Yearly Review of Sorts

Hardly a comprehensive review of my year, but sure here is a bit of an attempt anyhow.

Results

Live Cash Games: Definitely could do better. I mush prefer playing Omaha to Holdem cash games but I am barely better than breakeven in my stats which is disappointing really. From 100+ live sessions I am only about €2k in profit for the year (incl 1k loss in last 2 weeks).

Live Tournaments: I have played 150+ live tourneys this year, cashing in 44 of these, and 18 top 3 finishes. I have had a couple of good results, but overall I am disappointed with my year. I am €10k in profit for the year in tournaments.

Online Cash Games: I play mostly cash games when I play online, and mostly Omaha, although I am playing a little more NLHE lately. I don't take this seriously enough, and generally play at .50/1 which is the same as this time last year. Not good enough. I have got a rakeback deal though, but not crazy about the site for the reason that HH's are extremely hard to save for PT purposes.

Online Tournaments: I play very, very few of these and have had no real results in the few I have played.

Overall Grade: C

I have improved this year, especially in tournament play, I have no doubt about that, and I think in the main my tournament game is pretty good. I would give myself a B for tournaments, but only a D for cash games.

Next Year Ambitions

Well the obvious one is to do better!!! I think I will play less times live anyhow, as I have been palying a bit less the last few months. Also one thing I have been doing this year is playing in some of the smaller tournaments such as the rebuy ones in the Fitz, but not taking it seriously which is a serious leak in money over the course of a year, so next year I will either not play them or else play them properly. These games can be very profitable over the course of a year if taken seriously as they tend to be played by some pretty poor players.

My cash game play needs some looking at. I will try to identify where I need to be more aggressive, and when to let a hand go, but this is easier said than done I'm afraid. I will also try to start playing more online. I am never going to be one of the guys who 4 tables for 25 hours a week online, I enjoy live play too much for that to happen, and I also get bored somewhat easily online. I hope by the end of 2007 to be playing 2/4 within my online bankroll in both Holdem and Omaha, but I doubt I will achieve this aim unless I win an online tourney for a decent amount. Oh, and I must start playing some more online tourneys too.....

I think some realistic objectives are:

1. Attempt to make 10k profit in live tourneys.
2. Attempt to make 6k profit from live cash games.
3. Attempt to qualify for some big live tourneys, including WSOP and hopefully qualify for at least one.
4. Play more online and try to take it seriously.
5. Make a discernable profit online.

I doubt anything notable will happen between now and the end of the year but if it does I will update.

Happy stuff and Merry everything to any reading this by the way and I look forward to facing you next year again.

Schwinggggg

No it's not an Austin Power reference, it is a reference to my fortunes over the last few days. Swingy to say the least.

Firstly though, Drogheda. I really enjoyed the tourney there and I lasted a couple of hours into the second day when I got it all in preflop with QQ vs JJ only for a J to spike on the flop. Ah well. I can't be arsed to write a full report, but I did post somewhat of a report in the thread on boards.ie that was set up for reports. I played a cash game afterwards on Saturday and ended up almost 400, so not too bad.

The last few days though from Thursday-Sunday involved 4 tournaments and at least 7 cash tables. Thursday was the Fitz end of month, and a much improved structure with 6500 chips, no antes and 3x20 min, 5x30 min and the rest at 45 min levels meant there was far more play in it, but I think this only worked due to there bwing only 76 runners. I managed to finish 5th in this when my QQ (again) was beaten by Snowys 86, when I refused to lay them down on a 566 board. Ah well still 900 profit so not too bad.

Friday involved me coming in my usual range of positions (10-15) in the scalps game. I seem to do fine in this until it gets to crapshoot mode, so that maybe says something about it or me, I'm not sure. Cash game afterwards yielded a negative profit.

Saturday was the SE 200 game and this was a wierd experience as I got some great cards but didn't get paid on my big ones apart from a double up with QQ vs JJ (which held up this time). I had to lay down 88 on a 773 board and AQ on a QJ8x board which hurt my stack and then took a stand against Wes who had raised or pushed about 5 out the last 6 hands with TT. He called with AJs and hit a J on the river to knock me out. I had a disastrous time on the SE cash tables then to lose another 800, usually on the river, with one hand in particular when I flopped the nuts in Omaha and this was a perfect candidate of a hand where it is quite probably correct to lay down the current nuts. I got stuck in the hand though, and as a consequence got just plain stuck. Off to the Fitz with me then as any good sick player does, made all my losses back through some terrible Holdem players and some big Omaha hands, and then lost a bit of it back through plain gambling. Finished a bit down for the day but nowhere the 4 figure sum I was when I went to the Fitz. Phew.

Sunday I played a bit, but it wasn't very interesting, and I won a few quid, so I came out the right side of swingy by a total of a few hundred. Meh, not too bad.

We are getting near the end of the year and it is nearly time for reviews etc, and so far my records show 8 profitable months and 3 unprofitable ones from live play. Online I have no real idea, but there isn't much in it one way or another, that much I know. At the year end I might post some stats, but not sure if I want to. One thing I will say - November put a nice gloss on my year.

Between now and the year end there is the PPP Xmas Cracker and the Fitz 500, which I am not sure if I will play. Chances are I will play in one of them anyways, and there is much better value in the SE one with the added money and no reg fee.

If anyone has any money making ideas (other than win loads palying poker, not working out really) let me know, and I am not talking about the spam type comments that get posted on my blog. Some ideas I currently have are:

Write a book on my poker life:
A look at the life of an Irish poker messer. Follow him as he ignores bankroll rules, plays like an idiot, but still makes a small profit over time. Meet all the interesting characters that he interacts with over the poker tables, and watch him as he gets bored playing online. This will come about when a publisher reads this blog and discovers my hidden genius.

Realistic Likelyhood: .000001% chance. I wouldn't want to or couldn't be arsed to write it, and who in their right mind would read it? I can still dream that it would work though.

Appear on a reality TV show:
Well I have to be at least as entertaining as the idiots they actually put on it, don't I?

Realistic Likelyhood: Zero. Can you imagine? *shudder*

Win the lotto:
This is the easiest option effort wise.

Realistic Likelyhood: Unfortunately this is also the most unlikely at roughly 1 in 20 million or some such for every line I do, and about 4 times higher on the EuroMillions. It'd be great though.

Get a Rich Lady to take care of me:
Hmmm, this is very appealing, but since I struggle to get poor or normal income women, getting a very rich one to pamper me is very unlikely.

Start a Radio Station:
A mix of music, poker, news and random shite. This will be a big hit with the 20-34 year olds of a certain mental disposition.

Realistic Likelyhood: Actually this is very likely as I have been approached to do this. Oh, wait, no I haven't. Sorry.

Well that's all the random shit I have to say for now. Adios etc.

All kinds of Everything

A good bit has happened since my last proper post. One of those things that has happened since is that I had a long post wrote on the satellite to the EPM but of course blogspot decided to crash and become unavailable when I tried to publish it. Always keep a backup, people.

As mentioned, I won a ticket to play in the European Poker Masters and I was looking forward to this. The day arrived and I had taken Friday off to ensure I had a good sleep in before it. When I got to the SE to register at around 2pm I seen Eric Seidel at a table reading a book, Howard Lederer standing at the bar talking, and Mike Matusow doing an interview on camera. I was getting excited at this point. Reading the media waivers and T's & C's amused me somewhat, especially the part that said some thing like 'The Poker Channel has all rights to this broadcast throughout the Universe on all current and yet to be devised forms of media'. I can just imagine the interplanetery lawsuit that might erupt is the denizens of Persius 5 broadcast this over Christmas.

Anyways, on to the tourney. There were 75 runners I think and the following were some of the names in this.

Mike Matusow
Eric Seidel
Howard Lederer
Allen Cunningham
Chris Ferguson
Clonie Gowan
Gavin Smith
Dave Colclough
Andy Black
Liam Flood
John McGill
Peter Roche
A few other notables that I can't think of the names of, as well as a good few other pros of the lesser well known variety.

My first table though consisted of entirely Irish palyers, most of which I had played with before, so it was a strange start. I didn't get too involved in the first level and then our table broke and I got moved into the seat Peter Roche had been occupying at a table that included Howard Lederer, Eric Seidel and Alan Smurfit (of the K Club clan). I think during my first hour at the table I didn't play a hand. In the following 2 before the dinner break I think I played about 5 hands, all of which I won and took me to a stack of about 15k at the first break. We started with 10k and 60 minute levels.

The second hand back after the break was when I got involved in my first big pot. Blinds are 100/200 and I am in the BB. Two EP limpers, SB calls and I check my option with K9 spades. The flop comes a beautiful As8s5s which is checked around. The turn comes 3s and I bet 400 which is raised to 2k by the SB (he check raised me!!). I think and flat call it. River is 6s, so there are 2 unlikely straight flush draws out there (2s4s or 4s7s), but I was not unduly worried about this. SB bets 4k into me, I raise it to 10k (which I thought put him all in but as it turned out he had me covered. I had only about 12k in total behind) and he shoves all in which I call. He shows the QsJd and says 'oh you have the king'. Nice donation.

That put me in good shape and the other key hand of the day for me came when I was in the BB (600) also with about 30k. It was folded to the SB (300 - he covers me), and before I looked I told him there was no shame in folding. He calls anyhow and I look at 66. With the blinds and antes (75) there is 1500 in the pot, so I make it 1800 more to play which is called. Flop comes a lovely 568r. He checks, I lead for 2500, he calls. Turn is another 8. He leads for 3k, I make it 8k. I meant to raise to about 10k, but jsut took an arbitrary amount of chips. He calls. River is a 10. He leads for 5k into about a 27k pot which is very strange I think. I have only about 17k behind at this point and did contemplate pushing, but quickly decided a call was the sensible course of action. He showed 84 soooted and my sixes full take down a nice put. I was in cruise control after that, winning small pots, getting to a high of about 50k. I finish the day though on 45k which put me second in chips overnight, albeit in a very bunched field.

