1 month of recovery. I recently have had some issues over the amount of poker I have been playing. I am well and truly addicted to tournament poker and I think it has become an unhealthy obsession. So, for a period of 1 month, possibly 2, I will be taking a break from playing poker. I will still be dipping into books and articles, following the results and learning. I have withdrawn all funds from my accounts and intend to let my younger brother play my action points for me. It would be nice for him to get some experience and if he cashes he can have it all.
The reason for this abstinence. Several members of my family have highlighted the fact that I probably get in about 40-50 hours a week of poker. I know these people have told me because they care and I know I will very shortly be referred to as "the one with the problem" if i continue without listening to their advice. Kind of fed up with justifying poker with the whole "its not gambling" tag when quite blatantly it is. So a break is in order. At the least it will convince them I am indeed ok (I naturally have an obsessive personality) and it will get me out of smoky cardrooms and allow me to refocus my game. Summer is here baby! There a re better things to be doing with my time than staying glued to a monitor!

But not before I share with you a mammoth weekend of hold-em fuelled antics. I played on Saturday at Luton. In the £10 re-buy I started off well and got a big stack early. Then I had a couple of nightmares. A medium stack raised largeish and I look down at Aqs. I decide to raise in the hope he has a hand he can lay down like AJ or 88. He doesn’t, he has KK and im halved. Then I have to play patient, get nothing, find A9 on the button and try a steal which gets called by 99 which holds and sends me out. I play a SnG soon after and come 4th after I make the correct decision based on pot odds and call with 88 v AK and lose.
£20 re-buy later. I get the most perfect starting table imaginable. Steve Templeman, Ali, a cash regular and 3 maniacal chinese folk. I flop 2 pair in a multiway pot with J10 on a board of J10Q. Ugly as hell board but I find out later I was miles infront as one chinaman has 77 and the other had 7Q. Triple me up please. Next hand I get QQ and get paid. I then get that same fucking hand again Aqs. I wont play this hand to a raise any longer. I call a short stack all-in and he has KK which holds. I make a move on a tight player and he calls my A5s re-raise with 88 and im crippled. Finally duck and dive to 3 tables left. I find QQ and get NO ACTION. I am forced to go all-in with A8 against KK and don’t spike the 1 remaining Ace in the deck. Side note to do-gooders. I DON’T want to fucking hear you have folded and ace. I am trusting to hope and I don’t want that dashed. I saw a guy all-in against another with 66 v 88 and another guy said "I passed 66". Great for you, but keep your trap shut. Got some £ though when I swapped % with players who are noticeably better than myself J
I then had to witness this remarkable play from a truly remarkable player. Steve Templeman is a regular player at Luton and several other venues. He is also a nice guy even if he does fall into the category of "huge ego, not a great player, but good at putting down beginners category". Now I have played at final tables with this guy before and he is remarkably lucky. After re-buying about 10 times at the starting table he finally got a stack. My mate Rob was chipped up along with Steve when the tables went down to 2. In a battle of the blinds Rob gets dealt Ajc and Steve KJh. No other players. Rob raises preflop and Steve calls. Flop comes 4810 with 2 clubs and 1 heart. Rob bets, steve raises, rob raises again and steve goes all-in which rob duly calls. Steve then hits running hearts to make his flush. The thing that makes this play so strange is that Steve is usually a good player. Did he know what cards were coming? Were they marked? You have to ask these questions when that happens. These were 2 of the big stacks at the table. Hmmmmmm………
And he has the nerve to say "you’ll be alright" to ME when I make a marginal call on the flop with a straight draw? Get real. Obviously Rob was a little upset and rightly so, it was one of the strangest plays I have seen made when deep in a tournament in POT LIMIT. Anyway, when we went back on Monday I was pleased to see the big friendly fish came 8th for £180 which probably didn’t cover his buy-in.
Don’t get me wrong I think he is a nice guy. Iv had many good conversations with him. But he CANNOT try and maintain the aura of a superior player and berate others play when he himself is a lucky boy.
Not much happened on Monday night. Got QQ beaten by QK on the river. Made a horrible play when I had 93c and this happened. Im in the SB. Board checked on every street. Final board, 6c2c7s9hJc. I check in the SB. BB bets 500 into a 1k pot, Alan goes all-in. I know he could be making this play with a straight. I think he would have raised with a flush draw on the flop/turn. I think he has a straight, I call and he indeed does have the Q high flush. I got my read wrong as he looked scared . He was of course scared, but of the higher flush. Crippled, I double up with Aks v Aqo then I get to the final table where I go all-in with K9 v QQ and don’t hit anything. My own fault. I should have laid it down.
And now the break begins. Can I say a quick well done to Poker Pete who had some cracking results this weekend winning the £10 NL Saturday game and the £25 NL Sunday evening game. Well done sir, I like it when the good guys win.
Ill be updating periodically. Gl all.

Tip of the day. AQ is a bitch of a hand to play if there has already been a raise. Depending on the raiser this could well be an instant lay-down from me in future.