Mar 30th - £10 satellite event - FULLHOUSE Card Club (Reigate)

A tale of 4 hands....

Until recently I usually considered playing in satellites a bit of a waste of time. After all...why put yourself though a gruelling 5-6 hours of play just to come back and do the whole thing again the day after (if you're lucky enough) when surely it would have been a better idea just to buy-in for the main event to start with and save all that hard work!

Things change! After playing on-line for many moons in satellite events for the Sunday night games I've come to realise that there's great value in these things as most players who play them still have the 'must win' mentality thereby not managing their stacks correctly and giving players like me a bigger edge than normal!

Forty six runners and we were playing for 5 seats and change (£235) into the FULLHOUSE £400 main event which takes place this Saturday in Reigate.

Four specific hands tell the story of my night.

Hand 1: I'd spent my first £20 on 2k in chips and had pretty much my full tank when I get Js-10s in LP. Blinds were still at 25/50 and I raised it to 250 enticing three other callers. The flop came 8-9-6 rainbow. Of course I was now locked in so was please to see someone come out betting straight away for 500. The next player passed then my turn came. 'All-In', I said and pushed the 1500 chips I had left into the middle. Call...from my left and call from the original raiser!

The turn card was a 2. Check, Check. The river card another 6 (Dohhhh). Check Check. The original raiser held A-9 whilst the other caller held K-8. REBUY!!

Hand 2: I was determind to play tight with my next 2k in chips but didn't have to wait too long before being dealt A-A in MP. There was a raise to 250 before it got to me. I raised to 500. Another player called. Next player made it 1000. Original player called. I made it 2000. Next player dropped. Next player called. Original raiser called. There was over 6500 in the pot and it was time for 'on their backs'!

I was against 10s-3s (spot the rebuy period) and 10-10. The flop came harmless enough and suddenly I had chips!!

Hand 3: Undoubtedly the hand of the night for me! I held Ac-Qh in LP and decided to see what the flop brought before committing any chips. Five of us saw a flop of Ad-7s-10d. The player to my immediate right bet out to 300. I raided to 1500. There were two further callers (obviously flush drawers) before it got back to the original raiser who hummed and arred before going 'all-in'. Now from where I sat I couldn't believe he had THAT strong a hand as he'd been raising on cow-pat all night long to this point. I called for all my chips...as did the other two callers. Eeek!! There was over 25k in the pot and we flipped em!!

The original 'all-iner' held 10-7, (two pair) and I was also up against 5d-6d and Qd-Jd (no surprises there I suppose! The dealer turned the 3c on the turn but the luverly Qh fell on the river and I was on easy street with a pot of 25k+ to scoop in. There were one or two gutted faces I can tell you!

Hand 4: Between H3 and H4 I never dipped below 20k. I picked spots carefully and raised only when I felt my hand could stand it. Luckily I never got involved until this happend...

I get A-A in MP. With blinds now at 600/1200 there was an EP raise to 4200. I reckoned that as he'd raised in EP he'd surely throw out another bet on the flop nomatter WHAT came down. I flat called as did another player!

The flop comes J-2-4 (perfect for me I figured) and right on cue the EP raiser bet out to 8000. I wasn't giving any more cheapies so went all-in for another 9k. The third player dropped and EP player called after deciding his 9's were good and I was at it! That pot took me to over 40k and I then cruised to the final table of 9.

Blinds were at 3k/6k come the final table and after three players dropped we all decided to chip in £30 to guarantee the us last 6 all a seat in the £400 event. There'll be £20k to play for on Saturday. I just hope I can get a piece of it!!

Entries -> 46 - Place -> Jnt 1st - Win -> £345 ($604) Profit/Loss for 2006 -> +$3587

Mar 28th - £20+£2 NL Hold'Em - LCI Club (Brighton)

Its hard work playing these £20 rebuy tournaments! Hard because you just HAVE to get lucky in the early stages of the night when chips are flying in like there's no tomorrow and everyone seems keen on drawing out to flushes and straights nomatter what the odds.

