Yummy. Really back in the zone atm and happy with my game. Been posting a few hands here and there for feedback but the problem is i get the same type of people responding all the time. Either know it all's or plain insults. I dont particularly care about the outcome of the hand, i just like other people's opinions on whether a certain line could be improved upon. I have too big an ego to accept someone elses viewpoint most of the time. Also, they tend to view the hands from a great distance and in a vacuum even the worst players can play a hand great at times.

Anyway, heres 2 hands for all the lovers and haters out there. Ill give an analysis on Sunday as to why i did what i did but in the meantime feel free to comment on the action. Hopefully you will learn something and i will too.

Hand 1.

Villain has been with me for an hour. Just seen me lose a biggish pot. Appears relatively weak/passive open limping and folding to raises and cbets.
GAME #770861308: Texas Hold'em NL $2.00/$4.00 2007-12-23 22:06:39
Table Ancona
Seat 1: kidology ($175.00 in chips)
Seat 3: nikinblinds ($363.07 in chips)
Seat 5: basil979 ($458.20 in chips)
Seat 6: kokon ($145.20 in chips) DEALER
Seat 8: noiqhamster ($433.80 in chips)
Seat 10: bigbert1 ($438.80 in chips)
noiqhamster: Post SB $2.00
bigbert1: Post BB $4.00

Holecards:
Dealt to nikinblinds [ S8 S6 ]
FOLD kidology
nikinblinds : Raise $14.00
basil979: Call $14.00
FOLD kokon
FOLD noiqhamster
FOLD bigbert1

Flop:
[ D4 HQ S10 ]
nikinblinds : Bet $22.00
basil979: Call $22.00

Turn:
[ S7 ]
nikinblinds : Check
basil979: Bet $52.00
nikinblinds : Raise $150.00
basil979: Call $98.00

River:
[ D3 ]
nikinblinds : Allin $177.07


Hand 2.

Villain is fairly loose. Havent really tangled with him before but have been fairly abc whilst he has been at the table. I bought in with 50BB incase ur wondering. Not sure about all the preflop 3bet, probably should have been a little bigger. Thought he would give up most tens but really put him on a draw obv not.

GAME #768840873: Texas Hold'em NL $2.00/$4.00 2007-12-22 08:00:13
Table Lucerne
Seat 1: Ttalismann ($314.30 in chips)
Seat 3: ExecutionStyle ($524.50 in chips)
Seat 5: FooSH ($415.90 in chips)
Seat 6: fugeddaboutit ($522.10 in chips) DEALER
Seat 8: nikinblinds ($244.68 in chips)
Seat 10: sicknewlife ($466.40 in chips)
nikinblinds: Post SB $2.00
sicknewlife: Post BB $4.00

Holecards:
Dealt to FooSH [ D10 D8 ]
Dealt to nikinblinds [ CJ SA ]
FOLD Ttalismann
FOLD ExecutionStyle
FooSH : Raise $14.00
FOLD fugeddaboutit
nikinblinds: Raise $35.00
FOLD sicknewlife
FooSH : Call $23.00

Flop:
[ D3 H7 H10 ]
nikinblinds: Bet $64.00
FooSH : Call $64.00

Turn:
[ C3 ]
nikinblinds: Allin $143.68
FooSH : Call $143.68

River:
[ C8 ]

SUMMARY:
Total pot $490.36 Rake $3.00
FooSH : wins $490.36




Hand 3. This what its all about, getting the action you deserve for being out of line all the time. Helps that villain played his hand this badly, truly shocking stackoff.

