Dec 27th - $200+$40 NL Hold'Em - Seminole Hard Rock Casino (Tampa)

Despite the biggest cash games being only $2/$4 in size (I inadvertantly quoted $1/$2 as being the biggest games in my last posting) the place was packed this Tuesday. Americans seem to love holidays just as much as we do and where better a place to spend them than in the only casino for miles around.

The Hard Rock Casino in Tampa is really just a glorified slot machine emporium with poker added in as a side line. No Blackjack or Roulette or 'Las Vegas' type table games of any description exist, which is probably just as well for the likes of me.

The slotties are all 'rigged' in that the minimum amount you can bet is generally around a $ a spin. Even the 5c machines have a minimum bets of 18 units (90c) which no doubt helps the profit margin tremendously in here!

Anyway...back to the poker. Tournament type games are not subject to the $2/$4 mentality and as such they run constant $100+$20 / $200+$25 / $500+$35 'one table' tournaments. The 'pro poker tables' - these mechanised poker tables - are restricted, for some reason, to the $40 tournaments but even these pay only $300 in prize money so the rake here is massive!

Having said all that the place is packed. They have around 100 tables in the poker room and every one seemed to be packed full of eager beavers wanting to play no fold'em hold'em which the $2/$4 is.

They only allow 10 tables to be used for the tournament (maybe 12) as the cash games prove to be so lucrative but these get filled up quickly so I'd bought my ticket in nice and early.

Earlier this afternoon I'd played in two $100+$20 one table jiggies but got nowhere in either. Firstly my QQ got squished by player with 55 and a 5 on the flop and the 2nd one where my raise of 500 holding A-Q wasn't enough to deter the local fish holding K-7. A flop of K-Q-10 meant he went all-in and I called. No help!!

And so to the reason of this post...the $240 tourney but my tournament lasted 15 minutes.

Holding Js-9s I flat called, in LP, and three of us saw a flop of 8h-10d-Ad. It was checked around to me and I bet 200, out of my 2500 starting stack. The player to my immediate left raised it up to 600, the other player dropped, and I called.

The 9c fell on the turn. My initial 16 outs had decreased, slightly, to 13. I checked. The raiser put in a bet of 1000. I felt obliged to call. A brick 3h fell on the river and even though I had a pair of 9's it wasn't enough to beat A-K as we both checked the river card!

Down to 700 I get the 4s-5s and called a 300 bet with 4 callers. The flop looked nice enough (7s-10s-7c) so once it was checked around to me I went all-in. All folded execp the one guy who called with Js-Jc. The turn brought my wanted 9s but another 7 on the river gave my opponent a full house and that was that!

I fly back to Ireland on Saturday then back to work on Tuesday back in Lisburn. God I hate January!!

Dec 20th - $200+$40 NL Hold'Em - Seminole Hard Rock Casino (Tampa)

So here I am in the depths of winter in sunny Florida. Forget about the chills of the UK and Ireland for Xmas...Florida is the place to be!

Now for those of you who know Florida, in terms of poker, you'll know that the BIGGEST cash games in town are the $1/$2 games. Yup...thats right...$1/$2. The law in this part of the world allows poker to be played but not my friends as you or I would EVER wanna play the game. I mean..cummon...$1/$2 limit...URGH!!

Luckily for me, and I would say the majority of players here, tournaments are not subject to these ridiculous limits and whilst only a very few select places are allowed to deal cards in the sunshine state I'm lucky enough to be only 40 mins drive from one of them! Its here at the Seminole Hard Rock Casino in Tampa Bay that I, as well as playing a good structured...well attended $240 NL Hold'Em tournament, saw the future in card room technology...the fully automated poker table!

Seeing is believing! Ten computer screens encompass the tables edge, shaped exactly like current poker tables. Each player (10) has his/her own screen to look at at this are flush to the table. Now you'd think that this might cause problems once the cards appear as you could just peek over to your neighbours terminal and look at their cards but noooooo. In order to look at the cards you're dealt you must 'cup' your hand and place it in the top right hand corner of the screen. Once the screen senses this action it displays your cards so that they appear 'under' your cupped hand (you're buggered though if you have no hands!!)

