At least the soup was nice...

Given I've got my WSOP trip coming up, I've got to get a bit more live experience. I've gone right off mixing with the hoardes at the Gutshot crush, so tonight I went down to the Sportsman for their £100 rebuy. Now, I normally don't like rebuys, especially £100 ones, as they favour the players who can dig into their pocket the most often. Nevertheless, I decided upon a £300 budget for the evening (using money withdrawn from poker accounts I'm not going to use any more) and made my way to Marble Arch.

There are, by all accounts, usually some faces at this tournament but tonight the only one I recognised by sight was Koresh, and Kevin Daly when I heard his name. Most of the big names are in Dublin for the Irish Open. So, the field looked quite juicy, given that two other people I recognised were a 'throw money about' gambler I remember playing at one tournament at the Gutshot last year, and a sweet Oriental lady who had been at my table at a £30 Sportsman freezeout before and she's no poker player.

In a rebuy tournament, at a table with a few gamblers, you need to hit cards - you can't force people off hands. I found few spots where I could commit chips with confidence. I found AK twice. The first time I went all-in in late position behind a couple of limpers (I'm relatively shortstacked - 1400 chips at 100/200). The SB calls, as does one of the limpers. They have AA and KK. Even my slim chances at hitting a straight were kiboshed by the BB folding TT face-up.

The second AK hand was the sickest bad beat I've had in a live event. I go all-in, against the one limper ahead of me. Three cold-callers behind me plus the original limper calls, so I know that if I do win the hand, I can more than quintuple up. The flop is K85 all hearts. Seeing as I have the Ace of hearts I'm absolutely loving this flop. I love it even more when the original limper bets and forces everyone else to fold. I'm jumping cartwheels when this guy turns over K6 with no heart.

I think to myself as long as there's no six, I'm home. Turn is a 7 and the river is a 4. Before I have a chance to fully celebrate my victory, the cries of 'Straight' go up and I have to rebuy. Aaaargh.

Just before the rebuy period ends I get moved to another table, and Koresh's immediate left. On my very first hand at the table I see a free flop of KQ8 with 83. The flop is checked by the four of us and the turn is a 6, putting three clubs on the board. Koresh quickly bets out.

I immediately know Koresh doesn't have anything, and I go all-in (risking one of the other guys having hit his flush, but the odds are with me). They both fold and Koresh ums and ahs. He asks for a count and I realise I don't have quite as much as I thought I had. He should call with anything, but his fold means he did have absolutely nothing.

I got knocked out two hands into the freezeout period racing 99 against AQ but I can take heart from the fact I think I played well, considering, and made one really good read. I also had a very nice free dinner (a wonderful celeriac soup and cod with pesto mash)

I would like to play this tournament more often (especially when I think the big guns will be elsewhere) but I'd need to go with £500 in my pocket to feel like I have room to manouevre.

Sometimes you can do everything right and yet...

Last night's big $600K on Crypto - huge overlay as they only got just over half the runners needed to cover the guarantee (650 odd). After starting off with a couple of failed bluffs, I got back up to where I started before getting a huge hand.

I call a raise and a call with 88 and see a beautiful flop of 853 rainbow. First to act (the pre-flop raiser) bets just under the pot, then the next guy goes all-in. Even more beautiful. Sadly, the original raiser feels the heat too much and bails (with what he later said was TT). The other guy has AA and I move from 3000 chips up to 7000 and I'm 8th overall.

Then it all goes wrong. I get AA all-in against QQ pre-flop - he rivers his set. Then, five minutes later against the same guy, I get him to call my all-in on an AQ2 flop when he thinks his AK is ahead (sensible enough thought). However, I've totally put him on AK and have him well and truly over a barrel with my AQ. Until the river is a King, of course. Grrr.

I'm back down to 2800, and another 800 chips go when I have 57 on a 542 flop against my opponents 56. The river is a 6. My tournament ends when I push with AQ and run into AA.

A lot of players (and I mean a lot) would then use their next blog post as an opportunity to rant and rave about their bad fortune/useless fish/woe is me. Whilst I was disappointed to get knocked out of a big tournament so early, I was very happy with my play and I know that if I played like that in every major tournament I'd get a nice string of results.

Booked my flight to Las Vegas last night as well - just sixteen and a half weeks to go...

To-do list nearly to-done

I've never really been one for to-do lists, as I never seem to get around to doing what needs doing. However, I'm making rum progress on my poker to-do list for this year.

I've already been able to cross off 'winning a big online comp' and now I can put a line through 'qualify for another big offline tourney (WSOP?)' as that's precisely what I did tonight - and the WSOP at that!

Via two super satellites on Tuesday and Wednesday I found myself lining up with 29 other runners for the two seats on offer. I made a steady start, picking up a couple of small pots before I lost half my stack with JJ. I raised pre-flop and was re-raised by the small blind. I called and we saw a raggy flop (nine-high) and he threw out a pot sized continuation bet. I didn't really know where I was, so I raised, either winning the pot there or folding to a re-raise. After a dwell, he went all-in, so I gave him credit for the QQ+ and folded. If he bluffed me out of this with AK then good luck to him, but I don't think he did. Maybe I could have flat-called the flop bet, and seen what he did on the turn, but I then risked going broke if another rag fell and he did have QQ+.

I managed to recover some lost ground by picking up some pots when I'm sure I didn't have the best hand, before getting my much needed double-up with AA v KK all-in preflop. This lifted me up to above average chips.

The next hand of note I have 53 in the SB. The button limps and three of us see a flop of 34K, which was checked round. The turn was a 7, adding a gutshot straight draw to my hand, and I bet, which both players called. The river was a 5, giving me two pair but also putting three spades on board. I checked, as did the other two. They both had a 7, so I actually rivered them by spiking the five. The button made a comment about me rivering him, and I sensed that he now had me down as a bluffer (which, let's face it, I am).

I head up to about 6200 chips (we started with 2500) when I get AK in the SB. The button open-raises, and I re-raise him, which he calls. The flop of K98 is both checked and the turn is another 8. I bet and he calls. Given the previous hand, I'm sure he doesn't believe I've got an 8 (or even a King, for that matter). A meaningless 5 falls on the river, and I check (showing weakness) ready to call any bet he makes. He duly does so with his 77 and I take the pot. This brings me over 10,000 chips and I'm chip leader.

Five limpers on my BB, and I raise with QQ (hoping for a caller). I get one, he calls my continuation bet with a flush draw which misses and I'm up to 17,000 and the clear lead.

From here on in I have a great run of uncontested blindstealing. Nothing too major (or my opponents would cotton on) but enough to increase my stack gently. I'm careful to fold to the odd re-raise from a stack which could damage me, and manage to knock out a couple of shortstacks when I do have a genuine hand.

With 12 left, we're on two tables of six and it's folded to me on the SB with QQ. The BB has been very tight, but I raise anyway as I want to be able to define his hand if he does call. I fully expect him to fold, but he goes all-in with AQ. My QQ holds up and I have 29,000 chips.

My nearest challenger is on 13,000 and I know one of the seats is there for the taking. All I have to do is steal blinds and protect my stack by avoiding big confrontations to cruise through. This I manage to do easily by targeting the middle-sized stacks. They're very tight and their blinds are up for grabs.

When I knockout the 8th place player (QQ again) I have 36,000 of the 100,000 chips in play - 2nd place only has 16,000. I take out 7th by calling his pot-sized all-in on the flop with a flush draw, which hits on the river, rendering his AK no good. I now have 44,000 chips - 2nd has 15,000. By this stage I know they will all stay out of my way unless they have a huge hand, which I will fold to.