GAME #768929894: Texas Hold'em NL $2.00/$4.00 2007-12-22 11:05:57
Table Four Roads
Seat 1: V905612 ($389.70 in chips)
Seat 6: noiqhamster ($336.00 in chips)
Seat 8: oxioxio ($488.40 in chips) DEALER
Seat 10: nikinblinds ($473.80 in chips)
nikinblinds: Post SB $2.00
V905612: Post BB $4.00

Holecards:
Dealt to oxioxio [ CQ HA ]
Dealt to nikinblinds [ CJ HJ ]
FOLD noiqhamster
oxioxio : Raise $16.00
nikinblinds: Raise $42.00
FOLD V905612
oxioxio : Call $28.00

Flop:
[ HQ S8 DJ ]
nikinblinds: Bet $68.00
oxioxio : Raise $152.00
nikinblinds: Allin $361.80
oxioxio : Call $277.80

Turn:
[ S10 ]

River:
[ D2 ]

SUMMARY:
Total pot $949.60 Rake $2.00
nikinblinds: wins $949.60

So frustrating, made a huge post on Xmas eve and had bloody blogger go down on me as i punched publish. Good job really as it was long-winded and pretty appalling (nothing new there i hear you chuckle) but i was still fuming. Round 2.

1stly happy Xmas to all the bloggers, players, colleagues, donkeys and sharks who know me. Been a very interesting year for sure. Had a cracking Xmas, spent with Zan and her family, just found out about Wii bowling, woop woop. Got some cracking little prezzies, esp happy about my Bose headphones :) In all feel really lucky and spoilt about how life is right now, this christmas was the best.

Sorry for lack of updates lately, been pretty busy on the poker front, putting in substantial hours for the BlueSQ account. 4 long long sessions last week took their toll on me with little time spent with the family and freinds, far less than i should have.

Played a lot of 1/2 and 2/4NL over the last week, even did a couple of 16tabling .50/1 sessions to pass the time when the films/footie games were on. Got poker tracker up and running and have changed a lot of the aspects of my game in the hope of plugging a few leaks. Notably now, when i think im beat but cant see how or what he could have called with. In the past i was a real sucker for the curiosity call and the pot odds call, lately i have been happy to accept that when im beat im beat and im not too bothered about how we got there. It has certainly provoked a lot of thought which im now addressing with long thinking sessions for a couple of hours before and after big sessions. I find it cools my brain off and reinforces beliefs. Standard lines and generic plays are what im used to, but im not happy with where thats taking me and i feel happier (and play better) when i trust myself to do whats right for me in a hand. We should all try to play to our specific strengths and our opponents weaknesses and we sometimes lose that in the sea of strategy advice out there. Holdem feels good atm. PLO on the other hand feels pretty much disgusting. Im not really happy about the luck factor involved tbh but i guess thats just the nit in me coming out. Anyway, running very bad even with the Xmas influx of 2/4 muppets.


I ran pretty average overall during the period in 6MNLH, losing 5 pots over $1k in 2 hours on Sat night wiped out profit for the week, but i was in a good mood and pretty settled so played through it and logged a decent score after being in a small hole. I can only usually do this when im playing a lot and hungry, normally (sadly) i tilt and donk off a bit more when things are not going quite so well, but im working on that. Breaks every hour really help. I need to play a huge amount to "warm-up" and get in the zone which is quite funny. Seriously i need 500 hands before i feel ok. I dont think i could ever play live cash poker 9-handed again. Which is a good thing.

Gonna do another post in a couple of days but just wanted to quickly say a few thankyous for the year, in real Oscar-esque (sp?) style. Firstly, thanks for the BlueSq team (well Pete, Butlin and the main man Jamie) really appreciate all your time and effort putting up with my whining and general degenerate nature. Thanks also to Alun Bowden/Paul Cheung and the Inside poker Mag who are really on the way up in terms of quantity and are probably now the leading magazine in terms of strategy, cheers for putting up with my late submissions. Special thanks to my missus and mum for looking after me and caring for my best interests, even when im in uber-blinkered mode. Also like to thanks all my m8's in the poker community especially the Luton lads (you know who you are) and the blondepoker community who always give honest and cripplingly critical advice and opinion. Thanks also to the blogging community, especially those of you who occasionally comment, but mostly those of you that continue to update. Some cracking reads out there now which is probably why i never get to actually play any poker anymore! Keep up the fine work.

Ok im writing this on a relic of a computer and the mouse is doing my nut in so i shall leave yall with a Merry Xmas and a HAppy new year line. Decent post coming soon.

