So here you all are............

Jeeeeez....where did that month go ? Killarney seems like it happened a couple of weeks ago and already I have my next poker jolly coming up in Nottingham at DTD next week , cant wait for this one.

Ladbrokes regular and all round good spud s7eve from Ladbrokes has done a sterling job organising a 70 seater private MTT in the VIP area of the club - promises to be quite special.

On the Badbeat front things have taken a step forward and without going into too many details I'm a very happy chappy , now all I need is another 30 hours in the week. Unfortunatley I havent really had a lot of time to play and when I do I'm either not playing well or getting donked into oblivion.....must work on that.

They think it's all over............

So , day three of three and after another hard night on the Guinness and the usual great banter with the Ladbrokes crowd I wake at 11.30am to find Banksoir and Emmerson crouched over a game of Internet poker.......sick men I tell you.

Austin ( Emmerson ) has made day three of the main event and while he is relatively short stacked with 150k we beat it into his head than one hand will change everything and wish him luck before I head off to register for the last side event , a 170 euro event with a 25 minute clock and 8k in chips - complete crapshoot no doubt but hey , apparently I came to play some poker.

Registration done its off to the Chestnut Bar to meet the crowd before the tournament kicks off at 4pm , few more Guinness to relax the nerves and we make our way to Ladbrokes lounge to check out how the main event is going. Austin we hear has already doubled so now has some play in his stack and is apparently raising and taking pots whenever the opportunity arises.

Its only 3 hands into my event and a guy in early who looks as if he has never played live before raises the BB of 50 to 250 - 3 callers and I find myself looking down at 109 of spades , it would be rude not to see a flop. The flop comes down J 8 4 with 2 spades so I decide that I am going nowhere in this pot without getting my 8k in. Its bet and I flat call , the turn coming 7 hearts to make my straight and over the remaining course of the hand I get the guy to call his stack off with AJ offsuit , doubled and a bit more and we're off to a great start , this would be needed as the event rapidly turned into a shockingly structured game.

Fast forward around 8 hours and the money bubble is gone with around 18 of the original 361players left - blinds at this stage have reached 15k/30k with a 3k ante and the average stack is only 180k , shocking. I'm pushing UTG with rubbish to take the 75k in the middle just to keep my stack stable - Austin had exited in 14th after a great performance and is leading the cheering section above on the balcony much to the amusement of my table.

I'm then dealt AK utg , my first hand in hours and there is no other play other than to push all in , the call comes after an age and the guy who almost folded turns over 1010 - I've got a flip for 380k now and am very happy to take it but unfortunately the board blanks for me and I'm left crippled with 20k which I shove in the very next hand with 108 to no avail. Out in 14th , so close to the final table and had I won the only race I had been involved in all day who knows what would have happened.

Not too disappointed I cash out and make my way upstairs to the lounge to congratulate Austin who cashed for 4,500 - Akolas who finished 4th in the main event for 20k and Mikjagger who split the 300 euro event HU for another 20k.

If I remember this trip for anything other than the fantastic company it will be the amazing talent we have at Laddiesforum. As a group of players we calculated that our forum took some 35% of the 600k up for grabs. What an achievement and I can only say that I look forward to seeing you all again soon. Awesome weekend , will be difficult to beat. Big thanks to Ladbrokes and Big Slick Events for a great festival.

Curry and chips......

Bladdered...absoultely bladdered last night , but it was so much fun . Apparently I took out half of the dance floor while spinning Shanes girlfriend Eileen around much to the amusement of the assembled masses , so I woke up a little hungover and sore this morning but its all good fun.

Decided to give the 300 euro event a miss so spent most of the day in the bar with the guys playing a few games and sampling yet more of the lovely Guinness.

Saturday evening now , funniest night out I can remember , 11 of us including Lizard,Chinny,Manicboy , Rick and Jen ,Shane and Eileen and Mr. and Mrs.Hef descended on the local Chinese restaurant and completely took the place over. There was a conversation about a cock ring which had the entire table in stitches for the whole night , I guess you maybe had to be there but one of the best nights out I have had....period. An unreal bunch of people , gems the lot of them.

