Aug 15th - £100+£10 NL Hold'Em - Western Club (Acton)

Not much to say about attempting to defend my title here!

Poker is a game where you need to get more 'unlucky' than your opponents. Tonight showed why the game we all love so much can be as frustrating as your first time at having sex...expectations are high...result is crap!

So tonight I lasted 4 hands. I was 2nd out, from a start of 48, and left the building and was home playing the $10 rebuy on Stars before I knew it!

I drew seat 1 which meant I'd be on the button straight away (Seat 1 always gets the button at the Western) and the first 3 hands I passed without incident. Hand 4 is where it all happened...

I was dealt Jd-8d and flat called the opening blinds of 50, from a start stack of 5000. Four of us saw the pot...no raises...of Jc-8c-4h. Hmmm...yummmy I thought.

The BB bet out to 200.

With flops like this its usually a safe assumption that a) your betting opponent has a flush draw, b) your betting opponent holds a hand like 9-J, 10-J or Q-J or c) they have middle pair and betting to see where they are.

Holding top two pair I was not about to let my opponent get 'cheapies' so once the action got back around to me I raised it up to 1200 fully expecting my opponent to either fold or call if he was flushing!

He RAISED ME BACK to 2500!!

Ok...further evaluation required. It was now possible that he held an overpair or K-J or A-J or maybe even 4-4. With all possibilities catered for, or so I thought, I still felt as though I could win the hand. I re-raised all-in. He called!

Of course in any evaluation you do theres always the possibility you either forgot something or you look at the board and IGNORE the 'nutty' hand that could already be out there. In this case I chose to ignore my opponent holding J-J which he proudly turned over and I was toast!

There aren't too many times you're gonna be dead on the flop but tonight was one such occasion for me. Lets hope its a long while before I see another one :)

Entries ->48 - Place -> 47th - Loss -> £110 ($203) Profit/Loss for 2006 -> +$13443

(As from 7th August rate of exchange is calculated at £1 = $1.85)