The most embarrassing incident of the day happened only a short time before play ended. I raised from the CO with AKs and it got round to the BB. I was seating in seat 8 (8 handed, so beside the dealer) and started talking to the BB about a hand earlier when he thought he dogged me when I had fuck all in fact. He folded anyhow and I said to him "OK, I'll show you just this once", and proceeded to show my AK. What I only realised when the others at the table started looking and acting shocked is that Howard Lederer had called from the small blind. Oops. A ruling was given that I was not allowed to bet at any point in the hand, only call. Flop comes T high with 3 hearts. Howard bets he turn which is a J and I of course can't call. It was an embarrassing incident, but these things happen occasionally. It just goes to prove that you should always be alert. The most comical aspect of it is that this incident, at 12.30am, on the 7th level of the day, is the first hand I have shown all day when not required to.........

I was in good shape starting day 2, but I got a horrendous run of cards and got blinded down somewhat, and losing a 30k with ATs vs shorties KJo all in preflop didn't help either. When it got down to about 18 players or so I was in trouble and hanging in. Some how though I managed to survive without ever being all in and knocked Andy Black (shortstack) out along the way. I only surpassed my initial chip total for the day in the last 15 mins of play, so that shows what a struggle it was.

I had made the final table!!!!!!

The final table took place not in the SE, where the rest of the event took place, but in the Royal Colelge of Physicians. It was a mad experience, what with filling out a questionairre, doing a pre tournament interview, 2 post tournament interviews, and wearing a heart monitor and a microphone during play. Everything was different. The cards were bigger, the chips were much bigger, there was a glass sheet to put your cards on so the camera could see. There was a dude with a microphone announcing when someone raised (Mel Judah or else Barry who had done the first 2 days), and we were sitting at one of those semi circular tables. We had to do a walk on for the cameras one by one to audience applause.

I actually thought it would be more nerve wracking than it was, but to be honest it was little different when we got down to it. There were a few teething difficulties along the wy, such as starting an hour late, stopping for 10 mins after 3 hands and having to get the cameras looked at a couple of other times, but after the initial hiccups it went smoothly enough.

The final table lineup and approx chip counts were as follows.

1: Dave Colclough 222k
2: Thomas Trings 22.5k
3: Me 58k
4: Tony Baitson 108k
5: Adrian Walshe 120k
6: Alan Smurfit 51k
7: Vera Duffy 6.5k
8: Thomas Wahlroos 169k

The blinds were reset to 1k/2k/200 for the first 30 mins, instead of the 2k/4k/500 we ended at the night before. I made my usual folding start, and it was about a round of the table in when I won my first hand, stealing the blinds. I did this a few times, getting called prefop twice, both times winning with a flop bet, once with an overpair, once with a missed K high on an A high board. The highest I got in the entire tournament was about 70k I believe.

Th crucial hand came for me when I raised with AQd on the button to 10k (1500/3k/300) and Tony on the SB goes all in straight away. Tony had just lost a big pot a few hands ago so I knew a few things.

1. He had a fairly wide range. Any pair, and decent A, possible even decent suited connectors.
2. He knew I wouldn't call unless I had a genuine hand.
3. I was in good shape against his range.
4. He might have thought it was just a button raise.

It was an easy enough call getting nearly 2/1 on the rest of my chips based on the above and he flipped 44 over. I missed and am on life support at this point with only 10k left. We go on a break at this point which I wasn't overjoyed about, as I knew I only had 3 hands at most left so I wanted to get it over with one way or another. When we came back, on the 2nd hand I pick up TT which is loads good enough, so I ship my small stack in. Thomas W reraises to keep Dave Colclough out, and after a think Dave does fold.

Thomas shows KQo and we are in another race. The fop comes all low - lovely - but with 3 hearts and he has the K of hearts, so nasty. The turn is another low red cards, but a diamond and the river is the killer A hearts to give him the nuts, and I am out. Ah well.

In a way I was happy enough because I didn't do anything wrong, I just didn't win a race. Mostly I was gutted though. Very gutted. With 85.5k for first it was disappointing to come away with 6,750. I know that is a nice sum of money and a nice profit on 315 etc etc, but I am sure that most of the readers of this know where I am coming from, as opposed to a load of other people who interpret me saying I was gutted as the same thing as saying "I don't want 6750 at all".

I am on a good run lately, and am feeling confident in my game. I also promised myself that if I cashed in the EPM I would play in the GJP festival main event which is a hefty €1000+75 entry, so I am going to play in that. By way of preparation I play my first Fitz tournie in 2 weeks last night, the €150 freezeout, and for good measure split it 3 ways with Ray and Dennis for 1100 each, so that is Drogheda taken care of :)

I'll report on my Drogheda game at some point too.

Bye now.

Quick Update

This is just a quick note to say that I have qualified for the Full Tilt European Poker Masters event in the Sporting Emporium starting on Nov 17th. I won my ticket last night in a 150 with 1 rebuy event, and boy am I looking forward to it. Loads of the big Full Tilt branded players such as Phil Ivey, Chris Ferguson, Carlos Mortenson, Mike Matusow, Howard Lederer, Jennifer Harmon, Ram Vaswani and the rest of the mob are slated to be playing in this.

It's been a good week for me, hope next week is better :)

SE 200 game

I had been somewhat looking forward to playing in the Sporting Emporium 200+20 deepstack game since the last one, which I could not play in, so I arrive early and I am actually the first person registered for the tournament proper, although there are 3 satellites going on altogether for this when I go in. I don't bother playing one as I was going to pay in anyhow, so don't really like overpaying for a tournament of this size.

I had feared there would be a low turnout as it seemed it was going to be that was at the appointed start time, but when the numbers eventually settled down there were 61 runners, which was a decent turnout considering this is the second time only that this ran.

I sat down to my table and wasn't too impressed with this table as there were too many good players, such as Laim Flood, Eoin Olin, Dave Masters and Sikes (from boards, don't know his real name) as well some other guys I didn't know. I was assigned to seat 2 and proceeded to play like a donkey for the first 5x30 minute levels. It didn't help that I was card dead, and the few hands that I chose to play I played terribly.

At one point just before the break my first key hand hapopens. I have 3600 in total, with blinds at 150-300, and with 1 limper I make it 1300 to play with 22 from one off the cutoff. Part of the reason I make this play is because I have been palying so tight and think it unlikely I will get a caller unless there is a monster out there, and part of it is because I have to do something to accumulate chips at this point. It is folded to the BB who thinks and pushes all in. I am well covered and when it is folded back to me I think for a minute and decide that I am pot committed, so I make the call, and he flips over AK for a race situation. The board pairs on the flop to give him extra outs, but I survive and double up. A couple of blind takes in the next couple of hansd take me to just over starting stack at the first break. Things can only really get better.

After the break I had resolved to try to make better decisions and not play in the weak tight manner I had been playing in to that point. Easier said than done, but a few small pot wins soon after the break gave me a bit more confidence and I was gradually building some chips. Just when I was feeling comfortable with my table I was moved, and found myself at a table where I was fairly familiar with a lot of the players sucha s Ehsan (Gholimoli) to my right, Tony (Flushdraw) to my left, and Willow and Eamonn Connolly at the table also. I think I raised the first hand I played at this table, and continued to raise and take blinds far more often than I would have normally. I was feeling myself playing confidently, and getting reasonable, but still not premium hands. However, the button on my BB kept raising every time, and I came close to playing back a couple of times, but it seemed that he was just being a card rack as he showed hand after hand of premium pairs. through some decent play including the following against Tony, I got to a reasonable stack.

I have 88 (not sure of position, probably MP) and make a relatively standard open raise to approx 2100 with blinds at 300/600 with an ante of 50. Tony calls to my left. Flop comes TT4 (or similiar), and I check. Tony Bets 5k, and I go into the tank for a few minutes. I have around 18k back and Tony covers by maybe 7/8k. I cannot see Tony flat calling here and betting with a hand that beats me so I push and he folds after a dwell up and says he had 55, so good fold Tony. Another key hand here is where I flat call a raise preflop with AQ against a serial raiser and intend to bet out at any flop, which I do and he duly folds.

I knock out a shortstack (Deadparrot from boards) and I am motoring and around average stack (40k), but a big stack on the table. We are down to 2 tables at this stage and playing 6 handed.

Then I get moved to the other table and this is where most of the chips are residing, so opportunity and danger lurk in equal measure here. I get a raise reraised in short order and let it go, then I call a raise from UTG when I am BB with ATo. I flat call the raise, intending to bet out at any flop again. I do so with a 6k bet (about 7.5k in the pot) on a K97r board, which after a dwell up and a request for a count of my chips gets slightly worryingly called. A blank rag hits the turn and this changes nothing in my head, and even though I am well covered I have enough left to not get called by anything other than a strong holding. I push for 25k approx, and after a dwell up it is folded to me. I found out later he had J9 for second pair, but this was a holding he found it hard to call a push thankfully for half his chips.

When we break for the final table I still have around 40k with the average at around 54k, but with the blinds at the start of the 1k/2k level I am not under immediate pressure. the final table consists of a few faces I am somewhat familiar with and a few I am not. Eamonn Connolly, Ollie Boyce, Sikes, Mickste, Phil (the Hammers fan), Eoin, an American guy from Full Tilt and 1 other guy whose name I don't know make up the final table along with myself.

Ollie is the first causualty in one of the first few hands, and not too long after I take out the Full Tilt guy when my AKs hit to take out his 88. Flops and post flop play is at a premium which reduces what I firmly believe to be an edge I have over a lot of the remaining players. Most hands are of the fold, fold, fold, big raise, everyone fold type. I plug away and when Eamonn gets knocked out in 5th place we are near the end of the days play. The SE closes at 6am, which is most inconvenient as I want to get this played to a finish, but it is not going to happen. When John announces last hand of the night I am in the BB (4k), and when Eoin completes I decide to chekc with KT hoping to either lose a small pot if I miss or win a big one since my hand strength is farily disguised, and I know Eoin is an aggressive player who has a tendency on occasion to overplay hands and overbet them.

The flop come K87 (with 2 clubs) and is perfect for my purposes. Eoin comes out betting 12k and I flat call. Turn comes an offsuit 9 giving me an openended straight draw as well as top pair. To my surpriseEoin announces all in for around 65k, and it takes me a few seconds only to call. Eoin tables T4 and is drawing dead to a split pot, and a 2 on the river is no help to him and he is the 4th place finisher, pushing me into the slightest of chipleads. we talk deal but none happens so we are to come back on Sunday at 8pm to finish this off.

