Apr 26th - £50+£5 NL Hold'Em (Victoria)

I hate myself when I make big boo boos in play. Generally I'll make an excuse like I was tired and was fed up etc etc.

Last nights boo boo put me out of the tournament when I was comfortably cruising and I've no excuses. Just poor play.

The £55 NL Hold'Em Freezout at the Vic had 41 runners. You only get 2k to start with an 20 min blinds don't make the job any easier so I was pleased to get off to a good start.

First hand I'm dealt A-Q in LP. With blinds at 25-25 there's a small raise to 125 then a slightly larger one to 325 from the player just to my right. I flat call as goes the original raiser. Flop is 9-2-2.

Original raiser checks and the original re-raiser bets out 300, a continuation bet if I ever I saw one. I launched all-in and all then passed. Easy game innit??

I then get lucky when I knock out someone with Ah-5h that gets there with runner runner hearts to make my flush so in level 1 I get upto around 3.5k.

Level 2 I suffer a small setback when my Q-10, on a board of 10-9-7, gets rivered by a player holding 8d-9d but at the break I'm on 5300 and well up with the leaders. 32 left.

Once blinds, at the Vic, get to 200-400 the cull starts big time and by the time the 300-600 level comes around there are 16 of us left and on the last two tables. I have 6400. Then came the boo boo!

I'm UTG and look down to see Ac-Jc. A bet of 1200 would hopefully cull the field but nooooo I get 2 callers. Flop is 8s-5s-2d.

Of course I'm nowhere near it but I figure an all-in bet will gimme the goodies. So all-in I go. I just didn't figure on a player flat calling my raise with Q-Q.

Ho hum. No Ace to save my sorry ass and I'm out in 16th. Lesson learned I feel.

Entries -> 41 - Place -> 16th - Loss -> £55 Profit/Loss for 2007 -> -£831
(As from 20th April 2007 rate of exchange is calculated at £1 = $2.00)

Apr 24th - £110 No Limit Hold'Em (Western Club)

Tuesday night is Western night and as I've said before this is the best 'weekly' tournament in London bar none for chip stack (5k), ante-levels (30 mins) and generally good value all round.

The only gripe I have is that for us 'workers' if you do well in the comp then you're gonna be there most of the night!

Thirty-eight runners tonight which was surprising as I was expecting circa 60 however it did mean that things would finish sooner rather than later or so I hoped!

Level 1 and nothing happens...level 2 and I get a nice double up!

Holding Jc-10c I flat call the blinds. Four of us see a flop of 2-6-J. BB bets out to 300. I flat call. Other players fold. Turn card is a 10. BB bets out to 600. I raise to 2k. He goes all-in. I call. He flips 6-2!! An 8 on the river and I'm a happy bunny.

Levels 3, 4 & 5 nothing happens!

With there being so few entries the final table came fairly early at around midnight. I held 20k in chips at this point and so did most other people. Blinds were at 400-800 and nobody was in a rush to leave!

Three more levels passed and only ONE player had gone. Five prizes were up for grabs and everybody was playing with caution.

I grabbed my fair share of blinds and not once did I have to go all-in.

With time approaching 3am there were still 7 of us left then this hand came up...

I held 10-10 in MP. EP player raised it to 12k. This particular player had been raising most hands he came into a pot with but on call-downs he was turning some right junk. I had no qualms about moving in over the top of him for my 20k stack absolutely knowing he would call.

Player to my immediate left went all-in also, for 6k. Original raiser calls and he flips A-3. Player to my left flips A-Q and I like my odds!

Flop is 10-8-J-A-6 and I'm home and dry. We're down to 6.

Money paid at 5 but blinds were upto 2000/4000 so things were about to get hairy for the short stacks. Fifth went...then 4th. Three of us left and I had 50k in chips.

Blinds moved up again to 3k-6k. There was little play left. I got K-J on the button and moved all-in. The SB woke up with 3-3 and called for 30k. Flop was 7-3-J-9-A and I was almost to the felt.

Very next hand I'm all-in with K-8. Of course my two opponents flat called. Flop looked great for me with a K-K-9-7-4 but one of my opponents has lucked out on me with K-9 in his hand.