Last day tomorrow , I might even play some poker.

Big day arrives........

So the day of the main event in Killarney finally arrives , been waiting for this one for a long time and after breakfast the crowd starts gathering in the Chestnut Bar for a few "looseners" and the usual poker related talk.

The tournament starts at 4pm and I have managed to draw a table with ShaneMcG and Julesky , not the table draw I had hoped for to be honest but no point in complaining . I start the way I mean to go by raising my first hand and C betting the flop - 1st pot won and I start to feel the confidence grow........herein lies the problem.

We have a 15k stack , 1 hour levels and the blinds are at 25/50 , why I decided to start like a bull in a china shop I will never know. We are only a few hours in and my stack is looking very unhealthy , mainly due to me playing QK on an AQ4A8 board , the river was checked to me and I honestly didn't believe he had the ace until I bet 3,500 into the 5k pot and he called rolling over AK - beautiful check by him but a donkey bet by me.

I never really got over that hand and was very lucky when I limped KK at 100/200 to see 4 callers and a J98 flop , bet-raise from Julesky me all in and he flips J9 -the problem of going for chips with a big hand.....fortunately the K on the river saved me but it was plain that I was simply playing poorly and this wasn't to be the big one I was hoping for.

I limped out of the tourney after around 6 hours running AQ into AK , wished the guys well and skulked off to the bar - disappointed , but only in myself . 300 euro event tomorrow and a lot of rooting for all the guys left in....for now , mines a Guinness.

48 hour day.......

What a loooooooong day.

I've been away so many times playing poker this year I couldn't take the night off work , and so had to go straight to the airport to catch my flight to Killarney after a 12 hour nightshift , perhaps not the best preparation.

So , the shift finished I made my way to Belfast City airport and met up with "Snowmen" from Laddies and Justin along with his mate Paul and off we went onto what was possibly the most dilapidated looking plane I have ever seen. Thankfully the flight was only 50 minutes and the plane itself behaved beautifully despite looking like it may fall apart on the runway.

So after arriving at Cork airport the four of us jumped into a cab for the 50 mile journey to our hotel where the plan was for me to go straight to my room and catch up on a few hours sleep......unfortunately that's when I met "Dicie" and had a pint of Guinness (yum-yum) thrust into my hand before I had a chance to escape.

More and more pints made their way to me and then the inevitable friendly STT started , eleven or twelve of us , eight of whom I knew and four complete strangers. I must admit to doing a small bit of muffing whilst playing this , but eventually when I got a few chips together I basically ran the table over.

The rest of the night continued in the same fashion (apologies to Zoe.....) , so obviously I cannot remember too much detail other than I got to bed around 3am completely exhausted . Having been awake forforty hours straight and with what is the best sleeping draught known to man sloshing about inside in vast quantities a great nights sleep was assured.

Big one tomorrow................

Happy Daz..........

Results are starting to come in thick and fast now,and not before time.

I have managed to scoop around $2.5k in the past few days,through both the Ladbrokes Badbeat account and my own account on Pokerstars.

It's a great feeling sitting at the start of every tournament I play now and having the confidence and mindset to know I am going to go deep. I really haven't felt as good about my game since I started playing and the correct mindset seems to be reaping its own rewards.

Just a few days to go until the big one in Killarney,gonna be a blast.

Starting to turn ?

Shift of death this week.....3 x 12hr nighshifts but hey , tonights the last one and i'm off until next Monday , then full speed Killarney.

Don't know why but played some low limit cash when on a break last night and managed to make a few dollars,then I got home at 8am and entered a $5 express to the Ladbrokes Breakfast club.

Managed to get in and went on to take 2nd for $480 , so who knows maybe things are starting to turn in time for the big one next week. It really does promise to be something quite special - a 500 euro buy in tournament with a 15k starting stack and hour long blinds starting at 25/25 - my type of game.

Can't wait..........

Should I stay or should I go......?

These posts seem to be coming only as weekly updates now , but in truth there isn't a lot to report.

I'm still playing well and getting extremely unlucky , I suppose I should console myself with the fact that I am cashing in almost every MTT I play and getting unlucky when it really matters at the end.

