This is my chosen lady, Suzanne. Say hi.

Iv been a busy boy. Whilst not losing substantial sums of money in Luton cash games iv been having a good time of it online. DTD are undergoing changes to their Trader scheme which has left me lots more time to enjoy the finer things in life, namely shooting and live poker. Been playing a fair bit on nikinblinds and have spent most of this weekend on Poker Tracker fiddling about with all the bits of kit on there. Must have taken 2 hours before i finally uploaded the hand histories.

Newcastle was great. Met up with lots of top people and had a fun time of it. Sadly didnt manage to sample the Newcastle nightlife as hoped so doubt ill be updating again (where's the perks and all that? :) but enjoyed my time just the same. Thanks to BlueSQ for that one. Met Mr Romanello and the rest of the Welsh boys, top lads all of them. Also finally met the legend Wernick who took me for a spot of sightseeing one night. We got Dina on film in lady company. :) Happy Days.

Havent been updating this blog too much lately as its dawned on me i only have about 5 regular readers. You know who you are, and thanks for keeping the hits going up. Might do some pimping to other blogs, after all i set this site up initially for no other reason than to hopefully sell advertising space in the future and let my freinds/family (offline and on) follow my progress. This has amounted to a link to the Arsenal website and my Mum finding out how much money iv lost. So equally i might not go linking to any old top dick and harry.

Been playing a coupld of £50-£100 Luton comps for fun lately. It IS enjoyable (i keep telling myself that) but i hate the fact that you can be 100% certain ur the best player at the table, but still only have room for one or 2 mistakes. I am very happy with my overall play at the moment, one leak that i have noticed is im playing to much when tired, so ill prolly stop playing live cash once it gets past 1am. I dont want to return to staying out till 6am every night, no good for life.

The Luton GUKPT is coming up and with it a sense that i really should be playing this. My record at Luton has recently dropped off, namely the last 6 comps iv entered iv gone nowhere, but at least iv gone there fast. Not in my gameplan to grind. But its coming back to me. I forgot how to play against stations is all. And remembered that mixing it up against weak players isnt clever. Keep clever plays next to clever players, play abc tag against the plonkers of this world. I will be playing the £100 NLFO, the £200 NLFO W AO and ill prolly play the £500 if i can sell 50% of my action or run well in cash. I cannot justify spending £1000 on a single tournament where i have little/no edge on the field. Of course ill try a few satellites, live if i cant do any online, but the fact remains that this GUKPT comp is something that i "should" be playing. I know the players, they dont know me. How good can you get it?

Rome was pretty sweet, not especially overpriced and the sights were superb. Didnt think much of Italian hospitality tbh, lost count of the number of times i was talking to a member of staff who insisted on having about 3 other conversations at the same time.

Just ben watching the EPT 2005-2006 London leg 2 on Brave. OMG what a load of fish. Interesting hand if you have seen it between Jac Arama and Moneymaker who both flop the nuts with AJ on a KQ10 board after some preflop raising. After the action its pretty obv that they both have the nuts but neither of them has the foresight to wait and see if the river pairs on the end. Then you can move in and sometimes your opp passes. Watching Lalit my Luton % play is always fun, he is a class above but doesnt seem to be showing it lately. Mainly as he's playing less tournies and more cash @ the Vic i assume.

Had a handsome weekend of poker. Now playing $2/4 again full-time on 2 accounts and the nikinblinds blusq account is finally back in profit. Was a real grind but i put in a lot of hours and effort this weekend, its the only account where i could see myself playing really high in a year or so's time. Crypto big games are actually tough until you get to the mega high £25/£50, where from what im watching, playing like a nit would reap rewards.

Whenever i come back from a break i always play really well. Its such a simple game at heart, adorably so. A bet means i think i have the best hand, a raise says no i do, a large bet means i have a big hand or im bluffing. Hopefully ill play a little this weekend but im playing less and winning more of late which is how i like it. Too much can fry your brain. HAd 2 seperate instances this weekend where i was convinced i had the nuts on the river, went all-in and my cards changed last minute. Both on ipoker. One i rivered quads which turned into Q6o in the HH when i checked afterwards. And another where a guy with AQ won the pot v my A9 on a A2944 board. Pretty sure no mind-altering substances were involved.