I'm 3rd for £608. Better than a kick in the buddies!! Its 4am.

Entries -> 38 - Place -> 3rd - Win -> £498 Profit/Loss for 2007 -> -£776
(As from 20th April 2007 rate of exchange is calculated at £1 = $2.00)

Apr 21st - £525 Gutshot Open (Gutshot Club E1)

The last time I played at the Gutshot, in a £300 event, I managed to worm my way into the event by playing in the last multi-table satellite held on the day. I realised, at the time, that concentating for 5 hours in that before finally winning a seat and then having to start all over again within a couple of hours was bloody hard work and despite the fact I went out of that event with A-K versus Q-Q I was very tired at the end of it.

Today I attempted to qualify for the nights £525 event via the same route. With a 12 noon start for the satellite and only 21 runners I figured it couldn't be too difficult to at least get a proper rest if successful in winning a seat!

The £30 rebuy satellite took in enough for 3 seats and £195 for 4th. Not bad!

In total I spent £150 after getting sucked out on early doors but a couple of rebuys and an add-on gave me just over 6k when the time to 'play proper' came around...more than enough to be getting on with.

Of course there comes the all defining hand which either makes or breaks you. Mine came with 10 players left.

With blinds at 350-700 and me having around 11k in chips I held 6s-6d in the BB. It was passed around to the SB who made it 2k to go and I flat called. Flop was Qs-9s-3s.

The SB checked. I bet out 3k...he went all-in and I, looking at only 5k left if I folded, called. The crafty SB held Kc-Kh!

I needed a spade....7c....6h.....weeeeeee!!!

Final table time and the short stacks soon busted leaving five of us looking for the seats. Three of us looked fairly certain of one whilst the two small stacks agreed a deal amongst themselves.

One of the small stacks went all-in and I gladly called with A-K. He held K-10 and didn't improve. Down to 4.

As one of the major stacks I was in no hurry to get involved and let two other stacks tussell for one seat versus £195.

It was 4.15pm and over. I was in the Gutshot Open!!!

------------------------------------------------------

Eighty seven runners each with 10k in chips and a 45 minute clock. I felt ok, at 6pm, as we got underway.

By the time the first break came around after 2 levels I was down to 6500 after a few 'hopeful' calls had got nowhere. Urghhh!

Things brightened up somewhat in level 3. Holding 2s-3s in LP I decided to call the 150 blind. No raises and three of us saw a 2h-2c-Kc flop. It was checked around and I too checked. Turn card was the 8s. Things then got interesting.

The BB bet out to 600. I mini-raised to 1200 and the BB then raised me back to 3k. Trying to look worried I flat called. The 4c fell on the river. Although a flush WAS there I felt it was irrelevant as I was pretty much pot committed anyway. The BB checked, I went all-in, BB called and flipped A-K in disgust! A major mistake on his part.

So now I'm upto 14k and feeling a bit better. Blinds go upto 100-200 and my next 'double up' occurs.

I get dealt A-A in EP and raise it up to 800. All pass to the BB who flat calls and we see a flop of K-4-4. BB checks...I bet out to 1200 and immediately the BB goes all-in for about 12k. Of course I call. He flips K-Q and although a Queen appears as the turn card an 8 falls on the river giving me Aces & Fours to beat out the Kings & Queens!!

At the end of level 4 I'm upto 28k.

Levels 5 & 6 come and go. I'm down a little...to 26k...but no worries however I'm about to suffer!

Level 7 and its almost midnight. I get 4-4 in LP and call a guy whos pretty short on chips (circa 12k) to 3k. Flop is A-3-5. He checks. Now I KNOW I'm behind here to his Ace and any move by me will get a response but I figure if I'm going to win I have to take chances SOMETIME. I go all-in and get an immediate call with his A-J. Any 4 or 2 will do!!

The turn card is a 9...the river a THREE! Boooooooo!!!

Ok...so first major hit of the night but it seemed to punch me mentally more than I though as I suddenly started to get agitated.

Twelve hours of poker and my brain was getting mushy.

An interesting hand then came up.

I held 4h-6h in LP. I look at these kind of hands as a potential '2 time winner'. The flush & the straight although I am prepared to drop them sharpish if things don't happen on the flop.

