Dec 19th - £100+£10 NL Hold'em (Western Club)

Last night at the Western I entered the 'twilight zone' for the first time since my win at Loose Cannons a couple of weeks back.

For those of you uninitiated in such things its the time of the game between when the last train leaves for home and the final table is still hours away where at least you get some money for the taxi home.

Failure in this part of the night means that there's no reward and you're faced with another £30+ pullup in order to get your bed for the night via a cab!

Two weeks ago, after picking up £3k at the Loose Cannons, I couldn't have cared less about the fifty note it cost me go get home from central London at 1.30am. So what about tonight??

Seventy runners, a record, kicked off at just before 9pm with our 5k chip stack and, for once, I played pretty much perfect poker in that I played good hands strongly...got the hell out of the way if it got too frisky...and generally played well.

For the first 40 mins I saw not one hand before kicking off the shackles. At the 1st break I had a little over 6k. Enough to be going on with!

With no Hendon Mob League event this evening (missed the buy-in) my concentration was on the job in hand. 6k turned to 10k, to 15k, to 22k and with three tables left I was set fair for a good finish. The last train left without me so I decided to bucke down and attempt to win the thing!

It was 1.45am and the third break of the night when things started to go wrong.

With blinds at 800/1600 I kept attempting to bluff at pots I had no business in bluffing at. Whereas I'd played it tight for a good deal of the time upto that level I suddenly felt like the 2400 in the pot before it got to me was to be mine at most any price. That level (800/1600) cost me 7k in attempted bluffs!

The 1k/2k level was next. I had 15k in chips (average was circa 20k) and there were 16 of us left. I'm on the button and get dealt Qh-8d. Now lets be honest here the hand was crap BUT I had position so when it came around to me I decided to bet it. "10k", I said.

Knowing that I'd effectively committed myself to the hand regardless of whatever the blinds did made me suddenly nervous. 'All-In', said the SB who had me covered. The BB passed and it was just mono-et-mono. I, of course, had to call.

The SB flipped A-A (2nd time this week thats happened) and so me and my meagre Q-8 were looking glum.

But wait....whats this...an 8 appeared as first card out on the flop giving hope...for a second!

No further joy and I was out in 14th spot at 2.17am. Another £15 taxi fare home and my night was complete!

Next stop...Dublin!

Entries -> 70 - Place -> 14th - Loss -> £110 ($209) Profit/Loss for 2006 -> +$17514
(As from 30th Nov 2006 rate of exchange is calculated at £1 = $1.90)