OK, give a little bit of interest iv had from freinds regarding the recent tournie 5th place exit i figured id share the entire experience with you. This is gonna be a long post and bear in mind i am still learning. £50 rebuy tournie, £7500 gauranteed, 75 runners. You dont need to be Einstein to work out that this was gonna reach at least a 10k prize pool. Big enough for me. I sit down at my table and am immediately happy. I am surrounded by serial bluffers, movers and weak players. 2 players i played with in THAT cash game 2 weeks ago. Tom, a readable tight player, who gambles massively outside of poker. "Ricky" Gill- a player who gives my game minimal trouble, but causes other players (rob) endless troubles.
Other notable players were a loose aggressive player who i have a reasonable read on and a tight/solid player who should not be messed with, ever. Gameplan at 1st was to play like a short-stacked freezeout and let the loose player make too many moves. Starting stack 2500. Blids 25/50.

1st hand i get, KJc in cutoff. 4 limpers + the blinds = big multiway pot worthy of my hand. Flop comes perfect Qc9c10h. So i have nut str8 with second nut flush draw. Action goes.....check,check,check, ricky gill bets 100 into a 200 pot, i flat call, lose player raises (i.e he has check raised) to 600, Ricky goes all-in, i call, Check -raiser folds. Thanks.

Next hand i get about 25 mins later. AKspades. EP raiser, i re-raise. He thinks about it (for a short amount of time- and i know he pulls word-play when he has a monster) and goes all-in. Its a big call, but i dont like laying down big hands in the rebuy period. He has 1010, i hit an Ace on the flop, lovely. I now have 7k and a workable stack. No more hand till the last hand in the rebut period. I get dealt the bitches. 1 EP raise from a loose player, i re-raise, an even poorer player (short-stack) goes all-in for another 2k. Original raiser calls, i call. I am up against A9o and 88. I win. Stack is now 14k. Average is 5k.

No more hands this table, i get moved after a short while with 13500 at the next table. Totally different table dynamic, a lot of solid/tight players here. I steal twice, with J9s and 87o RTB. Blinds are 200/400 so worth nicking. Blinds go up to 300/600 when i make a mistake. I limp with 33 utg (why?) then see a flop of K87. As this is only a 3 way pot i decide to take a stab at it and raise to 1500. Tight guy re-raises me, i fold telling him i misplayed Jacks (want to enforce my rocky image, doubt he bought it).
Anyways, blinds get to 1k/2k. I find AK and raise to 7k to play, comiiting myself to the pot as i know i need chips. Tight CL re-raises me all-in after thinking about it. I call as im pot -commited, he has QQ and i hit again. Big stack now, i steal to final table. At the table the prize structure is so flat 300,300,400,400,500,750,1200,3k,4k that its obvious playing to win is the name of the game. 2nd hand i get KQs and go all-in. I get called by JJ and hit a Queen. Image sorted. I now have 80k and nice little till later on when a shortish stack goes all-in when i have 75k and KQ. I call 30k and he has 10,9. Hehits, i dont, i go all-in with A6 in a blind v blind scenario against serial thief Damien, who has A8. No miracles, im out.

Thing is, i dont think i did anything too great. I just won my coinflips and nicked a few. Need to work on winning. gl all.

Came 5th in the £7500 gauranteed tournament in Luton last night. Was good for £750. Not happy at all, maniac goes all-in against me with 109 and just for once im praying KQ will hold when i call for 1/2 my stack at the FT. He hits, i dont, he nets himself 2.3k in one of the worsts deals i have witnessed. A virtual even chop when the last 4 stacks are 50k, 120k, 130k, 150k. LOL

Seriously, if you thought the WSOP was a class act, full of top pros, read this.
http://www.antesup.com/blogs/blog/19
Read this guys main event experience. Calling an all-in riase with K9 on THE VERY 1ST HAND OF THE WSOP!!!!! Magic.

Whoa there, had a very very hectic evening on Friday night. My god the Cash games at the Vic are juicy. Will definitely be heading back there. Spent a bit too much that night, as one thing left to another and me and the Artist didnt get back till 6.30am. I then had to get up and play Paintball. Harsh. Got shot, hurt a lot, went home and slept. Suzanne came round and we watched that eternal programme that is always varied, interesting and full of entertainment- Match of the Day. My tournament went shit in the Vic BTW. QQ cracked by 44 ai preflop, but it was only £10 so who gives a toss.

