July 29th - £100+£10 NL Hold'Em - Sportsman - London W1

My first time at the Sportsman in W1 proved to be pretty uneventful. I won a grand on the 3-Card-Brag game when, apart from a good run of flushes & straights, I hit trip 9's for a £700+ payout but apart from that excitement my poker form has somewhat deserted me!

The £100 event attracted 42 runners and with rebuys added it there was a prize pool of over £10k by the time the dust had settled.

From an opening stack of 2500, and 2 rebuys, I'd managed to get my stack upto around 12k at the break. This was mainly derived from a great hand holding of 8-9. With blinds at 50-100 4 of us saw the flop of 8d-5d-3c. I bet out 500 and got 2 callers. Now as usual with a '2 flush flop' I assumed that one of my calling opponents held a flush draw so I hoped for a blank on the turn in order to pound the pot!

The 6s fell on the turn and it was checked to me. 'All-In', I announce and pushed my last 5k into the middle. After much humming & aaring I get a caller. The 3rd player still in moans and folds! My opponent flips 8-7 and when a King appears on the river I collect a nice pot!

The cards weren't co-operating though really. I didn't get two picture cards once and my best hand was 6-6 and that lost!

After the break more shite hands followed. Mr Newbie, at the far end of the table to me, was winning pot after pot and hitting evertyhing in sight. I might have known my chips would go to him!

Holding 4s-4h I raised, in MP, to 3k in order to pick up the antes. No such luck. I get 2 callers one of whom is Mr Newbie! The flop is Js-7s-5s. I'm first to act so, with spade in hand, I go all-in in the hope of getting through the pack.

My next player folds but Mr Newbie calls and flips As-7s for the made nut flush! A Jack falls on the turn giving me some hope but a 10 falls on the river and its goodnight from me!

A good crowd though and a good tournament structure (blinds every 30 mins). I'll be back!

Entries ->42 - Place -> 25th - Loss -> £310 ($543) Profit/Loss for 2006 -> +$10105

July 22nd - £300+£30 NL Hold'Em - Big Slick Club (Croydon)

One hundred and twenty runners in the £300 FREEZOUT event at the Big Slick club in S. Croydon this Saturday night and guess what...I was 1st!!

Errrr...1st out that is!

I can't remember the last time that happend to me but I suppose after tonight the only way is up.

With a 10k starting stack and a 40 minute clock it looked like it could have been a long night.

My tournament lasted 6 hands and here they were!

I got sat at seat 4 and with the button placed at seat one it meant my first hand was UTG.

Hand 1: (UTG) Q-8 o/s. - passed. (10000)

Hand 2: (BB) 6h-7h. No raise and five of us saw a flop of 2-3-4. Checked all around. The 7c came off next. I checked. The player to my immediate left bet 250 and was raised to 600 by the button. I passed, as did the original bettor. (9950)

Hand 3: (SB) 9d-10d. Again no raise so I completed the bet and saw a flop of Ah-4d-6s. I checked. A bet came in and I passed. (9900)

Hand 4: (Btn) 9c-10c. (I kid you not!) It was raised to 250 with two callers before it got back to me. I flat called but again some lousy flop and I have to pass (9650).

Hand 5: (Btn-1) Ks-Qd. Being in late position I took the flop along with 3 others for 200. It came Qh-9s-5h. Its checked around to me and I bet 300. I get one caller. Now it situations like this I'm assuming that the caller would be flushing as a) they didn't re-raise me back and b) with 2 hearts out there its a fairly straightforward hand to put my opponent on. The 8s fell on the turn. Again my opponent checked. Suddenly I envisage him having J-10, and a made straight, so instead of pounding the pot (which would be my normal play here giving my opponent no real odds to call his flush) I got a bit trembly and only bet 500. Of course he called. The 8h fell on the river and he immediately bet out 1k. With over 3k in the pot I felt obliged to call and he flipped 10h-7h for the flush! (7650)

Hand 6: (Btn-2) Kc-Kh. There's a raise to 200 from the player to my immediate right. I mini-raised to 500 and he min-raised to 1500. I go all-in. He calls in a flash and flips A-A. How unlucky was I to find a 220/1 hand sat in the same hand as me with K-K. No miracles on a flop of 10-10-2-5-A and I was gone!

In hindsight I was never going to pass K-K (even after the flop) and I don't come across K-K v A-A that often. Lets hope that next time I'm the one with the A-A :)

Entries -> 120 - Place -> 120th - Loss -> £330 ($578) Profit/Loss for 2006 -> +$10648

July 18th - £20+£2 NL Hold'Em - Grosvenor (Victoria)

Back to the grind and with the WSOP in full swing over in Vegas there wasn't too much surprise to see only 32 souls turn up for the Tuesday night game at the Vic. The weather no doubt had something to do with it as well but I was itching to get going again after my summer hols!

The quick levels (20 mins) and low chip start (1000) don't really give you much time to get creative. Its pretty much ABC poker from the word go so anytime I felt strong I went all-in in the hope of either doubling up or being felted.

First chance I got to play this way was early on when holding 2-2 on the button. Me & 4 callers saw a flop of As-2s-3s. It was checked around to me and I moved all my chips forward. I got a call from the SB who held Ac-Qs but no further spade came to help her out and I'd doubled up!

For the next 45 mins not a lot happened. Other players got chipped up too so come the hand when I hold J-J in LP I knew that if I could double up here I'd be in a nice position for after the break. With blinds at 50-100 I raised to 400 only to be re-raised all-in from across the table. You can't really pass picture pairs on Tues nights so I called expecting A-K or something. He flipped 9-9 and I smiled. First card out was a 9 and I frowned and proceeded to rebuy!

With the add-on at the break I was on 2100 at the restart. I didn't last long. Moved to a new table I got As-9s in EP and raised to 700 (blinds were 100-200). A player from across the table re-raised to 1700 and I went all-in only worrying about one hand...A-A. What did he have? A-A of course! I was home for 10.15pm!!

Entries ->32 - Place -> 25th - Loss -> £62 ($108) Profit/Loss for 2006 -> +$11226

July 17th - Back from hols

My two week holiday in Orlando, Florida was nice. My two trips down to the Seminole Hark Rock Casino proved to be fruitless and no dosh could be extracted from my two $240 multi-table tourney attempts!

With 150+ runners at both tournaments these can be quite lucrative but you need to get into the top 18 to get paid and my best place finish was 34th.

Florida is a funny place to play cards. With cash games capped at $1/$2 limits (the rake of 10% per hand makes it impossible to win) the only way to make any money is to compete in the one table tournies which run pretty much constantly.

There are several on offer. The $40+$10 games are held on the automated 'pro-tek' tables. There are two tables permanently on the go here but with only $200 paying for 1st place and a 25% 'fee' to play I avoided these like the plague.

Next up is the $100+$20 then the $200+$25 and the $500+$40. My two attempts at the $200+$25 tables failed with a 6th and a 7th place and that coupled with the two $240 losses made my trips to the casino a bit of a waste.

Mind you there were always the slot machines, hundreds of them, that sucked another $1k out of me during my time there.

Entries ->--- - Place -> --- - Loss -> $930 Profit/Loss for 2006 -> +$11324