With a couple of large freezeout tournaments taking place this weekend (large for me anyway) I decided to only start the night with 2 rebuys in pocket in the hope that I could play tight and put my chips into the middle when I felt as though I had a better than 60/40 chance to win a pot. Unfortunately my timing was out on the 3 'out' hands I'm about to tell you about.

Hand 1: Blinds were still 25/50 and I'm in LP as I get 2h-3h. Usually I'd toss this holding into the muck without thought but there were 4 callers and no raises so I took a chance and called the 50. Five of us saw the flop of Kh-7h-8h. Whilst a great flop for me I was aware that my hand needed protection. There was an immediate bet of 400 which I then re-raised all-in for my 1300 points I had left. A couple of people ummed & arred but passed. The original raiser called and turned over 9c-9h.

Of course I didn't want to see any more hearts but the flop then came Ah-6h and I was squished!

Hand 2: I'm the dealer and blinds are 50/100. Three callers before back to me and I decided to make it expensive and flush out the unwanteds. I raised to 1000 and get one caller, who now has 400 left!

The flop comes 10-J-4. My opponent checks and I put him all-in for his last 400. He calles and flips A-A @~?**+!! Of course a Queen gets me out of it but none comes and I'm down to the felt again. Last rebuy!

Hand 3: After having my A-K demolished by A-A I was determined to hang tough till an opportunity came my way in order to at least double up! With antes now at 100-200 though I wasn't going to have long so when I looked down and saw 8-8 then I knew it was time to double up or die! And so all-in I went for 1200 with 2 callers I was at least hopeful of a chance!

A flop of 4-4-A followed by a big bet from an opponent told me it was not to be and once the remaining player had cleared out of the way he flipped A-K. Two TENS appeared on the turn & river and it was goodnight from me again with a loss on the night of £62!!

Entries ->74 - Place -> ??? - Loss -> £62 ($109) Profit/Loss for 2006 -> +$2983

Mar 23rd - £10+£1 NL Hold'Em - LCI Club (Brighton)

Thursday night is 'rookie' night down at the LCI and to be fair its a good game.

Poker is player very ABC like with very little raising as either a) the player is not aware of the strength of his hand or b) the player doesn't want to keep spending tenners by being outdrawn in all-in situations.

Most of the players on a Thursday are students and as such don't come out with wads of cash. They're much less likely to call you unless they, themselves, have a good hand so bluffing is fine except if they call then shut-up shop!

I had no rebuys this evening but did get the top-up as I'd only 3.5k at the break. You get 1000 points for your tenner and, as I mentioned, nobody on my table had the 'all-in' mentality so the first 90 mins were played steadily and without incident.

The other thing about rookies is that they don't know when to STOP shipping chips into a pot if they think there is a chance they might win AFTER the flop.

With blinds at 200/400 I'm in LP with A-A and around 6k in chips. There's a raise to 1k in front of me and I duly re-raise another 1k (keeping it friendly) which is duly called.

The flop comes 9-9-2. My opponent bets 2k and I duly call as I don't want to scare him off.

A TEN appears on the turn and suddenly his little face lights up and he goes all-in for about 1.8k. Well of course I ain't going nowhere so duly call. "I need a Jack", he says, as he flips K-Q.

Another 9 appears on the river and I've doubled up.

I double up agin a short time later when my K-J gets nicely paid off on a flop of J-2-3 and the BB decides his J-5 is winning. Needless to say he gets no help on the turn or river and I'm now in cruise mode with 25k in chips and here comes the final table.

With blinds at 1k-2k there's no rush.

I'm dealt the Qd-9d in the BB and three of us see a flop of Jd-8c-3h. The player to my immediate right bets 2k and once the button player calls also I'm priced in for a 10 to appear.

The 4c is next. No help to anyone I figure but again the player to my right makes a 2k bet which again is called which again prices me in for a call.

Wooohoooo. The 10d falls on the river and, from my 15k stack left, I bet 5k. "POT", says the voice next to me and proceeds to shovel in around 30k in chips. The button passes and I muse my predicament. "Must be a split pot", I say as I call all-in for 15k. He flips J-10 (two pair) and I'm a happy bunny!