The 5th place guy went out by racing his AK against my 77 - I now have 61% of the chips in play and just need to wait for the others to knock each other out. As it was, the tournament only lasted four more hands and I won my seat.

Recently I've been doing really well in tournaments if I'm lucky enough to get a big stack - I'm getting much better at spotting when my opponent wants nothing more to do with the pot. Life is so much easier with chips.

At the moment I'm not nearly as excited as I thought I would be by winning a WSOP seat. I think that's mostly because once I got the huge chip lead, I sort of assumed the seat was there for me to lose, so rather than winning the prize, I feel as though I've avoided losing it, if you know what I mean. Once William Hill contact me with details of the prize I'm sure that'll get my juices going. After all, it's four months away yet.

Blind robbery

OK, so I was going to do an analysis of my £15K win, but when I looked through the hands, two things were apparant (in addition to the 'my big hands held up' fact from my previous post).

1) I got lucky about 3 or 4 times in big hands (99 V KK pre-flop, 99 v AA all-in on raggy flop - both spiked sets on the river)

2) By getting a huge stack by the final table, I essentially just stole chips from the other players by continually raising till they played back at me. My opponents were too passive.

So, no great insights available.

Unbeknownst to me, the poker room I won the £15K through (Totalbet) were doing a promotion whereby the 5 highest raking players each day, plus the top tournament winner, qualified for a $2000 freeroll. My win got me into this last Saturday. 48 were eligible, but only 16 took part (Lesson - check your emails).

I won this as well. It was also spectacularly easy as my opponents were again far too passive. I suspect most of them were cash players who failed to understand the change in strategy required in tournaments. They just let me rob them blind.

The result? $1000 in my account plus entry into another freeroll tomorrow where the winner gets a seat in the WSOP in Las Vegas! 60 are eligible to enter - it'll be interesting to see how many take part. If the standard is as weak as last week's, I've got to fancy my chances.

Provided, of course, I don't do anything silly, like I did on Monday night. I'm in a super-sat for the $600K Crypto Sixpak in April. I managed to get up to be chip leader through a combination of two players trying to pull big bluffs and me outdrawing someone else.

My stack dwindled down to about average with 16 left (8 get seats). I have 88 and raise (I've been doing quite well at stealing blinds from people who are hunkering down for survival). It's folded around to the big blind who raises. He has been the one guy at the table who has been aggressive, and who would notice that I'd been table captain. If I'd have been him, I'd have re-raised me as well, just to keep me off his blind and give me a figurative smack on the nose. As I didn't believe his raise, I went all-in, knowing he would need an absolute monster to call, as I had him covered.

As it happens, he had KK, called and knocked me out. Obviously, a super-sat is no place to risk going out on a pre-flop move with 88. I should have folded to the re-raise and lived to fight another day. It was the worst play I can remember doing in quite a while - but quite funny as well, as it was so spectacularly bad.

Losing Run 0 - Andrew 4200

One of the most common refrains from poker players is that "I'm due a win". They've had a run of bad luck and are convinced that "it will even itself out soon". The longer the losing run goes on, the more it affects their play - the losing run itself becomes the focus of the player's attention.

Regular readers will know I've had a rather impressive sequence of non-cashes in tournaments - about 40 at the last count. One thing about it is that I haven't let it get to me at all, which has surprised even me. Not winning in tournaments is due to one of two things, bad luck or bad play. There have been many occasions during this run where I've been eliminated by an opponent getting lucky. This I don't mind as I'm more than capable of seeing the big picture - if I play well and my opponents play badly I'll win in the long run.

There have also been tournaments where I've gone out through playing a hand badly. This is more annoying, but I've been able to turn this to my advantage by properly examining how and why I made the mistakes in order to improve my game. I have identified one particular trait of mine (going all-in on a flush or straight draw on the flop against an opponent I know won't fold) which I'm now striving to eliminate.

All losing runs must end eventually, and I managed to make the cash in Saturday's £15K Guaranteed on Crypto. By 'make the cash' I actually mean 'totally destroyed everyone to win £4200'.

It was a dream tournament. I'll do a proper analysis of important hands in another post but a quick glance reveals the amazing stat that I got dealt a hand of a pair bigger than 66, or Ace bigger than AJ, on 30 occasions, and won every single time. Talk about big hands holding up! Admittedly, the majority of these hands won without a showdown, but not losing a big hand was crucial.

I amassed a huge stack of chips (I went to the final table with half the chips in play) which allowed me to concentrate purely on winning. I can honestly say I didn't think of the money until the tournament was over - my overwhelmingly commanding position meant that I would have considered anything other than a win as a failure, so concentrated purely on that.

So, we're still in February, and yet I can already cross off one of my goals for the year.

The run continues

My tournament woe goes on. This evening I entered another £20 Crypto tourney. 154 runners and I did some good ducking and diving early on. I wasn't getting any hands but managed to keep somewhere near the average chip count by raising limpers a couple of times and then bluffing the flop. As we got down to three tables I managed to make some progress when, in consecutive hands, I reraised someone when I had KK (and took the pot there), raised with AK and took the blinds and antes, and raised with 44, which held up against the BB's all-in with A6. Three hands later, a check-raise bluff on a raggy flop punished a continuation bet and everything was looking quite healthy. A raise with J9, followed by another flop bluff, had me in good stead as we approached the bubble...

I had AQ UTG. We're at 400/800 with antes of 100, so there's 1900 in the pot before we start. I raise to 2400 (about a quarter of my stack). The BB calls (the only stack at the table bigger than me). The flop is T84 rainbow. He checks, and I have just over the pot left, so I stick it in to take it. Mateyboy has flopped a set with 44. Initially I hadn't realised we were at 21 left, but remembered as soon as he called, then had a little chuckle to myself as I realised what I'd done. I will break this losing run sometime.

This afternoon I finally managed to get down to the Sportsman for their £30 freezeout. 23 entrants and, by george, was the general standard poor. Unfortunately I got no cards early on, and wasn't in the mood to bluff it all off to some calling stations. I lost a good chunk when I raised with AT and got a caller in the BB (calling station). The flop was Ace-high, she checked and I bet, which she called. The turn was a Q, and she immediately went all-in. Even though I'd seen little of her play, this seemed unusually aggressive and, after a think, I folded. The turn hadn't completed any draws, so I think I was beaten.

After the break, we were down to two tables. I was moved two places to the right of someone who was calling everything pre-flop and liked to bluff afterwards. I was very shortstacked and raised with AT. He called (like he always did) and the next guy immediately went all-in. I knew I was in trouble, and I was - he had AJ. However, muppet then proceeded to call this second all-in with 53! Of course, the flop came down 33K, and a 5 on the turn sealed our fate. It was quite funny to see possibly the worst player I have ever seen at a poker table with so many chips. Even guys who were playing their first ever game seemed to play better than he did. One example was raising with 84 off suit, which found one caller. He then bet out on a KQ8 flop, which was called. He then bet all-in when a Q came on the flop - the way he did it screamed 'the world's most obvious bluff'. However, the other guy was playing his first game and called with his JT straight draw!

There's little you can do against these sorts of players except get cards and get lucky. I think you also have to make bigger bets than usual to get them to fold anything and, invariably, if they call you've committed a lot of chips and will be shortstacked. Despite all this I think I will definitely go down there again as there was a very friendly atmosphere and there wasn't the 'Gutshot crush'.

