My Perfect Poker Table

I recently built my own poker table with a little help from my brother-in-law (ok alot of help). When I decided I wanted to make my own table I wanted it to be special so that not only would it impress others but something I would be proud of.

I planned the table and how it would be completed and although some ideas changed along the way, I am more than happy with the end product and the pictures dont do the product as much justice as it deserves.

This is a step by step guide on how we built the table and cant wait to get it in action for a game that makes its debut on the 6th may. This game will be £0.10-£0.25 cashgame at my house and will take place on a monthly basis. Stay tuned for the first post of "High Stakes Poker Episode1"

First Buying the Products - I bought the products from BnQ, Ikea and Grosvenor Casino.

1 x MDF Board measure to fit requirement of standard size table

3 x 2 Metre radiator pipe covers

1 x Black tape

1 x Insulating tape

1 x Staple gun with staples

1 x Roulette cloth

1 x GUKPT poker cloth

1 x Set of 10 Blue L.E.D. lights with round silver frame.

Step 1 - Measuring the Wood

Measuring the wood is probably the most important part. Using actual measurments taken from a poker table in the Grosvenor Casino. The curves were marked using the old method of a peice of string attached to a pencil.

Step 2 - Cutting the Wood

We cut the wood using a jigsaw making sure markings were followed to give an accurate shape.

Step 3 - Drilling Holes for L.E.D. Lights

After measuring the circumference of the table we divided that by ten marking out 10 places for the holes to be drilled giving an exact distance between each light.

Step 4 - Laying the Underlay

Laying the underlay was a little tricky but using a staple gun we wrapped the cloth as tight as possible around the wood making sure there was no loose or uneven cloth.

Step 5 - Laying the GUKPT Cloth

Once we were happy with underlay, next was the GUKPT Cloth. We used the same method as the underlay pulling the cloth really tight before stapling it down.

Step 6 - The Rail

We first fit the railing around the outside of the table cutting it to size as it went on.

After Cutting the rail to size we removed the railing table it together using the insulating tape.

Step 7 - Taping the Rail

We then taped the whole rail using black tape to give it a sexier look. We then slotted the rail back onto the table making sure it was a tight snug fit.

Step 8 - Fitting the L.E.D.s

We fit the L.E.D.s easily by poking a small slot in the cloth and pulling the lights through so the metal frame of the lights sat flush to the table. This worked so well.

After this we taped the excess wires to the bottom of the table using tape to just tidy things up.

Step 9 - The Finished Table

We were finished! We mounted the table onto my glass table in my living room thinking we would have to come up with a solution to fasten it down.

This wasnt a problem as the table sits pretty snug and is steady and weighty enough to just sit without extra support. Weeeeeeeeeeeeeee

So all that is left is for a game. The debut game is the 6th of May. For what I have named as "High Stakes Poker" watch this space for future posts on what happened at this game.

Played my first online tourney in 3 months last night on Party Poker. Online I just play cash but fancied a shot.

Tourney $9 entry to 5k guaranteed

618 runners - Finsished 3rd for £375 shiiiiiiiiiippppppp

weeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeee

Thanks for my railers in Jess and Stevie G

(Sorry for the lack of details)

£50 First Tuesday Game at Circus

£50 Freezout in Circus on the first Tuesday of every month is one of the best games in the north-east and with a decent structure and prize pool is one that is a must for poker enthusiasts.

Luckily for me I had already won a seat playing the £20 double chance freezeout taking the tourney down as well as the seat that is awarded with the first prize. FREEROLL

Im posting this a 3-4 weeks after the event so unfortunately i'm not going to go into as much detail about the tourney as I would of liked but certain hands aren't fresh in the mind and dont want post incorrect information.

Anyway, as I was freerolling the pressure was off for this game and could go into this game to just enjoy the action. There was a really good turnout with 129 runners + £500 added to the prizepool. Starting stack of 8,000.