I played 3 MTTs yesterday....the 4pm 10 rebuy , where I finsished 13/141 losing a race with AQ v 44 - the $5 2nd chance finishing 26/325 and the 10pm $25 where I really should have made the Final table instead of blowing out in 14th - but hey , I will allow myself one mistake :)

Things have unfortunately taken a turn for the worse with Badbeat. I was appointed a new mentor around a month ago in the shape of John "Punkfloyd" Conroy and to say I was happy with this would be something of an understatement. The guys game is pure class and his tournament strategy and game is pretty similar to my own . Unfortunately he is also mangaging director of Badbeat and as such is obviously a very busy man.

Because of this I received an email from them during the week telling me that bacause he was so busy they had switched me to another mentor,Richard"Strummer9"Herbert,strangely after talking with other trainees I found I was the only one of Johns who had been switched. The word "clique" unfortunately springs to mind,and the timing quite frankly stinks.

Whilst I like Richard as a person he was also my mentor for a period last year and things did not exactly go swimmingly - mainly because I was attempting to play cash and was basically a cash fish. The timing of the switch whilst my game is in freefall results wise has left me wondering if I should go it alone again.

Decision time..........

Persevere.......

Haven't posted in a while simply because I don't want to fill this with endless bad beats and negativity , it really is getting tougher to plough on through what is going on at the minute but I guess I just have to console myself with the fact that I am playing really well and that the results will come .

Yesterday however was a stinker !

I made a call in the Ladbrokes 10 rebuy wth blinds at 200/400 when I had a 12k stack , some of my learned colleagues have questioned it but I know it's a long term winning play........

My opponent in the hand had just halved his 20k stack the hand previous by shoving with KQoff on and ace high 2 club flop with no pair no draw. Next hand I get pocket 10s and its raised to 1200 beore me and I elect to take a flop - guy in question decides to shove when it comes to him for his remaining 10k and the original raiser folds.

Now it's in no way an auto call but I am convinced its a squeeze.....I can fold and still have over 10k but if I make the call its a 22k pot at 200/400 and I am in a great position to go on and win. Call is made an as expected he has squeezed with a9 off - flop delivers the ace of course and I'm crippled. Im 72% to win here and will make this call all day every day in this position but as usual lately the donkey gets rewarded.

I also final tabled the $3k gtd $25 on Ladbrokes later on but there was no poker to be played on that table as it quickly descended into a muppet fest - serial buffoon eventually busting my aces with AK ffs and I exit in 5th............

Its coming soon apparently , hope the patience holds..........

The morning after......

Yuck...banging head and my phone wont stop ringing.

Shanes brother Gareth arrives as promised and we decide to meet up for breakfast to give ourselves a good start to what promises to be a long day.

Once thats over with (not easy to eat a full English the way I felt) everyones starts to appear in the hotel lobby and once again the beers start appearing. By this stage Lizard and Emmerson have arrived so the gangs all here - I'm overflowing with confidence now and can't wait to get started , so after a bit of back slapping and a few "looseners" we make our way down to the venue.

There are so many good players here , the first friendly face I see is Punkfloyd , my Badbeat mentor who hands me a glass of champagne and a hearty good luck handshake.

So enough frivolities...I'm here for the poker and off I go to my table - its made up of quality - Sandy from Badbeat-Boomer-63Jimboy and Crutchley...all players I know and all very very capable. So 4pm arrives and the tournament begins , 12k stack and with it all to do but I cant wait.

The first 90 minutes fly by and I have increased my stack to 24k without having to show a hand , been a while since I have played live this well and with this amount of confidence . I pass the next few hands and around 10 minutes before the first break I look down to see AA , blinds are 100/200 at this stage and the UTG player makes it 600 to go , i KNOW just KNOW he has a big hand so when its folded to me I re-pop him to 2200.

The call comes very quickly which re-enforces my belief he has a big PP so when the flop comes down 836 and he checks I know hes waiting for me to bet which I duly do (around 2/3 pot) he's instantly all in. I make the call pretty quickly , telling him he has KK and him askin me if I have the aces.......45k in there and I aint lookin - dream start - KING ON THE FKIN RIVER ..............