With 50k in chips I now slooooow down. Players drop one by one and with 3 of use left I have 90k, Player B has 20k and Player C has 60k.

I get 7-7 on the button which I originally flat call. The BB raises the pot...I re-raise...he goes all-in and I call. He flips J-J and I'm not even at the races as he hits a Jack on the flop!!

My last hand is Jh-9h v Kc-8c. Nobody hits anything and I'm out in 3rd for a pay of £235. Never mind...thats over £200 profit and I can live with that. Shame about my 7-7 v J-J though!

Entries ->49 - Place -> 3rd - Win -> £214 ($375) Profit/Loss for 2006 -> +$3092

(*) Got some good news from my solicitor today. Apparently the bailiffs are set to dump my current tenants from my home in NW London on April 6th. Home at last :)

Mar 21st - £20+£2 NL Hold'Em - LCI Club (Brighton)

Tuesday night and a 69 runner field at the LCI.

I managed to maintain my original buy-in chips for the first 30 mins and then things started to go wrong.

Hand 1. Blinds are 25/50. I'm on the BB and the player to my immediate left (UTG) goes all-in for 175. EVERYONE, back round to me calls. I look down to see As-6s. Now in usual circumstances I'd flat call myself here and see the flop. What was interesting here though was that no-one had shown any strength by raising the all-in guy so I figured I might be able to isolate the all-in player by moving all-in for 2250 as it was still early in the game and players may not have wanted to gamble too much at this stage.

So all-in I go. I get two callers and we flip cards. One player has A-J whilst another has K-J and the all-in guy has A-4.

First two cards out of the deck are the 10s-4s followed by the Qd. Whatever happened there I'd be all-in at this point anyway. The 7c falls on the turn followed by the 10h. Side pot goes to A-J whilst Mr all-in gets the main pot with his jammy pair of 4's. Me...I get to rebuy!

Hand 2. I get A-J o/s in MP and call someones all-in for all my chips. Another player calls behind me. Original raiser has 10-10, player behind me has Q-Q. Its rebuy time again as I hit a Jack but Mr QQ has me covered.

Hand 3. I find A-A and go all-in. I get one caller who flips 9-9. A 9 appears on the flop and its rebuy no. 4 time.

Hand 4. I find A-J o/s again and flat call a raise to 300. Flop is 9-A-7. The original raiser bets 1000. I call. Turn card is a 5. Original raiser goes all-in. I call. He flips 5-5 (for a set) and I rebuy!!!

Hand 5. I get Kc-9c and go all-in (I'm fed up by now) I get called in two spots. Flop is J-7-7-4-2. Player A flips A-Q, player B flips A-4 and scoops the loot. I'm done!!

So £100 and 40 minutes after starting out I'm back in the lounge watching the Liverpool / Birmingham game. (7-0 to Liverpool)

Entries ->69 - Place -> ??? - Loss -> £102 ($179) Profit/Loss for 2006 -> +$2717

Mar 20th - £30+£3 NL Hold'Em - LCI Club (Brighton)

There are several 'skills' required in order to be a decent Hold'Em player. One is to try and take advantage of situations where free chips could be on offer! My downfall in tonights £30 NL Hold'Em game at the LCI came about because of this!

Only 30 runners tonight and I got off to a flyer when I doubled through some bloke who thought that his K-5 was great on a flop of J-K-7-6-10. I held J-10 so that was nice.

My initial luck didn't hold though as I then slowly got ante'd away or I couldn't hit my cards after the flop etc. I drifted down to 1k when I bought in again so was back to 3k. I then get moved table.

This table proved much more productive in terms of chip capture and at the break I had 8500 and decided against a top-up for another £30.

Straight after the break I get 10-10 in MP and raise to 2k. (Blinds were noe 200/400) I get one caller to my left and have to lay the hand down on a flop of Kc-9c-7c-4d after my opponent got a bit aggressive on the turn card.

My chip stack then continued to drift between 4k-8k for the next hour. One guy at our table had 40k in chips and decided, just prior to his BB, to go to the loo. As I'd be on the button when his BB got thrown in and blinds were at 300-600 I saw an opportunity to grab the 900 that would be out there if no-one else raised before the action got back to me.

