The Bad Play and the Bad Players

Got a phone call out of the blue last week from Ladbrokes about their Poker Cruise qualifiers. Seeing as I qualified for it last year, they offered me a free place in Monday's $130 qualifier. This got me inordinarily excited (shows how lacking in thrills my life is), but I managed to completely douse the fervour by playing like a loon. KK and AJ early on helped me accumulate some chips, but then I managed to spunk away most of my stack when trying to push someone off a Kxx flop with 77 in the hole. God knows why I came to the conclusion that this guy must be bluffing, as I had no real evidence apart from the fact it was checked round to him. He, of course, had a King and I (rightly) missed my two outs. There is no more annoying feeling in poker - the knowledge that you completely messed up a hand through amateur play.

No-limit ring games are going OK. Had a good session on Monday night when I took my £100 buy-in up to £250. Managed to get a great table (a ten seater that was just filling up). Loved it when I noticed that most of the other players hadn't sat down with much money (a couple even with the minimum of £20). Nothing screams fish like this does (you've got to buy in for the max available if you want to get best value for your good hands). Had a great little battle with one player. I annoyed him by going all in with AQ on a board of KJxx. He called with his King and I hit my Ten. Couple of hands later he got me back a bit when he spiked trip fives on the river with his 52!. I did him eventually though for all his money. Another muppet was incapable of laying down top pair, crap kicker, even when facing all-in bets on the river.

Did notice a leak of mine though - I'm playing too many speculative hands out of position. Think I get a bit wound up in the whole 'you could flop a monster and break a player' mentality. At one point I dribbled away £60 without winning anything back. Also had no luck with pocket pairs recently - can't remember the last time I flopped a set.