Never before at a live game have I felt so sick , I'm team captain , the dream start was there and then snatched away by a 25/1 shot with 1 card to come . Words fail me even now.............

The bar awaits.................

Beer and chips.....

So Friday has arrived at last and off to London we go for the Dream Team III live final , been a long online run of 32 weeks and while my team will start with only around average chips , I leave full of confidence.

Met ShaneMcG and his girlfriend Eileen at the airport and the first of many drinks were taken before we boarded our flight ( eventually....).

It was a long old day of travelling but we eventually got to the hotel and as always at these things were greeted with all the usual friendly faces and a few more drinks before the inevitable ego and muff driven game of poker was started up ( and i REALLY do mean MUFF DRIVEN..)

From what I can remember I took my exit around half way through proceedings when my all in call with AJ suited of Shanes UTG push with Q4 off came out second best , must apologise for spitting my dummy out and sulking off to bed :).

Fingers crossed for tomorrow.............

Overload..........

Went a bit over the top with the Stts today.

Sat down early morning with a view to playing until mid afternoon and some 12 hours later I had played a total of 43 Stts ranging from $10-$30 buy ins. Whilst I did manage to turn a total profit of $380 , what was so frustrating was that the profit could so easily have been around $1000. I've forgotten how frustrating a run of 3rds and bubbling in 4th can be.

Felt absoultely exhausted after it and was the longest session I have had in quite some time , so took a well earned night-cap or two and off for the best nights sleep I have had in a long time.

Won't have much time to play next week as it's the dreaded 3 12hour night-shift pattern and then off to London for the Dream Team final on Friday.

Can't wait..........bring it on ( big one coming :D )

Change of tactics.............

And so it continues...................

I was starting to worry about my recent run in MTTs across all sites and was wondering if it was simply down to me playing poorly.

Yesterday I played only 3 MTTs ,starting of with the $10 rebuy sat. for the $250 freze on Laddies - went out 4th for no cigar after being muffed by the table donkey. The $20 and $25 Freezeouts went no better with me once again getting the chips in ahead after a card drought in both tourneys.

So........I spent the rest of my time going through all of the days play on pokeroffice and I am happy to say I think I have found why I am not cashing in MTTs at the minute.

I'm simply getting dealt rubbish for the duration and when I do manage to get the chips in - more often than not as a 70% favourite I'm getting donked into oblivion. A change of tactics is called for , so I have decided to go back to playing STTs for a while in order to build some profit and ride the wave of bad luck.

Good luck me :)

Ever wish you didn't bother ?

Fook me I'm knackered......

Shift of death this week - 3 x 12 hour dayshifts , not condusive to playing poker but thought I would have a go today as I was able to steal a few hours in work , ever wish you didn't bother ?

Thing started off brightly enough with me winning a $20 10 seater on ipoker whilst playing the $10 rebuy on Ladbrokes with my newly sponsored Badbeat account , ever wish you didn't both..........oops already said that.

The same retards seemed to be out in force in the evening on ipoker - most notably when I managed to get all the chips in playing the $35k gtd with 1010 v 66(who re-raised all in) v 33 - 2 outs each eh ? ....... oh not a bit of it......the 6 promptly arrived on the river to give the mighty 33 the straight. Ever wish you didn't bo......................

All that remains id the 5k on Trillion , lets hope its a happier story.......

Oops...........

Oops , almost a week since I posted but to be honest I haven't really played that much as work is curently playing havoc with my sleeping pattern and as a result is leaving me feeling shattered most days.

I did however manage to fit in a 90 minute mentoring session on Friday with John "Punkfloyd" Conroy and it was the most constructive and positive thing I have managed to do poker-wise for quite some time . I was quite worried about having it beforehand as I respect the guys game so much , but his class shone through very early and I was at ease with him watching me play in no time at all.

Must also add congratulations to Richlizard once again for winning both the 10k on Trilion last night and the $50 rebuy on Pokerstars for $2900 and $27k respectively - awesome stuff once again mate.

