Back on the horse

OK, I nearly kept my promise. I said on Sat 10th, that I would not play til Sat 17th, and the cash league final. However, Friday 16th was payday, and while I did not need payday to have the money to play (I am not that broke yet!!!), it was a good excuse so off to the Omaha I went.

Several hours later, and including losing a €500 pot with AAJ6ss against KKT9ss all in preflop when it was obvious I had AA when the board came KKJA8 - sick - I still won €475 for the night, so not too bad.

On Saturday then, I went down for the league final at 6pm in the Fitz. The prizepool was €32k +€5k added by the club, so with only 97 qualified players, 67 turning up, and 27 paid, it promised to be a lucrative tournament since I was starting with 21,800 chips for my 218 hours.

However, the promise turned to dismay fairly quickly when the structure became obvious. This was put in place apparantly by a lot of the older crowd saying they hoped it didn't go on too late. In my opinion this is a load of bollocks, and if they didn't like a good structure they should stay at home. I am not saying it should be 45 min clock, repeated levels etc by any means, but a 25 min clock with no levelsw skipped would have sufficed, but 20 mins for the first 5 levels, with 2 levels skipped, reduced the level of play quite severly I think. At the break a few of us had a word with Denise who then changed the clock to 30 mins from then on, as opposed to playing 2 more 20 min levels. It helped a bit, but my cards did not, and losing several races later (or same difference, mid pair with 3 overs on the flop, and being shown top pair when I folded and similar) I was out in 30th, only 3 from the money.

Ah well. The Omaha cash games started off a little later, and I spun my initial €200 into €1800 for a very profitable night, and that helped alleviate the disappointment of earlier somewhat. I have played a couple of times since as well with a breakeven night and a -€300 night. So much for taking it easy!!!!

The Waterford Winter Festival was on last weekend as well and I am a bit disappointed I wasn't there, although it was totally my own decision due to running-and-playing-badedness. By all accounts it was a fantastically structured and run tournament, and I really hope to get down to the next one of these in March, just after the Irish Open.

Also, the SE has their €1k event this coming weekend, but unfortunately I will be away. Otherwise I would definitely have played a Satellite or two for this, but sadly, there is not much point as I won't be around to play it. I haven't been to the SE in a while, as I am playing less tournaments than I have done, but I must not leave it too long before the next time.

That's all the non intrigue I have for you this time. Another update will be along no sooner than a week, and no later than 3 months.

Quick Edit: Those of you with eyes at least mouse sharp will have noticed that I have chnged my template and finally added a few links. I intend to find where that mysterious new burst of energy came from, but given the fact that it soon disappeared, I may have a problem locating the energy to perform this investigation. Not quite a catch 22, but it is at leat a catch 18 difficulty. Hmmm, ah well.

Oh, I also got my DVR station for my new toy, my Archos 605, so I must go an play with that. I also got a 500GB external hard drive delivered to me as well. Yes, I am a bit of a geek really, what of it? You got a problem with that, punk?

Another Moan

Right, I am now officially sick of poker. I am not going to trouble my 5 occasional visitors with bad beat stories or I'll get a new nickname.

This year has been by far my most difficult in poker. The last 12 months has been a constant downswing with only a couple of bright spots in between. Everything I think I know about poker seems to fly in the face of what I constantly see at tables nowadays and to be honest it is really breaking my spirit. I enjoy the banter, competition and thinking that is involved in the game but it is years like this that make me realise what a hard way it is to make a few bucks. I have been playing well in patches, but overall I would rate my play as worse in tourneys especially than last year, although that may be results based thinking.

For the next couple of weeks at least I will be taking it easy pokerwise. I have a few external expenses as well so that doesn't help. Until I have a result of sorts though I will try to be strict enough about how much of my salary I 'invest' in poker. I will still be playing now and then, I am far too ill not to, but apart from the Fitz league final on Nov 17th, where I will start with around a 22k stack (in the top 15 I must admit), I have no plans to play, although I might cave in and play the 100 FO in CHL's on Friday (payday coincidentally).

I even turned down an offer to be sponsored into the 300 Omaha event in the Fitz on Monday, but as I said "I couldn't do that you you". I am generally an amiable, happy enough person who enjoys a good moan (somewhat paradoxically), but this is stretching me in a poker sense. I think a while playing less might do me good. On the upside, I might bother to play a bit more online which I have been neglecting even more than usual despite good intentions.

Ah well. As the chief would say, "That's poker".