There was a raise out of EP to 2k. Two callers before it got to me...wonderful odds...I flat call. The SB decides to raise it up some more...to 7k. Original raiser calls as does one other player before it gets back to me. Pot is MASSIVE!! I, of course call!

Flop is a woozy Ad-3d-9h. I'm ready to fold...but no-one bets. Turn is the 7h. Ok...now I'm locked in. Any 5 or any heart...pleeeeeeasssssseeee! Again no-one bets.

River the 6s. Bah-humbug. Almost!! SB immediately bets out 10k. We all fold and SB flips A-3 for two pair on the flop. Little did he know he was 'this close' to being infertile with a swift kick between his legs.

So I'm down to 10k and its 12.30am. I'm tired and get all my chips in with Kc-2c...yes I know...hardly the bollux!

The good news is that there are two callers. Its a 30k+ pot which gets me back in the game if I can win it. Flop is A-Q-9 and I sigh. There's a bet, a fold, and I flip my meagre holding only to see A-Q from my opponent.

A King fell on the turn to make it interesting for all of 5 seconds until the 9d fell on the river to knock me out!

The guy who knocked me out went onto claim the £15k first prize. Good luck to him but it could have been o so different!

Entries -> 87 - Place -> 40th - Loss -> £150 Profit/Loss for 2007 -> -£1274
(As from 20th April 2007 rate of exchange is calculated at £1 = $2.00)

Apr 19th - £10 NL Hold'Em - Gutshot Club

Before we begin with my 'short' blog today I just thought I'd better mention how I got on in Wed nights 'final' of Loose Cannons 'Vegas Trip League'.

The fact is that I got unlucky in one pot that I couldn't recover from and after that it was a slog.

Holding A-J, and with 5k in chips (from a start stack of 4400), I called a smallish raise from a player in EP. Flop was K-J-6. He checks, as do I, as I wanted to see another card before getting involved.

Turn card was a 3. Mr EP bets out to 1100. I flat call as I think he's reacting to my initial check after the flop so fancies a bet. Then again he may have had a king so I figure if he bets massive on the river I'll fold anyway.

River card is another Jack. Mr EP bets out 1100. I re-raise him all-in and he calls. He flips 3-3 for an unlikely full house and I'm down to mash.

With blinds at 200-400 I go all-in with A-2 in the hope of a double up and get called by Mr A-K!

Urggggghhhh!

Last night at the Gutshot I blew another £80 attempting to get into Friday nights 'mammoth' tournament without success.

My highest chipcount was 2600 and I busted out shortly after the break with Qc-Jc against a pair of 4's on a flop of Q-9-4.

Baba!

My plan now is to take a rest on Friday night then play in the satellite into Sat's £500 event at the Gutshot at noon on Saturday.

We'll see what happens!

Entries -> 70 - Place -> --- - Loss -> £80 Profit/Loss for 2007 -> -£1124
(As from 20th April 2007 rate of exchange is calculated at £1 = $2.00)

Big Time Gamblers !!

There's been a lot of chat in the past few weeks about Ram Vaswani & Marc Goodman being 'hustled' out of a large sum of money by Phil Ivey on the golf course.

I've tended to keep out of the argument as, being a Libran, I tend to want to balance up the arguments before putting in my twopence worth.

Theres no doubt in my mind that Ram & Marc WERE hustled however...

They're both grown men who like to gamble and it would appear from the story that they simply got in too deep!

Cliff notes seem to read as :

Phil :- 'Wanna play for $50k a hole over 18?'
Ram :- 'How many shots are we going to get cos I haven't played in a while?'
Phil :- 'Neither have I...lets play even'
Ram :- 'Fair enough...lets go!'

Ram & Marc lose over a million dollars on the basis that Phil has lied through his teeth.

Ram & Marc refuse to pay!

Now, of course, this maybe a very simplistic view of things but the thought process goes that if you make a bet / agreement then you honour it!

I made a big thing last year about Jamie Gold's attempt to wiggle his way out of his agreement with Mr Leysher about 'sharing his WSOP winnings'. Of course winning $12M seemed to give Mr Gold the right to wiggle. He tried and failed and had to cough. Reputation in ruins!