Pass, Pass, Pass. Pass, Pass. Its now my turn and I hadn't looked at my cards. 'All-In', I declared pushing 5200 into the middle and hoping that would be that. The SB looked at his cards and then sat back in his chair.

'I don't like this', he said, 'but I have to call', and flipped 8-8. As I hadn't seen my cards I took a deep breath and flipped them over. SIX-THREE!!!

Well I had to larf! And larf I did...all the way home!

In poker timing is sometimes everything. Not today then!!

Entries ->30 - Place -> 19th - Loss -> £63 ($110) Profit/Loss for 2006 -> +$2896

Mar 16th - 18th - Various

Another two tournaments played at the weekend and nothing to show for either.

On Friday night I played in the £10 rebuy event at the Grosvenor in Brighton. Amazingly enough I didn't have a single rebuy and got to the break with 7k in chips. After the 1k top-up I had 8k and was looking forward to the rest of the evening with relish.

This soon faded as within 3 hands of the re-start I was out.

Hand 1 - Passed.

Hand 2 - Held Kc-Qc and raised to 1k (blinds were 100/200 and I'm in EP). Three players later and I'm re-raised to 5k by a chinese girl who'd gotton very lucky early on in the evening and was sat with around 12k in chips. This raise kinda threw me a bit and rather than folding (good option) or going all-in (ok option) I decided to flat call (bad option). The flop came 8-6-4 and I passed once she'd put me all-in after I'd checked. Doh!

Hand 3 - Having just lost 5k of my chips I was on immediate tilt and get A-7 on the BB. Chinese lady raises to 5k again and I call her. She flips A-J and its goodnight from me!

Saturday I went upto the Gutshot club in London to play in the £100 FREEZEOUT there. My original intention was to also play in the £5 game which started at 2pm but the traffic situation from Brighton insisted I missed the start of that event so amused myself on the Internet and in a small cash game till 8pm.

With 4000 chips to start I kept my head down for the first level observing players. One guy in particular I marked down as loose (Mr Bluffer) as he proceeded to bet me out of an early pot with 6h-5h on a board of A-10-A-8. I held K-Q but couldn't call his bet on the turn.

Anyway...level 2 comes in and I get the Kd-8d in MP. Mr Bluffer raises to 250 (blinds were 50/100) and I, along with two other players flat call.

The flop looks a magical 6d-7d-8s. I have top pair and excellent flush draw. Mr Bluffer bets 700. Now Mr Bluffer aint got 9-10 and even if he did have he would not have bet it here. I put him on A-10, A-J or A-Q. Needless to say...with my hand I wasn't going anywhere.

With hands like the one I had I want to see both the turn AND river cards as I don't want betting out of it if the flush doesn't come on the turn. I call his 700 and go all-in for another 2200. The other players pass and he calls. So what does he have??

A-9 no diamonds! I couldn't believe it! Not only had the muppet got an out or two but I suddenly felt what was coming next.

Another 8 came on the turn reducing his outs to 6 when suddenly the 5c fell on the river and I was gone.

I can't complain...I had my money in with the best hand and best draw. Sometimes though its just not your day!

Entries ->??? - Place -> ??? - Loss -> £131 ($229) Profit/Loss for 2006 -> +$3006

Mar 14th - 15th - Various

Two midweek rebuy tournaments has seen me with a defecit of £153 and another final table appearence.

First up was Tuesday night where I played in the regular LCI £20 rebuy tournament. Turned out to be another 'bish-bash-bosh' night with me being outdrawn or not 'getting there' on most flops I got involved with.

Needless to say my buget disappeared quicker than you could say 'full house' and I was home in time for the 10pm news! Very sad!

Wed night was a little better. With LCI now running satellites to their main £1k event, to be held over the Easter Weekend, I plodded down to the Grosvenor Club on Brighton seafront for their £10 rebuy tournament. The big thing I've noticed about these kind of events is that no-one can play the game whatsoever and it was quite usual to have 3 or 4 'all-iners' for most hands thereby relying on a lottery mentality in order to accumulate chips. I got involved in numerous pots with excellend holdings such as K-Q, J-10, A-Q, 9-9, K-K etc etc but with so many opponents its was usual for me to be outdrawn at will. At the break I'd spent £100 and had 4k in chips!