Played a bit this avo and won $400 in about 2 hours. If only every session could be that good. Im in need of a bit MTT result and i think tonight could well be the night. I am playing with so much confidence and am totally calm when the cards are not dropping for me. Variance is being thoroughly embraced of late as i dont mind letting the fish win. It makes the poker world go round.

Im going to experiment tonight with a new strategy in a couple of baby MTT's. Its going to be a "re-raise anyone you think wil fold to an all-in bet" night. Should be fun.

Luton tomorrow for their 7500 gtd £50 rebuy tournie. This will be awesome but im going to limit myself to 1 buy-in and then play cash. Otherwise i will get carried away and prolly lose a lot wonga.

gl me.

A bit twisted and purile but you have to admire the mans confidence.
Check out my mates blog, ill hopefully rope Gatsby into linking it up one day.....but iv asked too many favours of the guy at present. helphttp://helpwithmyabc.blogspot.com.

gl Robby!!!

Shit, he told me to keep it anonymous ;)

It just happened again. Playing the 15k and 3.5 k tournies. I get to 90 players left in the 15k and am 5th in chips. I find KK and lead out UTG+2. I get min re-raised by a big stack. At this point in time i want to fold, i mean, my brain is screaming FOLD. But of course we get to the turn after chec/check on a heavy drawing board and it all goes in. He has AA, of course i knew it. Im going to start laying this hand down is the player has 1/2 or more of my chips and i know he's solid. Im fed up with losing my chips without being able to outplay postflop.

Recovered mind, and still have some chips.

GL me, 89 left, lets have a result mr. martin

OK, we have what is in online poker called a definite banker. There is bank holiday coming up. OH yeah!! And for a heck of a lot of people who have just been paid in the last week or so will be losing a lot of cashish to me, Chief Constable of the NE Thames Bad Beat Police. Thats CCNETBBP for short.
And listen to this for a dream weekend. Seriously, im getting 2 early nights to get ready for the obliteration my body is gonna take. Friday night, early kickoff. Me and Dave "the artist" Halfacree will be leaving work very early and heading down to the London Grosvenor Victoria for about 5/6pm. This is a 1st ever for me and i feel a bit intimidated. Thats a lie. I cant wait to get hold of lots of rich kids cash, well, thats the plan anyways. Gonna see what tournie is happening and how juicy the cash games are. Going to play till about 12/1am and then hit a few nice bars around covent garden. Saturday, 8am meet for a full day of paintball. £50 has got me the whole kaboosh with 1000 balls, awesome. There is a big crowd of us going so should be a giggle. Saturday night, see the missus and possibly head off to the Crosskeys in St.Albans to send off a mate who's going to Bristol Uni. Earlyish night before.....
Sunday, pidgeon shooting. Starting at 6.30am sharp, have already purchased 500 cartridges for what promises to be an awesome day. There are 3 of us shooting so if the weather stays nice and windy/overcast i should still be eating home-grown woodpidgeon well into the winter. Sunday night, possibly playing the big Sunday MTT's online (well big for my bankroll, this aint no bodogari), might play @ Luton in the £25 NL tournie/Cash games. Monday, morning, hit the gym hard at about 11am till 1pm. Then head off to Luton for a sociable £500 freeroll event and then a £50 re-buy tournie. Ill probably play 1 buy-in then hit the cash tables. Stop playing at about 4am, head off home and think about a really good excuse as to why i cant come in on Monday morning. Hurrah, as my coworker would say..."im getting wet at the thought"! Dont ask me, he's from the midlands, i always thought it was women that got wet.

gl all. Special thankyou to Paul "the man" AKA UKGATSBY who kindly does all the hard work on this blog ;)
By the way, if he offers a % swap, take it, he's due a result.

Im pretty proud of what i just did. I started seething after a series of bad beat, i could feel the tilt coming, so i defended myself by withdrawing all funds from my accounts. Yes. It has taken 5 years of online poker, but i can finally address the bitch that is tilt and tackle it on my own terms, hurrahh.

Im out, but i was a favourite. I got dealt 88. UTG+1 raises 3*BB. 1 Caller Bigstack in MP. I pull off a masterful squeeze play with a quick shove. UTG goes all-in aswell, MP calls. They have AQ and AK respectively, and im out. Manyana (sp?)