When we restart the chipcounts are as follows:

Me 201k
Mick 199k
Phil 89k

The first hand I am small blind, complete and fold to a flop bet. The second hand, I fold, Phil completes, Mick raises and Phil immediately pushes all in. Mick thinks for a minute or two and makes the correct call with 66 to see Phil tabling K2, but Phil hits 2 pair to double himself up, and put Mick under pressure. A few hands later I open raise (3k/6k/500) to 21k with AJo, and after Phil folds, Mick announces all in for around 105k. Mick has been the most aggressive palyer I have encountered over the course of the tournament, so this helped me reach a relatively quick decision and I called to see Mick table KTo. The flop brought a T and no more help for me to see him double up. This wasn't going to plan for me. Another lost pot and a few blinds later meant that I was down to under 50 and in serious danger. A couple of uncalled pushes plus some reraises when I was fairly sure Mick was weak, including the following hand helped me up to a stack of around 180k again.

Mick completes SB and I check BB holding J6. Flop comes QJT, and I am fairly sure I am ahead here and call a flop bet of around 15k. Turn is a T and goes check, check. River is another T and it is a funky dangerous board but even aftrer Mick bets 40k I don't believe him and push for my total of 80k which he folds to fairly quickly.

I am still stacking this when the next hand is dealt and I am SB with 56. Mick calls from the button, I complete, and Phil checks for a flop which comes a gorgeous 554. I pause from my chip stacking to check, Phil bets 17k, and Mick folds after a think. I flat call. Turn is a magnificant 6 which I check. Phil bets 30k, and knowing that I can't flat call this without totally giving away my hand I move in, which surprisingly is called instantly. Phil has the misfortune to be holding Q5 and misses the river, so he exits in 3rd place, giving me around 360k of the chips in play.

A couple of hands into heads up play I raise with A4o to 25k (4k/8k) and Mick moves in instantly. I call quite quickly given his known aggression in this situation, and am delighted when he tables Q4o to leave himself very much dominated. The dreaded Q hits the flop though to give him a slight chip lead. Another crucial hand happens with I check to see a flop when he complees the SB from the button. I have Q8 and am fairly happy with the TJQ flop. We had been discussing a deal at this pint, but it was decided to play on, at which point I bet 20k on that flop. Mick called and the 9 on the turn gave me a straight which was checked by both parties. The river was another T and I bet out 30k which Mick raised to 75k. I didn't like it too much but I called andways to see him table K9 for the flopped straight, and I was in dire straights now.

His aggression level increased again and I couldn't do anything about it as I did not want to play for all my chips with 62,52,72 etc which I got about 4 or 5 hands in a row. I eventually make a stand for about 85k with QJ and get called by K9. An 894 flop gave me 10 outs twice but neither happened so I had to be content with 2nd place.

I feel happy with my play after the first break, and the fact that I didn't dog anyone the whole tournament and was always either ahead or at worst in a race situation whne the money went in (including the unfortunate hand for Phil when 3 handed - I had made my house when the money went in, even though it would have went in regardless) made me feel good. The fact that I wsan't dogged until the last 3 either at any point was positive variance working in my favour, but I feel I played as well as I could and enjoyed the tourney as a whole. Well done to Mick too, his aggressive game played off in the end, and although I presonally feel I had the edge in experience and skill, his aggression sufficiently dulled that (if it even existed, but I have to believe it did).

I anyone reading this hasn't played in this before and enjoys a good structure tourney then this is one for you. It will be on the first Saturday of every month I believe in the SE and is excellent value for money given the structure.

See you at the tables.

Festival Time

The Fitz PokerFest took place last week and I was aiming to play as many of the tournies as I could, so to that end I took Thursday and Friday off work.

Wednesday
This was a €40 multi rebuy game that attracted 76 runners, and a 30 minute clock most of the way I think. By the break I had not won that many hands, but managed to win a multiway pot just before to stand in decent shape with the topup. To be honest I can't recall an awful lot about this tournie u pto the point where we got to the last 2 tables. I was playing fairly well and not getting in any big confrontations really when a guy who has jsut lost a decent pot raised big preflop (to 14k from 1500/3000) and I look at KK and shove preflop for about 50k. It gets back to this guy (a decent player but made a too big raise initially I think). He thinks and doesn't really like it but he calls for the other 16k he has left. Flop comes 245, turn is a 3 and river is a 6. Of course he has A7o to have the straight. At first I though it was a split pot, but then realised the 7 played and I was a tad annoyed.

Two hands later I have 20k left, blinds just gone up to 2k/4k and I push with AJo, and get called by a player not even in the blinds who has a 60k stack with QJo!!!! Flop is Q44 and that is all she wrote and i bubble in the first tournie of the festival. Wonderful.

Thursday
I play in the 270 game in the Fitz, and was unimpressed by the new structure, but I believe that Luke is going to make changes next month, based in part on a post I wrote on boards that he read. I also have to commend him for changing the structure part way through to make it more playable based on comments players were making, but it was too late for me to survive this time I am afraid. However I went to the cash games and won €1300 in Omaha so happy days.

Friday
There was a €50 multi rebuy game on Friday instead of the scalps. This was a really good game and I enjoyed it mostly. I didn't really get going before the break,a nd it was only when I got moved to a new table that things picked up. First hand there I was BB for 300. EP raised to 900, 3 other callers, so I peel off another 600 from my 11k stack with 57 clubs. The funniest part is that I ask Luke (young English dealer) for 'a very specifc flush, I mean flop', and then he flops K93, all clubs. He says 'There is a flush for you' to which I reply 'That'll do' and bet 4k. Original raiser goes all it, and one of the other limper also goes all in. At this point I could potentially be drawing dead, but there are 8 tables left still so I gamble, see 99 from original raiser for a set, and AA with A clubs from someone who flat called original raise. Two red, non pairing cards give me a tank of 35k, and from there I go steadily upwards all the way. I am playing well, playing the player at least as much as the cards, and generally feeling in the groove. We redraw seats for the last two tables, and when it gets 10 handed I get moved to balance the tables at 5 each. There is fairly cagey play on this table, and I have raised and took the blinds a few times, and reraised once and not got called. Then the following hand happens.

I am the Button and it is folded to me. I have 102k, blinds just gone up to 4k/8k (5am) and I make it 30k to go. Bobby (spectre from boards) is SB and goes all in, and he is the only person there who has me covered. This leaves me with a dilemma. I have played with Bobby a couple of times, but not too often. i don't believe he would be doing this with rubbish, but I believe any pair (well, ok 66+), or AT+ to be his range at this point for a reraise, playing 5 handed at this point in the tournament to a button raise.

I am getting 2/1 on the rest of my money at this point and if I win I am a big favourite to take a large chunk of the prize money. If I fold I have a bit of work to do but I am still there. I decide to go for the win as the prize structure was only geared for the top 4 really. I table my 99 and Bobby has AK of diamonds. the flop comes all rags which is good, but with 2 diamonds which is not. The trun and river are both raggy diamonds also, and that is the end of me, so I bubble the Final Table again, but get a few quid for my troubles this time. Great.

Saturday
I play the 500 game in the Fitz as I have 475 in credit, and 55 players start. I don't last very long as in the second level I limp with A6 hearts from the button, and call a raise from the SB, so 4 to the flop. Flop comes A63 clubs, so I have top 2 at this point. SB bets out for 1k, and this gets raised to 3k by MP. It comes to me and I think. There is no way SB has a flush I reckon, and MP I think either has a decent A or else jsut doesn't believe the lead out by SB. I eventually decide to push for 6.3k, and as expected SB folds, and MP thinks and calls. He shows AJ with the J clubs. He precedes to hit the J on the river for a higher two pair, and that is me. I don't think this was a great call by him to be honest, but I probably didn't play it optimally either.

I went downstairs and regestired to play in the 100 Omaha rebuy game, and hit everything before the break, but nothing after it and was gone in 15th. I won my money back in a cash game though, so not too bad.

Sunday
Went drinking

Monday
Played in the 100 rebuy, and only topped up. It was going OK before the break, when a ropey call against Marq helped me to 5 k, and with a 5k topup, I was ok. First hand after the break I nearly doubled up with KK vs TT all in preflop, but from that point on I seen nothing in the way of cards. I did enjoy the tables though as I got moved to a table with Steve Davis, and as any other time I have played with him, I have found him to be a gentleman, and a witty one at that. I eventyually got knocked out when I push from SB with A3 only to find BB with AK. Ah Well..

I enjoyed the events, there was a good structure in them all, if only I could have had a rub of the green at the right time. I am going to play the SE 200+20 game this evening and I am looking forward to it as there is a very good structure to it. Hopefully I can report success in that one.

Adios for now.

Preview post

I will be witing a full report of my travails at the Fitz Poker Festival when it is over. I hope ye can all hold ye're breath.

Read the highs, the lows, the boring bits. It'll all be there. Read it here before the making of 'Dom - The Fest' in the Spring - A Jerry Bruckheimer film.

Oh, and I would just like to say thanks to Laurence (hope that is spelt right) for returning 'my' money to me in the Omaha game after all these months. I am not convinced it was the right amount, but we'll call it quits.

Where now?

I am stuck in a poker rut I think. I am doing fine in the last 2 weeks and have practically erased the disatrous September I had. However, this doesn't stop me musing on where my poker is taking me.

What I am doing:
I play about 3 tournaments a week (on average), almost always in the Fitz, and at weekends or occasional weeknights I play Omaha cash games too. This has been my pattern for quite some time, and the big result has not happened.

What I should be doing:
Play less weekly tournaments, play more online and concentrate my live play on specific tournaments such as the plethora of 200-300 games that are monthly affairs in various places. Online I could concentrate on trying to qualify for bigger events as well as having a much bigger game selectionto choose from at any given time.

The problem with me and the above is that I enjoy playing live. I enjoy the banter, the sensory overload that comes from a live game, and also the challenge of primitive mano et mano (or womano) poker action. I don't particularly enjoy online, and don't take it seriously enough to ever be in danger of turning a big profit from it. Usually I only play the games I enjoy online, i.e. Pot Limit Omaha and usually also play above my bankroll as I definitely do not like microlimit playing. I lack discipline at times, but that is due to my lazy streak, which is more than a streak really to be honest.