Chip counts, betting actions are all controlled by 'tapping' the screen with your fingers and everything from there on is automated. A large 'plasma tv' screen sits in the middle of the table which shows everyones betting actions, chip stacks, pots, etc etc and of course, the obvious flop, turn & river cards!

In order to sign up for playing on the table you must sign up for a players card and 'charge' the card with money which can then be used to credit you with chips on the table. Chips are deducted and added to the card as and when you play.

The play looks kinda weird from an observers point of view but with no dealers to pay, no mistakes made to chip counts, stacks etc and no tipping then this COULD become prevelant thoughout the western world within 3-5 years. After all the rake is the same except that with 50-70% more hands per hour then you do the maths!

As for my $200 tournament there were 110 players and I got down to the last 4 tables when, running short of chips, I went all-in, on the button, with Ks 7s and got called by BOTH the SB & BB who held A-J & A-K respectively.

Needless to say I didn't win the hand!

In my next trip report I'll detail more about the games they play here, the rake charged, and the one-table satellite games that seem to run continuosly!!

Dec 8th - £100+£10 NL Hold'Em - Cavendish Club (Belfast)

Fifty seven runners in tonights event and I got off to a very nice start when I got a player to put all his chips into a pot when I'd made Aces & Nines on the river. To be fair he held A-K and on a board of A-J-6-10-9 he couldn't get away from his top pair - top kicker holding.

We started with 5k in chips and a twenty minute clock so withion 10 mins I had 10k and was looking forward to a good night.

Got moved tables and things didn't happen. I got Q-Q, in LP, and called an EP raise to 600 (blinds were 100/200). A flop of 10-6-4 and the EP bet out 1k. I went all-in and he called with a holding of A-A. Urgh!! My 10k was back down to 5k!

Time ticked by and at the break I was back to 7k in chips!

Blinds started back at 300/600 and with only 11 BB's in my stack I had to start looking for opportunities to build a stack or get out of there.

Holding Kc-Qc on the button I flat called a raise from another EP player. The SB and BB came in also (mistake allowing this!!). The flop came J-J-6 and once it was checked around to me I went all-in (5k). Unfortunately for me the SB had J-10 so called for his last 1600. Oh well!

The last hand of the level brought my downfall although I was outdrawn so it was a bit pissy.

I held the Jd-9d and decided that with the blinds in there (300+600) + some young fellas raise to 1800 then it offered me great value on what I thought were 'live' cards so I pushed my 3400 into the middle and awaited developments.

The young fella shrugged as he felt he had to call with Kc-Jc and we saw an exiting flop of Qd-10d-Qc. Massive flop for me! The turn card was the 8c, giving me the straight but suddenly my opponent had more outs to beat me and when the As fell on the river, giving my opponent a higher straight, I was done!

Undoubtedly the fact that my chip stack couldn't cope too well with the escalating blinds contributed to my downfall but you have to get lucky in the 'all-in' situations as well. Tonight I lost them 3-1!

57 Entries - 26th - Loss $187 (£110) - Acc. Total +$4476

Dec 4th - $215 NL Hold'Em - Pokerstars

With 3545 runners in tonights $215 NL Hold'Em event you really DO deserve it if you can jump through the number of hoops put there by Pokerstars software in order to even reach the prize money.

I started off wuite well when my chip stack got to $3800 in no short time. Got AK and got a nice pay off as I did a set of 5's. Unfortunately though this wasn't to last as I got 'set up' fairly early on for my immediate downfall.

Holding 4-4 in EP I called the 50 bet and there were 5 of us to see a flop of 3c-6c-10d. We all checked so it was fairly obvious than there wasn't a great deal out. Not to worry though as I couln't see myself getting involved here. The 2s fell from the sky and with no flush out or anything really I decided to plump a bet of 300 and see what happened.