Have registered for 3 tournaments on iPoker today - $20 double stack , $2.5k Gtd Omaha and the $7.5k Gtd $5 rebuy.......should get me in the right frame of mind for the final round of Dream Team tonight , results to follow..................

Sick-sick-sick , starting to lose faith http://www.badbeat.com:8080/static/gameReplay.swf?gameID=1696228889 just a small example of the players on that site.............

Sigh

Back in the mix.............

Finally back to normal after the move now and while I'm shattered it feels good to have everything where it should be (almost).

Haven't really played much in the last few days other than hitting the crossbar in a few sat's .Other than that it was just the Dream Team last night , where once again all 5 players went deep and picked up some more points - most notably Emmerson who final tabled again in 5th and is now pretty much unstoppable as top points scorer - well done mate , fully deserved.

I mentioned bubbling in a few sats recently so tonight I have decided to treat myself by buying into the Daddy on Ladbrokes - just that tonight and my first crack at Lizards cash cow the 5k on on Trillion.

If the big one is imminent "dazzler is the daddy" has a nice ring to it.



........Not to be unfortunately , lasted around 3 1/2 hours with no cards which aint so bad considering I was at Punkfloyds-Jaffacakes and Action jacks table for most of it.....but its hard to go into war sometimes with no ammunition :)

Finished 4th in the Trillion 5k at my first attempt for $500 - exit hand was pretty sick as I was sitting with around 35k with A10 off on the sb with blinds at 3k/6k with a 600 ante so was obviously in PUSH mode. Not being familiar with the software I clicked the wrong button and instead of pushing all in(which would have taken the pot) I mis clicked and raised another 10k which the BB obviously called and his FD with J8 was more than enough to call the rest.

No harm done , and was good to play the Daddy tourney again.......just gotta cheer the forum home again and hope the Lizard continues his unbelievable run of greed and bags it :).

Fingers crossed.................

1 outered x 2....................

Have barely played all week due to being on night shift and moving house , only played 2 games all week excluding dream team and managed to final table in them both - alas no trophy.

So I thought I would remedy the situation today and sit down to a good days poker.......wish I hadn't bothered. I didnt do anything wrong in any of the games, in fact I played pretty well , just one of those days where it wasn't meant to be I guess.

What annoys me more than anything is that for the first time since I started I lost $160 of my $500 daily Badbeat limit - my biggest daily loss to date and while it doesn't sound a lot I am by nature a tight git :)

Still 3 games going as I write so back tothe positive thoughts and good play.

Managed to donk myself out of the 2 MTTs on Laddies but consoled myself with the fact I was chippy in the $35k GTD 10 rebuy on grandslam and playing great with 180 to go from the 1233 starting field.

Then it happened , I flopped top set in a raised pot and all the chips went in vs bottom set , of course his 1 outer arrives on the river and I lose 2/3 of my 110k stack.....ouch.

I then get moved to another table and find AKss in the Hi-jack seat and promptly raise it up to 7.5k (blinds 1k/2k) - the BB calls and the flop comes down 5s 4s Ah - I have around 35k left so I bet 17k - just over pot and get the call. Turn comes Js and they all go in....happy days when he flips 7s8s , until the 6s drops on the river.

From chippy to out in 2 sick sick hands , absolutely gutted. Hard to remain positive when that stuff happens , especially with a $7,350 1st prize for my $10 stake , but hey..........

BIG ONE COMING...............

All quiet.....

Nothing of note to write about as I dont get to play much whilst I'm on this shift pattern of Sunday,Monday and Tuesday night.

Only thing played today was the Dream Team and I had to do that whilst hiding in work :)

Only four from our team of six could make it tonight and we all went fairly deep in the field of 122. I finally succumbed in 38th spot but the guys fought on and got some much needed points for the live final. Unfortunately while Austin was playing for Dave he managed to find KK while chipped up vs another player sitting with AA and he eventually exited in 10th spot.

The live final isn't too far off now but more about that when it comes round.

For now , roll on Wednesday..........

Drowned at the river..............

What a sick sick day........