Jokes. Ok i played a little tonight. I said i wouldnt but just felt really good so had a pop. Got AcuHUD back up and running, forgot how useful it is for re-steals etc. Very quiet on the tables this week. Played a lot of 0.50/1 and look at this for a cracker. Guy was quite obv drunk and going on one in the chat box. Prolly the only donkey of the night but standard reward lol. Even SB played like a tool.

GAME #766064795: Texas Hold'em NL $0.50/$1.00 2007-12-19 23:26:55
Table Rosendal
Seat 5: nikinblinds ($139.66 in chips) DEALER
Seat 6: KatandCot ($27.35 in chips)
Seat 8: Bartersaasae ($223.15 in chips)
KatandCot: Post SB $0.50
Bartersaasae: Post BB $1.00
*** HOLE CARDS ***
Dealt to KatandCot [DQ CA]
Dealt to Bartersaasae [DK C3]
Dealt to nikinblinds [SQ CQ]
nikinblinds: Call $1.00
KatandCot: Call $0.50
Bartersaasae: Allin $222.15
nikinblinds: Allin $138.66
KatandCot: Allin $26.35
*** FLOP *** [C8 CK C4]
*** TURN *** [S3]
*** RIVER *** [S7]
*** SUMMARY ***
Total pot $388.16 Rake $2.00
Bartersaasae: wins $388.16

Meh. Playing badly and getting the corresponding results. Gonna take a break for a few days and sort out the boring stuff. Send some invoices out and sort out some xmas stuff, get my fat ass down the gym and sort my car out. Life stuff. Will play again but no sooner than Friday night. Deffo need to get my head clear and refocus my efforts. Big congrats to M3 for winning the Luton HU comp. I got a pass through the 1st round (they said the other guy didnt turn up but i know i was secretly seeded) and then had a very easy second round. Third round i got screwed with 24. I raise preflop and Brian Staines (ex Luton FC legend) showed me how people play poker when they have brains that down work properly. Flop comes 24A he checks, i bet, he calls. Turn comes a 7. I bet big, he pauses then calls. River comes a Q and he checks to me. I decide i have to V bet here and he calls with Q2. Pi55 off. Then down to 4k @ 200/400 and out of the game really. After that i just went all-in a lot until he got me in a hand where i decided to see a flop and he flopped a str8.

A reasonable weekend. So far. Friday night was good but quite slow, this afternoon early evening was good. So good infact that i was a little silly and 16-tabled .50/1 for a while. People tell me its not poker and its not "morally right". Sod them. Especially on a saturday night, i really cannot be arsed with thinking poker and would rather have the screen running and clocking up money whilst watching Matt from Strictly come dancing cry his way to victory.

Ran pretty well for a while before someone pulled the plug. All changed in 1 relatively deep hand. I 3-bet fairly tight guy pre with KK. Guy posts on 2+2 and is generally too fancy, uses really weird lines and odd river craises. He flats and it comes A46 2 hearts. I lead he calls. Turn pairs the Ace which effectively turns my hand into the nuts in a 3-bet pre pot and also completes a heart flush draw. I check he overbet shoves for 150BB. I fold here (like a nit) a high % of the time v an unknown but somethign smelt wrong, i felt i could well be being floated on that flop so end up finding the hero. He has QQ and dings a Q on river. That tilted me a fair bit, but not enough for me to not log a decent win. I like this small stakes stuff lol.

Im noticing that a lag style doesnt get enough players to play streets with me, which is where they make the most mistakes. Frankly a slug could be taught preflop hand selection but its street play where these guppies dont have an idea. So iv started playing like an old timer a bit lately. Check raising sets on the turn, check raising my big hands on the river, just generally being even more of a nit. But its working ok. Leading out and praying the preflop raiser really has a hand just doesnt make as much as letting them 3-barrel or catch a pair on the turn. So its grandad stylee for the next week or so, should please the regs. Another little trick iv noticed (more at 1/2,2/4) is that flatting with big made hands on draw heavy flops can totally screw up your opponents ability to polarise your range. Obv opponent has to be relatively solid/abc so you are sure of his hand (3-bet pots pre from tight raisers is where it works well) so that you dont give free cards to lagtards but it does ensure you get a lot more of his stack in on the turn when he fires big again to push you off your draw.