Americans are very good at 'hustling' as we Brits tend to keep our word, and honour, as intact as possible by being only 'slightly' economical with the truth at times whereas Mr USA holds no qualms about telling the biggest porkies in order to keep his edge.

At the end of the day though its the honesty of Ram & Marc that may have allowed them to be reeled in by Mr Ivey & friend and now there's a price to pay.

Honesty and Americans never did go hand in hand!

Apr 16th - £10 NL Hold'Em - Gutshot Club

So its Monday night and I'm looking for a game. Where to go??

To be fair there was only one place TO go tonight and that was the Gutshot Club where there'd be x number of places up for grabs in the 1st of thier 4 prelim rounds into Friday nights Mammoth tournament.

Each night till then (Mon - Thur) there's a £10 rebuy, with 60 mins of rebuys, where the top 20% of entries each night win a seat in Friday nights grand final where in excess of a £10k prize pool awaits.

Tonights event saw 50 runners attend which meant there were 10 places up for grabs on Friday. I never got out of the starting gate.

With a budget of £100 (plenty of rebuys) I was keen to gamble it up and hoped to get enough chips together to then play steady after the rebuys. Well the gambling happened but the 'accumulation of chips' didn't.

To begin with I'm all-in (500 points) with any Ace. After three of four goes at finding that didn't work I then tried pairs. One pair out of 4 got through so that doubled me up to just over 1k.

That disappeared soon afterwards when my J-10 failed to beat out 10-9 on a flop of 8-9-4.

Ho Hum.

In the end, and shortly before the rebuys finished, I went on a desperate 'all-in every hand' race which was finally called by both 7-7 & A-A. I held the As-8s and things looked hopeful as the 1st card out on the flop was the Qs. As it was I didn't improve so needless to say I was on my way home soon after.

Maybe next time will be better??

Accumulative wins / losses since my last update = £200 + £158 ($300) - £33 = (£365 - £1269) = -£944

Entries -> 50 - Place -> --- - Loss -> £100 Profit/Loss for 2007 -> -£1044

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

Apr 14th - £30+£3 NL Hold'Em Freeze - Western Club

Within this blog you'll be told of the donkiest donkey call by one of my opponents I've ever had the pleasure of being involved with. Infact the call made must rank as the No. 1 donkey call of all time. Read on....

Sixty-Five runners in todays £30 freezeout at the Western and as with all these events held at the Western over the past few months (London Poker Meet Up event) the standard of play can vary between 'good' to 'shit poor' and mostly in between. For the odd player, like myself, that think they're better than 'good' then there's money to be made. Unfortunately there are just too many 'donkeys' to get past in the normal course of events to make it pay...as I was to find to my cost!

Early doors and I find A-A in MP. Me and A-A at the Western don't seem to get on at the moment so I raised it up to 400 (blinds were 50-100) and I get a reraiser from across the table to 1100. With a 5k start stack, a 30 minute blind level and the whole of Saturday afternoon ahead of me I wasn't keen to comitt all my chips just yet so I flat called and checked the flop before it had been dealt which came Q-J-2. My opponent immediately checked as well.

Having this information I immediately bet out to 2k on a turn card of a 7. Surprise, surprise...my opponent went all-in and I was committed to call. He flipped Q-Q, for a set, and when no Ace came to save me on the river I was already down to 600.

Two double ups later and I had close to 3k again. I then continued to hit some cards, get lucky when I needed to and generally move up the chip count.

By the time the level was 350-700 I had 18k in chips and we were down to 34 runners. Then came THIS hand which even now I have no logic to explain WHY it happened the way it did...

I'm in LP with 4d-6d. Not a super hand by any extreme but a nice flop can change all that so I flat called the 700 and four of us saw a flop of 4s-5c-6s. From a distance this flop could have been better but I'd flopped two pair and so was considering my options when suddenly the BB went all-in for 4k.

I wasn't worried by this bet as he was short stacked and was more likely than not drawing to either the flush or the straight. A 4k call wasn't going to be the end of the world so I got ready to call. The player between me and the BB then flat called as well. He had 17k in chips, before the call, and the flat call smelt like he was fishing as well. Isolation time!!