Fuck. Just dropped $400 i about 2 hours. I ran Kings into Aces in a big pot $170 and got a couple of minor suckouts. Darn. Im still alive (just) in the 20k but tbh it doesnt look good, my table is tight/passive so i must be very careful later, they are slowplaying EVERYTHING. Gonna stop after this and regroup, i must learn to KEEP MY SESSIONS SHORTER. As soon as i start to switch off i miss the little nicks and idiosyncracies of players, dont correctly count outs, and generally play like a twat.

Ah well, ill win this crapshoot and then be happy. night all

Had a very disappointing weekend of poker, a lot was promised, but i couldnt deliver :(

Started on Friday night collaborating with Dave "the artist" Halfacree in a few $50 SnG's and the main multi's.
We bubbled the final table in the 5k event after losing 3 races on the trot. Q10 v 55, AQ v 99 and again with Aq v 99. We played well throughout, but $100 isnt $1500. We continued our record in the $50 SnG's, that is, played 4, won 4. Had a suckout in the 20k and Dave ran into a monster in the $100 rebuy later.

Cash games went well on Saturday with the bankroll being allowed to swell and even after a nice withdrawal it was at over $900. Sunday is as ever the big day for me in the multi's. I played all the medium buy-in events Sunday evening on Tribeca and a couple on UB. Got huge starting stacks in both the 20k gtd and the 5k gtd (one of which was the result of a very lucky hit by myself, set v overset on the flop, 1 outer to quads :) )
The this hand in the 20k. I have 25k, average is 12k. Only other big stack at the table has 20k and raises an open pot on the button 3*BB. I call in the SB with J10s, hoping to flop a monster and outplay the guy for a lot of chips. Flop comes AJ10 with A of my suit. I bet pot, he calls. Turn comes, wait for it, 9 of my suit. I bet 2/3 pot, he calls. River comes 10. At this point i know he has hit the flop. I think he either has AK or AJ. I now have house of j's and 10's. Trouble putting him on a set as surely he would have bet big on such a heavy drawing flop. The pot is 15k, i set him all-in and he calls in a heartbeat with flopped top set AAA1010 house on the river.
Damn. My chips get donated later when AK cant beat 2 lots of AQ preflop.

In the 75k gauranteed i was running well till my KK got driven very fast into AA. Thing is, i now kinda know when my KK is beaten preflop. Should i ever lay them down?

In the 5k event i got to final 70 before my ailment came to haunt me. 2 limpers on my SB. I have enough chips to set them all-in, after all, if they had a hand they can call with they woulda raised right? I have A9s, 2second limper nearly times out before calling wih A10. No luck for me. Next hand is heavily multiway to me on the button with 78s. I have 5k left, 20k already in pot, no brainer. I flopped a MONSTER. An open ended straight flush draw. But the spades just kept coming and of course someone had the A.

Another rough night on the multi's. Need to put in some serious hours this week at the cash tables, where my form has been excellent. I just sit there multitabling 4 short-handed tables at a time, alternating between nut-peddling and being a re-raising, showing my bluffs nuisance. Seems to get the yanks going loco with me. My best result at a $100 max sit down tab;e of .50/1.00 blinds is getting to $380 in 3.5 hours after sitting with $40. My worst play was bluffing off $150 on the river representing a flush when my opponent already had a house. Boy that got some laughs.
Does seem to work though. Sit down, play mad, show ur bluffs for 15 mins. Then lock up, play solid, re-raise strong with hands worthy of slow-playing....and get paid for 45 mins, until the cycle starts again.


GL all

Tip of the day. If you have a medium pocket pair. You call a LP raise with 88 in the blinds. Flop comes JJ5. CHECK RAISE this flop. Preflop raiser will fire out a continuation bet on this flop. Your job is to find out whether he has high cards that have missed, or a Big pair. Shut down if he does anything but fold. You have asked the question, and got the answer.