Got an interesting one tomorrow. Firstly its footy for the 1st time in two weeks, hoping fitness will be good. Secondly no cigarette for 2 weeks now. Yipee keep it up. Thirdly its a 30k HU 128 runner comp @ the Luton G where ill be doing my damndest to win the 10k 1st prize. Or organise a big chop. I could use the money. No really this should be a great comp as iv seen the structure and there are only 3 or 4 players in Luton i think are better than me (not big headed, just truthful) so lets hope i go deep (n.b can you go deep in these comps?). Ok its 4.20am and iv just decided to turn the tables off for another Saturday night, ill let the drunks live.

Warning long post. Get it overlapped by some work incase your boss catches you. So my most hectic week of poker in 2007 is over and i am reasonably happy with my progress.

Started out in the 110 runner £200NL event. I have a new style in these kind of comps that basically goes after avery easy chip on the table from the moment the whistle goes off. Just playing position and almost any 2 cards knowing that i can play small-ball against most average opponents better than they can and recognising +EV situations when i find them. Never playing scared poker is the key.

So in the opening orbit iv moved from 5k starting to 8k then slow down a bit. Just getting ready to attack again when an interesting hand crops up which made me feel a little ill. 3 limpers ahead an i limp on the button with 7h8h. Jim McBride makes a big raise from the BB and all 3 limpers call. 1 guy had a big big stack as did Jim so i decided on taking a punt. Flop comes down 9c10hJc. Jim now bets 1k into 1.3k. Mateyboy (who looked crazy) goes ai for 8k. Action on me. I passed without a huge amount of thought and discussed the hand afterwards. Basically i dont want to risk my comp life there when im so happy picking up small pots little and often. Turns out Jim had AQ and mateyboy had 1010 which scooped after Jim passed. So i keep going nice and slowly knocking out the odd chap here and there when i get moved to a sickening spot 3 tables out. I am in the top 5 chip stacks and get moved to the right of Lloyd who has millions. I got squeezed twice and had one unusual hand. Rock with ave chips raises from the cutoff and i have JJ. I re-raise and Lloyd sets me all-in. Marvellous. Rock passes. I have 50kish and blinds are 600/1200. I elect to pass and im sure he had AK. The table screws down towards the end of the night as i start to catch a nasty chill from an AC unit above my head. Luckly this sparks some life into me and i go on a rampage before Lloyd snaps me again and i lose an AQv KK encounter to a medium stack. 12 players return for day 2.

That night i realise im pretty ill with ManFlu and go through the motions. Realise im a bit of a pansy. Return next day to play 7 hands. @ 800/1600 SB moves ai on me for 27k and i find KK. :). Not to be though as he spikes an ace and i dont get back in it. Annoyed as the comp only had rocks left in it and i would have fancied to outpoker most of them. Apart from Terry Mason who is golden and my Nemesis.

Not planning to play the 400NL as feel so rank but get put in by a couple of deluded regs who think im gods gift (cheers Alun/Nav) and get gifted the most fantastic starting table in the world. Only 1 other player there in the form of Vinni but we stay out of each others way for the most part (esp after i show him how good i suckout). The first 4 hours of this comp was the best tournament poker i have played. After my 1st multiway bluff got through v a young kid who deffo had my Q high beaten on the river my confidence was high enough to captain the table. Ian Woodley helped the table by letting me talk a load of shite and keep everyone amused whilst robbing every orphan pot in the world. Went from 5k to 20k in the first two levels. Then had Santa play me a visit when i raise with JJ from the button and the BB (with equal stack) min re-raises me. I call praying he has AA. Flop comes KJ4 and he goes all-in. I give him a token thought (for etiquetee) and then he shows A9 for, erm, no pair no draw. 40k baby. Nick a bit more an then limp in mid position with 3h4h. Damon D'Cruz raises pre with a 14k stack and im contemplating a fold as i like Damon a lot and dont want to bust him (only preson in Luton i dont always want to destroy) but then i kick myself and stop fannying about. I have implied odds, i know his game, i know his betting patterns, i know he checks behind when he misses AK. Flop comes 3c5h6h. Just a little draw for me then. I cr him ai and he has AA. Ian Woodley gives me some speech, i tell him to keep playing like a rock its worked well all year. =) 60k.

