July 27th - £20 NL Hold'Em - Cavendish Club (Belfast)

There are, of course, ocassions in every poker players life where nomatter WHAT you do it just doesn't seem to happen for you. Tonight was one such time.

I had 8 re-buys before, thankfully, running out of money and left the game just before the break. After last weeks miracle run from 5K in chips to 100k in chips I couldn't repeat the feat and so was out on my ear before I could even get to the add-on.

The thing about the £20 rebuy games is that nomatter how you play your hand there always seems to be 2 or 3 callers, even on a table of 8, and with 6 ''live cards' against you most of the time it became a lottery every time I went to war.

A great example of this came when I held 8s 7s. With antes at 100/200 4 of us saw the flop, for 500 each, of 7h 3s Js. A pretty much perfect flop for my cards! I was in MP and checked hoping that one of the later players would launch so I could re-raise and get the rest of my chips into the middle. Everybody checked behind me.

The Kh fell next. Again it was checked to me and I bet 2k. TWO callers. The Qd fell next thereby killing virtally any chance I have of winning the hand but I called the EP's last few chips anyway. He showed KQ and that was that.

Other notable hands...

My AJ got squshed by A9. My A2 got squashed by Q3!!!!!!. My AQ got smacked by QT!!!!!!

and so on and so on.

No siree...on nights like this just give up and go home...once you've run out of money that is!

44 Entries - 40th - Win $0 - Loss -$315 - Acc. Total +$57.89

July 22nd - $100+$9 NL Hold'Em - Ladbrokes

Whilst playing around in the 'Cruise satellite' I noticed a $45000 guarantee tournament about to start at Ladbrokes. Apparently these are quite busy events and by the time 8pm had spun around over 220 participants had ponied up the $100 in order to play.

Again I only realised that guarantee could only be met by rebuys and add-ons but as I wasn't going down that route in a $100 event I just sat and played tight and hoped I'd progress ok.

I got off to a good start when my A-K overcame A-Q and my K-K beat up Q-Q and A-K and by the time the break had come round I had just over 7k in chips.

After the break I again caught good cards and was able to hold a top 10 position in status going into the last 50 players.

I then get 8-8, in mid position, and raise to 2xBB. I don't really like raising much more with mid-pairs as if someone goes over the top of me I inevitably have to lay it down as I prefer to be the player with overcards in a race situation.

Anyway I get ONE caller from LP and we see a flop of 8-4-4. Oh whoopee, I think and gladly check the flop to my opponent who then lauches, as hoped, and puts in 12k. I then go all-in and for some remarkable reason he FOLDS for only 8k more!!

Hmmm. I feel as though I missed out there!

Anyway the players kept dropping and I made it to 14th place before becoming victim to the old 'software selection process' and getting kicked out with A-J v A-Q.

Never mind...$344 was the prize and a $235 profit. Nowhere near the first prize though of $14k. One of these days!!

220 Entries - 14th - Win $235 - Loss -$0 - Acc. Total +$372.89

July 22nd - $120+$10 NL Hold'Em - Ladbrokes

Ok. Tonight I tried, for the first time, to win a seat into Sunday nights on-line 'final' in order to win a seat on the Ladbrokes cruise in Jan. This cruise is for 9 nights or so and goes out of Miami on Jan 14th.

With only around 35 entries I was expecting a tight game. Only once I was playing did I realise that there would be rebuys and add-ons! Not for me their wouldn't!

At the end of the 'rebuy' period there were still around 27 of us left. With rebuys and add-ons there were to be 4 seats given away so I was around a 6/1 chance of getting a seat. All I had to do was beat 23 others...easy!

After experiencing the fun at Partypoker where any two cards can win I was hoping that similar software advantages didn't exist at Ladbrokes. I should have known!

Firstly my all-in bet with A-K gets called by a stack about a quarter the size of mine. He makes an unlikely runner-runner staight and I lose a good chunk of chips. A few hands later I get Ks-Kh and raise to 3xBB. The SAME player calls and we see a flop of 6c-9c-Qs. He bets the rest of his chips, and I call leaving me down to the felt. He flips 3c-3d! Looks like I'm on easy street! I'm shouting at the screen..'no 3...no 3'. Well I'm lucky and unlucky. No 3 falls but the turn is the 5c and the river the Ac and I'm shot by a not so clever flush!