Had ANOTHER bad beat last night. Wont go into it too much (re-read thsi afterwards and realised thats a lie) but 45 players left in the 20k gauranteed and im about 10th in Chips. I raise prflop with AKs. BB calls, my image is loose/aggressive. We see the action flop of A109 rainbow. He checks, i bet 15k into a 20k pot (starting stack 75k). He raises me all-in. I sometimes fold here but recently have enforced a "play to win" mentality and dont like folding after hitting a flop. I was scared of 99 or 1010 as they were the most likely calling hands preflop. I opt to call knowing i can runner runner a backdoor str8/flush and that he could have AJ/AQ. I call, he has AQ and im down to 20k after he makes a straight on the river. If that hand had held up, i would have had 140k, chip leader approaching bubble time.Next hand i get A7s, all-in. I get 1 caller, our hero mateyboy. He has A5o. We split on a straighting board. Next hand after the break i find 77 UTG+1. UTG limps, but iv seen him do it with less than premium, i go all-in. Folded round to the button who re-raises up to 40k. Shit i think, a big pair. UTG folds and the button has A9s. A horrible re-raise on his part, given the UTG limper and a decent ace is within my ai range. Of course he hits on the river to send yet another crushing defeat my way. 471 runners last night, and AGAIN i go very deep only to lose. BUT i did get outdrawn rather than donk my chips off. Something positive to take from last night. If it wasnt for bad luck id have no luck at all.


Another interesting note, i played a fantastic £.50/£1.00 £50 NL cash game at luton the other night. We played shorthanded and my word the play was AWFUL. I saw numerous £500+ pots won with shite. I lost of course, but im blaming tiredness, it was 4.30am.

gl all

Just played the 15k gauranteed. 250 runners, 27 get paid. Can you guess where i finished.
Yeah, thats right, 28th. :)
Happy days. Get a stack, lose 1/2 to some little squeeze playing fuck, then tighten up.
Tighten up enough to get KQ done over by KJ on a 3 outer post-flop. Then make a stand on the button with AQo and the strange japanese guy in the BB has AA. Obviously any form of luck is banned for me in MTT's. Fuk it. I just wasted 4.5 hours and have nothing but wrist ache ot show for it. And thats form using the MOUSE you wiseguys ;)

ah well, i can always take hope from the fact i have work tomorrw.

Ouch. Just been beaten up in the cash games pretty bad. Ran 888 into AAA on a board of A584 for like $180. Then, i get rivered a yank on a flush draw for $230. That kinda sucked.
Also, i got a big stack in the 5k tournie i was playing by a mixture of luck and good fortune.
;)
This happens. Blinds 400/800, middle stack in cutoff limps, then SB completes. I have 15k, middle has 6k, SB has 24k. I go all-in thinking i have about a 1% chance of getting called. SB thinks for a bit, then calls with pockets sevens. Shit. I look at my cards, 106s. No joy and im out. You might aswell tape a tail to my backside and make me give kids rides up and down the beach.
EEEEEYYYOOOOOORRRRR EEEEEYYYYYOOOOORRRRRR

So, im not on a mission to recover lost $. As we all know, these missions ALWAYS end with me getting loads of money, being offered sponsorship and playing in every EPT event of the year. Failing that i do a Stuey Ungar and do my bollocks. Which outcome has the smart money on it?

gl me.

Absolutely killing the cash games at the moment. I mean, i just turned $160 into about $400 in 46 minutes. AND that was including losing the 2 biggest pots i have ever played in.
I have AA in BB. A guy who has just sat down with $100 raises to $10. 2 callers!! I opt for a no-nonsense, this is worth winning right now approach and go all-in. 2 callers. A $280 pot. Im up against QQ and JJ. All looking good till the bastard fucking river brings a dreaded Queen. And the cheeky cunt types, "shit-it". You'll be alright son.
Other than that tournaments been showing no sign of form. Playing one at the moment, the 15k gauranteed $27 rebuy. And yes, here it comes. I raise 3*BB with AKo. BB thinks for a moment, then re-raises me all-in. Im in no mood for "what if he has aces bullshit" and call in a heartbeat. Can you guess what he has? 5 fucking 5. Can i hit anything? Would i sound so pissed off if i had?