Cardiff revealed

My William Hill Grand Prix heat was on the TV last week, so I can actually talk about it without breaking the embargo. I came 6th of 8 in my heat. I was pleased with how I appeared in the final edit - I wasn't shown doing anything too amateurish. I had very few decent cards and, as you would expect at a table of that quality, there were few chances to nick chips. The one hand where I managed to get some chips was as follows.

I'm in the BB and Tony G raises from the button. I have T9 hearts so I call (given the title of the blog I could hardly fold it). The flop is 995 with 2 spades. Now, when I remembered this hand, I thought I bet out with my trips, but I actually check-raised Tony. Betting out would have been preferred, as it would disguise my hand better. Anyway, Tony called and the turn is my perfect card - the ten of spades. I'm sure Tony has just made a flush. I bet out and Tony calls. The river is an incredibly annoying ten. Seeing as my check-raise made it obvious I had a nine, my full house is staring Tony in the face. I make a small bet, which he has to call to keep me honest, saying 'You got lucky there'. I retort 'No, you got lucky', which gets a cool 'Whoa, Andrew giving Tony a bit of verbal there' from Jesse May on the commentary. Tony did have the flush, as I suspected. What I didn't know what that he'd tried to steal my blind with 83!

My chips then dribbled away as I couldn't find a hand, or a good spot to steal some blinds. I raised Roy Brindley's BB with A8, and he went-all in with A5 and I laid down. The next hand they showed was the same situation next time round, when I raised with KQ, but this time Roy had me in all sorts of trouble with AQ. Now, on the programme you see me have a long think, whilst Jesse and Lucy Rokach say things like 'It's tough to lay this down' and 'This would be a great fold if he can make it'.

Actually, I was only pretending to think - I was never going to call. I've been burned too often in the past by calling an all-in with KQ, as I'm too often dominated. I'm just glad Roy had AQ rather than something weaker.

I went out when I reraised Tony G all-in with AT. I was at the get-chips-or-die stage and was unlucky to find him with AJ. I was fed up of not getting a decent hand. It was a fun event though, and I am pleased with the fact I kept getting referred to as a 'young man' even though I was older than two other players and am the same age as Tony G.

Very crappy poker month so far - 18 tournaments paid and not a single cash. I've played 9 £20 tourneys with between 41 and 90 entrants (where the money is top 10) and finished in the teens 4 times. I've just had rotten luck with finding any decent hands, and when I try and force the issue, I just keep finding a bunch of calling stations who call down my bluffs. I know it will turn, but it's very frustrating. I'm showing a small profit in cash games, but am down for the month overall. I've also had a cold/chest infection for the past twelve days which I can't shift which is really getting on my nerves.

I might try and get down to the Sportsman casino in Marble Arch tomorrow afternoon for a £30 freezeout. I've heard good things about this place, but it's normally a high-roller venue (£100 rebuys and £250 freezeouts) so I want the chance to try it out in a smaller buy-in event. The tourney also takes place after a poker beginner's lesson, so hopefully there will be some players who have never played live before. If my run of poker luck continues, then at least the food there is supposed to be excellent, so I might have a Sunday lunch there.

Backup, backup and laydown

It's been a quiet month on the poker, mainly because the hard drive on my laptop died a few weeks ago. All my records, hand histories and spreadsheets are currently inaccessible - hopefully not gone forever though. I don't think there's anything physically wrong with the drive, it's just that Windows doesn't seem to recognise it any more, and none of the software recovery tools I've tried have worked. My next recourse is to take it in to professional data recovery people, but I don't know how much that will cost - I suspect maybe more than it's worth. Valuable lesson learnt though - partition your drives and backup your data.

I tried playing on my desktop machine, but that's a bit older than my laptop and so it can't seem to handle two tables open at the same time. I think I'll treat myself to a new processor and motherboard for Christmas and make my desktop my main poker machine - it's not in the same room as the TV so that might make me concentrate a bit more.

As for the little internet poker I've played, I qualified for Crypto's £150,000 Christmas Cracker but only lasted 12 minutes as I had AA beaten. This really annoyed me as I should have got away from the hand. We're about ten hands in (15/30) and I make a standard 4BB raise from my 2500 stack. I get one caller - the guy who has played most hands so far (about 7). The flop is QJx (two clubs) and I make a continuation bet, which he immediately min-raises. I call and the turn is another Jack. I check, as does he. What does he have?

River is a brick so I bet, trying to take the pot down. He quickly raises me all-in, and the only real play here is to fold. However, I managed to con myself into calling by being convinced that he was trying it on, and that I was still ahead, despite the viable hands he could have which had me beat (QQ, JJ, QJ). He showed QQ and I was gone. I was absolutely livid with myself for such an idiotic, amateurish play - laying down AA in situations like this (when even a modicum of thought would lead to the conclusion you are behind) is a vital facet of the top players' games. In a live setting, I think I would have folded here, but the tick-tick-tick of the internet timer rushed me into a decision.

I also had a slightly tilty cash session, where I kept missing flops, but kept getting my continuation bets called. The one time I hit a flop big (set of sevens on a 972 board) the pre-flop raiser had 99 and my goose was cooked. I wasted more money by being too fancy with bluffs and trying to force people off hands, though I think the real source of my frustration was the slowdown of my desktop computer - I had to turn animations off and even then, the poker was very jerky. This should all be solved by the upgrade after Christmas.

My one live event recently was the £100 freezeout at the Gutshot, which I'd decided to try as I didn't fancy the packed rebuys any more. I managed to come 13th of 50-odd. I initially got no cards and had few chances to steal, so I was very rocky at the table. I got a double up with I went all-in against 3 limpers on my BB with 33 and got a called by the UTG's AK. I got another one when AT spades came up against KQ spades. Oddly, first card on the flop was the Jack of spades. My stack took a huge dent when I had AA cracked by AJ diamonds. An all black flop of Q54 looked perfect for me, but a Ten on the turn and King on the river hurt me badly. From there it was all about trying to steal blinds to stay alive - 13th was OK considering at no point was I ahead of the average stack.

The year is nearly over, and I had hoped to be able to collate a total profit/loss for the year, but that will have to wait until I can get the data from my busted hard drive. My goals for the next year are to win a biggish online comp (like the £15K Guaranteed), cash big in a huge online comp (such as the upcoming $500,000 Crypto event), qualify for another big offline tourney (WSOP?) and spend more time playing cash games, as I get tempted into playing tourneys too much, when my cash games are more profitable for me.

Chip and a chair

Ever since the Gutshot opened, I've stayed away from the Tuesday and Friday rebuy comps, as I don't like the place when it gets too busy, but I decided to take the plunge last Friday to get back in the live poker groove.

It was, of course, full - 120+ runners. My table had the obligatory couple of drunks, who were a pain in the arse with their 'is it my turn?', 'what's the bet?' shenanigans, but they were loose as hell . I doubled up twice early with TT and AK when I reraised the guy immediately on my right, who called with raggy aces both times. At the end of the rebuy period, I had got my starting stack of 500 up to 3100, with no rebuys and no add-on, so I was in great shape.

Our table was the first to break, and I got moved to a very sober table. Raises were being respected, proper poker was played. I grew my stack (including one hand where I pondered calling an all-in with 64 on a 653 flop, before realising I had top pair and an up and down straight - 'what took you so long to call?' one of the other players asked afterwards), then went through a cold spell until a crucial hand with the blinds at 600/1200. A solid player raised about 3BB in mid-position. I have AQ on the button with about 11,000 chips. At this stage, I'm contemplating all three options - raise, call or fold. I quickly rule out fold, as I've only got about 9BB left (we are down to three tables).