After the break it was a different story as I suddenly found some form and rattled my chip count upto almost 30k. The final table beckoned and I was in a great position to do well but the cards had other ideas!

There were no short stacks at the FT so it was a case of sitting and waiting. Indeed the first player didn't go out until 40 mins of play had elapsed.

I get A-K in the SB and re-raise a flat caller from across the table all-in and he called with 9-9. Off to the races then except I never got out of the starting gate as two of the flop cards were 9's. Oh well!

Fifteen minutes, and one round later, I get Qc-Jc on the BB and elect to check with two other players in the pot. The flop brings the 8c-10c-Qd and I'm locked into the hand good and proper. I bet out 4k and get called in one spot by the guy who'd just munched my stack in half the previous time I was involved in a pot.

The turn card was the Kd but knowing I was going to call whatever happened I put the remaining 12k of my chips into the middle. My opponent called and flipped Jd-9d for a made straight. Of course I still had outs but the Kh fell on the river and I was busted.

For 8th place I got £50 for a nights spend of £51. Ho Hum.

Entries ->??? - Place -> ??? - Loss -> £153 ($268) Profit/Loss for 2006 -> +$3234

Mar 14th - Quarterly Report

Its almost the end of March already and time for a 'quarterly' report.

At the beginning of the year I was determined to play in many more of the £100+ events both live and on the Internet but recently things have conspired against me in that regard and I've been stuck with playing the £10-£50 'dainty' tournaments here in Brighton. So how did I get to Brighton from Dublin where I've been resident since 1999?

It all started back in mid-Jan as I was laid off from my job in Lisburn, N.I, where I'd spent the majority of 2005 working for a utility company there. I then got offered a job in Raynes Park, SW London, where I now am from 8am-4.30pm Mon-Fri. Luckily for me I still own a place in Northolt (W.London) which was currently being rented out. All I needed to do was to get the tenant to leave. Easy huh! Noooooooooo!

Apparently he's decided he won't budge until Ealing Council re-house him. Ealing Council won't re-house him unless he's evicted so I'm having to go through the courts to get him out and this takes time!! Doh!!

Anyway...some good friends in Brighton offered to put me up till I can re-claim my house so, for the moment, I'm driving 100 miles a day...working 8-4.30...playing cards in the evenin till 2am+ and generally sleeping when I can. Not ideal but I AM winning at cards so I can't complain too much!

The first weeks of the year have been pretty good, for me. I'm up over $3500 and have made 9 final tables from 26 starts at both 'live' events and Internet tournaments with a buy-in of over $100.

What I still need to do though is play in more meaningful tournaments but the problem with this is that they're played over 2 days (bloody useless if you're working) or there are none within the reaches of my temp base in Brighton. Staying at a friends house is great but opening his front door at 5am and leaving again at 6.30am is somewhat taking the piss!

So until I get my house back (before Easter I hope) I'm stuck with the LCI schedule in Brighton. C'est La Vie!

Mar 10th - 12th - Various

A busy 'card playing' weekend for which I finished the three nights of play with a defecit of £52 despite two £10 rebuy events which cost me £101 each!

Friday night I visited a club in Reigate, just off the M25. Apparently the card room gets jammed there on a Friday night but I got there early and with rebuy mayhem going on I managed to max my budget (£100) and enter the 'proper' playing phase with around 6k in chips. Hardly what I'd call fantastic!

I doubled through when my J-J beat 9-9 but after that I couldn't find a hand and gently decended to around 8k in chips before I decide to race them all off with 4-4 against A-K. Both an Ace AND a KING fell on the flop and it was goodnight from me!

The club in Reigate is called the FULLHOUSE and Friday night is jammers with only 77 seats available so get there early if you wanna play!

