Aug 3rd - £20 NL Hold'Em - Cavendish Club (Belfast)

Well after last weeks 'buy-in fest' I was hoping to get through the evening with a little less in the way of activity on that front. In the end I just ended up having a 'top-up' so was in for only £40!

Much less in the way of playable hands than last week. I think I scored more 7-2 o/s kind of hands than I've seen in a long time over the course of the evening. My BEST hand throughout tonights play was 7-7 which I got twice. More on one of those hands in a moment!

At the break and with the 4k add on I had 8.5k. With three hands to go before the break I had 8k already and was dealt A-J. In LP I raised to 2K and was called by the BB. Flop was Ac-7d-6d and I went all-in for my last 6k. 'Call', came the BB's voice and he flipped Ad-3d. I was still miles ahead but when the Kd fell on the turn I was drawing dead and was down to 1.3k.

The last hand before the break and I went all-in. I had 10c-6d! Luckily I get two callers which WEREN'T the blinds so with 4.5k in the pot for me the flop comes 4-7-5-J-3 and I get a raggity straight!

Top up of 4k for £20 followed and off we went!

My chip stack increased to 15k when I got dealt A-K on the button. With blinds at 600/1200 I raised to 3k and got two callers, the SB & the BB. The flop came J-J-2 and once the blinds had checked I bet out 5000. I get one caller, which in situations like this, can only mean one thing...he had the Jack.

Luckily for me no Ace or King fell on the turn or river to test my stack any further so as I had position I checked the turn but didn't bother calling the 'all-in' bet that came after the river card had been dealt! Mind you that knocked a hole in my stack from which I couldn't recover!

With blinds at 1000/2000 and around 7K in chips I called an 'all-in' bet from across the table with a holding of 7c-7h. My opponent flipped 10-10 and I was looking buried. With three hearts on board though, and just the river card to come, I had chances (12 to be exact) but the 2d fell on the river and I was on my way back to my B&B before you could say 'Bugger!'.

I finished 15th out of 36. Mind you it only cost me £40 so I can't moan too much!!

36 Entries - 16th - Win $0 - Loss $70 (£40) - Acc. Total -$264.11