Ok, i wrote over 3000 words yesterday evening for this blog and then proceeded to have this shite internet connection go down. Really annoying as i felt like it was the best material iv written so far. Ok, stats. Iv only really been playing on VC poker. I just havent been available to play at the perfect time for American site gaming, ie early UK mornings. UB site now has $112. VC is looking tasty now at $650. Mostly the profit has been coming from $10 SnG's, up until i hit the $400 mark. Since then i have been playing $15,20 and (mainly) $24 SnG's. Iv been getting ok results, but whenever i am about to move foreward, i get hit by some beats. Iv been playing a few multis as well. Final tabled twice in about 10 attempts at $6-24 buy-in tournies, but a combo of poor cards/bad beats has really hurt. Honestly, nothing hurts more than winning $87 after slogging your guts out for 3 hours, making correct lay-downs, AA on a board of J,Q,6 (i knew he had a set and he duly showed the hiltons)......when you KNOW you were good enough to win the whole caboosh. Had another shocker last night. 150 runners in a $24 buy-in multi. I patiently wait for cards and get nothing until aces in the BB. Im thinking this is good karma for me being patient, after all iv now got detailed notes on every player sitting at my table, and some are way too aggressive with the sucker hands like KJ and worse. And guess what, it gets folded round to me. Great. My stack gets diminished and i have about 1k left from a starting stack of 2k. im UTG and the blinds are 300,150. I have ATs. I decide if i let the blinds pass through me, im dead in the water, so i make a stand and get em in. I get 1 caller and then another player behind comes OTT for another 3k. Original caller also calls. Caller has KQ (what a shit call) and re-raiser has KK. Im thinking, this aint too bad. Rags on flop, turn Q, River, a big fat, red, Ace! I triple up. Now i have a few chips (ave stack), good reads on players at my table, and i like the conditions. Only 20 get paid, and we are down to about 50. I start getting the cards i need. Nothing great, just good stealing hands, 88,KQ,1010, A9. I start to rob em blind (but always with position, and always the 1st raiser, form one of the last 4 positions (9-handed, then 8 handed for a while). I get JJ on the button. The BB, Chip Leader, starts to take his time. I type in "i have Jacks". He calls with QJo, flops a Queen and im out. That pot would have put me into the top 3, with 40 left, effectively giving me a huge chance to win the tournament. Ah well. I maintain composure and display graciousness in defeat by typing "ugly call- good luck in the pond". I do try and remain civil but god dammnit it hurts! I reconsider before pressing enter and type "good game, good luck all, nice hand". I then add him to my buddy list, and write detailed abusive notes. A nice little run in the SnGs after that however. 1st,2nd,1st,8th,9th (KK ran into AA very 1st hand),2nd. That made a nice little profit. The game where i came 8th was a result of this hand. AA in middle pos. UTG and UTG+! both limp while blinds are low (20/40). I raise to 120 to go. UTG+1 calls. Flop comes K,10,7. 2 clubs. He bets 200 into a pot of 300. I reraise 600 more, leaving myself with 500 (im committed to this, if he's flopped a set, good luck to him, he's gonna get paid). He calls?!! im thinking he's very weak. ?He would have raised pre with AKorAQ, KK,QQ,JJ,or 10,10. I put him on about KQ. Turn comes J.He goes Ai fir 300 more. i have to call and he duly shows KJ. FUCKING KOJAK. damn i tell myself, i should have gone ai on the flop. But wait, no i bloody shouldnt. I tried to make the most out of my hand and he's a huge dog post-flop.something like 75/25. This happens in poker, its why they keep playing. Anyways, after that someone types "serves you right for slow-playing the aces". WHAT??!!! I decline to respond. Something form a song i once heard "dont argue with fools, because people from afar cant tell who is who". Instead someone else pipes up "shut-up foold, he raised pre-and post flop". Leave, and tell that guy im rooting for him. Its annoying though, because if i had won that i would have had $800 or so. That would be enough for me to start playing the $50sng's. Ah well, its all practice i tell myself. I spent the rest of the evening educating my brother. He played 5 $1 Sng's. He came second once and third once to just about break even. The plan is when he gets to a reasonable standard, for him to play the opening stages of the multi's for me, until we go deep. He's good at making notes and informs me of whats happening. A big shout out to my mate Rob Apple too. He played in a party-poker satellite last night and by all accounts played well only to have his set of 3's rivered by a gutshot straight draw. Cest la vie.

Cash game tactics

Ok guys, my cash game is running good. I have started to break people. A common misconception is that you need great cards to win big pots. All you need imao is position, a loose image, a deep stack. I sat down with $30 at a .25/.50 6-seater cash game last night to illustrate to my bro how to break people. I started raising with shit, bluffing and showing etc. When i finally got called for $10 by bottom pair i knew i was looking good. I bluffed with the hammer, and then had to show and write "hammertime, du,du,du,du....du,du", JJ my brother wanted to type "cant touch this, but i said we would save that for later. So we changed gears, went back to basics, won a few nice pots then this happened. I have 55 on the button, i raise to $2 pre. BB re-raises to $4. i call. Flop comes 3,4,7. Im liking this. I have him on 2 big cards. He checks, i bet, he calls. magic turn (see why in a min) Q. he checks, i check for the chance of a set or nut straight, which duly plonks down, a nice big 6. River, he bets. I go ai for $65. He thinks im bluffing and types "hammertime?" he calls, i type "cant touch this". Ill never know what he had, but i expect it was AQ or QQ.
Then i did the most important thing. I left with his $.

Tip of the day. In the vv early stages of MTT's raise more than 3-4*the BB with premium hands ESPECIALLY from up front and in the middle. If the stacks are 2k and you raise to 120 pre, someone acting after you can call with a flop+fit hand like a small pair and totally screw you over. I see this so many times, dont go bust with pps if you dont know much about the opposition yet, treat them with respect. Also, in an unraised pot pre-flop with a few limper, top pair on the flop is not big enough to go bust with. If one of the blinds check raises the pot in an unraised pot, ESPECIALLY if the flop is all over the place.....TRUST me he has 2 pair.

Im off to Farringdon on Tuesday, and im going to be playing a lot of poker on Saturday evening and Sunday this weekend. Im due a big MTT win. If i can hit a podium finish for a nice few hundred $ then i can move up in stakes and start playing with the big boys. As a side note, im a smidgeon less confident for the upcoming £50 SnG im playing with my freinds. There are now 3 other players that "kindof" know what they are doing. Im certain ill still win the thing though....how can you beat Alex "cant touch this" martin.