Action was slow to start with until the third level when after picking a few good spots managed to increase my starting stack to about 13.5k. I had a couple of players on my table who I knew could play (A.Virabi and Ridla) but apart from the table seemed pretty weak.

First Major Run-in - Ok, the fella to my left seemed the rich business type whom didnt really care bout the game spending most of his time on the phone not even present at the table and generally not giving a fuck. On a whole his play was ridiculous. So action folds around to me in the SB with this phone geezer in the BB. I look down at AQ and decide to just limp to disguise my holding. He announces "I should raise but i'll check for you" So we see a flop of 27A. I check and he pushes his remaining 6.5k into the pot without any thought. I was stunned at this play. There was like 300 in the middle and he pushes for 6.5k lol. Ok I think for a little while coming to the conclusion he aint pushing with AK, Aces up or a Set in this spot and anything less I have beat. So I call and pleasantly suprised to see him table A10. A Queen on the turn has him drawing dead and a nice scoop for me. weeeeeeeeeeeeeee.

Unusual for me to get my money in Behind - This hand was an interesting hand and took place pretty deep into the tournament. With only 40 players remaining out of the 129 that started the blinds had got pretty big and running antes well under way. This was an awful time to become card-dead. I had been moved tables and hadnt tabled a hand. In fact I nevver played a hand for over an hour apart from the odd blind steal. This table had quite a few well known players some of which had huge stacks and were respected players. Most of the action on this table was bet, pass, pass, pass or bet, raise, pass, pass, pass. Until the hand in question. UTG player limps and with that comes 4 callers to me on the button. I look down at 9 6 hearts and call for value. SB makes it up and the BB checks. Flop come 10 8 Q with two spades. Action checks to player in mid position who bets half 3/4 of the pot. I think for a while and think I can float if another spade comes or get paid massive if I hit my double belly buster of a 7 or a J. I call and everyone else passes.The turn brings the Ace of Spades. Bringing me no help to my draw. The player checks which gives me the perfect opportunity to represent the flush draw (given my tight image) and take down this already decent size pot. I bet 3/4 pot. The player in question immediately cringes and realises he's making a decision for his tournament life as his stack was the size only x3 my bet on the turn. I was aware of this and thought this would help me in taking down this pot. After about 4-5mins in the tank the player announces im all-in and reluctantly pushes his stack over the line. Now im the one in the predicament. Calling this players all-in would take a chunk out of my stack leaving me with about 10k which isnt much more than the starting stack and at this stage isn't great. After weighing up my options I decent im getting too good pot odds to pass, been positive he hasnt got the flush i know 8outs is enough. I call and table my 9-6 to his amazement as he tables his A-9 for top pair (no 9 spades btw). He starts to celebrate as the river is been dealt. BANG "Jack" on the river gives me my straight and a monster pot to go with it. It takes the lad a while to realise hes beat after convincing himself he made a great push on the turn. I believe his push was hopeful (soul read lol) and not a read on me regards my bet. Either way he was right but unfortunatly for him the pot was too big for me to pass. I got lucky but hey, cant complain.

Slow-Roll To The Max -After some big hands and a couple of hours I found myself in the final 24 of the tournament with a very healthy stack. I had 80,000 chips whilst the chip average was only 40k. I was in a position to walk my way to the final table or at least a cash as the top 18 places were paid. I was second in chips at my table only to have the luckiest player I have ever witnessed on my table. I'll paint the picture - Young Lad, Pissed, First Live Poker Game, Doesnt know what a BB. Im sure you've met the type. I asked this lad if it was his birthday or something as he's calling peoples all-ins with A3,K4,J9 and hitting everytime and eliminating player after player for fun. With him sitting with over 100,000 I was praying for a monster against this kid to wipe the smile from his face.

