Dec 14th - £50+£5 NL Hold'Em (Victoria Club, W1)

Tonights £50 NL Hold'Em game at the Vic had 42 runners and I started like a man on fire!

Second hand in I get 2-2 in LP and despite there being a raise & a re-raise upto 400 I decided to call, the reason being that I'm looking to double up or go home early doors so ANY pair is always worth a call looking for that knockout set that will see me accumulate a few chippies!

Well wad-ya-know...the flop comes J-9-2 and I'm looking for action.

EP raiser bets 400. MP re-raiser boots it to 1k...me...I'm all-in! Call. Call.

EP man has Q-Q. MP Man has 8-8 and I have a set. Turn is a THREE, RIVER a NINE!! Treble up time!!

So I now have 6k in chips and on easy street. Trouble was that that was as good as it got!

I just couldn't get any further forwards. I'd win a pot then lose a pot win a pot then lose a pot etc etc. At the break I had 5800!!

Trying a cheecky nick with A-9 I raised to 800 only to see Mr Chinese guy go all-in behind me for CONSIDERABLY more chips than I had. Pass!

Got moved table and was down to 3600 when I picked up K-Q. I raised it to 1200 but the BB decided to flat call. The flop was Ah-7c-5h.

'All-In', said the BB! Now in usual circumstances my hand would have hit the muck but a) I was short of chips & b) I did'nt put the BB on an Ace so at least I'd still have outs if I called. So I did!
He looked a bit peturbed but flipped the 7h-5h for bottom pair and a flush draw. The 9s was followed by the 4d and I was a gonner!

Entries ->42 - Place ->18th - Loss -> £55 ($105) Profit/Loss for 2006 -> +$17966
(As from 30th Nov 2006 rate of exchange is calculated at £1 = $1.90)

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Prior to entering the tournament I sat and played in the £100 Pot Limit Hold'Em game. Whilst I bought in for what I assumed would have been a medium stack of £300 it appeared that the regulars (Michael Arnold, Neil Channing and the like) though nothing of bringing £3k+ to the table!

Whilst I appreciate that the big guns like to have a lot of ammo when playing against the likes of me it really does put me, and others with similar 'small' stacks at a massive disadvantage if the big stacks suddenly decide to start gambling it up!

Luckily for me it was a quiet hour and I stood up with £586 - an ok profit of £286 - but I'd hate to hold K-K against a raiser on that kind of table as I really don't see the point of doing £300 a pop on gambling on a flop that makes my K-K looking like god then find I've been suckered at the end once all my cash has hit the felt!