Saturday night was back at the LCI in Brighton and if I thought Friday night was bad (for rebuys) then Saturday was more of the same. Only 36 runners and I STILL managed to max my budget (£100) and get nowhere. My final hand here was Ac-7c. A flop of A-A-K meant an all-in from me and a call to my right. He had A-8 and we were looking at a split pot until a dodgy looking 8 came on the turn. Ho Hum!

Sunday was the £50 rebuy event. Again the start got dodgy and 3 rebuys later I was still nowhere near chip average. On the very last hand before the break I get 8-8 and decide to go all-in for 2.5k. I get two callers. One has 10-10 (oops) and one has Ac-7c. Flop is 9-7-8-8-K and I triple through. With a final top up and £255 spent I started phase II with 10k in chips...more than enough, or so I thought, to do some damage.

Hmmm...well that plan went awry when I missed a flush draw and lost am immediate 5k. Not to worry though as I got myself back into the game with a couple of well timed all-in's. Those and my A-A beating Ad-7d meant that with 10 of us left I had around 18k in chips.

Looking down I find J-J and was happy to call an all-iner who had decided that Q-2 was a great hand to put all his remaining 7k in with. FINAL!!

Two players went sharply and we were down to 7. My K-K beat out A-Q and we were down to 6. An all-in 8-8 was beat out by a K-4 (K-K on flop) and we were 5.

I then get A-J and was happy to re-raise a raiser for most of his chips. He grunted and called with J-10. One of his 3 outers appeared on the flop and I finished 5th for a prize of £405. With 2 * £101 spent for Fri & Sat nights + £255 tonight I end up only £52 down on the weekend for 3 nights out! It could have been worse :)

Entries ->??? - Place -> ??? - Loss -> £52 ($91) Profit/Loss for 2006 -> +$3502

Mar 9th - £10+£1 NL Hold'Em - LCI Club (Brighton)

Tonight was the £10 NL 'rookies' night at the LCI in Brighton and I managed to scrape my way to 1st place and a £1000 first prize.

Actually I was never really in bother! In the re-buy period I had 6 rebuys and a top-up for a total spend of £81 as I attempted to accumulate chips from all around me. With it being rookies night though the buggers wouldn't pass so I kept losing and kept rebuying.

After the break I started with 8k. This turned to 15k when my 6-6 beat out Q-10 and from then on it was plain sailing to the final table where I sat down with around 60k of the 280k in play.

With 6 of us left came the defining hand of the night for me. With blinds at 4k-8k I held 8-8 U-T-G and raised to 20k in the hope I could get round (as you do). The player, to my immediate left, hummed & arred for a while before calling my 20k and then RAISING another 20k. Now whilst I thought this might have been a bit odd he had actually priced me in as I could see the flop and then get off the hand if a horrible looking Q-K-A fell or something like that.

The next two players passed. 'Hmmm...40k', came the voice of the next player in line. 'Thats exactly what I have!'. They then proceeded to push all-in. So...112k in the pot and 20k to me...well duh! I called leaving me with 31k left. Enough if things went horribly wrong.

The flop came KING-SEVEN-EIGHT! Weeeeeeee. I had a set. All I needed now was some more of matey boyz chips. I checked, as did he!

Now the other thing with rookies is that they don't like betting if they don't hit the flop. They'd much rather call. Agressive play is not their style but passive play is. Once he'd checked I knew he didn't have a KING. Oh well never mind. The turn card was a FOUR.

I decided to lump in my 31k. He'd probably pass but hey-ho! He called leaving himself 12k! With cards on their backs time the 'raise another 20k' guy had 9-9 and the 40k caller held Q-Q. A harmless 10 fell on the river and I now had almost 200k, out of the 280k in play. I'd gotton exceedingly lucky.

With only 80k between 5 players now it was only a matter of time. I knocked out 3 of my remaining 4 opponents with hands like 5-3 v K-3 (5-5 on the flop), J-8 v 7-7 (J on the flop) and finally, when heads up, I called the all-in bet of 34k with K-7 v A-5. A 7 on the flop sealed the deal.

Poker...its EAZY...especially against the rookies!

