Struggling. All week has been a bit of a tough grind tbh, i nearly lost 2k in 2 hours on Monday night but couldnt bring myself to quit and clawed back. Still had an overall losing month for Feb, i guess im approx $2k down online but im unsure. Live is much worse, seeing as iv played 8 competitions and cashed in a big fat zero. Really frustrating at the mo. Last night @ Luton just summed up the week in dirty techincolor.

Its the £100 DCFO jobby and theres only like 40 runners, still £1800 for 1st which aint to be sniffed at so i focused on the tournament despite a seriously juicy cash game starting up. Im not sure why but i just felt soooooo in the zone, like perfect. Really its a week too soon as its the gukpt Vic next week and i really need a decent hit, iv got holidays and house bills coming up and need the dosh more than ever. So after iv knocked out 8 people (thats pretty impressive for me) im sitting with 75k. Another chap graham has 80k. We have between us 1/3 of the chips in play. So obv after i have been raising like a trojan solidly we get a KK v AA encounter that just was ugly. He raises utg to 6k (blinds 800/1600), i re-raise to 15k and he insta jams. I did think about it for a moment. But not long enough.

Im not into big laydowns but this is one of those moments where i could concievably have passed as a +EV judgement. He isnt the type of player to get involved without a huge hand. He opened utg. He wants to clash with the only other chap that can cripple him. He doesnt consider his options, he just jams. I have KK so likelihood of AK is small. He doesnt do this with QQ. Also, form my viewpoint, the table is super soft, im mean seriously weak. If i fold i still have 60k (more than twice the average) and i can use postflop play/ nicking to play small ball. Its always easy in hindsight but i should have folded them. Not just had an arghhhh kings baby moment.

Played a little tonight and got frustrated, the games are soo nitty at the mo im not enjoying my poker. So obv i played PLO instead. The games are so much softer and more enjoyable, so i guess ill be playing PLO for most of March in an effort to banish my demons and get my mojo back. Hopefully going skiing with some ppl soon but my passport replacement went a bit tits up. I used the post office check and send service and they said it was all fine and sent it off. But the other night i rememberedmy birth certificate is most deffo not in the letter, so il be getting a refund for £7 from the lackays in Potters bar. Check and send my arse. Sigh, this might be a real bad beat as ill have to fork out £150 and drive to Peterborough for a 1 day jobby b4 Barcelona. Fuck running bad.

Havent posted for a while which has kind of coincided with a longish breakeven stretch. The games just seem really tough at the moment. So few fish online and so many multitabling emotion-free nits and 20BB shortstacking bastards ruining the table dynamics. Players at 1/2 that used to give me a lot of trouble and were pretty dangerous have either disappeared or altered their game to get even tighter (ThsMnsNothing2me is now a total nit). Its pretty sad on ipoker mid/low stakes at the moment. The 2/4 tables on sat night (late) were just immeasurably tough, so few weak spots on any of the table. I cant be bothered to sit down with chirpybrox, Jfk + co anymore, quite simply they are far better than me. Problem is when these games get so uber nitty its impossible to extract. Ok, you nick a few blinds here and there but that hardly makes any $ does it? When the flop comes down you just dont get action unless they have you beat. Whats truly remarkable is just how quickly players can improve. Pouts of Kefalos was the biggest ifsh in the world about 4 months ago. Now he's killing the fucking games. And he gets more action than anyone, why? The guy has an attempt to steal blind stat of like 6 and gets 3bet more than me. bah.Im not entirely sure if he is just running super hot v me but hes up nearly 20BI on me. Thats unreal.

Really need to put in a lot more work into table selection and times that i play, think iv really been lacking patience lately and its not good. Dropped 2k this week but i recognise how poker works, its just depressing when i realise how small my edge really is. On a happier note i won a gukpt Vic ticket, at least i still feel miles ahead than 90% of the ppl i play live. Should also mention a little Luton cash session where i was just on pure song for about 2 hours. I mean iv never played so well ever. Called 2 bluffs from 2 different decent players with hands most would have mucked and just smashed it. So obv they move me to the main table where i got spanked a little bit, coulde of pots with Irish Dennis and a bad call on Edna lots me a bit. The fact i was sitting with Trevor (told you id mention you m8) and chatting opposed to playing proper poker didnt help.

So new week, new targets, mainly to get my ass down the gym and work more selective hours. Its not the quantity its the quality of the poker that akes the money. So im gonna try 3 hours a day at UK peak time just to get a bit of focus back. Also need to do some in depth PT analysis to pick up on regs hidden holes. Pokers getting tougher imo, but im not prepared to leave.

Arghhhh live donkaments where am i going wrong? The last 5 £200+ comps iv played iv made day 2 of. So frustrating when the wheels fall off after all the hard work and the bloody hotel bills. Played the £300 at Walsall the other night and ill give a proper tournament report. I havent done one in ages so ill give it a shot.