So yeah, cash games are good, tournaments are wank. You play ultra-sound for 4 hours, come close to a nice score, then some donkey re-raises you with AJ SOOOOTED and sucks out on your AK for nealry all your stack. Not all your stack, oh no. They leave you with 500 chips for you to wait patiently for a hand. You go all-in, and it doesnt even amount to the small blind. Then you win!! At last, a glimmer of hope. Shot lived. The "pro" thinks he can move you off KK with a "make you call for all ur chips move with 87s and hits, then he types gg, ul". I wanna rip these fucks heads off. The good thing is shit players are regularly winning tournaments. This means this money will circulate back round eventually, to me, chief fucking constable of the bad beat police.

GL all

_(This sentence has been removed as i felt it was excetionally rude)_

Just lost a classic race in the 20k gtd when down to 100 players. This time someone tries to make me fold AK after i raised 1/2 my stack preflop. Erm, sorry son. He has JJ and the 1st card out is a J so no river agony. Lost a race at exactly the same stage yesterday. I had 88 and made a large re-raise against a short stack all-in and a big-stack call. Shortie has AQ, biggie A10. AA10 flop kinda kills any hope. Very frustrating this game.

A huge shout out to my lucky fishy mate Mr Robert Apple who will be competing in the £750 double chance freezeout tomorrow night. This is by far and away the biggest event any of my "crew" have ever played and lets all wish him the best of luck. With hope he will have learnt when to give up a hand and also when to realise he is being trapped. Barring that he is a highly aggressive player and when he gets chips he is virtually unstoppable.

Wont be playing poker for a while now, need a break as its been pretty intense lately and i wanna read Harrington volume 3 and Dave Ulliots "swimming with the devilfish".

Successfully moved up to $.50/$1.00 stakes in online cash games that i am earning well in.
I have found a method that seems to suit me. If i get more than $350, i withdraw. Simple as.
This way the tilt monster that i keep locked away most of the time can never really harm me, well, only for 200 quid.

As a side note, im a bit disappointed with the brits at the WSOP this year. Some disastrous bad luck for Sherwood, a mistake from Toshi and an appointment with the Vice police for an unnamed player ;). Said player (who has a wife so i should probably keep shtum, but fuck it) was at a bar when approached by a young, nubile young lady. She offered him her company for the evening and he answered with the immortal words that only a true English gent could have spoke- "how much". Bingo son, ur nicked. By all accounts they roughed him up pretty bad but, hey, for his unchivalrous 1-liner maybe he deserved it. How about "can i buy you a drink?", "where are you from?". No laws against entrapment out there all, you have been warned.

Found a good read the other day that i hijacked form Andy Wards comments page. rizenpoker.blogspot.com.
A good read and an insight into the world of the top online pro's.


Tip of the day. Dont be fooled. Once you have established a player as good, give him respect.
If you raise preflop with AQ, flop comes A35 with 2 clubs and you correctly bet near the pot and he calls be wary. If he flat calls another 2/3 the pot sized bet on the turn, shut down entirely without improving to the stone cold coconuts. He has got information from you. You are saying "im not giving you the correct odds to draw to a flush or str8". As he is a GOOD SOLID player who is calling here, he is thinking "ill let you think i am drawing as i have a made hand and ur fucked as you'll be pot commited to my large bet on the river".

Funny thing about NL holdem, you need to know your players AND have good card sense to win.

Detailed account of my 1st ever medium buy-in live event.
I entered the tournament with a certain amount of trepadition. Would these players be able to see though my continuation bets, would they make moves as soon as they sensed weakness. I felt better after chatting to a few of the other lads, being asked for a % swap (which i politely refused- it was unfair on the guy) and seeing a few of the "pro's" knocking back a few bevvies at the bar.
Gameplan was to see flops with pairs in position, some SC's in cutoff/button and play solid until i got a read for the table. With a starting stack of 5000 chips, 45 minute blinds and a blind structure of 25/50, 50/100, 100/200, 200/400 etc i felt confident i could use the curve to gain an advantage over my looser opponents. A starting table included a couple of FT omaha specialists, Jackarama and a few of the older generation. Dealer dealt, with nice shiny chips, this felt like fucking heaven.
I got 1 hand in the 1st level , AQs, which i won a small pot with after a preflop raise with 2 callers and a continuation bet representing AK on a K high board. I then passed 77 UTG on the 1st hand of level 2. I was of course horrified when the flop came 774 and a weak player who had been slowplaying KK rounf the back overbet the pot for his entire stack!!
Got up, had a glass of water, cursed my rocky play and went back to work.