Just HOW do you beat these games?

I go out a short time later in around 19th place. Better then than 5th I suppose!

35 Entries - 19th - Win $0 - Loss -$130 - Acc. Total +$137.89

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

Well after a three week hiatus from 'live play' I was tonight, once again, at the hot bed of poker in N.I - the Cavendish Club in Belfast. Forty four runners for tonights £20 rebuy event and I have to say it was quite a remarkable evening.

For the first 90 mins of the 120 mins rebuy period I managed to have a single rebuy as my chips floated up and down between 1k & 7k. Suddenly there was a whirlwind of activity and, at the end of the rebuy period, I've done another 8 rebuys and with the 4k add-on I'm stuck £200 and have 5k in chips for which to start the 'proper' part of the game!

I win a small pot after the break then a remarkable hand occurs.

I'm dealt Kd 8d on the BB. With blinds at 200/400 its passed around to the SB (who has a mountain of chips) and he raises to 800. I flat call. The flop comes 3d-4d-6h.

Now as soon as I see this flop I'm ready to put the rest of my chips in straight away so when I see the SB create a big stack of chips and start to move them forward I immediately put all my chips into the middle and await the remainder of the flop...but there's a problem!

Apparently the SB's chips had NOT crossed the line in front of him which indicated that the chips were now in play and so, having seen me act so quickly behind him, he now ummed and arred about his position in the hand.

After much thought he flipped over the Ah-4h and folded. What was THEN interesting is that he asked the dealer to 'rabbit hunt' the rest of the flop. The dealer dealt out the 8h and the Qh which would have made him the nut flush!

I never had to show my hand of course and from that moment on my game went from strength to strength and I reached the final table of 10 with exactly 100,000 in chips and easily the chip leader.

For whatever reason then I went absolutely card dead. Four orbits of the table later and I had 50k left having literally been ante'd away and with the dying minutes of blinds at 5k/10k I get my final hand which should act as a lesson to all poker players everywhere!

There are 6 of us left and I'm UTG+1.

Now at this stage of the game players will usually go all-in or fold. After all there's absolutely no requirements to flat call the BB...or is there? Well of course holding AA might be one time you want to so when the UTG player flat calls for 10k big alarms should have gone off! I was holding Qc Jc and did the mandatory 'all-in'.

Of course hindsite is a wonderful thing! All pass around the the UTG player who calls! He, of course, flips AA and its goodnight Vienna.

I finish 6th for £50. Still a £150 loss on the night but better than it could have been!

44 Entries - 6th - Win $90 - Loss -$270 - Acc Total $267.89

July 17th - $200+$15 NL Hold'Em - Pokerstars

Over 3400 players put up almost $700,000 for this event. Talk about a needle in a haystack job.

Tactically for games like these you HAVE to be patient and you cannot let ANYTHING get in the way of you making the best decisions. Unfortunately for me my timing was off when it came to my BIG hand.

After an hour of play I had 3500 points and almost 1000 players had disappeared from the game. The player to my immediate right decided that the blinds, now 100/200, were a tasty morcel that he couldn't ignore so every time he was SB and I was BB he'd raise and nick my chips.

Well bugger this, I thought, after he'd done it for the 3rd orbit in succession. Next time I'll have him.

And so it came to pass that the blinds came around again and out popped my 200. I now had 5700 points. There are 4 other callers amr Mt blind robber raises to 1200. I have the Qc 9c and decided to put a stop to this nonsence here and now so go all-in. Of course the rest of the table fold like paper but Mt blind robber won't have it and calls with QQ (as you would).

He has me covered and although there's a chance of a flush as it comes to the last card I can't collect.

No regrets though my timing was off thats all!

3421 Entries - 1100th ish - Win $0 - Loss -$215 () - Acc Total $537.89

July 16th - $100+$9 NL Hold'Em - Ultimatebet

I seem to be getting the hang of these! With 104 runners I finished 14th and picked up $114 for a profit of $6 (wow).