I put his range of hands as pairs down to about 66, and aces down to about AT. Obviously, when I write it down like that, things become very clear for AQ - I'm only ahead of two hands, in big trouble against four, and slight dog in races with the rest. However, in the heat of battle, my thinking was clouded by the fact that, given the state of the tournament, and considering the fact that I hate getting blinded away, I was looking for a reason to get all my chips in. I thought 'he's probably got AJ' and went all-in. He called and turned over TT, so it could have been a lot worse. I had no help from the board and we started counting chips to see if he had me covered.

He didn't, I covered him - by a single 100 chip. I've never been, literally, down to a chip and a chair before, especially not when that chip is only a twelfth of a big blind. However, this is where the fun really begun.

First hand, I'm all-in (blind, of course). There are two other players who go to showdown, one of them takes the sidepot with Ace-high. I then turn over my cards to reveal 32 offsuit, and the 2 has hit for me to treble up to 300. Next hand, same again, this time there are four players in the hand, and my 300 becomes 1200 when my T3 hits a ten. Third hand in a row, I'm all-in blind (this time for a full big blind), and A2 hits an ace to quadruple up to 4800.

I pass a couple of hands before finding AQ again. Someone calls my all-in and I win again, up to 11,200 from 100!

I am flying at this point, and get caught up in the rush. At 800/1600 a short stack goes all-in for 6300 on my BB. I only have 63 offsuit but decide that luck must be with me and call for another 4700. He shows 88 and my two big undercards come to zero. Here I learn a valuable lesson - never get caught up in rushes, they only muck up your thinking.

A few hands later it's folded to me on the button and I go all-in with 83 offsuit (I'd already decided to go all-in with any two cards if it was passed to me in late position). The woman on the BB called (after a slight ponder) and whatever it was she had held up. Ironically, I think that if I hadn't chucked away some chips with the 63 call, I may have had enough to make her pass. I exited in 17th.

The Monte Carlo Millions is currently under way (on day two) and I have ten pounds on Fuat Can at 110/1 on Betfair, and he's currently still in (and going well) with about 36 players left. I've probably just bokked him; if so, my allegiance turns to Granite John from the Gutshot, who beat me in the Pokerzone TV tournament (see blog posts passim).

Incidentally, when typing the title of this entry, I accidentably wrote 'Chop and a chair' - I fully intend to use this if I ever come back to cut a deal at a final table after being down to a single chip during the tournament...

Beginner's luck

Little poker over the last week or so - bought Civilization IV last Monday so have been playing that in the evenings, then went to Paris for the weekend. Civ IV rocks, I started playing one game on Noble difficulty level to get the hang of the new features and once it became obvious I was going to win (huge technology lead and I'd wiped out the Japanese) I started another game on the next level up, Prince. This has been tougher. It's a map with lots of islands and I've been put in a part of the world with small islands which only support one city each. This has made expansion a pain. I also made an error by not noticing that when your treasury level falls close to zero, the science rate is adjusted downward so you don't go broke. Thus my science rate went from 70% to 20% and I've fallen well behind in the tech race and am currently ranked 5th out of the six civs.

Anyway, back to poker. On Monday night I played in the Blondepoker forum PL Omaha tourney on Pokerstars. 26 entries at $11 a pop. Now, I've played, at most, one PL Omaha MTT before, so had to play this by ear. I started off playing very tight, then got bored with that and started seeing some flops. My starting stack of 1500 went down to 900, then back up to about 2000 when I doubled up with AA87 double suited against AAT6 ds when I hit my flush. 4000 came by hitting a straight on the turn against a set plus flush draw.

My favourite hand of the night was dealt next. I had AA96 and raised a limper preflop. Flop was Q23 and my opponent check-called my bet. Turn was an 8 - he checked, as did I. I'm not exactly sure why I checked, as it gave up the initiative I had in the hand - I think this was an error. It also, in my opinion, gave away the fact I had AA, considering I raised preflop. River was a 7 and matey boy bet the pot. I had a little think, but was sure that this was an attempt to take the pot, and called. He had JJT8 and I was up to about 8000.

Got to the final table 3rd in chips, and made the final 2 with quite a deficit. At this stage hands were going by at quite a blur, and sometimes I won hands at showdown without having time to work out why... I drew level when I called a re-re-raise all-in on a J64 flop (two clubs) with J4Q2 and my opponent only had an Ace-high flush draw.

The next big hand was when I had KKA5 and saw a flop of AJ7. Matey check-called my bet. Turn was 9c and he again check-called. At this stage, his J7T4 was ahead with two pair. The river was 5h, giving me a higher two pair, and he checked again. I checked behind because I hadn't worked out this had helped my hand :-) This took the pot and gave me a big lead.

The tournament ended when I had another pair of Aces hold up and I won $130. It's amazing to think of all the Hold'em tournaments I've played well in and come nowhere, and then I fluke this Omaha one.

Cardiff and card dead

It's been a couple of weeks since I filmed the Will Hill Grand Prix heat and, whilst I can't mention what happened in the game till it's broadcast, I can say what a great time I had. Being able to watch players like Tony G and Scotty Nguyen (yes, he got added to my heat after the draw) up close was fantastic, as was spending time in the bar afterwards with Jesse May, Vicky Coren, Lucy Rokach and John Shipley, among others. Can't wait to see it on the TV but, at the same time, don't really want to in case it shows I was bluffed out of pots. Ah well, it's all experience.

Stayed in the Cardiff Hilton for the heat and was surprised to see no Welsh people working in the hotel at all. French guy at the front desk, Polish barmaid, South African waiter, Filipino cleaner - all very strange.

Over the last few weeks I've had a very good time on the NL 6-max tables. Playing two at a time I'm averaging a profit of 15 BB an hour per table, so 30 BB in total. This has been mostly through managing to get out of the way of other players when they have their big hands. I did have an annoying habit of crushing a table, and then pissing my profit away in one hand when I got all-in with the worst hand. There's been less of this recently.

There have also been fewer tournaments of late. Annoyingly, I bubbled in the Crypto £15K last week. I had an absolute death of cards, but managed to double through with the various good hands I got. Losing one hand then knocked me down to a level where I had no folding equity, so had to find two decent cards to go all-in with, which never came, whereas the various shortstacks below me managed to double-up and pass me.

Analysing my results over the past few months, it seems better financially for me to play cash games, but I have more fun in tournaments. Think I'll concentrate on cash - try and build up my bankroll a bit, instead of blowing groups of £55 on the £15K.

A nice quiet table...

The draw for the heats of the William Hill Grand Prix was made on Poker 425 last Wednesday. I can't watch this channel, as it's only on Sky, and I have cable, but I got my Mum to watch it and give me a ring to tell me who I'd got.

"OK, the first one is Tony G" - fantastic I thought, nice easy start there. "Then there's Donny, er, Donna, um, the Irish guy" - Donnacha O'Dea, another fish... :-) "There's a Pascal something and a Roland something" - that would be Pascal 'Triple P' Perrault and Roland de Wolfe. The heat was rounded out by Roy Brindley, Simon Nowab and the guy I'd pegged as one of the trickier of the other internet qualifiers, Voitto Rintala. Quite a lively bunch, with some very aggressive players. If I get a decent run of good cards, I could cause real damage as these guys are likely to pay me off. However, if the cards go cold on me, it'll be very difficult to pick up pots. In what is essentially a winner-takes-all heat (2nd place goes into the repechage for another chance to qualify for the final) I'd imagine there will be a lot of aggression early on as players try to build stacks with which to bully, especially with the likes of Tony G and Roland playing - it could be carnage.