I loaded up the barrells and announced 'all-in'. If the player with the 13k left HAD a big hand he'd have raised immediately after the all-in from the BB and NOT flat called. The 4th player folded and it was back to the player with 13k left. I had him covered!

The player ummed and aared then called. I was expecting to see either a straight or a flush draw. Instead I saw As-Jc. WHAT???? No draw no nuffin...just Ace high!!

The BB shoved oved 10-6 for a pair of 6's and even if I got unlucky with a TEN dropping I was surely going to pick up the side pot of over 26k. Right....WRONG!!!

The turn was the 9s the river the 10s and Mr Donkey had hit the nut flush to scoop the lot!!

Fuming wasn't the word. I had 1700 left and with blinds coming at me I gambled with Kc-9c and ran into...A-A!!

Arrrrrrrgggghhhhhh!!

Apr 13th - £10 rebuy - NL Hold'Em - Loose Cannons EC4

When in doubt visit the place where the wages truck always seems to drop by! Well that the theory anyway.

My last blog stated that my next port of call for 'live' poker would be the Western Club on Sat 14th for the '7-2 offsuit' clubs monthly £30 freezeout. Ok...so I couldn't wait and decided to try my hand at Roy's £10 rebuy comp instead this Friday the 13th!! The competition down there is much lighter than anywhere else although when I saw that Mike Magee was there (just visiting thank God) I thought the night was about to become much tougher than anticipated.

For those that don't know Mike Magee was a bit of a legend around 10 years ago when he was leading the WSOP main $10k event with two to go for the money. On that ocassion he blew up and through an unlikely sucession of beat after beat in short order he got knocked out WITHOUT making the money. What made it worse was the fact that TV camereas were following both him & Andy Black for a TV documentary and the sight of Mike walking out of the door at Binions into a lot of empty space makes ones toes curl up!

Mike took a break after that but came back in 2001 to win my websites (UKPOKER.COM) 'Best Player Of The Year' award. He's no mug!

Anyway...with Mike NOT playing it was me versus 18 city boys (+ 1 lady) and with it being a rebuy I knew it was important to accumulate chips as they'd be useful later on when it came time to 'play properly'.

Early doors I went all in (1k) with Kh-2h and got called by a young Spanish guy with A-J. Now recently my hand would have lost no problemo but today....3h-4h-8c-5h-Ad !! I was up & running.

A short time later my chips went south as I battled K-Q / K-9 with my Ah-8h but came out a loser on a board of 9-10-J-4-Q but I got lots of chips from another 3 way battle shortly afterwards. On a flop of Ad-2d-8d I called two all-in bets from players holding 3d-5d & A-10 with my Qd-8c. The 7d popped out on the river and I was upto around 4k.

The obligatory add-on gave me another 1500 points so I started 'proper play' at circa 5.5k.

With only 20 runners of course it didn't take that long to get to the final table of 10 although my stack hadn't moved. I was drawn in seat 4, immediately to the right of the monster chip leader who seemed to have around 20k+ With blinds at 250-500 I could wait a while.

What was interesting was that Mike Magee had re-appeared from his meet with the management and was trying to get a bet on ME winning! No-one would take the action but I was glad of the confidence vote. Even so there'd be a few 'all-ins' I'd have to negotiate in order to even have a sniff at this thing. So...10 left!

It took a good 30 minutes to lose the players. A three way charge saw A-A v K-K v A-J. The Aces held and we were 8.

There were 4 prizes up for grabs with 1st spotting £240+ a $300 'Brucie bonus' which would be put onto your VC account. Nice...if I could get it!

8 became 7 became 6 became 5. I'd have thought at this point that play would have started to tighten up but noooo...those city folk like to gamble. 5th went out with 2-2 versus Q-Q and we were in the money.

Fair play to the chip leader...he seemed to know what he was doing as he called an all-in bet with A-Q on a flop of 3-4-7. His opponent held A-J and so chip leader got bigger.

Three of us left and I was almost Mr short stack. I'd gone all-in with 10k in the pot for my last 6k on a board of 6-6-K-A-9 with 7-2 offsuit and BEGGED the chip leader to call me as I wanted to go home. He grinned and passed although in situations like this its always better to advertise and he looked like crying as I flipped my hand claiming he'd passed a King. Yeh right sonny!!