Played very little online yesterday - just the $500 GTD $10 on Ladbrokes and while I did final table again , there was to be no first place. We're down to 5 players from 76 and the short stack is all in with me and a f**kin donkey still in the pot . Then the idiot decides to bet the pot on the flop and turn where I eventually give it up only to see Ms. shorty treble up when I would have put her out - why do these fekin idiots do it ? Anyway I manage to run my JJ into her QQ a few hands later and i'm out 5th , this however is not where the sickness lies.........

I get talking to Gareth..............a Badbeat trader and we decide we should met up for a few beers in Belfast at 6 and then head down to Bangor for the £20 £20 £20 game.

Good craic is had in the bar and with high spirits we jump in the cab and make our way to the game. The first hour is spent with me playing very loose with my intial 6k stack and I manage to lose it and rebuy for another 18k just before the break. Brandy fortified coffees are the order of the day before we resume and I get moved to what the players tell me is the "donkey" table - named so because of a player I shall call "GeorgetheKok".

I pad my stack to around 30k when I look down to see KK with blinds at 800/1500 and pop it up to 6k. "GeorgetheKok" likes his hand and we see a tasty looking Q57 rainbow flop which he duly pushes all in to. I snap call and he flips over 68 offsuit...........(YES :S) and the beautiful 9 on the river makes his straight. Now I don't often get mad at the table but I almost launch my 30k stack at him across the table and make my way outside for some fresh air(and coffee....).

Gareth busts out shortly after with AJ v AK......flop A high with a lovely Jack hitting the turn and then a fekkin King on the river :( . So we decide to sit at the cash table - 1/2 PL ith a round of Holdem and a round of Omaha - quite a tasty wee game this and we both decide to sit with only half a buy in.

Around an hour later I'm sitting with £400 and Gareth with around £600 when hand number 2 rears its ugly head.

Omaha and its been raised to £7 pre with a couple of limpers so I go along with AKd Q7c - the flop comes down Ks 10s 8h and its checked to me so I bet the pot and get 2 callers. The Jd on the turn gives me the nut straight and its bet to me so I raise the pot and the guy calls..........oh happy days....until the Js falls on the river and kills my hand. Theres around £350 in the middle at this stage and I can't call his all of around £100...........from nuts on turn to nothin,thats Omaha.(He called on the turn with 101010 btw.......................)

So instead of leaving £600 up I make my way home around £200 in profit , not to be sneezed at but two hands and two rivers..............sick sick sick.................

Second is the best loser................

I feckin hate 2nd place...........

Had a long days play today , on Ladbrokes and Ipoker for Badbeat. Managed to drop a few dollars on Ipoker mainly through donk play and jumping straight in while not fully awake (idiot).

Only played two games on Laddies,a high stack where I managed o have my AA cracked by QK on a Q high flop and the $10 rebuy which started at 4pm and finished with me taking $542 for second at around 10pm , sounds good but I'm deeply disapointed with the result. It came down to one pivotal hand with blinds at 10k/20k and me holding JJ v Q9 the donkey caled a check raise on the turn only to fill his straight on the river.

I managed to blame myself after the tournament was over but on reflection the guy was just a muppet. I bet the flop and he called - then I check raised him on the turn for 70k and he called again with his gutshot which he duly hit.

So no trophy today but as my unofficial mentor said........." ...do not blame yourself , the engraver just had the night off ".

Very uneventful day yesterday mainly due to the fact that I had to go into work , so could't play poker until I got home at 8pm and as a rule I usually choose not to as more often than not I eat and find myself too tired to concentrate.

What was mildly amusing however was deciding it might be an idea to find my flight details for the upcoming Dream Team live final as Crawfski had asked me during Monday nights game when I was arriving in Stanstead.

After a fruitless search of my emails for confirmation I convinced myself I hadn't actually booked and decided I had better do it now before the prices shot up - so I went ahead and booked return flights with Ryanair and was slighltly perplexed when I got a phone call 10 minutes later from a representative telling me I was now booked on the same fights twice (what a donut)....lol.

Played 2 small games in the evening and as expected was too tired to give it my full concentration and susequently busted out of both. Will endeavour to get some proper play in tonight as I'm off tomorrow and give it a good run over the weekend.

