May 19th - 21st - Various

Busy weekend what with one thing and another.

Friday I finally moved back into my 'old' home in West London after battling with the tenant there to get him out. (Never rent your home out to foreigners) The place is in a bit of a state and it'll take a few weeks to get things sorted but at least I'm in now so thats the main thing!

Being in London now gives me several more options as regards a game of cards. Friday night and it was off to Luton for the £100 NL Hold'Em FREEZOUT. If I had a preference I prefer these formats to the re-buy ones as there can be no just going 'all-in' unless you're serious about a hand.

Mind you after last weeks 5-hand blast where my 5k in starting chips seemed to disappear in double quick time I tried to play that much tighter. That worked...for 40 minutes anyway.

I then get A-Q on the BB and there are three callers of the initial 100 blinds as it gets back to me. Not wanting to see TOO busy I raised it to 500 and get two callers. The flop comes a nice looking A-2-3 and I review my options.

One thing I had noticed about the players at my table was that they were prepared to gamble it up if they thought they had even a SMALL chance of taking the pot. To avoid this I said...'I'll go all-in to prevent any of you guys outdrawing me!', and all-in I went fully expecting my two opponents to pass.

'Too late', came the voice of one of my opponents, and he called my all-in bet. The other guy passed and my opponent flipped 4h-5h for a made straight. Some hope was given to me when the turn card came another 2 but it all came to nothing and I was out on my ear! Crap!

Saturday dawned and today was the '7-2 Offsuit World Championship' down at the Western Club. The 7-2 club is part of Londons Poker Meetup group (http://www.londonpokermeetup.co.uk/). A group of likeminded poker loving souls who like nothing better than home games for a fiver and the chance to play. Their 'World Championship' was a £100 NL Hold'Em Freezout event with 10k in starting chips and a 1 hr clock.

Forty runners took part and I finished around 30th after deciding that small pairs were gold and bet them up to the hilt on medium boards. Needless to say that when you have people raising you on 10-9 o/s and the board comes 6-9-4-10-Q its too scary to contemplate. My pair of 2's obviously not enough.

As this championship had started at 1pm and it was now only 4pm I decided to shoot back upto Luton for a pop at their £20+£2 Pot Limit Hold'Em game. Seventy-Three runners produced a prize pool of almost 6k and believe it or not I finished 3rd for £730. Big moments in the game were me making a move with 6-7 against A-J pre-flop. He called and I hit a 6 on the flop giving me 17k in chips and, at the final table, getting all my chips in with Q-Q only to be outdrawn by another player holding A-J.

Ho-hum...we take the rough with the smooth I suppose. Anyway...after a weekend of poker I finished up in profit to the tune of £408. Better than a kick in the bollux!

Entries -> --- - Place -> --- - Win -> £408 ($755) Profit/Loss for 2006 -> +$13105