Deconstructing ..... The_Chopper

Ste05

The_Chopper is up next for this following on from this thread

Same Rules:

There can be NO flaming, this isn't a chance for people to have a shot at who ever goes in. Entrants to the Deconstructing series will have their thick skins on but forum rule breaches will be dealt swiftly and harshly (1 week ban), so you have all been warned.

Just to spell it out: NO PERSONAL ATTACKS, criticise and critique his game and NOTHING else!

Keep it constructive and good luck The_Chopper

The_Chopper

Be as damning and honest as you want.

I thought HJ was before me BTW

Ste05

HJ has been and gone.

The_Chopper

Sorry about that - must have missed it, or else it was flawless....

This is a bit embarassing - anyone

Rattled77

i'll get the ball rolling for ya chopper.

played a gazzzzzzzilllllllllionnnnnnn hands with ya but one really sticks with me, ya know i don't let losing pots get to me as much as others but this one still makes my fkn blooooooddd boil to this day.lol by the way.figures may not be 100% but close enuff.

1/3 cash pot limit,straddles to 6 etc, i limp wimpy with (shhhhhhh) AA and the chopper is in the BB , raises to 25.(for the 5th pot in a row from what i remember) i just flat call and every thing is going nice and dandy.

flop is ready to roll and all of a sudden the chopper tries to be cute by betting 35 yo yo's on the blind.(we both have roughly €300)

i quicky lash out a blind reraise to 100 and flop is comes down Q 8 3.

we get it all in, choppers holding a measly pair of 7's and low and behold rivers his set.

what did you think i had u fkfkfkfkkfkfkfkvnfhjfkfjfjfkkfkfkjf

ok rant over bed time now

mormank

Hand well played there chopper..he could never put u on 7's!!

DeVore

This is Chopper Harris?? I'm just trying to put a face with the boards nick...

DeV.

Flipper

I assume this is Ricky yes?

If so, we've only played together at the closing stages of the Main Event during the Xmas Festival in Cork. You sat on my right at the final table and were probably 2nd in chips just behind me starting the day. I got the feeling you were delighted to play huge pots early on and that resulted in your implosion. I think you went out in 8th or something. I know you are trying to win the tourney but this kind of dancing around in pots is insane. I can't remember any hands but I do remember thinking that you threw away a lot of money at that table.

Daithio

Hi Ricky it's been a while since I played with you but I'll give this a shot.

When I first played with you it was at the FT of that tourney out in citywest. I was really impressed with how you read the game, and you were making some great calls/laydowns/ reads etc. However every time I've played with you since you seem to have gotten more and more gamble into you. I think you've become way too loose and gambly, and as a result you're not really thinking decisions through anymore.

If you cut that out of your game and went back to the basics I think you'd be flying.

ocallagh

Hi Ricky, We havn't played much. I've watched a few games you were in and I think the last time we played together was in the Sporting Emporium 200 game. I thought you played a bit too loose in some pots. I think you need to tighten up as Dave mentioned. I also got the feeling you were trying to impress the table, showing them you weren't afraid to put your entire tank in on a bluff or something. Portraying a wild image is fine if you have the ability to slow down. I reckon you need to cut that out of your game completely. A really bad case of this is Paddy Taxi driver, but I don't think you've gone that far yet!! Saying all that, I do think you have a great natural talent for poker and if you could fix this small thing you'd be one of the top players in the country

Flushdraw

Hi Ricky,

I've played with you more online than i have live. I do agree with the other lads in this thread when they say you play a bit loose and inflate pots quite a bit. I get the impression that you need to raise from every CO or button and while theres generally nothing wrong with that, i think it gets you into trouble a bit.

You also 3bet from the blinds quite a bit and although you claim to always have QQ+ min, i thinks its more to say that i'm the table captain and youre not going to take my blinds! This could lead to you being easy to trap.

The last 2 games i played live with you were the IPC feature table in the citywest and the SE 200 game. I agree, as Niall says, you have a lot to your game and the ability is there but if you learn to change gears at the right time, you could improve your game greatly. Looking forward to seeing you back around Dublin in the near future

The_Chopper

Rattled77 wrote:

i'll get the ball rolling for ya chopper.

played a gazzzzzzzilllllllllionnnnnnn hands with ya but one really sticks with me, ya know i don't let losing pots get to me as much as others but this one still makes my fkn blooooooddd boil to this day.lol by the way.figures may not be 100% but close enuff.

1/3 cash pot limit,straddles to 6 etc, i limp wimpy with (shhhhhhh) AA and the chopper is in the BB , raises to 25.(for the 5th pot in a row from what i remember) i just flat call and every thing is going nice and dandy.

flop is ready to roll and all of a sudden the chopper tries to be cute by betting 35 yo yo's on the blind.(we both have roughly €300)

i quicky lash out a blind reraise to 100 and flop is comes down Q 8 3.

we get it all in, choppers holding a measly pair of 7's and low and behold rivers his set.

what did you think i had u fkfkfkfkkfkfkfkvnfhjfkfjfjfkkfkfkjf

ok rant over bed time now

Hey man,

I remember that hand it was hilarious and i totally deserved to loose it. I had raised about 4 or 5 hands in the past orbit - but I was genuinally getting the cards. Remember about a round earlier I had lost a big pot and was very tilty. You played the hand wonderfully and deserved to win - I got a sick river which it 100% the normal in that bingo hall.