I am sure I will get to a point where I will either give up the pretence that I am going to change or I actually do change. Another, and perhaps more likely outcome, is that I reach a happy medium. I know I should play more online, and I am in the process of withdrawing money from most of the sites I play in and consolidating it in Neteller, probably moving it to PokerStars where it would become a semblence of a proper bankroll rather than small amounts spread over various places.

To do the above I had to ring Neteller to get them to reactivate my account as it was closed when I logged in to it in work. They asked me did I log in from the UK at one point, and then the penny clicked. Where I work is routed via a UK server as it is a British company that I work for, and this would explain that question. I believe the problem came when a location outside my stated country was seen to try and access my account. They were very helpful and despite being on hold for about 7 minutes at the start due to a queuing system, I had the issue resolved in less than 10 minutes. I was dreading that they were going to ask for passport scan etc, as I never got asked for that information when I linked my bank account to it, but thankfully it was only security questions, which really aren't that secure to anyone that knows anything about me at all.

I am looking forward to the 500 game in the Fitz on Saturday 28th, as I have 475 in credit from recent tournaments, so I will be looking to use that to play in the 500 game. I was hoping to play in it last month, but the way things were running I could not justify it to be honest. it did however look like a good structured game with 8k starting stack and a 45 minute clock. Hopefully it will get 60+ runners, but due to the fact that it is on the same weekend as the EPT events in the Regency I am not sure how numbers will be.

Events I would like to play in the next 6 weeks and likelyhood of playing:
Fitz EOM Oct - 60%. I may have to work that night :-(
Fitz 500 - 80%. I have to dodge part of a birthday celebration weekend (not mine).
Green Joker Poker 250 - 25%. I keep meaning to go but never get round to it.
Green Joker Poker Festival 1000 - <5%. Would love to play but it is too much money to splash.
GJP 300* - 75% - Likely to play in this one I think. Supporting event to the 1k game.
GJP 200* - 25% - Will play in this if I can't play in the 300 game.
EPT - 0.00001% - Will play in this if a miracle happens to give me loads of money.
EPM - 0.0001% - Again, very unlikely. Possibly more qualifiers in the SE for this I might play.

I think I need more money to be honest, but who doesn't. Bye for now, and see you at the tables.

* I think these events are 300 and 200. They may be 400 and 300.

The world put to rights

Something seems to be up, I am being prepared for a fall I think. Things have been going well lately, without being spectacular. The last 3 tournies I have played in the Fitz have resulted in 2 splits and a 4th place, and add to that a decent, if small by that game standards, profit in the 100 Omaha, and the world is suddenly a less shit place.

I am not suffering bad beats much lately and that is where things are different than last month. One thing I need to start doing though is doing better in bigger fields. Most of the tournies I win or come in the top 3-4 are around the 30-50 entries mark, but where there are 70 or more I don't seem to last the pace which is very frustrating. I think I know what the cause of this in general is but the paradox for me is that I think this aspect is one of the strong points of my game. Confusing isn't it?

Brief explanation about the above is as follows. I am not a loose, gamble type player most of the time. This is not to say I don't mix my game up, but mixing your game up is very different to being a loose player. Everyone knows that I am not a loose player, so I do not get the action I need a lot of the time that I have big hands, and I do not make loose calls that might double me up at important parts of the tournament. Personally I prefer not to take a 40-60 shot unless I am in a shortstack position, but it seems to me that a lot of the types that do well in tournaments are the type that put their money in there and seem to win a far higher percentage than they should. The reason why this is also one of the better aspects of my game is that is means I rarely go into hands unless on a shortstacked steal, as a big dog.

Maybe I will experiment with that a bit at some stage, but unless it is in the rebuy period of a multi-rebuy tournie I can't justify doing that in my head. It is in essence a shit or bust approach to the tournie that produces either a big stack that can be used to bully the table or will ensure you get an early seat at a cash game. Who knows if I will try this soon? I don't think I am giving any trade secrets away when I am saying it goes against my natural game anyhow.

Last weekend I went over with the Fitz crowd to the Gutshot club in London for the twice annual challenge match. Once again we didn't win the team event but we should have. We kept getting outdrawn, their shortstacks kept surviving despite being in as big underdogs several times when getting knocked out would have given us the win. I also played in the £200 Pot Limit Omaha tournament over there with 40 minute blinds, and 6k starting stack. I enjoyed this game up to the point when I got knocked out when the board would not pair up which I thought was very unobliging of it. I finished in 19/57 runners and with £4k as first prize it would have gone down very nicely indeed.

I hada very enjoyable weekend in general though, playing poker on Friday night and saturday afternoon, and drinking on Friday afternoon (a few anyways) and Saturday evening onwards (a lot). I didn't play any cash games at all over there but from what I seen and heard from others, I am glad I didn't. I met a nice bunch of people over there though and I look forward to trying to help take the cup back for the Fitz next time, even though we take it far less seriously than they seem to.

I am not playing online as much as I had hoped I would, mostly due to my short little span of attention (as Paul Simon would say), and partly due to the fact that my PC is playing up on me in a most mystifying way. I am up a few buyins though in the games I have played, but it is still only a very part time thing for me. Also, due to my mystifying experience I cannot access my PokerTracker database anymore and it is really irritating me.

Ah well. Oh, and if anyone is bored play an online game called curveball. I think it is great and very addictive. I can get to level 7 without losing a life nearly all the time. about 50% of the time I get past level 7 (It took me ages to get past it first), and I have only got to level 9 a couple of times. Good hand eye coordination required!!!

See you at the tables.

I am shit

No more needs to be said. I seem to misplay every hand in tournaments lately, can't catch a big hand, and in cash games it is worse. I had all the tickets for a raffle lately but I still lost.

Wah, wah, bitch, moan, moan, etc.

I hope to update once I start playing a bit better, but I am taking a few days off from love poker, and since I have Broadband again (hooray!) I can do other things. I have learnt that I am still bad at online poker too though, but I am promising myself that I will play more STT's even though they bore the hell out of me, as I have done ok in the few that I have played.

Oh look, there is some paint drying, yes I know, more interesting than this isn't it? I'll put you out of your misery. Bye now.

September 4th

Since the last post I played in the PokerEvents team game, the Fitz end of month and a few other games too. The team event started off fairly quietly after a scare that the Laois team would get broken due to no shows, but the Offaly team was the one to miss out instead. We got 2 of their players including Rory Liffey, and that turned out to be very good for us. I ended up busting out in 180th place out of 310 runners with a probably misplayed QQ which was very disappointing, but after a long second day spectating things finally worked out well when Rory's 7th place, allied with strong performances from Rob Taylor and Brian Murphy gained us enough points to finish joint second with Tyrone and behind Leitrim for a total of 2375 each which was nice.

I enjoyed watching the second days play, but to be honest I can't say I found some of the PE staff to be polite or reasonable, and I had to fight back arguments quite a lot. This wasn't with dealers but with the floor staff who I felt showed a lack of respect at times to people who had paid a lot of money to enter the tournament. At times alright there was a need to try and get players back from the table, but the rigidity of it, the allowance of certain 'favoured' people to walk around unfettered, and the rudeness at times didn't endear them to me. I have since heard that Stephen and Donal have left PE so there will be some new people coming on board it seems.

The end of month tournie in the Fitz was one I got into cheaply again via the one handed Omaha sats, so that was good, but I busted out just before midnight, walking into Paddy Hicks' AA preflop. I'll say no more about it. Friday night scalps then seen me build a big stack by the break and I had 17k which was probably more than 3x the average at the time. After the break I went into static mode, mindful of my occasional tendency when well stacked to try and get too clever and throw it away, so I decided to play solidly which went fine until I ran into the biggest maniac I have ever seen. He would reraise with any two cards, and call a big all in with any 2 suited cards. I managed to get into a 26k pot preflop at 200/400 against him with TT vs his A3o, and of course he hit an A on the river to cripple me. I got my shortstack back to soemthing palyable but then tried a move to isolate a shortstacks all in that ran into KK when I had JTs. No miracle and off to an unsuccessful session at the cash games.

So far this year I have had 6 profitable months, and 2 unprofitable months, and I am up somewhat for the year, but not as much as I was hoping at the start of the year. Hopefully I can avaoid any disastrous periods for the rest of the year and hopefully get a few decent tournament results which I haven't done in the longest of time except in the small tournaments.

Catching my Breath

I have just had my longest break from poker in 2 years, as I was at a wedding and then on holiday, so I had 17 days away from poker. I can't say that I didn't want to play at any time during this period but I resisted the temptation to go out of my way for this. I played last night just to get back in the swing of things but no luck, and I got bored and gave away the last of my chips in a spot of blind pushing rather than be shotstacked and hang on.

Before I left my good bubble had burst and so I went away on a bad patch, but that's what breaks are for isn't it? I am playing in the Laois team this weekend coming in the Irish Poker Championships team event run by PokerEvents and hopefully it will be a good event (for me and my team anyhow). I have absolutely no Laois ties apart from the fact that Andy, who was asked to pick the Laois team, knows me fairly well in a poker sense from the Fitz and asked me to play since they were short a couple of players. We have a decent enough team from the players that I know anyhow, but it is a pity that Paul Jackson cannot play as I was looking forward to seeing how he played against the field.

Hopefully I will be reporting on it next week in a positive light. It is just a pity that the Citywest hotel is so awkward to get to without a car, but I suppose it is a necessay evil since other venues are just too small.

After the Famine

I have meant to update this several times since I actually have, but better late than never. The last time I updated things were very different for me. I was living 20 mins from the Fitz, I couldn't make the money in a tournament to save my life, and things were just ticking along.

Business has picked up though, and that most cruel of mistresses - The River - is being kind to me.