The hand started with the UTG+1 platyer pushing all-in for his remaining stack of 16,000 in relative to the blinds+antes this wasnt huge and not much more than the average opening raise at this stage. The crazy kid smooth calls as everyone expects and action is passed to me. I peel my cards and squeeze out "POCKET KINGS". Against any other player I would more than likely go down the route of calling the all-in and checking the remainder of the hand with the other player just to increase the chance of elimination of the UTG+1 pusher. Plus there is no reason I need to get involved with another bigstack. Against crazy kid I think he'd probably call with any old shite and pay me off massive. I could smell the double up of 80k to 160k and if i win that Ive gotta be one of the favourites to take this down.

So after some thought i ship my full 80k into the middle announcing "Im all-in". Action back on crazy kid and starts groaning, putting his hands over his face and muttering "I really dont wanna play a hand against you, I just dont know what to do" Once the lad announces that I know i'm miles in front and screaming for him in my head to call. After about 6 long minutes of groaning the lad says "If i dont play these cards, no point in playing" and calls. I immediately table my Kings and hope for no suckout until crazy kid eventually tables his cards and says "unlucky" FUCKING ACES! my jaw dropped and heart sank i didnt know wether to laugh or cry. I was gutted. I immediately stood up in disgust. By this time there was already a crowd of people around the table in shock from what they were seeing. No help on a board i cannot possibly remembervand thats it OVER.

If it was a player I knew or a player who knew what they were doing I probably wudda floored tha twat for the sickest slow roll eva but as the crazy kid had no idea what he was doing and I genuinly believe he nearly passed his aces I let it go. Looked at the lad, gulped, and said "Nice Hand". Taxi for Varzee please. lol

Overall was a cracking game and was pleased with the way I played the night was scarred by that last hand and maybe I was been greedy but in those circumstances would probably do the same again.

Nice pot for 0.25/0.50!

Party Poker - About a week ago I thought that it would be good crack to play private online cashgame against people I know. I am aware that this can be -EV if the players I'm playing against players that I know are good players, but for the crack. I searched different sites and only found Party Poker that accepts private cash games. I already had an account on their but never really played it as I was never keen. So I decided to stick a cheeky £80 that I transfered from my Devilfish account on there and see if I can get a cashgame going.

Fuck It - Ive never had time to organise a private game on there since but asked a few people on NPF (Newcastle Poker Forum) they seemed interested but think I chose a wrong time. Oh well Fuck it i'll just play 0.25/0.50 (my usual online game) after work for a couple of hours everyday (this is also the regular routine). Ive been running really well grinding it out and slowly increasing my inital £80 deposit and yet to go broke at a table.

Nice Pot for 0.25/0.50 - This morning I continued my usual routine playing two cash tables at 0.25/0.50 and within 20mins I sat with $79 and $66 respectively then a monster hand happened on one of the tables. (thavarz)

#Game No : 7950274806

***** Hand History for Game 7950274806 *****

$50 USD NL Texas Hold'em - Saturday, April 04, 03:27:42 EDT 2009

Table Table 125535 (Real Money)

Seat 3 is the buttonTotal number of players : 10

Seat 5: Nikolaga777 ( $10 USD )

Seat 8: PUNlSHERR ( $7.75 USD )Seat 2:

bmg1900222 ( $8.75 USD )

Seat 10: maxie_888 ( $106.26 USD )

Seat 6: mkdrew ( $23.23 USD )

Seat 9: pr0tman ( $44.58 USD )

Seat 4: robtaucher ( $107.01 USD )

Seat 1: smooke1905 ( $10 USD )

Seat 7: thavarz ( $66.43 USD )

Seat 3: tommmot ( $86.07 USD )

robtaucher posts small blind [$0.25 USD].

Nikolaga777 posts big blind [$0.50 USD].