Jackorama, had been vey busy and was now may main target as he called almost any raise preflop and folded ot a flop bet 80% of the time. The guy is shit in my honest opinion. Shame he's quite a nice guy. He was recounting a tale about how he was playing with the Russian mafia in the 90's and him and the mafioso boss both flopped the nuts with AKh and AQh on a board of 349h. After the shit had hit the fan about said dodgy deck, Jack retired to his hotel (speedily) 150k richer. Scary stuff. Apparently the duplicate cards were considered dead (A hearts) and after another heart had appeared at the end, jacks K high flush won. Funny guy, shit poker player.

I then found a hand, AKs in the hijack (the seat 1 before the cutoff) . 1 Caller, the cutoff, a player who appeared loose after i saw what he raised with a couple of times (an A9s and a KJs). Flop comes K25 with 2 spaces. I have A spades. I raise 1/2 the pot. He re-raises me all-in. I think he would have had a VERY marginal call preflop with 22 or 55 given his stack size. A smaller K or a flush draw seems more likely. I have a spade i he has the draw, reducing the lieklihood of him catching. I call. He has KQ, no spades. Double up to approx 11.5k.
I then get KK folded to me in the BB. Brilliant. No further hands in level 2. Level 3, 3rd hand i get AKo. 1 EP limper UTG (a very unpredicatble player, the same one who limped with his big pair earlier), Jackorama goes all-in. Shite, i need a read on the EP guy, he doenst look too happy, but hey, he looks intelligent enough to act a little. I make a huge mistake, and fold. I should have gone all-in. He calls with 88 and beats Jacks AQ. After this hand i get moved to a new table. Card dead, for eternity. And all the big stacks are to my left, and all the shorties are on the right. I dwindle to 8k, blinds 300/600. I find K10s on the button. I force myself to raise to 1800. 1 big stack caller (the BB) who i know diddly squat about. Flop comes A102. Not a bad flop to have a dig at at all. I bet 2k into a 4.5k pot. He calls. Shite. Turn comes a 3. Now what to put him on. The flop was rainbow. I raised preflop and he called. There are no obvious draws out there apart from the gutshot str8 draws. I decide i had better shutdown. He checks the turn, i check. River comes an 8. He bets 1.5k into a 9.5k pot. What to do? I figuyre against the range of hands he has here a call has to be my best decision. He flips 82 for the rivered pair. I shoot him a look and he looks embarassed, the tries justifying it to his big stack buddy with the owrds "impied odds". Sigh. I now have 2.5k- Marvellous. I find A5h and auto-push. No callers. I find 33 and auto-push, no callers. Back up to 5k. I dont get any opportunities to be the 1st raiser and go 2 round without any increase. I finally go all-in on my button with QJ and get called by 77. Winning a race is beyond me and i get up with those words i seem to spend my life saying, "good game, good luck all".

46th out of 140 odd. 1 mistake and letting my bollocks shrink (and therefore my stack) was all it took to lose my winning mentality.

I then went ans played a £50 SnG crapshoot for the £500 PL event. On site were, Tony "tikay" Kendall and a couple of well known players who were very funny guys. Most impressed with the demeanor of these chaps, who really freshened up the somewhat stale environment that sometimes overwhelms you at Luton. I had some luck and cracked QQ with JJ. I then Made a move with A9s agaisnt precieve weakness from the only other guy who could bust me. He insta called for all-his chips with 55. If i was a car i would be a rusty Morris minor, which i cant imagine ever won a race.

I leave, shoot the guy a look of "if only you and me could play cash for a day" and go home mentally exhausted from the focus i gave in that event. The best tournament i have ever played for the 1st 3 levels. I correctly guessed 4 winning hands at the showdown (obviously i didnt stand up with a mike) and felt uber-confident. I should have had the fortitude to push with my AK and after that, the bravery to push with any 2 while my stack had some meaning.

After all is said and done, i am ONLY 23. I learnt a lot. I will be back.