BTW. wp Pokerkaz for your second in the 10 rebuy on Ipoker - some nice spending money for your holiday to Spain tomorrow , enjoy :)

Zzzzzzzzzz..........

Pressed the snooze button on the alarm this morning and promptly woke up at 8.55am,oops late for work so decided to throw a sicky.

Played the $40 Breakfast club on Ladbrokes and got 3 outered on the river for my exit in 13th (shoulda went to work).

Only other games I played were 2 rebuys on Ipoker for Badbeat,never got anywhere in either so called it a night at 8.00pm and settled down to watch a movie with a glass of red.

Tomorrows another day.........

Rolercoaster.............

Hmm....... sometimes I think the poker gods are going a wee bit to far............

As i write I have just bubbled in the $40 Breakfast club on Ladbrokes,the exit hand I dont really have a problem with as we were both pretty short stacked and hes perfectly entitled to call all in with his AK v my 66..... its the hand below that did the damage.



So with that behind me I decided to play one of my Badbeat accounts in the afternoon and plumped for the $20 double stack with 160 runners and the $7500 GTD $5 rebuy with 549 runners to run alongside it.


The $5 ended badly with me losing a coinflip-QQ v AK for a huge pot when the payouts had just begun,a measley $31 compared to the $1800 for first,and I took my exit in 79th. The $20 went somewhat better however with me reaching the final table as chipleader after having been low all tournament and going on to take the win for $864. POSITIVE MENTAL ATITUDE :).



So just the Dream Team on Betfair to play in the evening and it went the reverse of the earlier $20. I led it for a long time but reached the final table around 5th/9 and unfortunately it ended badly with me pushing QJ from smal blind into A3 in the big blind.
Some of my team said it was a prety sick call with A3 but on reflection with blinds at 2k/4k and a 400 ante the big blind probably figured my shoving range with a 20k stack and over 9k in the middle was good enough to take on with his ace high. No real complaints just sorry I couldnt push a few more points for the team.


All in all,a rollercoaster of a day,but hey............BIG ONE COMING :)

Rigged I tell you...............

The live game last night was great fun when I eventually decided to actually play some poker after the first break instead of hanging around waiting for cards.

One hand of note before the break came along when I had decided to limp along with 4 other players with the mighty 44. The BB then made it 1200 at 200/400 blinds and got 3 callers..............so now there is 6800 in the pot - worth a pop I thought so I go along for the ride.

I am now visualising a 4 on the flop and don't even look when the dealers spreads it out,my eyes are fixed on the original raisers face.................he likes it so I glance down and there it is 472, checked round to me and I duly do the same - original raiser bets pot and when they all fold I happily push them in.

Happy days when he flips over KK.......not so much so when the K appears on the river,live poker is rigged ffs :)

I eventualy busted out 11th bubbling the FT which Linda made but to no avail. Good night guys , look forward to doing it again.

I love it live....................

Not much play today....to be honest wasn't really in the mood but did play two multi's early doors.

LADBROKES
$10 $300 GTD SUNRISE
25/56
$40 $2K GTD BREAKFAST CLUB (In through satellite)
15/59

No cards in the early one but managed to get the chips in with trip 10s v flopped straight :)
Card dead late on in the breakfast club,had A10 spades in BB with blinds at 40/80 with a 3.5k stack.............Hero in mid position decided it was a good idea to raise the short stacks BB with J9, - the flop came JJ9 and that was all she wrote.

No damage done though and still played fairly well in both so no complaints.

Off to play live tonight with a few guys from the forum - Jackpot,Superbell and Bamysam.Looking forward to meting Bell and Sam after meeting them for the first time in Newcastle,and can't wait to met Jackpot as he assures me I'm playing for 39th place.

Bring it on :).

Broken rules......

Hmmm,two days in and I have broken my own rules already.

I did what I usually do when I get in from a night shift and read the forum over a cup of coffee. It was there that i seen Steve Cales post about the WLOP,a points based monthly league set up for low stakes MTT players. Pokerkaz had said to me before about joining it and given my current situation-well it seemed rude not to.

So i clicked this link http://www.wloponline.com/ - signed up and went off in search of some low stake buy in MTTs.

