Jun 19th - £110 NL Hold'Em (Western)

Last week I left you with shortened details of my 'out hand' at the Western.

If you hadn't guessed then I was holding 6c-4c and hoped my all-in shove at the end could convince my opponent to lay down his K-Q. Well it nearly worked :)

You have to be in a particular frame of mind to play in live poker tournaments. Having spent 90 mins prior to this weeks £110 FREEZEOUT on the Internet playing 70 hands an hour its a big step down to suddenly playing 25 and I was fidgity from the off!

For the first hour I saw very few playable hands (out of the 25 dealt) but I suppose getting K-K, 3-3, 4-4, 2-2 and Qh-Jh meant I had an interest in around 25% of the hands dealt so it could have been worse.

A big leak in my game in recent weeks has been the tendency to bluff at pots more than I should. I always try to start games with the 'if it hits I'll play...if not I'll pass' mentality but my out hand tonight was probably me trying too hard to get a guy off a hand that he was never ever going to lay down!

Holding Kh-10h in LP and with blinds at 100-200 I raised it upto 600 to a) pump up the pot and b) nick the antes if I could. I got one caller from across the table.

The flop was J-7-4. My opponent immediately bet out 300. Now smart players will use this tactic in order to a) slow down the original raiser from putting out a big bet or b) bluff themselves in the hope that if their opponent (in this case me) has missed the flop themselves they might fold altogether.

I couldn't see that a 300 bet meant anything so duly raised it upto 1500. I now had 2500 left. I was called.

Now this is where the red lights should have started flashing and a 'DO NOT BET ANYMORE' sign should have appeared alongside a big ding-dong bell. Instead I took the call to mean that my opponent was trying to pull a fast one and I'll soon show him har har!!

Another 7 fell on the turn. Now my opponent checked. Ha...got him...I thought and so lumped in the rest of my chips on nothing more than King high. My opponent shrugged his shoulders and called.

Of course I stood up and prayed for a King as he flipped A-J but an 8 arrived and I was back home in time for Big Brother!

Perhaps I should lay off the speed game mentality of the Internet prior to playing here as I'd just pissed another £110 up the wall!

Entries -> 52 - Place -> --- Loss-> £110 Profit/Loss for 2007 -> £273

(As from 20th April 2007 rate of exchange is calculated at £1 = $2.00)