Entries -> 70 - Place -> 1st - Win -> £919 ($1608) Profit/Loss for 2006 -> +$3583

Mar 7th - £20+£2 NL Hold'Em - LCI Club (Brighton)

Finished 5th, out of 57, tonight which was quite pleasing although it could have been worse. With no rebuys (just a top-up) I started 'proper' play with around 8k in chips. Antes were at 200-400 but this amount was about the average on my table so I didn't feel I was too far behind in chip-count terms.

To be honest my stack was never all-in until we had three tables left. With blinds at 400/800 I made it 5k to go in MP with As-10s. The chip leader on the table flat calls and its off to the races. The flop is a pretty good Ks-Qs-9h and I go all-in for my last 13k. Mr chip leader passes so thats kool. A short time later though he gets his money back off me.

With 7-7 in hand and again in MP I raise to 6k. He again flat calls and its off the the races again. The flop looks good with 9-4-2 and I bet 10k (I still have about 30k left) Mr chip leader (still) goes all-in and I decide to pass as we're now down to 13 and I can't be arsed worrying about it. He flips a NINE and I'm scratching my head.

Blinds get to 3k-6k and we're down to 10 players. I'm in EP and get the Ad-8d. I attempt a quick nick of the blinds and go all-in for 24k but get called in two spots. Mr No-Chips (5k) has K-7 and Mr 28k-in-chips has Qh-10h. The first card off is a Queen (doh) but the river card is the Ace (weeeeeee) and its final table time!

So I have around 50k in chips but with the antes about to go to 4k-8k I have to gamble!

Three players drop in quick order and I still have around 50k when I get 8-8 in EP. I raise to 20k but the player to my immediate left re-raises to 100k all-in. I pass as the player to my immediate right has only 6k left and its his BB next hand. I'm hoping he'll get knocked out and thats a £100 step in prize money.

He drops next hand and we're down to 5. I can't find a hand though and with 12k in antes coming around every 5 hands I need to get busy but can't as my hands are absolutely crap or someone raises before me and my hand can't stand the raise. I quickly lose 30k in antes.

My last few chips go in with Q-7 against 4h-5h. My opponed hits trip 5's and I'm done although the £335 prize money eases the pain somewhat.

Entries -> 57 - Place -> 5th - Win -> £293 ($513) Profit/Loss for 2006 -> +$1975

Feb 28th - £20+£2 NL Hold'Em - LCI Club (Brighton)

There is always a chance that on any given night during any given game Murphys Law becomes a reality. You know what I'm talking about...whatever CAN go wrong WILL go wrong!

Well tonight my £100 budget for the nights play was crippled and gone in 40 minutes after beat after beat sucked all my chips along with 4 rebuys. It was then off down to Wimpys to forget my sorrows with a Quarterpounder & chips.

Initial chips : - Missed flush

Rebuy 1 : My A-A got cracked by J-10. I initially raised to 300 and got two callers. Flop came J-K-7. I bet 500 and get both callers. Turn is a Queen. I go all-in and one player calls me with his J-10. River is a 9 to complete his straight.

Rebuy 2 : My K-Q all-in preflop bet is called by player with A-K.

Rebuy 3 : My all-in call with Q-J, multiple pot entries, gets beat by K-10 on a board of 5-K-Q-9-6.

Rebuy 4 : I'm all-in after the flop of 6-9-Q holding K-9 and get caller by player holding 8-7. Turn is a 7, river an 8 and its goodnight from me!

Now you might say that the above 'losses' were hardly Murphys Law but then again I haven't mentioned how my 'folded' hands would be the pot winners if I'd have played them.

My 'worst' beat of the night came when, having won my solitary pot of the game, I'm on the BB with 10s-3s. Four of us see a flop of Qs-Ac-7s. Theres a bet of 500 and me + another player call. The luverly (yes I spelt it that way on purpose) 5s came off on the turn. Original bettor bets 1000 and I, along with the other player flat call. I'm praying for no spade on the river but the Js falls off.

I bet another 1000 but know I'm beaten when an opponent goes all-in for 1100. I call and he flips the As-10h. Nightmare!

Entries -> 73 - Place -> ??? - Loss -> £102 ($178) Profit/Loss for 2006 -> +$1462