Mar 29th - £50+£5 NL Hold'Em (Loose Cannons - EC4)

While the world of big time poker is over in Reno or Monte-Carlo my efforts were being concentrated on one of the more mundane events going on in the world tonight. Yup...its Thursday which means its time for Loose Cannons league night!

Before start of play tonight I sat 3rd in the league on around 148 points. Can't be sure exactly but 1st had around 165 points and 2nd 153. My target was/is 200 points but with just this week and one more to go before the final itself on April 18th I really needed to find some form as I hadn't even managed to find my way into any sort of reward for several weeks now.

Form is a wonderful thing in poker...it comes and it goes. High level, low level it doesn't really matter. If you're hitting cards then you win...if you're not you lose! Its usually fairly obvious within the first 30 minutes of any game what shape it'll take and how 'lucky' or 'unlucky' you're going to be and to be fair my first 30 mins of the game tonight went surprisingly well.

Seventeen runners tonight then and my first 'luck-box' moment came soon into level 1.

Holding 9s-7s in LP I flat called a small raise to 200 (blinds are 25/50). Flop is a yummy looking 8s-6d-As. Check check. The even yummier 5d fell on the turn. My opponent bet out 500. I mini-raised to 1000. He pushed all-in and I, of course called. He flips 8-6 for 2 pair. No improvement on the river for him and I've doubled up already.

Level 2. (50/100) Another player on my table was also getting lucky. He'd amassed a few more chips than me by the time this 'luck-box' hand arrived.

Holding 10s-8s in LP I'd flat called his raise to 600. We were heads up on a flop of 6-7-9! He bet out 1k. I raised to 2500. He pushes all-in and looks disgusted when I called. He flips K-K and was dead in the water. I now have over 12k in chips and on cruise mode.

Of course with 17 runners it doesn't take long to get to the final table...of 10. I held 16k so was in no hurry to get involved until some of the smaller stacks had dispersed. Four prizes with 1st getting £360.

Players dropped quite quickly but we got stuck on 5 players for a while. With antes at 600-1200 the following hand came up.

I'm UTG+1 and get A-A. The guy to my immediate right with around 6k in chips himself raises it to 3k. Music to my ears! I lump in for circa 12k and its passed back around to the raiser who has no choice but to call. He flips 10-10. Its my lucky day as no 10 falls and I'm monster chip lead with 4 left.

Four becomes three and I decide to then take on the smallest stack left calling his all-in bet with Ks-6s against his Q-9. A 9 falls on the flop but so does a 5-7-8 to make me an unlikely straight by the river. Heads Up!!

I had my opponent outchipped by 2-1 but knew I only needed to win one all-in hand for the 1st placing. I didn't have to wait long.

On the BB my opponent raised to 5k. I looked down to see A-Q. Whaddya gonna do?? I went all-in. He called and flipped A-10. Flop was Q-10-J-7-2 and it was all over. 33 points + £360 + £30 in bounties. A highly satisfactory night...for a change!!

Entries -> 17 - Place -> 1st - Win -> £335 Profit/Loss for 2007 -> +£267

(As from 1st Jan 2007 rate of exchange is calculated at £1 = $1.90)