William Hill make me 9/1 to win my heat and 80/1 overall. In these televised tournaments, there is usually plenty of value to be had in backing the outsiders, as things can get a bit crapshooty towards the end (like in the Ladbrokes Poker Million, where the final two were Helen Chamberlain and a guy who qualified via a freeroll - don't think either really had to make any moves to get there). However, William Hill have come up with a great structure for this event to ensure there's more 'proper' poker being played - this increases the chances that the greater experience of the pros will come to the fore. It's going to be a tough ask for me to get through this heat. From the order of the betting on the Will Hill site, it looks like Tony G will be immediately on my left - limping with marginal hands probably won't be a good idea...

Decided to try moving up a level on the cash tables to £1/£2 NL, and almost immediately doubled my buy-in with another classic 'rape an over pair with a set' play. I had 66 in the blinds and Isomerkii (tight, aggressive player) raised pre-flop. I hit my set on the flop and bet out, with him and another player calling. Turn was a rag, and I bet out again, with both players calling. The river game me quad sixes, and I thought about checking, but decided this might look too suspicious and so just went all-in for about 3/4 of the pot. The first player folded, but Isomerkii called. He showed Kings. In retrospect, I should maybe have bet more on the turn. By the time the river came, Isomerkii had about £54 left - not enough to get away from the hand, but the other guy had over £100. By getting him to call a larger bet on the turn, I maybe could have got him pot-committed as well so that he couldn't get away. Ah well, £250 is still a nice pot.

If you think 62 suited is worth a shot, go for it...

Went down the Gutshot on Saturday to play in the £30 rebuy satellite for the main event of the London Masters. I'd budgeted for one rebuy and top-up, but didn't need the rebuy as I hit an unbelievably cold deck, and just folded hands for an hour. Not only no big cards, but not even any pairs or connectors I could see a flop cheaply with. The one time I found AQ, I got another guy with AK - thankfully I rivered him.

The last hand of the rebuy period was mad. I've seen crazy hands at this time before, but this was something new. I had J9 suited on the button, and limped in after two others. SB then goes all-in, followed by the BB, and then the two limpers. With 4 all-ins ahead of me, I figure there's value for suited one-gappers, so I call as well, fully expecting to be up against some big cards and big pairs. The other four hands were Q8, Q9s, 54s and 62s!! A board of QQ885 meant I missed completely, so I started putting my hand in my pocket for the rebuy, when it was pointed out to me that I'd won the sidepot against the 62 guy because of my Jack kicker! I actually made a profit on the hand.

During the break a couple of the players at the table complained at the muppetry of a few of the others (62 guy in particular, who had 4 rebuys and a top-up = £180 down the drain). I just nodded and said 'I know', but I would never complain about these players - it's where the extra money in the prize pool comes from.

Once we got to the freezeout bit, the cold cards continued, and with the blinds going up quickly I got it all-in with AJ when I raised a weak limper. He called, and I thought he'd turn over a rag Ace, but in fact it was K7 of spades. I was dealer and dealt a flop of 3 spades, and that was that. So no main event for me, but well done to Tony 'Tikay' Kendall of Blondepoker, who got second, and also to Dave 'Dubai' Shallow, who went deep into the EPT event at the Vic.

Over the last couple of weeks I've been using up the Poker Points I've collected through playing at Littlewoods to enter their daily CPC qualifiers. Not only were they effectively freerolls, but the standard of play was mostly awful. Each one would have about 20ish entrants, with the winner making the weekly final. After coming second twice, I finally won one and made the final, but I completely wrecked it, playing awfully. I started by folding a winning straight, after a bet and call in front of me on a four-flush board - neither player had a flush. I leaked chips away, then came back, then blew them all again to go out 8th of 12.

The draw for the William Hill Grand Prix takes place on Wednesday, according to an email I (and the other players) got sent today. Only the email addresses weren't sent in the BCC field, but in the To field, so I now have the email addresses of lots of Europe's top poker players!

News reaches me of a tournament at Pokerstars just for bloggers (hence the banner below). This should be a lot of fun, and shows how Pokerstars are taking notice of the power of the blogging community.

I have registered to play in the
Online Poker Blogger Championship!

This event is powered by PokerStars.

Registration code: 3260134

Couldn't make the greatest fold

Made sure I was awake and alert for the midday start of the Pokerstars EPT Dublin final and I nearly shouldn't have bothered. 30 minute levels meant a nice slow structure, so I planned to take things easy early on. I did this by being card dead for the entire first hour, barely increasing my stack at all.

By the first break there were 6 of us left, and I was one of the short stacks. I managed to not slip back, despite still getting crappy cards. Once the blinds went to 50/100 I decided to start making moves and was finding, unsurprisingly, that my raises were being respected, particularly after the flop. As has been my style recently, I was betting every flop and taking most of them down.

I took control of the tournament when I flopped a set of eights and milked an opponent for a load of chips. I made sure I picked up my share of blinds, which included raising on the button with 65o when we were down to 4 players. The shortstack went all-in for not much more, so I had the pot odds to call with any two cards, which I did, and I duly lost. It did mean that the other players saw that I had raised with filth, though...

The very next hand I pick up KK UTG, and raise to 300, hoping someone wouldn't respect my raise. It went round to the BB, who reraised me to 1000. Success! I reraised him another 1200 to 2200 and he went all-in for 4270. At this point, I should probably have had a think and considered what group of hands the biggest stack at the table would re-re-re-raise with...

But I didn't - all I saw was KK in front of me and went all-in, and it failed to crack his AA. Out in fourth and I was really annoyed, because I felt I had the run of this table and could have easily won without taking massive risks. Pah.

Cremeing the opposition

So, what have I been up to recently? Last weekend I played in the Betfair forum game at the Gutshot (jokingly referred to as BFWCOP).

103 of us took part and we all got a lot of good play early - no one at all was knocked out in the first hour and a bit. 10,000 starting chips and blinds of 25/50 gave everyone a chance to get settled in. I grabbed a few blinds to move up a bit and then moved up to 13,000 when I check-called, check-raised Dubai Millenium (great player and a great bloke) with bottom set and managed to completely flummox him as to what hand I had. "I have no idea what you've got", he said before folding. After the hand he even wondered aloud if he'd been bluffed out of a pot.

Rather annoyingly, I missed a chance to double up when I limped pre-flop with TT, and called a raise from a tight player who had an obvious big pair. The flop was something like Q-x-x and I check-folded to his bet, only to see a ten fall on the turn. Obviously I was in no way getting correct odds to chase my set but it was a pain all the same.

On the fourth level, the blinds jumped from 100/200 to 200/400 with antes of 25. This meant the cost per round nearly tripled from 300 to 850. This represented nearly 10% of the average stack - therefore the blind-stealing stage of the tournament had started. I did my bit for a while, but then got reckless. At 300/600 I raised up to about 2000 with A6s (not a good hand to steal with). I got called by the button and the flop was AQ4. I'd got myself into a hole here, and had about the size of the pot left. I went all-in, thinking that he either had a pair, or a bigger Ace than me. By going all-in I would hope he'd fold hands like AT or AJ. He thought for ages before calling with AK! I asked him why he thought for so long and he said he was worried I had AQ. Super-tight play there from him - in his situation I'd have called like a shot, thinking that any hand which beats me would have been checked to me.