Then move table and its not so much fun. Dave Courtney/Jeff BuffenBarger, Woodley and some good Asian kid all have same stack as me. I lose about 20k on small mistakes, plus Dave Courtney nearly gets all my chips when he plays a hand so weird i thought it was a bluff. Table breaks and i think im getting a nice one but no its onto a very strong table. Jim McShane, Greek Jack, Jeff, Asian guy,Des Jonas, Other random pro, not liking this table so much.

Decide i need a good image build if im going to get away with murded when we close in on the final table bubble so begin to selectively rock up. Lose a few more k before playing a big pot against Jeff. He raise my BB relatively smallish and i have KsQs. Fancy playing this so have a look. Comes 2 low spades 9high and after i check he just moves in. Lol. These septics need some finesse. I decide this is a pretty good oppo and make the call getting pretty appalling odds. He flips KQ too. LOL. How good do i run. So he has no pair no draw and i am cold free-rolling the flush draw. Doesnt materialise and the nutter survives. I return along with 14 others for day 2.

Day 2 and im pretty well dead. This flu is a nasty bugger but Nina the cardroom mgr gives me plenty of paracetamol which was nice of her. I decide to open up now and target the players playing excessively tight abc poker. Im trying to play a big pot against Des or Greek Jack as i think thats where my leverage is. They have both been pretty observant about my tightness. So with 38k i open UTG+1 with A10o (8handed table). All fold to GJ who calls the extra 4k @ 1k/2k/100A. Flop comes 3d8sKd. He leads out for 8k into 13k and looks at me like he's gonna piss himself. He just lost a big pot to Jim McShane who called in the BB with 910. Im thinking he has an 8 here. He doesnt have AK, KQ or KJ i think he check raises me with. This look like a weak protective bet. I go into the tank because the stacks are awkward. If i push 32k more into 21k it looks pretty weak but i cant see less of a bet moving him off his hand. I study him for a while to make sure my read is pretty right and decide he deffo either has a flush draw or an 8, flush draw less likely as he didnt check his cards again before firing. Ok i think, this has to have a 65% chance of working which is plenty, he is tight, views me as tight and has no hand. But we dont play scared poker baby, we go with our gut and live with it. All you can eat. What happened next was my own fault. I settle down hand on chin, looking forward, glancing this way for a mo, then that for a while. HE gets his chips together and starts clanging the table, shit he's gonna call my senses start telling me, but deep down i know its a move and he wants me to give off something. So im pretty confident he's gonna fold and just want to seal the deal, so i open my mouth. Moron. Worst move in poker. I cannot try and get this inane babble past a real player and he duly looks me up with 810. Well played sir, i felt humbled. But oddly on the drive home i felt good, not only could i go to sleep but i went out trying what i thought would work at the right time. Just a shame it didnt.

To finish off the week i played the ecoop ME. 1000 runners $1000 buyin, 200k for 1st. 1 time baby. Played ok fromt he get go, manily because my opposition was so bad. Was hilarious watching them overbet buhe preflop then whine when they got outdrawn. The stacks were so deep compared to the blind that it was fun for a while. I went here and there for a while before finally winning with AK v 88 in a button/blind tangle then lost a 30k pot when the average was 30k with 66 on the button. I raise to 6k with blinds @ 750/1500 telling the blinds im commited as they both only have 15k and have been very active. The SB then has a moment of inspired brilliance and decided with 150 players left he wants to risk his tournament life with Q10o and jams for 8k more. I snap call this monkey, i thought i might win another race but it wasnt to be. I went out shortly after pushing K4 from the SB into the BB's A6 for 1/2 his stack. Nice call hero. Finished 148/994.

So at the end of the week i made two day two's and came close to life changing money once but didnt get there. I did however play some patches of faultless poker that im truly proud of, even if it ultimately wasnt rewarded financially.