Let me take myself back to the weekend before last (Sunday 2nd). I came in late into the Fitz after the football and sat straight into the 50 Omaha game. It was a well stacked game but not maniacal. I sat in with 250 which is about my standard sit in amount. Things were going fairly slowly until a Hold'em player (Hughie - never seen him play Omaha before) sat into the game. He proceeded to pump 100 into 4 pots in a row, 3 of them preflop. One of them I call the preflop action for 100 with KKJTds from the blinds. The flop (600 in pot) comes fairly raggy but with 2 spades on board. I have only 150 left so I go all in and get 3 callers. The turn blanks and the river comes a lovely spade and with no one on the nut flush draw I take the lot for over a grand in the pot, so happy days. I stick around for another couple of hours, and get rivered horribly by a middle pin straight (he had no other outs) in a fairly big pot, but I pick up enough others to recover to leave with about a grand in total, so not too bad.

I played the Monday night tournie then but I can't remember much about it, and was probably out early. I played cash games as well and my records show that I made about 100 from that, so I left pretty much even for the night. Details are great, aren't they?

The next time I played was in the 150 FO on Thursday. Before this tournie I noticed that I was on my worst run ever (since I began keeping records anyhow) without cashing or 10 tournaments to put it another way. The previous worst had been 7. This made me determined to make the money and I did that, but only just, reaching the final table as one of about 4 terminally short shortstacks. I exited in 8th when my Kd with a mystery card (5d as it turned out) got called by Dennis' TT. Only 50 profit, but at least my duck was technically broken.

I played the scalps tournament the next night and there was a huge turnout of 112 runners thanks to a load of English guys over for the Charity Headsup match the next day in the Fitz, and also due to a last longest bet posted on boards with Dave Masters generously adding 200 to the pot for this. I never threatened the last longest though. Before the break I won a few pots early on but I kept getting my raises reraised near the break. This was very frustrating, especially as I was out of position most of the time and I never had a premium hand to play back with. I always held AJ/AQ/middle pair or some such, not what I want to be calling an all in reraise with. After the break I went fairly card dead, and at one stage after losing a few chips in a pot I got dealt KK in EP. I decide to limp as there had been raises every hand, but no, not this one. I was shortstacked and tried to get cute (3k with blinds of 200-400) 6 players to the pot and up she pops, the dirty A. Needless to say there are interested parties and I run away with my tail between my legs. I go out a few hands later when on the blinds and I enter into the spirit of it, by playing blind (in 2 hands), and of course I lose. Cash game please!!!!!

Cash game (round of each) starts off badly for me when I hold 99xx on a board of 982 (with 2 clubs). I bet pot (only 10), get 5 callers. Turn is Ac putting the flush out there. checked all round, and the river is 2, filling me up. I bet 50, and get reraised to 120. Hmmm thinks I. I have about 150 back, and 70 more to me. I am suspicious but still call, and he turns over 22 for quads. Typical. I reload to 200 after losing the rest of it and the following pot happens.

Me 185
Button ~400

I limp in MP with A9o in the holdem round and it gets raised by the button to 10 (regular player, we know each others game reasonably well) and only I call. Flop comes 984r. I bet 25 into him and he calls. At this point I am fairly sure he is on a big A but doesn't believe me. Turn is the perfect card - A. I bet 50 into him, and he reraises me to 125. Since I only have 150 left I go all in fo course and he calls and is disgusted with my hand, and he has AK as I figured. No K and I win a decent pot. I play for another while and leave nearly 200 up in the cash game for a small profit for the night.

The next day I turn up for the Charity rebuy game in the Fitz, and it is sheer madness. I rebuy 5 times and topup (25 a time), but there are 2 guys who rebuy 27 and 20 times respectively. It was brilliant fun before and indeed after the break, but before the break it was sheer madness with allins on every hand practically. I had 11500 at the break after quadrupling my rebuy up (blind) on the last hand and topping up for 3500. There were loads of chips in play and after the break it settled into a really good tournament. There were pretty much only decent players left after the break when the madness ceased, and I was doing ok. A few hands in particular stand out for me, all happening on the second last table.

Hand 1: 5 or 6 handed I hold A9o in the SB (500/1000). Folded to the BB who raises to 4000. I know a lot of the time4 he is doing this with air as he had just tripled up recently and I got the feeling he was just pulling a move. This being the case I push with A9 for 21k, confident that I would take the pot there. I hadn't counte on the BB thinking and counting and then thinking soem more. After a few mins he eventually folds, and as I suspected the button raiser folds quickly. To my shock the BB shown his folded QQ. I have played with this guy a lot and I think he would have called me on my own but the presence of the button having open raised put him off. Thankfully for me.

Hand 2: A few hands after the first one and I have 66 in the SB. A guy who just lost most of his chips in the previous hand pushes for 6.5k. I call instantly, and he has AJo, much better than I thought, but still ok. flop of QT8 him a double belly buster with the overcards also. A 6 on the turn takes away the overcards, but a K on the river wins him the hand. I could have done without a 14k swing just then. This left me with about 17k.

I won a couple of hands in a row then, once when I flopped a set of 2's and another time betting with air. We were on the bubble with blinds of 1k/2k when the following hand happened:

Hand 3: I am in the BB. UTG raises to 5k. Folded back to me and I push for 22k. Called instantly and I cover, only just. Hands are AJd for me and AKc for UTG. Oops. I spike a J on the flop though to burst the bubble and I go to the final table with 45k and I am in 3rd place. Sorry Andy.

The final table has 6 of the e English guys on it along with myself, Mike Lacey and Mark Kenny. I don't make a move for the first while and I think 3 players are knocked out before I decide to raise with 78h from MP. BB goes all in and I think my original raise covered. He had overcards, but I hit my flush out he goes. When 4 handed there is only 1 of the 6 English guys left along with myself, Mark and Mike. I am in the SB at 4k/8k and it is folded to me. I have KQ off and raise to 24k (I only have 66k total). Mike instantly goes all in, and I call getting around 3-1 for the remainder of my money. He has A3 but I flop a K to win the hand. Mike busts out after losing the next 2 hands also, but in each hand he was ahead each time when the money went in, unlucky Mike. At 3 handed we played on for a while but with the blinds at 5k/10k and chips fairly even (I had about 140k to about 120k each) and the time at nearly 4am we split it 3 ways. So after deducting for dealers and for a donation to the charity fund I left about 600 in profit for the night so not too bad, and I really enjoyed the tournament, both the banter and the play.

The next time I played was on Wednesday night. I have not played this tournament lately, but since I was able to come into town in a borrowed car I thought why not. I was going to go to the SE but in the end decided not to and stuck with the Fitz. There were 44 runners so not too bad. I was playing fairly well but couldn't accumulate a mot of chips. An example of this is when AQ rivered a T to split the pot with me on a board of KQJ3T when I held AA. After the break (no rebuy, only topup) I was again not getting many chips. Turning point came when I had 77 in the SB, and Button had pushed. I also went all in and another shortie called. I was up against QJ and KJ and the first card seen on the flop was a nice 7. Despite 4 spades on the board I still held up as neither had a spade. Several of the people on my table were weak/tight players. They would call a preflop raise then fold almost every time on the flop. I gained a good few chips this way and was well stacked when I knocked someone out on the bubble.

I was second in chips on the FT at the start, well behind big Stuart who had been on a different table to me all night. A few hands into this I raise, Stuey calls and folds to a flop bet. I show AA as it is the first hand I showed on the table. I had won one decent pot before that. 3 crucial hands happen then.

Hand 1: I have AQo in the BB. 1.5k/3k, 1 limper 5 handed and the SB raises to 10k. She had been very aggressive and raised about 5 of the last 8 pots, showing a low pair, a raggy ace, KJ and a couple of no shows. I feel I am well ahead of her range, and would be very unlucky to be behind here so I push for 35k. Folded to her who calls quickly with 66?? Long story short I hit A on the river to cripple her.

Hand 2: Very next hand there was an UTG limper. I raise to 16k from SB with 88. UTG goes all in for about 22k, and I make the call. He had AQ this time. A on the flop isn't looking great for me but I hit 8 on the river (again) so knock him out. I soon knock out player from Hand 1 also.

Hand 3: This is the biggest luckbox hand but again not anything I was going to do differently. 3 handed, I am on the SB with AJo and button limps. 2k/4k. I open raise to 14k, BB folds and then button (Stuey) raises to 40k. This being Stuart could mean a monster or could mean a small pair or a raggy A. I cover him by about 40 so I push allin and he makes the call. Monster pot and I am not loving it at this stage. Sure enough as luck would have it he has AA and I am in big trouble. 3 hearts on the flop gives me hope though as I have Ah, and when turn and river both bring hearts too I win a monster pot and dog Stuey. AJ, 3 handed, against Stuey, I dare anyone to play it differently.

Heads up and I have about 150k to about 20k. This guy barely played a hand apart from doubling up early on the FT. I think it lasts about 5 hands when my JJ (slowplayed) beat his T7 on a K74 board. Turn and river blanks and I outright win for the first time in a while. Good feeling, and even though the competition was not exactly that strong in the whole there were some decent players there. I was hapy enough anyways, 1k for first.

I am in profit for the year now again, and hopefully this run will continue for a while, I could do with it.

On a side note I have purchased 1% of both Oscar Fred and Dave Masters for the World Series, so I would like to say good luck to them.

Hopefully I will still be in a happy mood the next time I post.

Fitz End of Month Game

I decided to play the Fitz end of month despite being undecided for most of the day, but the fact that I wanted to play even though I knew I probably shouldn't, decided it.

I was seated in Seat 1, Table 6 for the first few hours and the table was grand, a few familiar faces, a few decent Northern lads and a few random types. I won the first 2 pots for very small amounts, flopping a set of 4's in the first hand and raising and picking up the blinds only in the second hand with AQo. I wasn't doing an awful lot at this stage and the biggest pot I won before the break was when I raised with AQo to 425 at the 50-100 level with 2 limpers. All folded to the second limper who called. Flop comes Q54 with 2 diamonds, and there is a bet of 500 into me. The other guy in this pot is one of my favourite players to take chips off as he talks a good game - regularly - but doesn't play one. I raised him to 1750 and he called. Turn comes T, no flush on board and he checks. I duly go all in for about 2700, and he thinks and folds after a bit saying that he had a queen. That was a perfect example of how to leak away over 2k with a poor holding out of position.