Two hands later I was all-in with 3-3 and got an instacall from across the table wih my opponent holding Jh-10h. A board of 7-4-2-5-7 doubled me through and put my opponent down to the felt. He went out next hand and we were heads up!

As we began I was outchipped 3-1. Even with 20k + in chips I knew I couldn't really fart about so played strong. Luckily the cards started falling my way. I got dealt Kc-Qc. All-In and was called by a suspect looking Q-J. Not to worry though as the flop came Jc-10c-Kd-4s-Ac for only my second ROYAL FLUSH ever at hold'em. The first was in a game in Belfast about two years ago!!

I'm still in need of doubling through though again. I get 8-8 and again go all-in. He calls with Ac-7c but a flop of J-10-4-9-6 seals the deal and now I'M monster chip stack.

Next hand its all over as my Qh-8h beats out his all-in with Jd-3h on a board of Jh-7h-4h-4s-9c and I'm the winner. Ok...so my form returns and order is restored at Loose Cannons where I've finished first on more ocassions than anywhere else in the past 12 months.

With the league final for a trip to Vegas being held there next Wed I can only hope my LC form continues...just one more time!!

Apr 12th - £50 +£5 NL Hold'Em - Grosvenor Victoria - W1

My 200th post on BLOGGER and its a loser!!

I always think its better to gamble it up early and see as many flops as possible whle the antes are small in the hope of hitting and taking many of my opponents chips in the process. Of course this theory goes the other way at times and when you don't manage a hit its usually 'get your coat time'.

Forty two runners at tonights £50 freezeout at the Vic. With the Loose Cannons league all over with (final is next Wed) I'm trying to re-evaluate my 'live play' strategy and after next week when I'll be attempting to qualify for the Gutshot version of the MAMMOTH I'll be hitting the Western of a Tuesday and the Vic of a Thursday night.

Early play saw me hit very little and during the 1st level I managed to increase my 2k starting stack by all of 50 points. Level two (25-50) brought a little more in the way of action but not a lot to write home about. One player hit a staight on the flop to take down another players set of Jacks but my action was kept to a minimum. Infact bugger all happened until my 'out' hand appeared.

Level 3 (50-100) and I get Ks-5s on the button (I'm dealing). There's a small raise to 200 from a player UTG which is duly called by myself and a player to my immediate right.

Flop is a groovy looking 4s-6h-7s. Ok...hands up who can get away from this?? My hand stayed firmly by my side!

The player UTG bets out to 400. Player to my immediate right goes all-in (he has me covered) and I'm stuck with having no option but to call. Player UTG moans about how he can possibly fold but flips 5-5 and does so whilst player to my right flips 6-6 for a set!

So its 'cummon baby...you can do it'. I then deal the 10h followed by the 10c and its all over!

So I've 30 outs and can't find myself ONE!! Arggggggh!

Next stop is the Western on Saturday afternoon...come back form all is forgiven!

Accumulative loss since my last update = €1920 (£1371) + £110 + £55 = £1536 - £267 = -£1269 in 2007 so far!!

Apr 10th - 100+10 NL Hold'Em - Western Club

Getting A-A cracked is all part of the game. I accept that. What really pisses me off though is that the poker Gods deem in necessary to have them cracked within 15 hands of the start thereby giving me much pain and grief in the fact that I hadn't even started the game!

7 hands into the game and I'm moved tables as 'the next big blind'.

Seventy two runners tonight at the Western which is pretty good going and this event is probably the best weekly tournament, in terms of valuye (5k start stack - 30 minute blinds) there is in the London area. Anyway I digress.

I get put next to Mick Cook, on my immediate left, another stalwart from the 90's who's probably played all there is to play in terms of poker, and so am not eager to get involved unless I have some sort of goodie bag in my hand. I didn't have to wait long as 3 hands in I get A-K.

Now I'm not a great fan of the '3 * BB' rule when it comes to raising with ante's at 25-50. For a start the mediocre hands are always going to call and once one calls then half the table will usually join in 'for value'. Nope...I raise it to 400 and collect the blinds. Job done!

Three hands later I get A-A in MP. There's a flat call, to 50, from my immediate right, and again I choose to raise to 400. All pass back to the guy on my immediate right who decides to call. Fair enough. Flop is 9c-9d-5h.

