Had some nice tournament results recenlty. I've finished second twice in the new blonde Poker League and also made 8th in the $20 on blonde the other day.

Went to the Western last night for the £20 double chance and was really looking forward to playing again as it's been a few weeks since I played there now. Despite Heather waking up at 5am (she's got chickenpox) I was determined to go. First hand and I'm in the bb with KK. All fold to the sb who checks (25/25 blinds) I raise another 100 and he calls. Flop comes 66T with two hearts, he checks, I bet 200, he raises another 250 and I call. Check/check the queen on the turn and the river brings another heart. MB bets out 450 and I have no choice but to fold. I don't know what he had, but I've seen several times aces against kings and queens against kings in the first hand there. Either had me beat and that's without the flush or of course a 6. Managed to get rid of nearly half my first 1500 in the first hand. Luckily I managed to get it back a few hands later with AT against someones A7. I've played with the opponant a couple of times and I think it's the first time ever I've got sort of a tell out of anyone. I knew he had an ace (board KK9A4) but knew he didn't have a king, I just new my hand was good. Managed to take his second stack of 1500 too with AK against his Ace something or other. First break and I'm doing very well. Managed to look after myself in the second section and eventually made it to the final table, but fairly short stacked. Doubled up in the first couple of hands and then really just scrapped through the blinds now and again. Three hands from my exit, I made probably the only real mistake of the night which I'll put down to tiredness. Blinds at 3k/6k and I only have 23k left. On the button I have TT. UTG calls. UTG has at one point when there were between 18 and 10 left, about half the chips in play. He's calling everthing and seems to be hitting everything too, so I just flat call. Flop comes 5 4 K (two hearts) and everyone checks. The turn brings another heart and it's checked to the BB who bets out and we all fold. I'm still disapointed on how I played this and a couple of hands later I'm UTG with pocket 6's and push all in and the CL calls with T9 and hits his ten on the river. Out in 6th which in all honesty, I'm quite pleased with but I did hope for better once I'd made the FT. The tens was played so badly I think, not only not pushing preflop, but given the chance to do so on the flop and I still didn't take it. I was going out in 6th anyway, so not pushing with the best hand I'd had in ages was a bad nove. Quite pleased overall, just not with that hand. Lesson learned though, won't be doing that again.

I seem to have found some form with my tournament game recently and I think I'm going to concentrate on this. My cash game has been pretty poor as late and I seem to be losing a fair bit playing at the cash tables so I need to stop. I only have another $3 to earn on FT before making the next $20 so I may play just to that and call it a day. I had over $400 profit in my FT account but I've managed to wipe that out playing cash and some of the turbos. At least I'm still up overall from my initial deposit so I'll quit whilst I'm ahead and concentrate on tournament poker.