Anyhow, I pick up a few more small pots before the break, mostly due to a lot of the tight play at the table, so at the break I have 7700. Not bad but not great. I have still not shown down a hand at this point. After the break I start of steady enough, winning a couple more small pots and I am around the 7.5k mark still when I decide to get creative with a call (100/200) with Q6d in the cutoff. BB checks his option (despite looking like raising at one point). Flop comes AdQs3d. Perfect thinks I. Obviously so did other players!!!! The BB bet 450, an EP limper raised to 1550 and it comes back to me. I have a few options here -

1. Fold - Not something I was considering really. Why else did I call if not to see a flop like that?
2. Call - The cautious me wanted to do this. The old me would have.
3. Raise - This is a better option in a more deepstacked situation. Raising here would pot commit anyhow.
4. Push - This is really the obvious one, and of course the one I went for.

So I pushed for a total of about 7.5k and the BB got out of the way quickly enough. The first raiser though had a good think and after a couple of minutes got the clock called on him (not by me I must add). He got the 30 second warning, the 15 second warning, the 10 second warning, the countdown from 5, and in true McGyver fashion he waited unti l second before making the fold. He showed what he folded and it was AJh. Didn't seem like the hand to go into the tank over to be honest, but there you go. He had about 9k back after his bet so it would have been for 2/3 of his remaining stack.

So I toddled along winning small pots and get to peak of 13k when I was moved table, and there were a few more faces on this table I was familiar with. The crucial hand on this table came when I had 88 UTG and decided to raise. This was after a couple of rounds of the table when I think I had played precisely 1 hand, and that was a battle of the blinds, which was split between myself and Reggie. Blinds 400-800 I raise to 2300 UTG. Kevin Fitzpatrick goes all in for 4500 and then another guy who was at my table all night before it broke, went all in for 5800. Folded back to me and I make the call after a small deliberation. I was happy when the showed AJ for Kevin, and AK for the other guy. Happy that was until the turn brought an A, and no help on the river meant I was back to around 6.5k. I worked my way back to around 10k with a few pushes and then t the 800-1500 level with the blinds approaching fast, UTG minraised and it came to me with KQs. Now I know this is a poor hand in a raised pot, but this guy was the type of player who minraises with a middling Ace because he 'thinks he should'.

I pushed anyhow, happy to either push him off it (calling was over 60% of his stack) or take an uneven race against Ax. I had less than 7BB and it was my BB in about 3 hands. He called with AT anyhow, ad neither of us connected so I was gone in around 24th.

Ah well. I thought I played well and considering I only got 3 pp's (44 twice, 88) and didn't see AK at all all night, I thought I did ok. I was disappointed though not to get further. Another night I would have folded the KQ and tried to pick a better spot, but there were a few shortish stacks so the chances of getting into a pot under favourable circumstances weren't great. I am going to miss the scalps tonight anyhow, and it will only be the 7th time this year I have not played on a Friday night. Maybe I should look for a life. I have only played on Saturday night 8 times though, so that isn't as damning a statistic.

Adios 'til next time.

At least I am consistent

In my last 7 tournaments (5 of them since my last post) I have finished in the top 20 - but only once made the FT and even then didn't make the money. The upshot of this of course is that while I am generally not going out early it is not good to me since I am making no money from it. I am however turning a small profit at the cash tables so overall June is a profitable month so far, if not one to have me rolling in the cash. After the disaster that was May though it is good to steady the ship.

I think part of the problem is that a lot of the tournies around dublin are way too shallow stacked so one mistake, bad timing, or one bad beat and you are dead, and usually one or the other seems to happen to me at some stage of the tournament.

I am probably going to play the Fitz EOM tournament tonight so we'll see how I do then. I am feeling that I am playing ok lately while not hitting the heights or getting the big breaks I need at the right time in big pots.

This is only a fairly short post so not much more to say, except I don't know how frequently I will be playing poker for the next while as sometime next week I am moving apartment and since I don't have a car (soon to be rectified hopefully) and this place is not near as centrally located I may be less conveniently placed to play as much. When you couple this with the fact that I don't know how long it will take to sort out broadband and tv access in this new place either I am possibly in for a frustrating while. Then again I do work in town (well nearly) so I may just stay in town after work and get a taxi home after the Fitz, but this approach could be expensive after a while. Just as well my SSIA is maturing (Cheers Charlie) in a months time and I will probably buy a wagon then and I can get back to normal.

Anyways, bye for now, sorry for wasting 49 seconds of your life by writing this tripe that you just wrote. I promise that my next one will be filled with hands where I ballsed things up and also lots of complaining that I never got got cards and when I did I never got action.

Quiet Time

I haven't played much poker in the last while so not an awful lot to report. Since the last update I have played twice only. The first time was in the first run of the Fitz 150 game. This got 49 runners which isn't bad for the first time. Hopefully it will get a consistent 50-60 runners as it is a good structure, and there isn't an awful lot elase on a Thursday apart from the SE double chance which I am not that fond of to be honest.

Anyways, starting stack of 5k, 3x20 minute levels and then 30 min levels. There were one or two teething problme swith the clock but aside from this I enjoyed the tournament in general. Before the break I barely made a move, only playing 2 hands and barely picking up much in either of these pots. I have a tad over starting stack at the break.

After the break I got moved table and first hand I lost around 1500 when playing QTs from the button. A couple of hands later though I got dealt 88 in late position and raised to 700 (100/200). button called, and he was the guy who had taken the 1500 off me. He is an aggressive (usually) tricky and good player. Flop comes 78Ar so perfect flop. I check into him, he checks back. Turn is 7 filling me up. I bet 1200, calls quickly. River is T I think, I bet 2100 into him and he quickly calls. I flip my house over, he taps the table and shows an A and mucks. I got lucky then a couple of times once when raising in the cutoff with KQ in an unopened pot, and BB goes allin for less than double my raise so naturally I called. He showed AK and a Q on the flop meant I increase again. Sorry Jason.

At this point I lost a few more chips in 2 hands against a newcomer to the table who smacked of bullying with his chips but I never quite had the conviction to go over the top against him. Yet.

Then came another hand. I got dealt 66 in MP. Ronan then raised to 1500 (200/400) from EP and I pushed for 4100 hoping he would respect my raise and let me steal there cause I knew I wasn't in great shape. Ronan knows my game as well as anyone in the Fitz, as I play a lot of tournaments as well as cash games with him. It gets backto Ronan and he thinks about it for a bit and says 'I think we are in a race' and calls showing 88. Bugger. A 6 on the flop though gets me out of it though, the case 6 as it turns out as one lad afterwards says he had one.

Then I played 99 (nearly 9.5k now), raising to 1500 from lp on 200/400 with a limper. The button (bullying guy from above) called. Flop comes QT4r. I bet 1700 into the pot and he thinks for a bit and calls. Oh-Oh. I resolve now to push any blank (I have him on KQ at the worst(for me), probably a decent T though) and the turn duly obliges as it is a rainbow completing 7. I push for 6200 instantly into a pot of around 6500 so not an overbet at all. He thinks for ages which I think is a bit of bluster really as I don't think he was strong enough to call as I hadn't played it weakly. I think he was planning to push on any weakness from me, but there is a good chance I was behind so I didn't want this. He folded anyhow after a think.

Then came 'the hand' and just as I was starting to really enjoy the game. I was SB and Macker was BB (300/600). Folded to me and I complete with K7o. Flop comes a tasty KT7 with 2 hearts. I lead for 1000 which is promptly raised to 5k. He has me covered. There are 3 possibilites here I reckon. Flush draw and a pair. I have seen Macker do this a few times on this type of draw. T7 which was what I really wanted, or KT which I didn't. I pushed for 13k which was quickly called and the horrible KT was turned over. Turn was a K so I was dying here anyhow if we saw this.

My mistakes in this hand:
Not raising preflop. May not have worked against KT but it may have.
Not respecting Mackers reraise. I knew he had a decent hand, I just vainly hoped it was worse than mine. Macker doesn't raise with shit.
Not folding preflop.

Ah well. Out in 14th I think.

Not an awful lot to report from the Monday 100+10 game either. Only 36 runners, I lost a good few chips early on to mad Tom, and got them back a while later when I doubled up with KK then won a decent pot on a board of KK97 with 77 vs KQ. Thanks for checking the flop :)

I didn't really get going in this game and went out in 12th. I didn't play last weekend as I was in Hamburg getting very drunk on a mates stag party, and I won't be playing this weekend as I will be at home for my bimonthly visit. Assuming I don't go on Sunday evening either this will be 2 visits in 13 days, my most barren run for quite a while. No harm though with the World Cup and all. I haven't played online either really in the last 2-3 weeks. I will be moving apartment though in a few weeks so both online and offline will be more difficult for me so I may just go mad.

Bye now.

Couldn't think of a title

The bank holiday weekend proved too much for me to resist and I got back into playing cash games I must report. Sunday started off with me going to the rebuy tournie in the Fitz. This was the oddest tournament I have played in a while. I had to rebuy after the first hand when I had AA, went all in again on the 3rd hand and won a race vs AK. Overall I had AA twice, KK, QQ twice, JJ, AK twice and I was still knocked out at 11.10 when my QQ got beaten by AJ. Ah well.

Onto the Omaha cash games and it started off reasonably slowly, My first decent hand of the night was when I flopped the nut flush from the BB and took a chance and checked it. One player bets 25, 1 caller and I call also. Turn is inconsequential. SB bets 50, I go all in for ~150 and take it there without a caller.

The biggest pot of the night is as follows. I have taken this as pretty much a cut and paste from a thread I started on boards.ie but I have filled in the gap at the bottom.

I make it €4 on the blind UTG, 5 callers, I have no live option. My hand AsTsKdTh.

Flop 9TJr (25)

I check (~400), next player (~375) bets pot, 1 caller (~150), I call to see turn.

Turn 5s (100).

This card gives me nut spade draw as well as the inside straight draw to the nuts and trips. This is the situation I am thinking about here. I have a huge draw (20 outs). Potentially the flop bet caller has a set of jacks but I dont think so (his call of the pony didn't look to confident). Even if he does, I still have 12 outs to the nuts (straight and flush).

Should I lead the betting into this pot in this big draw situation knowing that the player to my left almost certainly has KQ? He is normally a Hold'em only player. He knows enough about Omaha to know not to lead the betting with crap, but he is not a regular or tricky player. If I lead here there is a good chance all the money goes in now. If I check/call and hit there is a good likelyhood that I will not get paid, against most players anyhow.