Yesterday was enlightening. I have reached that point where you i invincible in every game i play. Obviously this couldnt be further from the truth but there is definite corellation between confidence and results. I won a seat for the £500 Pot limit event. Obviously, as i freaking hate the game thet'll be "cash please". Played some £50 SnG's yesterday where the standard was incredibly impressive. I mean REALLY REALLY good. I felt outclassed but i knew i could outdraw em ;)
I had to lay QQ in the 1st hand on a J high board to a read of real strength. They (yeah, THEY) both showed Aces. I saw middle set played beautifully - ie the guy roped a dope and got a treble up instead of a double up. Spoke to some people whose experience i admire. Poker Pete, what a nice man- 60 odd and still awesome. Also mightily let down by some of the crowd. I mean, there are some ridiculously grumpy, miserable assholes in this place. Its taken me how long to realise that?
But the stars outshine the blmishes. I poke to 2 young guns yesterday, Andy Nunn and another chap (oops, bad wiht names) who are both at the top of thier game. Listen to this for class. Justin Turner, a bit of a know all imo, asks this lad how long he has been playing after the guy made a good move against him. The lad says 3 years. What he is careful to omit is that he's in the magazine sitting next to Justin and recently final tabled in 3 big buy-in comps, coming second in Walsall i believe. Pure class.
Times are changing, a lot of the older generation do not have the experience needed nowadays. They have given up learning. 20-something hot-shots are ten a penny in the UK, we are in the midst of a poker revolution.

Im playing the £200 freezeout today, with the aim of making the second day. Also with the aim of avoiding any overweight stinking players who have written 2 marginally informative essays, posted on a forum and think they have the god-given right to be rude to newcomers. Not on.

Tip of the day. WHENEVER a sizable proportion of your chips are in jeapordy (sp?- think so) stop and think. A check-raise should virtually never be called. Be careful, wait to be dealt into good situations.

gl all, hope i can report on a big win, one that will kick start my career.

Really starting to focus on my game lately. Moved up from .25/.50 cash tables to .50/1.00
I would advise anyone previously playing at .25/.50 to do the same. That standard of play is far worse and (and its a BIG and) provided you can cope with huge swings, the profits can be enormous. I was fed up with grinding away multitabling 4 at a time and waiting for mistakes. At this level, mistakes are everywhere....including those found in my own game.
Having difficulty lately with regards to stopping drawing hands yet minimising losses. Here is the hand in question. I have KK in EP. I open for a raise of 5* the BB, a usual opener from me in ep. 1 caller, who i know chases without the odds. Flop comes the horrible 678 with 2 spades. I bet the pot ($12, he calls). Turn comes Jd (ie non scare) and i am in a total dilemna. Do i protect what i percieve as the best hand with a 2/3 pot bet, or do i check. Given the history, i bet 2/3, he pushes and i have to call $9 more so obv do and he smacked that flop with the str8 + str8 flush draw. Where did i go wrong?
Beginning to think that big pocket pairs and me in cash games is suicide. Also just shows how huge an advantage of position is in all forms of poker.
With scary board should i just check/fold? I think it may be the only way of winning on connected boards although he coulda done the same thing with a set of nines.
I might make big pair raises a compulsory 10* the BB bet preflop. Let him try that on for implied odds.

On the tournie side im going to play ALOT this weekend. Need to focus my game and sharpen up for the festival. Im not ffeling too confident about my game at the moment, just going over my player notes and re-reading nl HE tournies by McEvoy + Vines and Championship NL HE by Mcevoy and Cloutier. I know i can beat these guys, i simply must get cash games out of my system pronto. No fucking about. ABC poker until i get a read on my opponents, then try some aggressive shit later on, with possible moves around the button against the tight guys.

Winning the main event would be nice so im going to enter a couple of satellites after i win tomorrow......see the confidence is back already.. ;)

GL ALL

Tip of the Day. Be careful in cash games. They are mean on your money if you arent fully fit.

Was a nice feeling the other night. Actually not that happy because i thought i was going to win HUGE on Sunday 50k + 20k and rightly should have. Mind you compared to Mr Rob Sherwood i have no right feeling down right now.

Played the final table well. IE mistake free and very solidly. Made a move with AJs to make someone call for all their chips and got away with it.

Wish me luck in the £200.

Just won a main event ticket for the UK open. It cost me £80 to win a £1500 seat. Needless to say after yesterday the result was appreciated. GET IN!!!
Ill have the cash then please.....i cant see me outplaying the JP Kelly's and Julian Thews of the worlds just yet. BUT as a reward ill play the £200 freezeout.
Nice when ur running good this game, full report tonight after a tired day at work.

;)