Iv added a couple of blogs as the sharp-eyed amongst you will have noticed. Longypoker should be a cracking little read. Longy is a member of blondepoker and from reading his hand analysis thoughts knows the game pretty well. He's only started linking and whored me out to say LONGY RULES!!!

Jim 77Dave McShane is one of the best all-round poker players in Luton. The golden boy for much of 2007 he has a tournament record in the local comps that speaks for itself but he makes most of his mulah creaming the cash. He has decided to move to Vegas to start a family with his fiancee and has started a blog to let his mates follow. Best of luck to the man.

Bazclef is another young pro trying to kill the SSNL and from what i saw the other night appears to have the right attitude. I still looked him up with 88 on a JQ663 board though (had to show him who's boss) but gl to him and iv linked you up.

Other than that there is a new shiny banner on the top of my blog. I was approached by the MD of this new British company that wanted to give me a few quid. I said stuff the money ill put it up and he said thanks. I get no money for this but its always good to support the growing uk poker economy and i wish all the best to this co.

Ok its 4.30pm and time i got to work. Xmas is expensive. I cant be arsed to proof-0read it so sod it if you struggle to understand. Cheers, Over and out.

Big Week. Thsi week could be the diffence between a bad 4th quarter and a decent one. One time please.


Online cash is going well at lower stakes but pretty poorly higher. Lost a chunky pot at 2/4 the other night quite deep with KK v AA. I have lost that ability i once had of knowing when to fold KK preflop but we were 5 handed and in the blinds im not sure i can pass for 150BB.

Online tournies been reasonably successful this week. Mainly using them to work on a few new ideas iv got that hopefully ill translate to live events. They are pretty valuable ideas tbh but effectively they come down to making lots of specific long-ball plays against average/good opponents a lot of the time almost regardless of hole card holdings. Played the 10k deepstack a couple of times to mimic the same situations and had some interesting results. Always comes down to the fact that your opponent must be good enough to pass if you are to bluff them. When it says they are French on ipoker, for christs sake do not even cbet.

Played the 350k on ipoker the other night also. Started with riverdave aka Mr. Dave Penley playing me like an absolute schoolboy and inducing a bluff with AK on a K56 with 2 heart board when the turn brought the 4 and the river the heart. Did 1/2 my stack on the second hand. I only realised after the hand (and he'd posted on blonde) that he knew who i was aswell. Oops. I then flopped quads with AA and got semi-paid and then had one of those dream hands that just look so sexy when you get them.

AA again after a raise and a call preflop. Im on the button, make a squeezy-sized raise, both call. Flop A92 rainbow. Check/check ok let them catch up a bit, not even the Italians keep 34 to a re-raise preflop right? Turn Q putting a flush draw out and its fireworks time. Opener bets, matey flats, i raise, opener folds, matey calls quickly. So im 70% he has J10 or 30% QQ,99,22 here right? River comes the 8 hearts. O sod offf!!!!!!!! He bets a small amount and im going into an overthinking mode and equity ranges against this guy, call or raise? I shove and he snap calls QQ. Sry bud.

So im up to (effective) 7.5k when blinds go crapshooty in a hurry. 450 left and button (20k solid, shown down little, positional raises) raises to 1600 @ 300/600 and SB (loose, flop happy) flats. Im in the BB with J4s and its thinky thinky time. 1600+1600 +900= 4200 in pot already. Im trying to think of reason not to play this hand here. So i jim jam for 7.5k more into a 4200 pot and button dwells for 0.21 secs before heartbeat calling with A8. AAx flop and im beginning to think my BB moves are costing me dear this year. Its the postion that gets the least re-raise respect as it is and then i compound it as my stack looks like a squeeze stack too. Donkey martin. Was a risky (but good) call from him and i hope i can play the guy again sometimes soon.

Went to the GUKPT and had a whale of a time. There's a hardcore group of poker players that really have a good time, i think the Welsh boys pretty well hold all the records wrt this. Dan, Robbie and their mate were doing the Vodka Luge's like they were going out of fashion. Was hilarious. Especially when one of the dealers got banned from doing anymore. After the party (where Flushy won worst dressed poker player..LOL) some chap took us to a club that he said was a cracker. Well it certainly was a "crack"er (sorry, im feeling purile) and after brushing past two topless blokes led me rapidly to the conclusion this was a gay bar. Still we had a good laugh, especially me and Butlin who got pretty drunk and got into the Gay VIP area where he was chatting up some bloke that looked like LeChifre from Casino Royale. LOL.