Anyhow, I check, other guy bets pot (100), third player folds and I call.River J (300)Board now: JsTd9h5sJd

I lead with the underfull for 200, and after a think get called somehow and scoop the pot. I won a couple of other decent pots as well as missing a couple of draws and getting outdrawn a couiplf of times, but I leave at the bright and early time of 6.45 with a healthy profit.

Monday night I was going to give a miss, but have a trademark last minute change of heart and decide to play the 100 freezeout. There was a disappointing turnout of only around 45, and I was on a tough table featuring Vivian, Paddy, Niall O'Callaghan and Cecil, with Kevin Farrelly getting moved there too before the break.

There were 2 big hands that I was involved in before the break. Hand 1 (75-150) I get JTd in the BB and call a raise from Paddy (SB) to 650, and 3 of us see a flop of JcQdKd, so I have a pair and an open ended straight flush draw. Monster!

Paddy goes all in and I call for less than his bet (I had about 1800) and Cecil folds (had JT spades he says). I hit a 9 on the turn for my straight and Paddy's AQ is no good when the river is a blank.

Two hands later (100-200) I am on the button. It is folded around to Stewart (Loose, aggressive, shortstacked) and he goes in for 1025. Folded to me and I instantly call with AQo. SB goes all in for 550 citing value and then BB (Niall) thinks and calls. I wasn't too comfortable with this situation now to be honest as I felt that the size of the initial all in was big enough for me not to risk a raise to keep out marginal hands from the only 2 players still to act. Now I wish I had raised.

Anyhow, flop comes out A94r. Perfect thinks I, especially when Niall checks to me. I bet 2k into the pot and Niall reluctantly goes all in for 2475 which I call. Cards turned over and Stewart had KJo, I had AQo and Niall had AJo. SB had some other cards I can't recall, but irrelevant. Lovely thinks I, until the J on the turn cripples me and leaves me with only 2k to play with. Ouch.

I was thinking that I should perhaps have raised to isolate, but if I ran into a monster I would at least have had the opportunity to get away from it preflop which a flat call would allow. Ah well.

Things do not improve and I go out 3 hands after the break when my 44 run into KK. Stick my name on the Omaha there Denise, cheers.

Anyhoo, onto the Omaha cash game and it was a very uneventful game for me. The high point: 180 in profit. The low point: 90 down. I left at roughly the midpoint with 50 profit in this game and a small loss for the night.

Next up for me will probably be the new 150 game in the Fitz on Thursday night. I am away in Hamburg for a stag this weekend so won't be playing (poker at least).

Bye for now.

Ignore, Ignore

Firstly thanks to those brave few that read and post encouraging comments. Yes I know I probably should take a complete break for a couple of weeks, take deep breaths etc but even when things are running poorly I still enjoy it all in a perverted sense.

Since I last posted here I have played 3 nights on the trot. Thursday in the SE saw me doing ok for the first while. The main decent pot I won I kinda plumbed a bit for. I limped from MP with 9Th. Flop comes 7TA, 2 diamonds and 1 heart, 5 players 50-100. SB bets 200, BB calls, I think and call leaving 900 behind. 1 more caller so pot on the turn is 1300. My thinking here is that if the turn comes 9,T,8 or a heart I am going to push, if not I will get away from the pot. Turn comes 6h. Checked to me and I push. CO calls instantly and SB calls (all in for less than me) too. Oh oh I think. I would have been happy to take the pot ther. CO shows A5 for 2 pair (no flop raise???) and SB has J5d for the other flush draw. River come a nice Qh so I take the flush.

Maybe it was just me though but I thought the standard seemed better than normal for a Thursday in the SE. Not great still, but better, so I was hopeful of a decent run. I got moved table and the cards duly obliged my optimism by drying up completely. I barely played a hand before the table broke about an hour later and after the break which I had around 5k at, so ok.

At my new table I think I raised the first 2 hands with not much and took the blinds. Then I got involved in another pot when I hit top 2 on the flop with KJs so won that with a flop bet. I lost a significant pot when I was trying to semi-steal from the button with KQo with 2 limpers. BB went all in for about 40% of my stack, and almost twice my raise. I called anyways and wasn't too disappointed to see ATo. I hit my Q on the flop but an A on the river did for me. Next time in the BB I checked to see a battle of the blind flops with Q6o (I should prob have raised here irrespective of my holding tbh). Flop comes 999 and it is checked which I am happy to agree to. Turn is a Q giving me the house. SB bets out for 600 (blinds 200-400). I call. River is J, and SB bets 1100. To be honest I don't know why but I went all in, he called instantly with his 9 surprisingly. I don't know why I went all in there really, as the likelhood was that I would be splitting it at best as he showed interest only when the Q came and still bet the river. He had to have either a Q or a 9, but then again this being Thursday in the SE who knows. Ah well.

Scalps on Friday started off brilliantly and got up to over 6k early with TT vs 88 all in preflop and QQ vs J9 on the J high flop. After this though every time I made a bet or raise (even a reraise once) I got played back at strongly. I always had some of it but never enough to justify playing with this action. I was at less than starting stack at the break and the topup brought me to around 5k so a bit if work to do. Things restarted slowly but got better with me dogging people twice in quick succession when I had to make a move once with KQ vs AK and once when I misread the situation but got lucky. A reraise from the BB of a SB bet (loose, bad player) with K2 on a board of KQ64r won me another pot to take me to 25k with blinds at 400/800 so I was in good shape. I missed a couple of flops after raises preflop and had to lay down to action and this shortstacked me soon. I lasted a while longer but exited in 15th. Better but not good enough.

Onto the round of each game on Saturday night. For a while this was my non serious favourite game, but then I got pissed off with the standard of play in the Omaha and stopped going. Recently I have started playing it again and it has paid off with this being my only recent successes with a 1st and a 3rd in recent weeks. Not great money but a start. Tonight there was a massive 36 runners, and I played it properly from start to finish as opposed to my usualy manic style before then break. There were the usual dodgy players among the decent ones.

I got off to a quiet start but by the break had over 6k including topup with only 1 rebuy so in for €50. After the break I was moved table immediately and got blinded down to 2500 (with 1 played and lost raised pot too). With the blinds at 300-600 and Omaha starting I got my chips in with a fairly crap hand but flopped a flush in a 3 way pot so I tripled up (and a bit for the BB). Next hand I had KK88 and flopped another flush in a 4 way pot to nearly quadruple up, so from 2500 to 30k in 2 hands!!! Omaha is great. Things kept going ok and I made it to the FT with 40k, 4 places paid. 900, 480, 270 and 130 were the prizes. Things were still going ok when I raised with KKJJds and got reraised by Austin for around 33k (his whole stack). I called and he hit a heart flush even though his AA were good anyhow. This put me back to 14k and there were 8 left.

A couple of blind steals and one double up put me back to over 30k. I yoyoed between this and about 18k for a while until I got doubled up again. I was playing good, pressure poker, and really enjoying the game. When 4 handed we were going to freeze the blinds at 2k-4k with myself, Dave Whelan, Austin and Paul Fox left in it, but Austin objected (I would love to know why really, it turned into a crap shoot then). Paul got taken out by Dave and my aggressive play, sometimes with cards, sometimes not, got me into a decent position again. After a while of tooing and froing the stacks were fairly even with me on 61k, Austin on 67k and Dave on 70k. The blinds at this stage were 400-8000 and a raise committed nearly half a stack so crap shoot city it was. Due to this a deal was agreed and we took over 500 each with a few shekels for the dealers.

This is a welcome boost to the coffers but doesn't change my recent stance on cash games. I would need a bigger win than that for it.

I must say though that I did enjoy that game, and thinking back, about 80% of the pots I won were at Omaha, mostly just bets taking it down uncontested. I enjoy the feeling that I know I am one of the better Omaha players that play the game, although with Dave Whelan, Oscar, Austin, Paul Fox and Mark (kinaldo from boards) on the FT it was never going to be a cakewalk. I am not saying that I am a great Omaha player as I know I have loads to learn about at game, as at NL holdem, but considering most of the other players in the game I am always confident about my play in it in this tournament.

Anyways, post over, and hopefully I can get back to better results in general. I will need to if I am to make a 5th consecutive league final appearance at the Fitz as I am currently in 12th and even the legend that is Bob Battersby is ahead of me in it.

Plans for the week ahead? Who knows. Probably play Sunday night and either Monday or Tuesday. Next weekend I will be on a different mission when I jet to Hamburg for a workmates stag. Considering the World Cup is starting that weekend and Argentina play Ivory Coast (with their reverse Irish flag) on the Saturday in Hamburg it should be a good weekend.

Auf Weidersehn (I didn't check spelling, so apologies if it is incorrect) for now.

SELECT MAX(PAIN) FROM CARDS;

Double chance didn't even give me one chance. I played thia last night and there was a decent turnout or about 70 players. I got off to a good start winning the first hand but sadly that was to be my nadir. My steals preflop got reraised a couple of times, I had to lay down top pair (Q) K kicker in the face of bets from an aggressive but good player, and played a hand nearly right,but ultimately wrong. On a limped pot 4 seen a flop. I was on the button and it was checked to me on a board of J63 with 2 hearts. I bet 2/3 the pot (I have none of it) and got one quick caller. Flush draw thought I. This being my thinking I somehow managed to contrive to check the turn behind when the 4 of clubs arrived. River brought another non heart and I bet again more than half the pot when it was checked to me. Of course I was called by missed flush draw and 4th pair which was good (9h4h). I messed that hand by not betting the turn which I knew myself and was said to me as well just after the break by another player. It is the things like that that I hjave stopped doing properly lately. It would be churlish of me to just blame the cards for my bad run as even though I know I play well in fits and starts, there is no consistency to my game, and I am bottling out of making the right decisions because I must subconsciously think 'there is no way I will win no matter what I do'.

No wonder I have Eeyore as my avatar on boards. Apt on 2 fronts.