Out in about 85th and I went to the internet room for an hour or so whilst waiting for the SNGs to start up. Played my first ever Omaha High/Low tournament and won it, immediately recouping £40 of the £105 it cost to enter the big event. Played in two £20 SNGs downstairs, winning them both, so that was more profit of £140 (did a deal on one and tipped each dealer a fiver). All in all, I came out on top from the day and got chatting to a few of the other players - had a lot of fun.

On Monday night I took part in a satellite freeroll on Pokerstars to win entry to a final on Saturday where there's an EPT Dublin package for the winner. 159 took part, but about 60 of those were sitting out (registration for the event had been open for a couple of days and a lot of players simply forgot about it). I doubled up on the first hand with JJ when someone got it all-in with AT on a ten-high flop. This set the tone for the next hour as I hit the hottest rush of cards in my life. AA (twice), KK, AK (3 times), AQ, AJ and 99 all came my way. Even more amazingly, I hit every flop and quickly became chip leader.

After an hour or so, the blinds had picked up to a point where there were plenty of free chips from the sitting out players up for grabs. Unfortunately for me, I got moved to a table where I had horrible position - three sitting-out players were to my right, and two more were three and four to the left of me, meaning I was in the worst position to grab blinds. I was UTG when the three to my right were in the blinds, and the pot was always already raised once it was my turn to act when the other two were in the blinds. I bluff-raised a couple of times but was content to drift back to just above average chips.

Once we got down to 11 players, I had got myself back up to chip leader, and was on a table of 5 players, who were all quite passive. This meant I could bully to my heart's content, and did so, quietly adding to my stack at virtually no risk. I eased back a bit once we got to the full final table, but could stretch my legs again once were were at six. Top two got the seats for Saturday and I took the fourth and third place players out in consecutive hands to grab my place in the final.

It's at the odd time of midday on Saturday, so I must make sure to not sleep in all day at the weekend. This tournament was the first time I've played on Pokerstars and I was very impressed with the software - quick, clean and easy to use. Much smoother than Crypto, better looking than Prima - think I'll play more there in the future.

BTW, the title of this entry refers to the fact that I had to choose a username when I joined Pokerstars on Monday, and chose CremeEgg, which goes with the Creme handle that I have on the Betfair poker forum.

Grand Prix Qualifying - more exciting than F1

No posts this month thus far as I've been playing mostly NL cash games, which have been quite uneventful. This is probably a good thing, as the 'interesting' games I played last month contributed to a total loss in July of nearly £1,100. This included all poker: cash, tournaments and live, and also included £150 of free bonus money which gives an indication of how crap it was. I knew I'd lost a bit in NL cash (nearly £500) but, until I added it all up, I wasn't aware that my MTT losses were £500 as well. Eleven goes in the Crypto £15K at £33 a shot and not even one finish in the top 100, let alone in the cash. The poor results in MTTs continued until Sunday...

It started well when I won a Cruise Qualifier on Ladbrokes. OK, so there were only 12 entrants, but it was my first MTT win for ages and it puts me into a Cruise final tomorrow night. In the evening I decided to give the William Hill Grand Prix Final a chance - £66 for a go at appearing in a televised tourney. I nearly didn't bother paying the money as I was cooking my dinner but my decision to register was to prove wise.

There were 106 entrants fighting for one ticket to the Grand Prix in October - 2000 chips and a 20 minute clock meant there was no immediate rush. I could afford a nice quiet start, which was spoilt by getting AA on the third hand. There were 4 limpers on the 6-seater table and I raised to 160 on my BB. The UTG player (Badger23) called and the flop was JJK. I checked and called a bet of 280. The turn is another King, and I decide I'm done with the hand - he's almost certainly got a Jack or a King, so I check and fold to his bet. Four hands later I make my losses plus a bit more back when my JT hits two pair on a JTA flop and I win chips from someone who I assume has a lone Ace.

1400 chips come my way when someone goes all-in on the flop with bottom pair and a flush draw and I call with my overpair (QQ) which holds up. I make a mistake by calling a river bet from someone on a 9AAA3 board with nothing but King-high (he had TT). I've noticed this isn't the first time I've done this recently, so I must stop calling a bet when I can only beat a bluff.

With the blinds at 25/50 I get in a raised pot with 3 others with 54 offsuit (I limped, then called a 2BB raise). Flop is 963 rainbow, giving me an open straight draw. The pre-flop raiser bets 150 into a pot of 550. There's a fold and then a raise to 750. I thought the reraiser may well be trying to take the pot away from what looked like a continuation bet. Therefore, he probably didn't have much of a hand, so I went all-in, knowing I had outs if I got called. the pre-flop raiser folded and re-raiser had a big think. He said '999', putting me on a set, before folding what he claimed was A9. I didn't believe him for a moment, but it was a nice pot to win with what was essentially 5-high.

At the first break I had 4860 chips and was 13th of 60. At 75/150 I raise to 600 with A3 on the button and get an SB caller. We both check a flop of KQJ and the turn is a 2. He bets 150 into a pot of 1275, which struck me as weak. I raised to 1050 and he called, making the pot 3375. The river is a 5 and my opponent checks. I'm now in a pickle, as I've invested 1/3 of my chips and I've nothing but Ace-high to show for it. A check means I lose the pot, so I decide to follow through with my show of earlier strength and go all-in for 3700. Obviously a very risky play, but it works as he folds. This isn't something I normally do - lately I've been giving up on bluffs if they don't work the first time (admittedly this has been in cash games) but I think I'm more likely to do it in tournaments. There's the obvious risk of going broke but in a big tournament (where people are less likely to think 'sod it' and call) but when the pot is big enough it surely has +EV over checking (which loses the whole pot).

The hand which changes the whole tournament for me happens at 100/200. I'm on the button with 86 hearts and limp behind one other. The BB min raises and three of us call. Flop is K25 (two hearts). SB bets half the pot, and the original raiser calls. I decide to raise it up to 2800, hoping to take the pot down now, but hopefully also buying a free card on the turn if the flush doesn't come. Both players call, resulting in a massive pot. The turn is the 5 of hearts, making my flush, it's checked to me and I go all-in for 4900 into the big pot of 10,000. I get one caller (the pre-flop raiser) who shows KJ. He has no heart and so only another 5 can save him. He's out of luck and I have a huge 19,800 and am leading the tournament with 22 left in.

The best part of an hour goes by with me treading water, picking up the odd pot here and there but not really increasing my stack much. At 150/300 I get KK on the BB. There's an UTG raise to 1200 from a very loose player. I pop it to 3000 and he re-raises to 5700. He has more chips than me, so if he has AA he could knock me out, and his smallish raises look designed to keep me in. However, with the game I'd played thus far I wasn't in the mood to fold KK pre-flop, so I went all-in. He almost immediately called with A8!! Thankfully the other 3 Aces stayed in the deck and I was up to 46,000 chips, with the 2nd of the other 9 players at 32,000.

Five hands later and I'm dealt AK on the BB. There's a single raiser before me, so I re-raise and he goes all-in for 22,000. I call and he shows T7 of hearts!!! This was the most spectacularly bad play I think I've ever seen at this stage of a tournament. Doing a min-raise UTG with this hand is madness, unless he was trying to induce a raise that he could then re-bluff out of the hand. He was under no chip pressure to make a stand - just crazy. His play got what it deserved and I have 68,500 chips.