I get ONE caller and I'm convinced he's on a flush draw.

The 2d fell on the river. Great I'm thinking...he's missed. A good chunky bet here will win me the pot. So instead of another 300 bet I find my finger pulling the 'bet bar' all the way across till I'm 'all-in' then clicking the BET switch.

The fecker called. He WAS on a flush draw with Ac 2c!!!!! Feck me!!

I had him covered but was now down to less than 1000 which went in when I saw 6-6. Get one caller who has, what else but A-K, and the obligatory King falls on the flop and I'm outta there finishing 3043rd. My WORST finish in this event for AGES!

3545 Entries - 3043rd - Loss $215 - Acc. Total +$4663

Dec 2nd - €50+€10 NL Hold'Em - Fitzwilliam (Dublin)

A bit of a YO-YO night really. I'd win a nice few chips then, within the next two or three hands, I'd lose them all back again. Got an early coo when my 10s-4s BB holding turned into a full house on the river. Some bloke was betting like mad at the flop and the turn and just couldn't believe I'd played 'that bollux' but hey...I'll take them wherever I can get them!

Two hands later I ran into an Ace high flush as opposed to my King high flush so that was all the chips I'd just won back across the table.

At the break I'd just used my rebuy and so had 3k in chips. The same scenario then played out as last week as I waited for a good strong hand then lumped all-in hoping for a double up. I got two and was upto around 10k and then the following hand came up...

Holding A-Q in LP and with blinds at 300/600 there was an initial raise to 2500. I felt as though the raiser was not THAT strong but I opted to call and see a flop. The play got passed around to the UTG player who then decided to lump all-in for 5k. The original raiser then sat back in his chair and thought...and thought...and thought! Undoubtedly he was weaker than I'd originally thought and so when he finally decided to call for all HIS chips (5.2k) I knew I had a great chance of a treble up as the UTG player was obviously attempting to play any two cards and get lucky!

I called the extra 3.2k and the cards were flipped. Mr UTG had A-J and Mr Original Raiser held 9-9. Oh well any Queen would do!! The flop came 3-6-8-4-2 and I'd lost out on a 15k+ pot! Argh!! I then proceeded to go card dead!

I'd call the initial raise with my drawing hands but couldn't connect to anything. With blinds at 500/1000 and my chip stack down to 6k I took a chance on calling an all-in bet with Q-J for 4k. My opponent had A-J and I couln't catch a Queen and so was virtually down to the felt.

Last hand of the night I went all-in with Qh-7h for 2k and got 4 callers. The flop was J-9-9-Q-4. Some bugger had a 9. Fecker!!

70 Entries - 24th - Loss $126 (€110) - Acc. Total +$4878

Nov 30th - £20 NL Hold'Em - Cavendish Club (Belfast)

This blogging lark is great cos I get to write about my life as a practicing poker pro and, like millions of others the world over, I get to write about how 'unlucky' I am at not being a 'real' poker pro!

Tonights £20 NL game up in Belfast was not a pretty sight. After winning last weeks game I spunked away my 5 rebuy limit before we even got to the break such was the ferocity of my 'unlucky' cards.

Of course the idea of the rebuy period is to accumulate a good load of chips by taking risks that usually level out and allow you to win a few pots. Tonight I won 1 pot with the Ad-Kd v As-4s and the rest of the time I got 'all'in' I was either behind or got outdrawn badly.

My 5-5 got beat up by 8-8. (Fair enough)

My 9-9 got beat up by A-5 (Doh)

My A-Q got beat up by 2-2 (He flopped quad 2's)

My 7-7 got beat up by A-10 (Doh)

My 6c-4c was a pure gamble in a 4 way pot of J-6-3. Someone held K-J.

Finally my 50/50 shot (Ks-9s) was beaten up by 5-5.

Not my night!

29 Entries - 28th - Loss $204 (£120) - Acc. Total +$5004