1. I am a donkey
2. I am pessimistic

Anyways, after the failure of that bluff I was never presented with an opportunity to get chips. I stole blinds a couple of times, but never had a had where I wanted a caller despite needing one. I did get a caller though when I opened all in with 62. I lost surprisingly. 5 levels of poker and not one pocket pair of any size. I had AKo once and AJs once. I also had KQs once but way out of position. These are the only decent hands I got. The main problem I have with the double chance game is that there are never really enough chips to make plays, especially when the game is populated by guys who like middle or bottom pair too much to let you win with a bluff. It is all very well saying 'wait til you get a big hand then you will take their chips'. This never even close to happening.

I may or may not play the scalps game on Friday. I definitely will not play in the CityWest this weekend as apart from being an extremely awkward location for a carless person such as I currently am, I cannot justify spending between 300-3000 on tournaments at the moment. Ah well. Hopefully if Forest Gump was on the right tracks I have eaten all the coffee creams by now and am coming into the turkish delights (my personal favourites - they are either love em or hate em) now.

On and On and On and Ariston.........

Ho Hum. It is official. May is now the worst recorded month (records since August and at least a few before that) ever, and possibly beyond records.

It is rigid game selection for me for a while though, I think double chance Tuesday and Friday scalps it seems, with no cash games. I know runs come and runs go, but this one seems particularly depressing. I have still had a few (very few though by my standards) final tables and cashes but they are generally minor placings so no advance.

One good thing about this is that I have to get more creative with my cards but considering some of the players who play in the Fitz tournies though bluffing can be a very expensive way to get involved in a hand. Lately big pairs get no action, I rarely flop big, and my big draws miss.

I did not intend this blog to be a vehicle for moaning and I hope it does not pan out that way over the long term. Anyways, onto the weekends poker action.

On Friday evening I left work to go into the Gresham Hotel to play a satellite for the 500 game in there that evening. I registered for a 2 ticket 100+5 satellite and their was a fairly tough line up at the table considering. People I knew(or knew of) were, Collette (Smurph), Dave Masters, Phil Harris, Tom Nolan (split the Fitz end of month 2 days earlier), and the inimitable player known to me only as Chief Brody (not a name I assigned to him, yet apt) from the Sporting Emporium.

It started out very slowly for me but I stole a few pots and then eventually took out the player in 4th place with JT vs 99. With 3 of us left and 2 tickets I was very confident having about 13000, Dave Masters about 14000 and Collette only about 3000 left. At this stage I was sure between us we would be able to take Collette out but once she doubled up via Dave and started stealing blinds with a more damaging stack eventually I called her all in bet with a suited K (terrible play but I was in gamble mode). She had AJ and it held up. This put me down to about 6k and Collette up to around 12k then. Next hand I pushed from the SB into Collettes BB with J8 suited. She called with KQo. I hit my straight on the turn but Collette hit a 4 flush on the river to knock me out. The most annoying thing is that I was te only one of the 3 of us who did not have a ticket. I don't know how I managed to keep it that way. No Gresham game for me then.

The next day I went to the Fitz for satellites for their 500 game, and again I was going well in the first satellite I played but lost a race to exit in 3rd. If I had won that I would have been all but heads up against an inexperienced palyer holding a big chip lead for the ticket. I played another sat and after being early chip lead I ran 77 into AA and then lost a race the next hand to be sent to the rails. I was annoyed with myself. To compound all this I went home and played some 1/2 Pot Limit Omaha and managed to lose an $800 pot with AAQQds when I flopped top set and nut flush draw on a Q73 board only to lose to runner runner flush (he had top 2 and backdoor draw when he pushed after my pot bet on the flop). Ouch. To bed with me.

Sunday I played the €40 rebuy game. I had €55 credit left so paid the entry with this and had a whole tenner left over for a rebuy/topup. I had a limit set in my head of 125 but knew if needed I would go to 165. However, things worked out fairly well. I got AA twice during the first 2 levels, but didnt get paid too well with them, I flopped a set of 8's after calling an all in bet vs AQ. I was also mixing my play up well and making some timed reraises. At this point I was happy with my play and up to about 8k from a start of 2k. Then came a hand when I convinced myself to do the wrong thing - twice. I held Q9 in the BB and checked to a flop of QJ9. I bet 3/4 pot and got one caller who looked like he was going to reraise. This guy was someone I have seen occasionally and is not a sophisticated player at all. He is the type who thinks about raising by handling lots of chips without realising that this is saying he has a big hand. I still ignored my own head though and check called turn and river blanks. I declare 2 pair and he says flush. I kindly point out that there is no flush on the board and he goes oh sorry, straight and turns over 8T and points out how he thought he had flopped a straight flush on a board with 2 Hearts and 1 Diamond. As I said to him, "as long as you know you have something I suppose". I was pissed off with myself more than his misdeclaration at this though. This cost me a few thousand and I won 1 more pot before the break to take me to 5k and with the 4k topup I was in ok shape, especially since I did not rebuy and only had to contribute 30 for my topup.

After the break I won a decent pot with 88 leading preflop, flop and turn on a board of J627. Chips went in on turn with him having floped a flush draw with K7d and turn a pair. My 88 held up though, and up to 11.5k for a healthy stack with blinds at 75/150 only. Then a few minutes later I got moved table and despite seeing AK on my first hand on that table I could not get a hand. 68o, 79o and Q2o are the very frequent hands I seen on this table. I moved in a few times but never got a caller. Any hands I tried to get creative on always backfired with players making moves just before I could do anything. Cards are very frustrating at times and not helped when most hands involving a 60-90 second dwell up (or longer). None by me though as my decisions were all easy. Seeing others turn over KK, AA, QQ etc at least let me know that the good cards were in the pack somewhere!!!!!! I was feeling good about my game and there were a couple of bad players and one or 2 bluffers as well so there were chips available should the opportunity present itself but it never did. I must reintroduce myself to opportunity though as I have a feeling the bitch has deleted my number and got a restraining order.

Oh ya, eventually I got KQs suited in the BB and the SB who tried to raise but failed (how hard is it to double 2??? Why try to minraise a shortstack??? Cause he is a bad player) called my allin for 9k at 1k/2k with AK and I got no reprieve. Adios. 1.35am and 14th. At least I read Olly and Gavin split it, and not the muppets. Well played lads, good to see good players getting the dosh.

I think the DC game tomorrow in the Fitz will be my next game, but who knows. I am in the process of buying an apartment and spent 2k on the weekend on couches and a bed so I need to save and earn money even though I am financewise a bit more would not go astray. As stated though cash games are def out for a while. I may just play more MTT's online as they are cheaper and might keep me out of trouble.

Soon maybe............

Silly game this anyways.......

Well there it is. Poker. What a bitch. It is nearly 3 weeks since I updated this blog and I have been on a bit of a streak, and not a good one really. The only positive result was in the saturday round of each tourney 2 weeks ago when I got third, and even then I lost most of that in a cash game.

The issue is not just bad beats, or bad play or bad cards, but a frustrating combination of all 3.

Here are 2 examples that I played properly (open to comment) but that both worked out wrong, and both from the scalps tournie, but different weeks.

First example is JJ in the cutoff. Blinds are just gone up to 800-1500 and I have approx 15k. UTG, not too long at the table, only seen one or two strong all in hands not called, goes all in for approx 8k. This I was calling. Before it gets to me a player very newly arrived to the table who I was not familiar with say call instantly, and puts all his chips in (15k) but he declared call so only 8k stays in. What to do? The recent blind increase had just cut my stack to 10BB, but with a full round of the table that wasn't on it's own enough. I thought about it and figured that I was at best against overcards, at worst a big dog. I laid it down with a bit of disgust as I had flopped quad Jacks about 10 mins earlier so I was fond of them at that point. First all in had AJ, second had AQ, double paired, low board meant a split that I would have taken. Just to clarify my decision was all in or fold, never contemplating call with my stack and a flat caller of the raise. It was the instant decision of the guy who turned out to have AQo that really was the clincher here. There were about 18 players on 2 tables left at this point. I know it was the right decision really given the action but it still rankles that I made the right decision when no reads were available and I would have nearly trebled up taking the blinds into account. Ah well. I didn't last much longer.

The next weeks tournament and this is the situation. TT in 3rd position. Blinds are 50/100, near the end of the second level. I had just rebought when my overcards and flush draw missed so I had exactly 3k. Action folded to me and I make it 400 to go. Guy to my left, first time in the Fitz, but had played before it seemed (hadn't made many moves) went all in for 1575. BB think and calls and it is decision time for me. Here is my thinking at this point.

1. I could fold and be left with 2600 and the blinds coming up soon, but they are still low so no matter.
2. I could flat call and evaluate leaving about half my stack to play with.
3. I could push and get a sidepot going with BB flat caller who I felt had over cards.

I went with option 3 and got called after a short think. Imagine my surprise when I turned over my TT to find 99 to my left and 77 in the BB. Happy days!!!! Jason in seat 1 had thrown a 7 in too so 3 cards to avoid, only one of which will knock me out, the other will put lose me 100 in this pot. Flop is AK6, turn is another 6 and river is the case 7. Gutted. The outcome is not as important here for thought purposes as the decision. I felt I was behind one player but ahead of the other, albeit him with over cards. I think my decision to go all in here was the right one to get a sidepot or else get a 2-1 shot (if BB folded) at either overcards or overpair (not sure whether my read percentages make this worthwhile or not). I may actually post this one boards to get opinions........

Cash games are not going well for me either so I am scaling down my poker for a while. I will play the end of month game in the fitz on Wednesday and maybe the Sunday game too as I have 325 credit to use, but I will not be comitting much of my own lolly to it. And no cash games I repeat.

I cannot make up my mind one one important issue in Omaha. Is it better to call a bet with no improvers when you have the nuts on the flop/turn to see what the next card brings (which could minimise profits and also losses) or raise this spot (which could maximise both profits and also losses). Usually I go with the second approach but lately I have been getting raped with this approach. People calling either with draws that hit or calling/reraising with the same hand and improvers and hitting. I know the short answer to this question is 'it depends' and the long answer is probably just a longer version of 'it depends' but it frustrates the hell out of me.

I cannot remember the last time in either tournament or cash when the deck hit me in the face. I can't believe it is only a couple of months since I had 9 winning cash sessions in a row. It seems like years. At least I get to whinge about it anyways.