Off to Newcastle on Thursday which will be really good fun. Mike @ BluSQ still hasnt told me how much im getting paid so i hope my updates last time were good enough for a little more l'argent :) It'll be fun whatever happens. Rootimg for Rick Trigg who i have 10% of and who definitely has the game to beat all the nits/donks that frequent these comps. Hopefully his newfound cash game interest will let him play deepstack poker even better. Should be a cracking weekend with lots of hearty drinking and all the Vegas stories being lumped around. Although i doubt we will ever get anything as good as the Bushy scandal of old. And no smoking means ill hopefully keep my lungs clean for the entire time, unless i get really drunk when i relapse.

Been experimenting lately with floating in position versus solid opponents. Hilarious results. Most of the time i bang when a scare card comes and they fold, but sometimes they find the hero inside themselves and it gets ugly. My fav outdraw in a long time lately. 78s i call a preflop tag itb, pushing ai into his top set with a gutshot and fd on the turn and dinging the nutnut. I got a bit of abuse for that one, but he folds all other hands............i think. Still, image is worth it sometimes. He led with top trips which is the only reason i figured he couldnt be that strong. eek.

After Newcastle i might go to Wales for a few days to visit Dave artist and do some bass fishing in the sunshine. Cant get hold of the bugger at the moment but will try and catch him, otherwise Dave call me.

In the meantime, the pidgeons are flocking and the harvest has begun, which means ill be taking the 12 bore and all the kit out into the fields for much of this week, blasting fresh produce from the sky to pot roast. I might even try some kebabs.

See yaaa all.

HO Hum, cant stop the rot. Having real variance issues lately, you know the session isnt going to be great when the 1st hand you play sees AA v AA and you get 4 flushed. Then lost a $500 pot with 6s7s on an 3h8s9s board, to AK all-in postflop. The guy then really wound me up with "i knew you had a flush draw", comments like this i find utterly infuriating and i proceeded to tilt the rest off. 1st day i have lost my full allowance in 3 weeks yesterday. Which puts me around £800 down for the week, and only £1400 up for the month. Im hoping i can turn it around quickly.

A recurring theme about short-handed games is position. It really is more important than the cards you hold. I have recently cut my re-raising hands preflop in half. Im only doing it with AK and the pairs down to 1010 when the stacks are deep. Its almost as if someone has let the cat out of the bag. For instance, when i re-raise with AQ preflop, im really representing a big pair. I then fire a big c-bet on the flop and am forced to commit another massive bet on the turn if i think he has a medium pp. Trouble is, a lot of call-wallies have started to do just that, keep calling. Im getting called so thin now that i think they need a rude awakening. So im off to play an 11-a-side match, come home and do some gardening (lol) and then have a power nap before starting my session at 8pm. Playing like a rock i should still get all the action in the world, thanks to playing like a moron for much of this week.

Bah, had a losing session last night that appears as if it might be continuing into today. Deffo need a break for an evening so ill prolly go for a few beers with the boys tomoz night and unwind. A few calling tendencies coming back lately, especially with luckboxes that improve on the turn. I hate these hidden cards that hurt you. Holding AK on an AK4 board i raised preflop and got called, i bet 2/3 the pot on the flop and he called. Im immediately thinking how can i max this guys AJ when the turn brings a J. We are playing relatively shallow so im not folding even if i think the guy has a gutshot so when he craises me ai i have to call for the extra $80. He has JJJ and im too fatigued to go into one of my famous tirades in the chat box. Someone on Crypto actually said the other noght that i take beats worse than anyone else. That might be true, i know i can go into one when a player puts a sick one one me. I hate the fact that its tapping the glass but sometimes needs must.

Doing some footings tomorrow which should be fun in this weather. Im secretly looking forward to it, cracking back workout. Oh, and iv been given a real treat from the missus, we are going to Rome for a few days in a week or so. One of the few European capitals that i have always wanted to visit so thats sweet. Mainly because i love roman logic and architecture. Such a shame their empire was fucked up, can you imagine how advanced a race we would be now? We definitely wouldnt be so naive as to keep polluting the atmosphere so heavily thats for sure.

I know iv always had a thing for conspiracy theories but the new terror threat is kind of ringing old bells. Anyone who's read Chomsk's Imperial Ambitions knows all about how terror talk is a great way of subdueing (sp?) a population. Gordon Browns recent arrival and Bush's Guantanamo heat anything to do with the extra publicity?