My opponent checks and I fire out the obligatory continuation bet of 800. He immediately reraises me to 1600! WTF!!

I HATE situations like this. With no straight or flush draw probable he either hit a set of 5's (possible), a nine, (not likely) or has a pair in his hand (most probable) and is trying to get me off my A-Q/K or my pair.

He hadn't raised before the flop but WAS happy to call my 400. A pair in his hand was most likely here. I just had to hope it wasn't 5's as I went all-in!

Of course he called and flipped 9h-10h!! Just what can one do??

After that debacle I had 600 left which went in with Ah-8h and got two callers. Nothing hit and A-J picked up the pot. Early night for me then!!

Dave Uliot & Jennifer 'Fucking' Tilly

You may think that the headline for this piece is derogatory in some way but Jennifer is one cool looking lady.

My table assignment for the €1000 NL Hold'em was to begin with Devilfish immediately to my right with Jennifer Tilly three to my right. Having seen how Jennifer played her set of Jacks on a recent edition of 'Poker After Dark' I had no doubt that I shouldn't be worrying too much about her play neither that of Dave U who seemed to be more pre-occupied with the female dealers than his card holdings!!

Having Dave to my immediate right also meant I'd be giving up on a lot more hands sooner than planned as Dave, the ultimate professional, would always come into a pot with a raise meaning that my 'looks playable' hands would be hitting the muck without getting involved without the goodies. That plan seemed to work as Dave hit an early straight with A-2 after I'd passed A-10 to his pre-flop raise. An Ace also fell on the flop as did a 3-4-5!!

With blinds still at 25-50 I got A-K in MP and raised it up to 300. I got one caller and a flop of 6-7-9. I'm not a great fan of flops like that when holding A-K but as my opponent checked in response to mine I felt he was on a similar holding. A 'five' came off on the turn.

Again I checked but this time my opponent bet out 400.

There's no doubt you have to follow your instinct in Texas Hold'Em win OR lose. I called. A 10 fell on the river! With the board reading 5-6-7-9-10 I again checked and again my opponent bet out...this time to 600. Having put him on A-J or A-Q I called and was rewarded as he flipped A-Q. Nice!

My next decision wasn't long in coming.

Holding 10-10 in MP I flat called a raise to 300 from Jennifer. A player, two to my left, then raised it up to 900. It was passed back around to me with JT passing.

The re-raiser had suffered a little at the hands of another player a short time earlier so was down to only 3k after the 900 raise. I felt that he could be making the bet with A-K so called the re-raise and prayed for a reasonable flop which would allow me to go all-in and scoop the pot. The flop was Q-Q-5.

Having put him on A-K I immediately moved all-in. He sat for seemingly an age before calling and flipping A-A. Urgh!

Oh well...one all on the instinct stakes! I now had 4k from a 7k start stack.

Blinds moved to 50-100 and I found 9-10 in MP. Usually these kind of cards, in this position, would be instamucked but with no raise and only 100 to call I was feeling lucky so flat called. There ended up 4 of us including both JT on the SB and the big blind.

Flop was 9d-10d-5d. JT immediately bet out to 300.

Of course on flops like this and two pair in hand you have to take a view on whether the original bettor has a high card diamond (Ace or King) and make it difficult for them to continue. I raised to 1200. Jennifer came back over the top for 4k and I obligingly called.

She flipped Qd-3d and I was hoping for a nine or a ten...which never came! Ho Hum!!

So there you go my adventure in the €1000 event lasted less than an hour and I end up getting knocked out by Jennifer 'Fucking' Tilly...and I mean that in the nicest way :)

Apr 5th - Reporting from the Irish Open

Four Hundred and One runners & €178,000 in the prize pool meant that 50 seats + €3000 were up for grabs in tonights super satellite into the main €3500 Irish Open event itself due to start on Friday at 4pm.

Well that was the theory...in practice the main event had SOLD OUT by 4pm today, Thursday, so the organisers could only offer 20 seats with the next 30 getting €3500 cash. Well I wasn't going to complain!!

The buy in for the super satellite was €200 and I had a budget of €800 (£570 approx) for this event. It was all spent!

