Goodbye Plymouth

I had decided that I was going to be playing tight for most of the last blonde/Virgin tourney tonight. The first couple of levels passed with me just folding then on level 3 (I think it was) I was quite pleased to see pocket aces. An early raise was nice, perhaps I'd pick up more than the blinds, so I repopped a large amount of about 3 times the raise. I'm repopped instantly all in, well, they were all in, I had 750 left. Flips over pocket 10's and my smile faded quickly as another ten came on the flop followed by the last one on the river.

Down but not out, I was hanging in there and was eventually dealt Jacks, a prompt call by pocket 4's saw my exit as they too managed to hit trips and I was out in lowly 29th.

To say I'm gutted is an understatement, all I had to do was play tight and I'd be on the trip to Plymouth for the £1000 ME next week.

I'm just so appauled at pocket 10's moving all in so early on in a tourney. Words just fail me at the moment. It was about 2 hours ago and I'm still gutted about it. All in with a pair of 10's so early on.

I have a big weakness in my game, I can't let go of hands. Just been playing an $8 tourney on Stars and went from fairly ok in 30thish out of 60 to, well out with KQo. Folded to me on the cut off and I raised to 3600 (3xBB) SB calls, others fold. Flop J22 and I put the continuation bet of 6k in (pot 9.somethingK) He calls. Now alarm bells should have been ringing a bit I guess, but no, the turn brings a 6 and he checks. I decided to move all in and he calls with AJ.

Until then, I'd played pretty well, but that hand, I don't know what it was. I was at the stage where my M was getting low, it was about 8 and I wanted to pick up some more blinds, but I couldn't accept that he had me beat.

Anyway, fairly please with the performance until the last hand. The win will come soon I expect.

Feeling a bit sorry for myself over the last few days. I seem to be on another losing streak. No matter what I do, I will lose. I think it started Sunday and I haven't won a bean since then. This is a standard example I had played about 3 hands all night, so he must have know I have something better than a pair of crappy 8's but the luck isn't on my side. My last three tourneys I've been knocked out by callers to large raises with K8, A4o, A4s. The last one hurt most, it was a $30 DS sat to a $1050 final sat and was heads up against someone that was pretty weak. I called with my KK knowing he'd put the raise in which he obliged me with, then proceeded to flop the ace he needed. Doesn't matter what I go in with, I seem to lose - I lost 4 times with AA in the same tourney Sunday night, luckily all to shorties but you'd expect one to hold. My AK's miss against small pairs, my big pairs get outdrawn, I'm just a little fed up with it.

It's not Karma, it's bollocks.

Moan over, boring to read I know, but it feels better talking/typing about it. I'll keep plugging away and hope to hit something sooner or later. Scrub that, 7 times out of 10 I don't even need to hit, I just hope they don't!

Non event pretty much last night. I decided that I was only going to play the Poker Player Magazine freeroll, the V Points freeroll and the blonde/Virgin tourneys and that would be it. Well, it was uneventful in all of them despite a few bad beats so I tried a cheapy blonde Poker, again few beats and that was that.

Then I was a sucker for the $55 $25k on Stars at 10pm and managed to finish about 150thish but nothing special. I had so many mid pairs and didn't hit trips once it was annoying and I think this cost me really. Managed to get a nice stack, but then a few preflop raises with said pairs, couple of callers and two over cards on the board and I'm not in such good shape all of a sudden. Quite pleased with the play though, you can't win them all and I was in there with the top 20% anyway. On the plus side, I did win a seat to a $55 in a satellite crapshoot so I was only a few bucks down overall on Stars.

I'm quite pleased with the 'step up' to the $55's. I don't think it's out of my league and if I get a nice cash there, then I should be ok. There's a fair mix of players play them, I guess it's the higher end of the regular recreation players and perhaps the very bottom end of the better players but overall the standard is a lot better and makes for a better game. I do like the $22 with one rebuy and the add on too but it starts just an hour too early really for me, but the numbers in this is ideal - only attracts about 350ish but that's enough to build a nice prize pool, especially with the rebuy and add on.

Night off tonight, not sure I'll play much tomorrow, but Sunday I'm back and looking to take advantage of the weekend players.

Ended up 3rd in the $4k for $320ish. Bit disapointed as I was CL for a while, then some guy took 5th out, next hand took 3rd out, then he raised my bb the next hand and I had QT so pushed thinking he was at it, he had AQ! 3 nice hands in a row for him and 3 victims.