Starting table was perfect, no-one i knew and just how i like it. Decided to cultivate a rocky image that worked for a long time. 7500 starting chips and 45 minute clock was lovely. No hands early doors but i dont like big hands early anyway tbh. Made two big moves, once squeezing a loose UTG opener and his buddy who flat called at 100/200 when opener made it 800 and was called before i made it 2400 on the button w Q8s. Once that got through i won a decent pot against some numpty i was sat next to. I limp the SB w 88. Flop comes 24Q rainsbow, we check it round (4-way). Turn is a 6 putting 2 flush draws out there and i bet out. This chap calls. River is a Queen and its a case of value betting him if he's decent of checking if he thinks im a moron. I decided on the levels of thinking front this guy was pretty low so i induced, he jammed, which was form more than i though, but i called obv and he mucked. Busted flush draw it is then sir. From there i was on 15k and played a huge pot an awkward pot a moment later. UTG+3 who was a decent looseish player raised to 600 and i elected to flat call w 88 again. Folded to button who is a an elderly lag who jimjams for 7k. UTG+3 folds reluctantly and it just feels like he has AK. I call, he does and now im crusing. Next level really put me in contention after i got the chip lead in a set over set coup. UTG limps (AA OR KK OBV) and i limp w 55 along with 2 others. Flop comes 235 2 spades and UTG leads, i raise, big stack raises me and UTG folds. I go into the tank for a while because this guy is oozing supreme confidence and he could have A4 so easy. Problem is i have a big stack still and blinds are only 150/300, i swear (i dont know why lol im a nit) i realistically considered passing this guy was SOOOOOOO confident when i got him talking. Never folding though tbh and in it goes, poor chap has 33 and its 40k baby. Chip leader yumyum.

Next level goes by quietly till this young chap wins a few very big pots and suddenly has 25k. I fancied taking him on tbh as soon as a decent opportunity arose. He raised to 3k from middle position and somehow he gave away that he was scared shitless. Dont know how, i think it was the speed and stupidness with which he responded to a discussion but for a smart guy it didnt make sense. I elected to call w 56s and take it off him later. Flop came down JJ7 and he led out as i expected him too. The bet was larger than i thought though, a full 6k. I cant rep a Jack versus him but i know he's weak. Call. Turn comes a 7. Now he checks and the plan all along was to bet. Betting when it Double pairs the board doesnt make sense to a thinking player and i was worried he would CR with a lot of air. I decided that the river was a place where i would most likely value bet my likely holding (im repping a pair 88-1010)and succeed in my bluff. So we check the turn. River is a deuce. He has 15k ish back and bets out 8k. Fuck! I still fancied i might get him to pass as after all its a rainbow board but didnt trust my instincts. I pussied and he showed my Q2. LOL wp sir. After that i got super busy but lost 68 to AA on a 57Q board for a 20k pot then a 25k pot w AJ v A10 and KQ. Then Ian woodley came to the table and the image was destroyed. Whe he greets me with "hello fish, you been getting away with murder on this table all night eh, ill teach you" it kind of shatters ur rocky persona. Nice guy though and enjoyed the rest of the evening. Made one mistake with 88 (again lol) when Ian raised pre, i flatted and he checked to me on a 5710 board. I checked behind like a tool but the K came on the turn and he took it. Finished the day with 25k ish.

Day 2 was a different kettle of fish, with blinds at 1k/2k 100 running ante i wasnt going to hang about and moved in twice o the trot before finding KK. I gave it some speech about how with 30k it was too much to move all-in pre and made it 8k, some xhappy said all-in and he was ul to get QQ at the time. Back up to 60k. Down to 2 tables i really fancied it, but i walked into big hands on 2 steal attempts, Being shown AK and QQ.

Then came the most critical hand of the tournament where i should really have trusted my instincts. Blinds are 1500/3000 and the Q2 player (who was a v.good player who i now respect a lot) limped on my BB from MP. (he had been limping a lot with marginal hands). The SB completed (scottish, big chips, very tricky and aggro from what id heard). I have Ad7d and check from the BB. Flop comes A102 rainbow. I lead out for 6.5k into 10k. Middle pos (MP) calls now Scotty raises to 20k. I smell a fucking great rat. I went in the tank for longer than ive ever thought about a hand. He doesnt know m8boy but guess presumes he isnt strong cos he didnt raise pre. He knows i fold all but 2 pair. And i knew it, but was worried about Joe (Q2) chap. The problem iv got is i know scotty is making a move. He is repping precisely 102. 3 of the aces are out im sure of it, with me and MP holding them, he probably had me slightly beat w A9/AJ. He doesnt play a set so fast on raised flop here with all the information he has. He probably slowplays A10 too in the immensely unlikely event he has the case ace. I ended up being too worried that MP had a bigger ace than me when fundamentally it doesnt matter. He cannot call a check raise and a push with anything less than A10. That mistake cost me dear. 2 more failed steal and we were into ram and jam territory. I wound 89 and with blinds @ 2k/4k/200A and only 35k i have a good argument for jamming, although maybe i should have paid more attention when Mr.Spenish Rock leant forward and started counting his chips. Insta called once, then again by a shorty lol. Up against AA and 55 and the flop brought a lot of hope, the 107 doorcards being super sexy. Sadly i bricked out but the damage was done earlier when i should have gone with it. Never mind. I spoke to Scotty later and he still tells me he had a set of 2's, even though someone i know saw his hand as he showed his mate (sitting behind him) and reliably informs me he had A4. Damn.
So close, no cigar.