During the course of the day I played following MTTs on Ladbrokes -

07.30 $10 Sunrise - 4th/41 for $48
11.30 $10 $500 gtd Freeze - 7/68 for $34
15.45 $10 Highstack 1st/21 for $84

I also played 5 x $20 STTs for Badbeat on Grandslam, winning 3 and not placing in the other two for a profit of $190.

So while I broke a few rules,the days results have been quite encouraging,and throughout the whole days play I played with a smile on my face,even whilst taking the beats.

So what to do with the evening ? A break from poker methinks....nice bottle of red and maybe a movie sounds the ticket ( I ain't slept in 28 hours ).

Things appear to be heading in the right direction.............

Restructuring....

New start,so I have decided to restructure my approach to playing-mainly involving the sites I am going to play on and the bankroll I will allow myself.

Just home from a 12 hour night shift so playing now out of the question-I will not allow myself to play when ill-prepared from now on,fail to prepare = prepare to fail. This being the case I emptied all of my poker accounts and was pleasantly surprised to be able to bank $3650.

I have decided to play my own bankroll on Ladbrokes and Pokerstars and have allowed myself a starting roll of $500 on both sites,so for the time being its STTs only on both for me until I have rebuilt to a level where I can take on the variance of MTTs again.

I still have my $250 daily limit to play on Mansion and GrandSlam through my Badbeat sponsorship-my main priority is to build on these as I have been neglecting them somewhat lately,for no other reason than not wanting to jeopardise their money while on such a bad run. This may sound crazy as I have been burning through my own roll while visiting outdraw city for the past couple of months....but that's just my outlook.

All that remains for me to do now is to get some sleep and think positive thoughts. Bring on the weekend.



NB. Managed to steal a couple of hours in work and played 3 $20 STTs..........1 first and two bubbles,one running KK in sb into AA in bb when 4 handed and 1 guy sitting out.......at least the poker gods have a sense of humour eh?

Start of a new dawn?

Crossroads.........

Everyone comes to one now and again during their life I have had several , many have been more important than this one but nonetheless here I am again with a decision to make.

Ever played poker? Online or live it is a game that I have grown to love but also one which unfortunately at the minute is causing me more than a fair bit of stress. If you do,or have played to a consistent level and the game has become a part of your day to day life I'm sure you may empathise.

To set the scene , I have been playing the game on a fairly serious level part time for the best part of 3 years now with varying levels of success....years one and two were spent losing more than I won but last year things changed with me making a total profit of $24,465...not by any means earth shattering but a nice way of topping up my income by doing something part time which I like.

The plan was to take it to another level this year and all started well when I boarded the plane for New York with my good friend Neil Banks to join the Ladbrokes Poker Cruise III - needless to say a great time was had by all and old friendships were re-kindled and new ones made-not a lot of profit gained to be fair but a free holiday and a great experience,one I will remember for many years to come.

On the back of this I once again met up with John"Punkfloyd"Conroy who told me he was happy to have me back at http://www.badbeat.com/ as a trainee trader,after a previous unsuccessful attempt. I took up the offer when I got home and have progressed from a $200 a day trainee up to $500 a day.

All sounds good eh?.....if only.

Unfortunately I find myself in profit with the above but merely treading water. The run of luck I have had this year has been quite frankly sickening and my personal bankroll is now getting close to danger levels,never before have I been so convinced that now may be the time to stop-Confidence is at an all time low,which never helps....so herein lies the crossroads I spoke of earlier.

Due to some great and well deserved things which have happened to friends of mine recently,along with their support and the inspiration I have garnered from this I find myself with only one option.

Turn left,right or go back ?

Plough straight ahead is the decision I have decided to take . Ignore all the negativity and find my confidence again. I certainly am not the first person to lose it and definitely wont be the last.

The whole process of this blog for me is cathartic, for me to log and analyse my play every day and so make it easier to evaluate my weaknesses and mistakes. A fresh start if you will,forget all that has gone before and positively push forward.

"Thoughts become things" and as the main man said "Big one coming......."

The start of a new dawn ? Absolutely.



To be continued........................