Nearly an hour later and we're at the final table, with 5 players left. I've worked my chips up to 76,000 by picking up a lot of small, uncontested pots. Pocket rockets come my way and I get all excited. Guy to my right (Badger23, from the first hand where I folded AA) limps and I raise him, which he calls. The flop is T87. He bets, I raise, he reraises me and I call. The turn is another ten and Badger23 goes all-in for 28,000 chips into the pot of 22,500. The little voice in my head (which I'd made a resolution to listen to more, as it's more often than not right) was screaming 'FOLD'. If I had any hand other than AA, I think I would have, but I was probably loath to fold the second pair of Aces I'd got in the tournament. I called and, of course, he had another ten. This knocked me back to 38,000 chips, third of five.

I limp into a hand from the SB with T5 and BB completes. The flop is 925 and I bet (throughout the tournament I've been betting every flop I've caught a piece of - as well as some I haven't). BB calls. Turn is a ten and I bet just under the pot, which is called. River is a beautiful 5 and, again, I bet just under the pot with my full house, which is also called. This recovers most of the chips I lost with the Aces.

The next hand of importance was one where I avoided doing real damage to my stack. Myself and Badger23 saw a flop of AKJ. He checked and I followed with my K7. Turn was an 8 and he bet. I raised him but he called. River was a harmless two and he checked to me, no doubt expecting me to bet his two pair of J8 for him. I checked behind and he took the pot. I could so easily have stuck more chips in on the end - it was the mood I'd been in all night.

With 4 of us left I saw a free flop of 964 with 75. I check-called with my straight draw, which was completed on the turn with a 3. I check-raised, which was called. I bet out on the river, which was also called, and I was up to 93,000 chips. I was chip leader, with Badger23 on 74,000 and the other two on 25,000 and 20,000.

I took out the player on 25,000 chips when he re-raised my cowboys with AQ and we're down to three. We dance for a while, and I increase my stack slightly. Then the shortstack re-raises me all-in with A7. Unfortunately for him I have JJ, which holds up and I'm heads-up with Badger23.

I have 153,000 chips to his 58,000 and he's been playing very passive, so my plan is to hammer him until he raises/re-reraises me, then step out of the way unless I've got a hand. As it happens, our heads-up battle lasts only 4 hands.

I'm dealt J2 diamonds on the SB and raise. Badger calls with AT (Ace of diamonds). The flop comes down T95 all diamonds and he check-raises me all-in with his top pair/nut flush draw. No more diamonds fall and I win the ticket to the TV stage!.

Come October I'll be in a heat up against seven other players - almost certainly all pros. However, I can take comfort from the Ladbrokes Poker Million which was on Sky recently - the final two were some guy who qualified via a freeroll and Helen Chamberlain, who only started playing holdem in March. When it comes to TV events, the pros are not necessarily all that.

The worst read since The Da Vinci Code

Fourth Street Poker is closed for a bit due to licence renewal, and judging from what happened on the last night before the break, that's probably just as well. Biggest tournament yet - 50-odd people in a £30 freezeout. I had no cards, then got a pair of queens, with which I collected a couple of limps and the blinds. Then nothing again till I got in on a free blind with T3. Flop is T22 and small blind bets out.

This was where I made a monumental error. I'd already identified the SB as a pretty straightforward player, so I should have believed his bet that said he'd hit the flop. Instead I threw in a raise and he went all-in. I had a think but I didn't really have enough chips left to fold and called - he flipped up K2. As it happens, I hit a backdoor flush, but the river was the King of hearts, which gave my opponent a full house.

I then made my way to a £20 SNG, which had some of the better players in it (for some reason, most of the big names got knocked out of the main tourney early on). I then had the coldest cards I can ever remember - which drew comments from the other players who have seen me get very active in the side games previously. I managed to hold on till the final 4 (money was top 3) but eventually went in with Q8, only to find the BB with A8.

I've been doing pretty crappy in online MTTs recently - I've barely made the second half of one in the last two weeks. I've also taken a bath in NL cash games - nearly £500 down this month, including one memorable Saturday afternoon where I lost £260 in 2 hours. I got dealt 55 twice, made sets both times and yet lost to a higher set. Hopefully I'll have a change of luck next month.

More bubbles than an Aero

Played in two small tournaments on Tuesday (just 12 and 10 runners) with the top 3 getting the money. Rather annoyingly I came 4th both times. Can't really remember many hands from the evening. On one occasion I had an all-in with AQ called by the BB's 94. He was getting 2/1 on the call, so he's getting pot odds with his undercards provided I don't have a pair, but it was still a pretty loose call. One idea which occured to me later was that maybe this was an advertising move - he was essentially saying to the other players at the table "I'm liable to call your all-in with anything, so your hand will have to hold up - you can't steal my blind", though I think that's not really worth it. Anyway, I doubled through - people can call my all-ins with 94 till the cows come home for all I care.

At one stage I also won a big bluff when I raised limpers with T4 and thought about showing, but decided against. The limpers said they folded QJ and AT. This is becoming my favourite move when the blinds are big. An all-in when you're first in looks like a steal, but doing it when at least one other has already limped in looks really strong - plus you pick up more than a blind and a half when it works. In future I will try and identify weak limpers late on - inexperienced players do this a lot, not realising that limping is death when the blinds are big.

Last night was another select affair - a 12-runner £30 freezeout. A very strange tournament for me, but one which could radically change my thinking and make me a better player. Things started off very slowly - I got no good cards. One of the other players even commented on it, saying 'Aren't you going to play a hand, Andrew?'. As if to show to everyone how the cards were running I raised from early position. Everyone folded and I showed 54.

I won a big hand with low cards. I raised with 86 (getting one caller) and flopped a straight draw. I bet it strongly and the other guy kept calling till I hit it on the river (which also put a potential flush on the board). He went all-in and I had a think before calling (he bluffs a lot). As soon as I called he mucked his cards without even seeing what I had.

Going to the final table I think I'd managed to be chip leader (I'd knocked someone else out but can't remember anything about the hand). Cards went cold again. I pissed away some chips on two hands by bluffing/calling to hit a straight. Then came the hand which crippled me.

I got dealt AQ in mid position and raised. It's folded to the BB who re-raises me. I immediately re-raise him all-in, which was a huge mistake. This guy had been playing ultra-tight - I don't think he'd raised before the flop. Now he re-raises me, someone who'd also not been raising much. I had to give him credit for a huge hand - but I acted too quickly. I'd got too excited at the first big hand I'd been dealt all night and made a rash move. He turned over AK and it held up.

I grabbed some blinds, then doubled up when I went all-in with TT on my BB and was called by a limper with 43!! He was getting pot odds of 2/1 on the call, which is exactly his hand's pot equity, provided I haven't got a pair, which I had. Silly call.

The hand which fatally crippled me went thusly. Someone raised to 4BB, next guy called (the 43 caller from earlier) and I called on the button with 76 of clubs (looking to break someone if I got a favourable flop). Blinds folded and I dealt the flop of T85 with two clubs. A straight draw and a flush draw - lovely. Original raiser checked, then the next guy went all-in. I started having a think but, as I pondered, the first guy folded out of turn, not realising I was still in. My main concern was the all-in guy having two club overcards, and pushing on a better flush draw than mine, as it would leave me with only six outs (not enough to call). However I decided that, in his position, I'd be going all-in with lots of hands other than a flush draw so I called. He turned over KT for top pair (and showing what a questionable decision it was to call a raise with the hand). I didn't hit and was short stacked - I went out in 5th not long after with AJ.