Luton comps this week kicking off with the 200FO and 400Fo. Then the ME, where im selling 50% of myself and then back home on Sunday for the Ecoop final. Please 1 time let me run super good this week.

Off to sleep now (its 10.30am) so im well rested for the evenings war and a lesson in chip accumulation that only Danny Sampson could rival in the G.

What a week. I love weeks like this, so absolutely rammed with stuff that you dont get a chance to think straight. Monday and Tuesday were spent shooting. Monday 7 guns and a team of beaters and pickers up went out to shoot some woodcock and a few fesseys on Mr.Pains nice spot of woodland in South Mimms. Was a cracking day, i gave my gun to my old man who doesnt get a chance to shoot much. In return he gave me the worst behaved spaniel on the planet. The thing must be bloody deaf. I let her off on the 1st drive and she proceeded to put up every pheasant in the 200 acre wood. We saw her again at lunchtime. The little cow lol, but you got to love her. We saw a helluva lot of game, in particular the woodcock. He has a large(ish) resident population but the few hard frosts must have brought in a lot of the Scandinavian birds as we saw about 70 over the day. Really we could have used a few more guns, including a few who could shoot straight. Cartridges fired to birds collected ratio was something like 9-1. Shocking. The few Pheasants we saw flew like absolute rockets, although unusually we only saw cock's the whole day.

Lunch was fantastic, a cracking homemade game pie with pickle. The pie contained more species than an Attenborough documentary, with Pheasant, Partridge, Pidgeon, Duck, Venison, Hare and Woodcock present. Delicious. The final bag totalled 15, which was less than expected but every bird was a cracker. A visiting German gun bagged his 1st woodcock which was a great result, a high jinking bird through the pines being dropped with the second barrel.

Afterwards we went to the pub for a nice spot of dinner. Venison stew made with home-shot Muntjac. Stunning. Obv after that we had a monster sesh. I wasnt sure if id be on form having not drunk for a few weeks but we gave the pub a hammering from 4pm to 2am and then more back at Tom's. Ended up sleeping with Tom and his dog and woke with a nasty rash.....on my feet. Blooody mut.

Rest of the week v been busy testing loads of different software. Poker Tracker is still my fave but Poker Academy is a cracking little piece of kit. Still havent tested a couple more so will get all my (meagre) findings out in a couple of months. On the poker front iv been playing a lot more 2/4 plo which im finding softer than any other game on the net, Touch wood its not just a sweet run, admittedly iv been on the good end of a couple of big coolers. Also been playing a bit of small stakes NLHE (.50/1) and having a lot more fun. Not getting as stressed about always clocking a win and getting annoyed about getting the hole for the week. Im not convinced im good enough to beat good poker players on multiple tables all week long. So iv gone back to basics and been findin the softer little games and the short simple session that i find fun and profitable. I think i can comfortably earn more @ .50/1 than 1/2 same no. of table same hours. Maybe its just my head is lighter when im playing. But touch wood i havent had a losing session this week. And if i can comfortably win 10 buyins a day ill be happy. Hell if that could equate to a yearly wage id be extatic (sp? but cant be arsed to look up). £90k a year is where id like to be in a year or two's time from online cash. Plus other fingers in other pies. The live scene has taken a back seat this week, im desperately trying to stop smoking and iv recently found i always smoke when playing poker and its not good. The lungs dont appreciate it on Sunday morning.

Looking forward to the Xmas cracker and the ecoop next week. What a bugger that they clash :(

DTD has opened and im going to pop down in a short time to try out the 6max cash tables. They should be a giggle. Iv been hearing great things about the place and ill prolly take Antony and Mo from Luton with me and set the 6-max tables on fire while propping up the bar.

So Luton Xmas cracker, please 1 time let me go deep in a big live event and round off a pretty average year in terms of expectation with a bonus holiday, damn the Maldives look good.