So would you agree that I am way to loose? Honest opinions? I know we've played a million tournies together but to my knowledge there's only 2 that we played that we both brought our A game.

The first was Mikes 250FO and I knocked you out when we got it all in preflop - I had ya covered. You were holding 22 and I was holding AJ - flop A92, turn A river J. The second was in the westwood, you were determined to cash and we both made the final table, I think it was the last time that you played there.

The_Chopper

DeVore wrote:

This is Chopper Harris?? I'm just trying to put a face with the boards nick...

DeV.

This is me Dev
http://pokerdb.thehendonmob.com/player.php?a=r&n=54584

Flipper wrote:

I assume this is Ricky yes?

If so, we've only played together at the closing stages of the Main Event during the Xmas Festival in Cork. You sat on my right at the final table and were probably 2nd in chips just behind me starting the day. I got the feeling you were delighted to play huge pots early on and that resulted in your implosion. I think you went out in 8th or something. I know you are trying to win the tourney but this kind of dancing around in pots is insane. I can't remember any hands but I do remember thinking that you threw away a lot of money at that table.

Yes that's me - we've also played together at the pokerevents 3k last year on the feature table with Ram Vas, Padraig Park etc - you might not remember as I recall it was a horrid tourny for ya and Ram didn't really give anyone a chance to play any hands - he destroyed that table.

As far as Cork goes when we started the final table I had 200K and you were the only one who had me covered at blinds were 10 mins away from going into 5K/10K level so I only had 20BB. I don't think I had any choice but to play pots big once I got involved. Also the big pot I did play was against Captain Tom Franklin and I knew he didn't want to stick his stack in on a gamble. The big pot I lost there was AK vs his KK, with 20BB I am never getting away from this to a single raise infront of me especially when I cover - but cheers for the feedback. I only played one other pot on the final table and that's when I pushed with 33 with about 6BB's and ran into QQ. While I totally except that I can implode and like playing big pots early on I would disagree that I did it here.
Thanks for the feedback

Daithio wrote:

Hi Ricky it's been a while since I played with you but I'll give this a shot.

When I first played with you it was at the FT of that tourney out in citywest. I was really impressed with how you read the game, and you were making some great calls/laydowns/ reads etc. However every time I've played with you since you seem to have gotten more and more gamble into you. I think you've become way too loose and gambly, and as a result you're not really thinking decisions through anymore.

If you cut that out of your game and went back to the basics I think you'd be flying.

Hey Dave, cheers for replying. I went through a stage after the city west where I did experiment with my game a lot. I mean the final table line up at the city west was frightening and how could you not learn alot from those guys. You had the likes of Declan Barker, Ken Corkery, Paul Lecky, You, Dennis Reyes, Brian Vickers and Tom Nolan - I mean talk about aggression. It was something that didn't really work out for me. While I was experimenting with styles I also went through a horrid run which led me to having more of a gamble.

Cheers for the advice I 100% agree with you.

ocallagh wrote:

Hi Ricky, We havn't played much. I've watched a few games you were in and I think the last time we played together was in the Sporting Emporium 200 game. I thought you played a bit too loose in some pots. I think you need to tighten up as Dave mentioned. I also got the feeling you were trying to impress the table, showing them you weren't afraid to put your entire tank in on a bluff or something. Portraying a wild image is fine if you have the ability to slow down. I reckon you need to cut that out of your game completely. A really bad case of this is Paddy Taxi driver, but I don't think you've gone that far yet!! Saying all that, I do think you have a great natural talent for poker and if you could fix this small thing you'd be one of the top players in the country

The 200 SE game was not one of my finest - I was very tired and was killing time before going to pick up the girlfriend from the airport. Something that's been happening me an awful lot is that I am playing the nuts like a bluff, people fold saying "I know you've nothing I can't call", then the next time when I play a bluff like the nuts I'm getting caught - does this make any sense?
I have to control my adrenaline better at the table - especially when I am on a rush so to speak.
Thanks for the kinds words - next big tourny I win I'm dedicating it to you :rolleyes: (actually I may use your last sentense as my sig)

Flushdraw wrote:

Hi Ricky,

I've played with you more online than i have live. I do agree with the other lads in this thread when they say you play a bit loose and inflate pots quite a bit. I get the impression that you need to raise from every CO or button and while theres generally nothing wrong with that, i think it gets you into trouble a bit.

You also 3bet from the blinds quite a bit and although you claim to always have QQ+ min, i thinks its more to say that i'm the table captain and youre not going to take my blinds! This could lead to you being easy to trap.