** Dealing down cards **Dealt to thavarz [ Jd As ]

mkdrew folds

thavarz calls [$0.50 USD]

PUNlSHERR folds

pr0tman foldsmaxie_888 calls [$0.50 USD]

smooke1905 calls [$0.50 USD]

tommmot folds

robtaucher raises [$1.75 USD]

Nikolaga777 folds

thavarz calls [$1.50 USD]

maxie_888 calls [$1.50 USD]

smooke1905 calls [$1.50 USD]

** Dealing Flop ** [ Td, Qs, 2s ]

robtaucher bets [$4 USD]

thavarz calls [$4 USD]

maxie_888 calls [$4 USD]

smooke1905 folds

** Dealing Turn ** [ Kd ]

robtaucher bets [$11 USD]

thavarz raises [$39 USD]

maxie_888 is all-In [$100.26 USD]

robtaucher calls [$89.26 USD]

thavarz is all-In [$21.43 USD]

** Dealing River ** [ Jc ]

thavarz shows [ Jd, As ]a straight Ten to Ace.

maxie_888 shows [ Ks, Qd ]two pairs, Kings and Queens.

robtaucher shows [ 9s, 9h ]a straight Nine to King.

robtaucher wins $79.66 USD from the side pot 1 with a straight, Nine to King.

thavarz wins $198.79 USD from the main pot with a straight, Ten to Ace.

SHIIIIIIIIIIIIIPPPPPPPPPPPPPPPP!!!!!

This was a nice pot and a welcome one. Looking back the $4 call on the flop looks loose but this player was continuation betting %100 of the time and knew if i made it he would pay me off he has connected with anything wasnt expecting the treble up tho. Great turn. lol.

So decent morning as I continue to run good with over £400 so far.

First Live Game Since Starting Blog....

Tuesday 31st March - My first live game since I started this blog was played in Circus Casino, Newcastle. This game was a £30 double chance freezout (3500-3500 chips). I fancied my chances in this game as my at my last appearance at Circus before this game I took it down. finishing 1st from 35.

When I arrived at Circus I wasn't too chuffed at the turn out as there were only 15 people registed for this game with only 5 mins until the start time. Of course players have the option to buy-in up to 1 hour after play has started.

The tourney ended up fielding 56 after a mad rush of bodies through the door (plus the guarantee) which gave a healthy pot and something to play for.

Early Stages - I was sat at my first table with 3 people whom I knew from previous games. 2 of which I knew were strong solid players that I didnt really need to get involved with too much early on as there were far more profitable spots elsewhere. The other lad I knew was one of those who think they are Gus Hansen. He will play "any two" and play them really agressively often without taking position, player image and betting patterns into account. Obviously Gus Hansen is known for his "any two" style but he has such a good understanding of the game this makes his style profitable. Not this lad. So I knew I could easily trap this lad with a strong holding and felt it was just a matter of time. The rest of the people at the table were unknowns and would stay reserved on opinion until I saw how they played.

It turned out this was one of the craziest tables i've ever seen! Circus certainly lived up to its reputation for lets say unconventional players. The standard opening bet for 50-100 blinds was like 1200 and always got 3-4 callers everytime at least. Trouble was I couldn't pick up a thing. It wasnt going great and hadn't played a hand when i picked up -

On the button. This seemed like a nice spot although player x UTG had limped, but this wasn't unusual as he seemed to limp fold so so often. So, with the blinds at 50-100 i made it 450 to go. SB and BB both pass and the UTG limper (fish) flat calls to see a flop. Flop -

Now this is not the best but not a bad flop for me, giving me the up and down straight draw from a well disguised preflop bet. Player x checks and I continuation bet for 725. Once again he flat calls. At this point I know I have to hit my draw to win the hand and the likleyhood is the calling station ain't gonna lay down his pair to any bet at any stage. Turn brings -

No help to me. And once again player x checks. In different circumstances I consider firing another bullet here and hope to shake him off his hand with a potential overcard to his pair. I decide to check behind with my draw knowing if I hit i'll most definately get paid off. River -

Total brick. leaving me with 10 high and no chance to win the pot unless I can shake him off it. To my suprise player x leads out with a bet! A measley bet of 100. The pot size is well over 2000 and huge compared to his 100 bet. lol. I consider coming over the top to try and make him fold but I dont believe he's putting whatever he's got down. I guess I gave up my right to steal by checking the turn. So with an enormous sigh and twist i announce pass and turn my hand over. He announces "no matter what you bet i'm not gonna pass!" He shows -

For a pair of eights shtie kicker. The fact this fella limps UTG with garbage then announces that he's not passing on any street regardless of the bet tells me a million and one things about his game and how looking forward I am to taking chips off him later on. joke.

