishing 4th for a prize of $9,300. I should have won this event as I got all in with the other chip leader. I had pocket 33 and he had A-9. The board came J-5-2-J-5 counterfitting my hand. After that hand was over the guy that knocked me out made a deal with the 2 smaller stacks and the tourney was over.. So dam close.

3td-I played in the $2,000 the following night but got knocked out 1 before the money. I hate that, finishing on the bubble.

 

My totals for my first year on the Canadian Poker Tour are as follows.

7 Tournaments played.

4 finishes in the money

Total money won $34,000

Total net after expenses and entry fees $27,000 approx

 

My over-all profit now stands at $152,000 approx. in the 5 years I have been playing.

 

I just got the new Canadian PokerPlayer Magazine and I am mention in 3 places in a article called "Brantford Spring Classic 2007" by Ken R Auliffe. First I am mentioned when he gives everyones chip count, then he mentions me in two separate paragraphs and I quote. 1-"At level 8(6k/12K+600)Leo who is now the short stack but is able to double up and go all-in on the next hand as well against Chris to continue racking his chips. I first met Leo in Sweden when he was an on-line player and managed to turn a $10 comp into a $125,000 cash-out. Now here he was in his first live tournament in 12 years" 2-"With level 9(8K-16K+800) the eliminations came quickly as the orbits whipped around. The next to go was Leo when he committed his pocket 9s against pocket 10s. Stewing over that mistake, $18,000 will surely cheer him up. As primarily an on-line player. Leo could consider this a viable return to live tournaments; that goes back 12 years when he remembers playing against an unknown Gavin Smith."

 

For some reason my earlier posts were deleted. Here is what was written.

I started playing on pokerroom in July of 2002. In September of 2002 pokerroom gave me a $10 comp to try a real money game. From that $10 start I cashed out $125,000 in 2.5 years playing on pokerroom and another on-line site. If not for the $10 from pokerroom none of this would have happened. Pokerroom sent me to Sweden in Feb of 2005 all-expenses paid for 4 days. They gave us sight-seeing tours and treated us really well while we were there.

I also attended  the Toronto Maple Leaf Alumni supper in 2005 as a gueat of pokerrooms ad agency in Toronto. Over the years they have sent me 15 t-shirts, a bath-robe, 3 hoodies, 5 key chains, a felt table cover, money clip, 2 touques, 2 business card holders, and numerous other gifts for playing on their site. It's thanks to them that I am now playing on the Canadian Poker Tour, as with-out the money I won on pokerroom I could not afford to play on the tour. The tour is going pretty good. See blogs below.

  

I flew to Regina on thursday July 26 to play 2 CPT events. I finished 8th in the $500 buy-in freeze out for a payday of $4,020.

On Saturday I played in the $1,000 buy-in freeze out event and got knocked out in 41st wich was out of the money.

Oh well, at least I made something for my troubles. After expenses such as airfare-$900, hotel-$260, cab fares-$110, and tournament buy-ins of $1575 with the service charges I still came away with a profit of  $1,175 for the weekend. Not great but not bad. My running total now stands at $145,000 approx.