The last 2 games i played live with you were the IPC feature table in the citywest and the SE 200 game. I agree, as Niall says, you have a lot to your game and the ability is there but if you learn to change gears at the right time, you could improve your game greatly. Looking forward to seeing you back around Dublin in the near future

I do inflate pots early and there is a reason for this. In Galway there are 2 types of players there are the good poker players and there are the good bingo players. Unfortunately there are far more bingo players then poker players - therefore in tournies and cash games you have to raise slightly larger than you would normally to get rid of the 52o and the A rag, I think i'll watch this more when playing against better oponents. In those online games I have 3 bet quite a bit from blinds but this has honestly been down to the hands i've been picking up there and not pulling moves etc (even though it might seem that). I have always trusted my read not to get trapped in pots and think this is one of my strengths - but I agree I have been making it easier for people to try.
Cheers for advice - changing gears is something I have to work on. I seem to be able to move up gears very easy but find it hard to switch back down.

con_leche

Your hand reading is excellent, and you always show good aggression, using a big stack well to exert pressure on smaller stacks on a cash table.

You could work to control tilt a little more in cash games, i.e. your mood at the table is generally correlated to your stack size.

Sometimes you play draws too aggressively, especially when not getting optimum price, and normally in Galway your opponent won't fold anyway.

You could work on changing gears a little.

You should learn to 'feed the fish', by chatting to them etc., so they enjoy coming in to play at your regular club. Even though they will suck out occassionally it is in your interest if they enjoy coming in and donating.

NickyOD

Ricky's biggest strength is his reading ability. Only thing wrong with your tournament game from what I can see is maybe that you tend to target the better players at the table and make moves against them too often. Other than that you're defintely a formidable tournament specialist. As for your cash game you are just too loose and gambly but then that's par for the course in Galway.

Rattled77

So would you agree that I am way to loose? Honest opinions? I know we've played a million tournies together but to my knowledge there's only 2 that we played that we both brought our A game.

The first was Mikes 250FO and I knocked you out when we got it all in preflop - I had ya covered. You were holding 22 and I was holding AJ - flop A92, turn A river J. The second was in the westwood, you were determined to cash and we both made the final table, I think it was the last time that you played there.[/QUOTE]


thanks for reminding me of another beautiful runner runner moment.:eek: When ur playing ur A game youre not to be taken lightly in any of the good tourneys we played in, but all those rebuy tourneys have your freezout game fried.there a devil inside ya thats sayin gamble gamble gamble,every time you decide to discipline yourself you generally always go well.you should prob just limit the amount of poker you play to good buy in tourneys €100+ :cool:

The_Chopper

con_leche wrote:

Your hand reading is excellent, and you always show good aggression, using a big stack well to exert pressure on smaller stacks on a cash table.

You could work to control tilt a little more in cash games, i.e. your mood at the table is generally correlated to your stack size.

Sometimes you play draws too aggressively, especially when not getting optimum price, and normally in Galway your opponent won't fold anyway.

Definately agree with tilt control and way to gambly in my cash games, really working on it.
I tend to play draws very aggressively also - again I think mixing it up is something I really need to work on as others have also said.
Very surprised about your comments with a big stack - I identified this myself as a weakness I had, could be wrong though.

con_leche wrote:

You could work on changing gears a little.

You should learn to 'feed the fish', by chatting to them etc., so they enjoy coming in to play at your regular club. Even though they will suck out occassionally it is in your interest if they enjoy coming in and donating.

Yeah fish get a lot of abuse in galway, don't know why. I'm not nearly as bad as some of the other regulars in there.

Who is this by the way? PM me if you'd prefer not to make it public knowledge as the comments mean a lot more if I know who's saying them

NickyOD wrote:

Ricky's biggest strength is his reading ability. Only thing wrong with your tournament game from what I can see is maybe that you tend to target the better players at the table and make moves against them too often. Other than that you're defintely a formidable tournament specialist. As for your cash game you are just too loose and gambly but then that's par for the course in Galway.

Tks - I do agree with your cash game analysis, something I've worked very hard on the last couple of months (still not going well though).

I do feel I have to start playing a lot more tournies, man Galway has ruined my no end by the comments I'm getting up here.

Rattled77 wrote:

thanks for reminding me of another beautiful runner runner moment.:eek: When ur playing ur A game youre not to be taken lightly in any of the good tourneys we played in, but all those rebuy tourneys have your freezout game fried.there a devil inside ya thats sayin gamble gamble gamble,every time you decide to discipline yourself you generally always go well.you should prob just limit the amount of poker you play to good buy in tourneys €100+ :cool:

Cheers man - and tk for making your first 2 posts in here.

By the way for those of you who don't know Rattled77 - he is an excellent tourny player and a complete luckbox The first big tourny he ever played in he cashed. He is one of the few amatures i've met that could make a really good living out of the game. He is also quite a profitable cash game player -but like me and many others in Galway suffers from the "gotta gambles".

Watch out from him in the future

CaptainNemo

Hi Ricky, from what I've seen from playing with you your reading ability only seems to work well when you're ahead and not when you're behind, maybe you've a glitch or 2 in there you need to look at ;-)

EDITED as a statement rather than a question, to suit the "deconstructing" topic.

RoundTower

you sound kind of spewy from your posts here, I know I have played with you but can't remember anything specific.