Again the 'bet pot' button came in useful and I cruised nicely along in the top 20 for the majority of the game. My undoing, as so often happens, came about when holding AQ. Agin I clicked on the 'bet pot' button and immediately rised to approx 700. The button went all-in to just about cover me and without a moments hesitation I called. With some money locked up it was time to try and win the thing!

He flips JJ and we're off to the races. Plop 8-9-T! Plop 4! Plop Q! Horray, I thought I beat the bugger so when the chips went the other way I was lost and confused until I saw that my Queen had made him the straight.

Feck!

104 Entries - 14th - Win $6 - Loss $0 () - Acc Total $752.89

July 15th - $100+$9 NL Hold'Em - Ultimatebet

Its been a good while since I played in $100+ tournaments on the Internet prefering to stick to the $10 R+A events (rebuys & add-ons) They seem to last a lot longer for approx half the price but I've been getting nowhere with those so decided to try a different line of attack.

Tonights $100 NL event attracted 95 runners and gave 2500 points to start so there was no need to hurry. And hurry they didn't! After 30 mins of play, and with antes at 20/40 there were only 3 people gone!

My stack hadn't moved at all and I was on 2450 when I get QQ in EP. The best thing I find about UB games (alond with Party) is that they have a 'raise the pot' button. This saves me have to bet x times the BB and generally acts as a good start bet anyway so I clicked on that and off we went. All passed to the player on the button who then went 'all-in'!

I usually put players on AK when they do this as it serves a purpose and I'm not then always having to second guess. I called! He flips KK. Oops! Well of course a Queen is the first card out and whilst my opponent says 'nice hand' I'm sure he meant something else!

So chip leader, almost, after 30 mins and from there on I was never out of the top 10. The 'bet pot' button came in very handy a couple of times and I cruised to the final table with about 30k in chips. Antes were only 1000/2000 at this point but even so a few desperados were 'all-in' virtually ever hand once the prize money had been attained.

It got down to 3. Me on 40K...bloke on 90k and another bloke on 100k+. I had my work cut out. Every time I raised they'd pass and I was treading water.

The blinds moved to 1500/3000 and I get 8c 6c on the button. I go all-in hoping to pick up the 5k on offer in blinds and get called by Mr 100k+ with KJ. It was all over for me but I did pocket $1211 for 3rd place!

95 Entries - 3rd - Win $1102 - Loss $0 () - Acc Total $746.89

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

For the first 30 minutes in tonights rebuy tournament I was being beaten up big time. Holding A-K, and on a K-6-3 flop I go all-in and get called by player holding J-J. A Jack falls on the turn. Urgh!

Holding Kh-6h I go all-in with the board at K-Q-7. My opponent calls me and shows Q-J. A Jack falls on the turn. Urgh.

I go all-in holding A-J and get called by someone holding 4-4. The flop comes J-T-7-FOUR...and so and and so on.

So after 5 rebuys I finally start to get some hands that hold up. My K-K doubles through as does my A-Q. At the break, and after the rebuy, I have 12700. This I get up to 20,000 before this hand comes up.

I'm dealt Jc 10c on the button. There's a raise to 5000 and I flat call. The flop comes Q-K-7. My opponent goes all-in for another 6K and I'm forced to call getting almost 4/1 on my money with a 6/4 chance of hitting my straight with 2 cards to come.

So I'm looking for any Ace or any Nine. The turn brings a THREE and the river another THREE. My opponents A-K stand up and I'm almost gone.

With blinds now at 400/800 I'm looking to steal blinds soon and I get K-4 on the SB. Its passed around and I go all-in for around 5k. The BB has 8k left but calls anyway with Q-5. (Wot a dumbo!) Thats as maybe but a Queen falls on the flop and I'm on my way home.

Because of the NI 'marching season' the club is now closed till July 18th so I'll be looking to get my fix on the Internet for a few weeks!!

50 Entries - 30th - Win $0 - Loss - $252 (6 rebuys) - Acc Total -$355.11