Not much improved up to the break picking up no cards and had to settle with picking up small pots in decent spots to keep me above water. The break came and ended with me just over my starting stack holding 8,100

Middle Stages - Things improved after the break when the table was quickly broken up after a couple of early exits. Although I was sad to leave the fish at the table, I was welcoming a fresh start on a new table hoping for a few playable hands to get involved especially now the blinds would be increasing at a faster rate than previous levels.

I picked up a few spots and managed to build my stack to around 14,000 when I was moved again with 30 players remaining. Once I was moved I decided to try and get myself a crazy image as there was only 1 player here that knew me and knew that I knew he could play. So I raise my first hand with marginal holdings to start and put this table to the test. Everyone folded, which was a major contrast to the crazy table I was sat at from the start. Next hand and I pick up pocket 7's I raise again and once again everyone begrudgenly folds. You could see that most people thinking I'm at it which is exactly what I wanted. Now all I needed was a strong hand and play to my image. A couple of hands went by and bang -

I bet the same amount as previous and hope that someone takes the bait. The action passes to the button that looks me straight in the eye and announces "Im all-in" I snap call and immediately table my aces. He reluctently turns

I win a nice pot and eliminate another player at the same time as I had him covered.

I ran pretty well after that as I was moved again and played on the fact that my table image follwed me and had a good run of starting hands. I got paid with AA v K8 on a K high board, 10-10 v 6-6 and AQ v KQ. Building my stack to a pretty 49k with about 23 players remaining.

I lost some of my stack after raising and having to pass to a counter-push on two seperate occasions. Both times I was shown and wouldve been crushed should I have called. We wittled down to the bubble and became an all-in fest with the majority of the table with some trying to double up and others clinging on to cash. At this point is where i got lucky. I rarely get lucky and always try to get my money in ahead and is normally where i find myself. With the blinds at 1,000-2,000 I raise on the button with AsJs small blind passes and BB pushes for 8k more. My intial bet was 7.5k making it 15.5k to go. I cant pass in this spot but fear the worse. Player x tables Aces and I feel crushed with my AJ. As it happens the flop brings a flush draw for me and the river completes for a sick suckout and my AJ cracks Aces. wow.

Final Table - I make the final table and I found myself just shy of average chip stack. There were some decent players at the final including two that I rate and lads I play regularly with. After some standard bet, fold, fold fold FT hands. Its only a matter of time for the first clashes. Two players go head to head with one eliminated and out in 10th. 9th and 8th followed pretty quickly as i saw my decent stack diminished to one of the short-stacks just by high blinds. There is no way I wanted to get blinded out anymore as I needed to get involved while I still had decent fold equity. I raise with suited connectors in position and get two callers. I flop a flushdraw and an inside straight draw in which i dont connect and have to pass to a river bet(other player had two pair) with 9high leaving me a shitty 18k with the blinds at 3,000-6,000. Now with 3BB in needed severe help to repeat my last performance and win it. I waited a few hands but not even half a hand to push. I know that i cant wait any longer and if im gonna push i need at least live cards to give me a chance against two overs. So hands like k2 or q5 were outta the question. I eventually pushed with 84d and oh what timing, I ran into aces! with a KK2 flop im crushed and begin to stand up. Nothing changes turn and river and i'm eliminated in 7th place.

Overall I had a good night and some funny banter. Another cash also goes down well, not huge but a cash nevertheless.

Keep on rolling....