First rebuy came with a bit of a gamble holding Jc-6c on the BB. A Russian guy, across the table, was gambling it up big time and, with blinds at 50-100, he'd raised to 400 from the off. I called as did one other. The flop was 3-4-5. I checked...he moved all-in and I decided to gamble. He flipped K-7 so I needed help. None came. REBUY!

Second rebuy came again when gambling with the Russian. Holding A-5 I called his all-in move from the off. He flipped K-Q but after a nice looking 10-10-8-6 flop the river brought a Queen! Pooey!

So I rebuy again and manage to make it upto 4500 before the break. My top up of another 3k gives me 7500 to start the 'serious' side of the game but its a long way off the prize money.

After the break I received NO big starting hands at all. I got a break when my 7-7 turned into a set on the turn card of one flop and again when it was a blind v blind battle. I held 6-5 in the BB. Player UTG flat calls and everyone else passed with antes at 300-600. At this point in time I held around 7k. Flop is 6-7-Q. I bet 500. UTG raises to 2k and I decide he's at it and push all-in. He joyfully calls and flips K-Q. Oops! The turn is an 8 giving me a few more outs but a lovely 5 arrives on the river and I double through to 14k. Table breaks.

We're at about 170 runners now and they're dropping fast. I scrape my way upto 19k on the next table when this happens...

I'm on the BB and blinds are 1500-3000. I haven't looked at my cards but its passed around to the SB who's chipped up. He decides to put in a chunky bet and so its pretty much all my chips to play. I look down to see K-10 and decide to go all-in. The SB looks well perplexed but calls the additional 4k. He flips 7-4! The flop is A-10-9-Q-J and I make the staight and, more importantly for me move to circa 40k. At this stage I just figure to cruise into the money with around 120 left!

Another 2 levels go by. I'm getting no cards and blinds are 3000-6000 with a running ante of 500. Because I'm blinding away I've got 26k left when I'm on the BB. There are 9 minutes to go on the level when blinds will be 4000-8000 ante 500 and with 9 players at our table it'll mean 16500 a round. In other words I have about one round left. There are 72 runners showing on the board.

I look down and see Ks-Js. There's a raise from the player UTG to 18k. Its passed back around to me and I decide that its worth the risk as after this hand I'm down to 20k with a 3K ante to come. I go all-in.

My opponent calls and flips A-J. The flop is a decent looking Q-9-8 meaning any 10 or K will give me the win. Another 9 drops on the turn followed by .......another 8!! I'm out in 70th spot just 19 shy of the money.

Maybe there would have been a better spot to come but you pays your money and makes your choice. No regrets...no seat and no €3500!!

So no Irish Open main event for me but I've registerd for the €1000 event on Sunday and I'm now looking forward to that.

The Irish Open event is always well attendedand well run. If ever you get the chance to come over to Dublin of an Easter and play I heartily recommend it but remember....book early!!

A month in the Internet blinds (March 2007)

With of loss of just over £1200 on the month I've decided to really cut back on 'Internet Poker' for the time being as there's just no way I'm making it pay.

Big losses this month were on Stars (-£485) and VC Poker (-£360) with smaller losses at Full Tilt, Partypoker, Gutshot & Mansion.

Of course playing in events with 1500+ runners (Stars) is never a good idea if you're looking for profit but I'm always of the opinion that I only need to win one of these monster runner events and I'm back in the black. On VC I lost mainly in the cash games in Omaha. Amazing how many times you can hit a set there only to be up against either a higher set or get turned over by a flush or straight draw!!

For people that think Internet poker isn't juiced in some way is living in fantasy land. Too many times, when heads up, the flop will bring a great hand for hand 1 and a great drawing hand for hand 2. Generally the person with the biggest stack at the time will prevail and generally it'll be for all ones chips. It gets boring after a while.

April will be an interesting month on the 'live' front with me attempting to qualify for the Irish Open on Thursday 5th. If I DO qualify via the satellite I'll be doing a daily report on my efforts from Friday 6th. If not I'll be playing in the €1000 freezeout event at the Irish Open on Sun 8th and, of course, on the 18th its the final of the Loose Cannons 'Trip To Vegas' league.

My life could be very different in 18 days time. Stay tuned!