So how will this make me a better player? Well, I got no big pairs and only twice got big cards (and they both lost). I think I'm at a stage now where I can be a lot more creative with the hands I play, and move to the next level which is concentrating on what I think my opponents are playing - just relying on cards is death.

I got involved in a little Sit and Go and was as loose as a goose (as I often am in those things) and went out in 3rd (top two paid). My last four live tourney results have been bubble, bubble, one off bubble, bubble. Bah.

I'm out on Saturday but I'm planning on making Sunday a big internet poker day, as I haven't had a chance to enter the big weekend tourneys for a while, due to being out and about.

Victory at last

Finally, after over two months of toddling down to Baker Street to play in live tournaments, I've managed to be last man standing, and what a rollercoaster ride it was.

£10 Rebuy, and I rebought on the very first hand when I went all-in on the flop with an open-ended straight draw, only to be called by a flush draw, who hit. Next rebuy was calling an all-in on the BB with AQ - the raiser was someone who I knew always tried to take chances getting a big stack early. He flipped over J2, so of course that hand ended with me pulling another picture of Charles Darwin out of my pocket. I had still not won a hand, and called a frequent raiser on the blind with A3, looking to bet out all-in on just about any flop, even if I missed. I did so, but he had a genuine raising hand of QQ. On the last hand before the break, I raised pre-flop with 55 and picked up the blinds - my only pot in the first hour.

Luckily there was a double top-up so, despite my being £50 down, I had enough chips to play with. I got better cards and picked up some pots, lost a couple when I made slightly optimistic calls I had to let go on the flop, but then came the most important hand so far.

I'm in middle position with 44. I decide to raise (it was quite a tough table and limpers were being, quite rightly, raised out of pots). Guy immediately to my left re-raises me the minimum, so I call.

Flop comes A82, or something. Can't quite remember, but the important fact to note is that there was an Ace. I felt he had a big pocket pair, so I went all-in for 1,250 into a pot of about 1,600, representing the Ace. He goes into the tank for a a long time (and I mean a long time, at least two minutes, which is an eternity for this type of tournament). Usually when people have a long think, they eventually fold, so I thought that was what he was going to do. However, he made a fantastic call with QQ. Thinking about the hand afterwards, I wonder if he picked up something on me that indicated I was bluffing. I did feel the pulse in my neck throb, so at one point I shifted position in my chair so I was leaning my head on my hand, covering my neck. However, he wasn't really looking at me for a tell, more working things out in his head.

Turn was a blank, before the fortuitous 4 fell on the river. It was cruel luck for him, as it was such a great call, but I've been due luck like that for weeks.

The blinds had now picked up, so I was into my usual tactic of going all-in with any Ace, and I found a few. Stack took a hit when one BB found AK to call my AT with, but rose again when I managed to knock out two short stacks by isolating them with good, but not great hands when I felt they would call anything.

Made it to the final table, and was annoyed to find myself immediately to the left of a huge stack. He had come from the other table and had about 17,000 of the 44,000 chips in the tournament. I only had 5,000. Can't remember much about getting down to 4 players - I picked up a couple of rounds of blinds, and certainly knocked out one player when I called on the BB with any two cards as his all-in raise barely covered the blind.

We were four-handed for quite a while, chips flowed around with the shorter stack winning every showdown. A big hand occured when the large stack completed the SB on my BB. We saw a flop of AKx and he bet out 4,000 into a pot of 4,500. I had K8 and 9,500 chips left. I had a think. If he had an Ace, I felt sure he would have raised pre-flop (unless he had AA, when he may have limped) so I discounted that. However, the main line of my thinking was that he was preying on my perceived weakness when I just checked my blind. His thinking would have been 'If he had an Ace, he would have raised pre-flop, so he doesn't have one. After a think, I re-raised all-in, and after his own ponder, he folded. He said he had a King and that he knew I didn't have an Ace. I showed my K8 and he said his kicker was worse than mine, but I'm sure he would have raised pre-flop with a King and that he was just trying to take the pot.

That pot made me chip leader, and the last big hand was when the original big stack went all-in from first position. I was on the button and had JJ (the first pair I was dealt at the final table), so I called. The SB then had a think, but discretion got the better part of valour and he folded. I was up against Ace-something, but the first card I dealt on the flop was a Jack, so I won the massive pot.

I was a huge chip leader over the other two, and we actually all got it in pre-flop on the first hand when I took a chance at ending it early on my BB with JT. They had QQ and AQ, and the Queens held up to put us heads-up. He then went a bit too timid, folding the first two hands. The blinds were 3,000/6,000 by then so on his next BB he only had 2,000 chips after putting in his blind. I found my second pair of the final table with 88 and put him all-in. He had to call, but only had 73. I again hit my set on the flop and that was that - £270 first prize and a profit of £220 on the evening.

Instead of running to try (and probably fail) to catch the last tube I treated myself to a taxi home and had a nice long chat with the cab driver about poker.

Two live reports

Two nights at Fourth Street this week. Tuesday was the £10 rebuy, and it started very slowly for me. In the rebuy period I didn't win a single pot till the very last hand, when I went all-in to grab blinds of 150 with K4, purely to take a chance at either getting some chips, or going bust and being able to rebuy. Luckily, one of the drunk muppets at the table (of which there were three) called me with inferior cards and I doubled up. Once we got to the freezeout, I managed to knockout one of the muppets when I picked him off trying a complete bluff on the turn. At the first break I was doing quite well - I had one of the bigger stacks.

A bad read cost me when a small blind went all-in for 3BB on my BB. I had A3 and thought he was trying it on so called, only for him to turn over AT. I made it to the final table though and exited when my AQ came up against the BB's pair of tens. I'm getting quite annoyed by the fact that I keep managing to find BBs who have proper hands when I go all-in, and yet I always seem to get trash, which I can't defend when the other guy is all-in. Didn't help matters on Tuesday that the guy who knocked me out was a bit of a wanker who thought he was all that. More than one of the other people at the table quietly expressed their disappointment that I had lost to the tosser.

Last night was the £30 freezeout and I had a bit of a mare. I got some chips early when I managed to trap another guy with a set of threes, but chips dribbled away till I had exactly what I started with - 2500. I then managed to make a complete mess of a hand which did for me. I saw a free flop of 997 with A3. Four of us in the pot, and it's checked round to the guy who I beat with the set earlier. He bet 100 into the pot, but I took it for a steal and raised to 500. He called and it was just us two for the turn of an Ace. Whilst I originally read him for nothing, I now had the added insurance that even if he had a nine, I was ahead. I decided I would like to check-raise him all in, and my plan worked, only for him to call with K7 and that was me gone.

It was a dreadful risk to take with no more than a hunch, especially when it was so early in the tournament. I've noticed I've been trying to pick off bluffs a bit more recently, but I think I need to ease off unless I have a cast-iron reason for thinking someone is trying it on, rather than just 'maybe he's bluffing'.

A couple of SNGs did nothing to recoup my losses. I've been doing OK in these recently, as my more aggressive style pays off in the contracted levels/chip stacks in these, but I think I had a bit too much of a 'fuck it' attitude last night (like calling two all-ins with 22).

Overall my poker losses on the night were £57, so my live poker losses are now getting on for £300. One tourney win will sort that out, and I am due a big run of good luck in the main tourneys (ignores fact of luck being totally random and uninfluenced by past events).