Long time no post.

Won the 10k challenge which was nice. Certainly helped boost a lacklustre couple of weeks. Also its about the first decent live thing iv won for a while, certainly the first with a photographer so im patting myself on the back bigtime.

Table makeup looked mainly new school with a couple of old school pro's. No-one knew me so i knew i would be able to get away with a lot of bs before someone clocked it.
Table was ideal for me tbh with no-one willing to try and dominate the early running which let me get a sweet image. The one player who had a v good read on me, which equates to v dangerous, i knocked out with a rivered A10 v AQ. Once he was out the way it was a case of getting into peoples heads quickly. I had Kevin Lovejoy to my right praise the lord (how he can still speak after the Brighton "incident" ill never know) and he obv recognised this as we didnt really tangle at all in the early stages. I know for a fact i was all-in twice as many times as anyone else, but only once for my tournament life. That tells its own story. On the 4man bubble i made a big move against who i percieved to be the player most worried about the £500, the SnG "specialist" Ian, who folded AQ to my 46s. Yumm. 3-handed knocked out golden balls (forgot his name already, sorry m8) with QQ v J10 where i know i wouldnt have got action on my reshove had he thought me tight.

HU it was interesting, i had taken 3 shots at Dave during the tournament, with AQ v A5, K9 v QQ, and K2 v AK and was beginning to think it wasnt gonna happen. I still had a 2/1 chip lead so had another crack at it w 105s v his reshove w AK and finally dusted him.

Havent played on ipoker for nearly a week now and getting serious withdrawal symptoms. However i know a break is what i need right now. Also coincides with a dirtload of work im doing and the Walsall GUKPT thingy, which i probably wont be playing. Ill be playing the £300er tonight but dont get to see the missus too often atm so will see her on the weekend. Also, Walsall aint the prettiest town in the world tbh is it? Im sure there will be better opportunities to spend my money later in the year.

Went to our first house viewings on the weekend. Seen a nice little 2bed cottage in Hertford that could be converted into a 3bedder. If we could get it (and thats a huge if) id be over the moon as its an ideal 1st home. Needs a complete refurb too which means we cant go for broke on the bidding war but hell, hope we get it. Id like something to do whilst waiting for aces :)

Sigh. Thats how i feel atm. Dropped 4k this week and played well throughout. So fucking frustrating when ppl play so shit and variance comes up and says FU player. Got fed up tonight when i lost 5 $600 pots in the space of 5 minutes after staging a good comeback on the week. Game can beat you up so hard at times and anyone who has never run bad just hasnt played enough hands imo. The number of times today ppl cold called my 3bets with junk and got smacked was unreal. Or the old 4 limpers, i make it 40 w QQ and some tard flops top 2 w 89s on a 9 high board and we get it in. Just so laughably bad some of these ppl are. Limp calling 1/5 of their stack pre. Just lol. Please turn Doom switch off Pokah. Apologies to anyone i was rude to at the tables. I know i gave some torrid abuse to a few ppl and no-one deserves it at the poker table, except maybe the French. Oh and the Italians.


Gonna have a break till next week sometime as my confidence has gone, when you know that the guy is gonna hit his out and you find urself almost willing it to not come its not good for your head. Cant be bothered to whine anymore, most of you know the score when it comes to variance and poker, you just have to embrace it and wait for the upswing. Pleased with how my game is generally atm, iv tightened up a little positionally and i think its helped me manoevre (sp?) postflop better. Also finding daytime games soft atm in terms of player ability, although there are less good tables owing to reduced traffic.


Gonna go footy tomoz and Luton in the afternoon. Want to get a bit of live game back in my life as it rekindles that passion which was the reason i fell in love with poker in the 1st place. Might play some DC if i feel ok, feel i should be improving my all-round game, not just 2card bluffbrag/nutpeddle depending on your persuasion.

On the plus side i got a call from Jamie telling me i successfully won the 10k challenge holdem raked hands seat. This is about the only good thing to come out of a torrid week so hopefully ill be able to win it on Thursday and give myself a confidence boost. Also nice that i can kinda show my worth to BlueSQ in a highlighted way. Also thinking of a decent website name. Anyone with a decent suggestion let me know..... :)