Pleased with 3rd though, pleased with $300 for $5 too!

Been a good night.

I've been watching some of Zpaceman's mtt's from Cardrunners today and I think I've learnt a few things from them. Played the $22 with one rebuy and one add on on Stars which I quite like as it only gets around 330 people playing and despite donking off my first 1500 chips, I managed to go quite well and made the money but in a more positive fashion. I was going really well at one point. I had a bit of a to do with Moorman who was to my immediate right for ages but I knocked him out with my pocket 9's against his ATs. I was glad to see the back of him to be honest, you don't really want to be on a table with Moorman, well, I don't anyway, but thankfully he was on my right.

Then I was moved to a table with 6 short stacks and 3 big stacks (myself included but the lower of the three) The other two were directly to my right and every time I entered a pot to steal, the big stack would call, then bet me off the pot if I didn't have anything. Eventually he bubbled after making some pretty aweful calls, but getting a bit unlucky too and I was moved to another table. Unfortunately, I tried to steal with A7s and ran into pocket 9's but I pretty much commited myself on the flop but my flush draw, over card and gutshot failed to hit and that was that. The bad news was that I just got my money back, $60 for first level of money, the good news was that I played to win, kept a level stack until Mr Playallmypots joined the table and played more positive in general - oh and it's another ITM for me.

I'm also down to the last 30 or so in the blonde $4k, but I could use some cards now. I've had aces four times and they've lost them all! One time, please hold!

I was right not to give up (bar a self bok here) the higher entry tourneys. Decided to play the 10pm Stars $55 and it's been a case of hanging on in there. Managed lose most of my chips on a flush draw (I was getting the odds though) but didn't give up and have come back from 750 chips and am currently 21st out of 92.

The reason for the early post? This hand - probably one of the most important hands I think I've ever had

Will post an update after

Ah well, I guess the luck had to run out sooner or later. On the plus side, it was a pretty loose call by him. After I'd raised him preflop, then moved all in, what did he think I had? Anyway, out in 52nd for $100. Not quite the $10k I was aiming for but better than a kick in the arse. At least after battling through 700 players I got $50 profit, better than the usual $10!

The step up in buy in level seems to be having a worse effect than I had hoped. I didn't think I was playing that bad, but people seem to be happy to call my preflop raises with any two cards, then if they bet out on the flop and I reraise them all in, they seem happy to call on a draw, which they seem to hit. My pocket pairs seem to lose to rag aces and I can't seem to catch a break recently. Perhaps it's just all evening up with my good form prior to moving up the levels, I don't know, but I do know it's annoying watching Q8 call your preflop raise, then seem happy to call an all in on a flush draw.

That said, had I called the small raise in second hand, my pocket 4's would have turned in to a lovely full house and had I not tried to bluff my way on a KQ999 board with AJ, I'd have had some more chips and not found myself in the desperate situation
where I am trying to get someone off a flush draw.

So far I've played 1 x $55, 1x$20 rebuy ($42 invested) and 1x$24 on FT with zero returns.

I'm not going to give up yet, I can do it, I just need to catch a break, well, I just need others not to catch a break, I've been ahead when my chips have gone all in.


edit:sigh! Never ends, KJ decided to call my raise but my AA were no match, then next hand I have AJ in the sb, button calls, I push, button has KK, obv no ace to save me and I'm out.

A Win!!

Been playing reasonably ok recently but not getting any decent cashes but yesterday I finally took down a small mtt. OK, it was only 49 runners and only for £100, but at least it was good old Pounds Sterling and not those cheap Dollars, and it was a win! Can't remember the last time I won a tourney so I'm quite pleased. Also I went pretty well in a Stars comp, finishing 90th out of over 1100 but sadly only picked up $18.51 for that, money does suck at the lower levels. Also qualified (and cashed out) of a 5 card draw tourney which was fun. I may give draw another go soon as most didn't really know what they were doing!

Pretty pleased with game at the moment and I'm hoping for a decent cash on Stars soon.

I am tempted to go up to the $50 mtt's and try half a dozen or so. It's where the money is. There's less people to go through and in the ones I've played in the past, I have managed to make the money before so I'm definitely capable of playing them.

Disapointing night. Played a sat to the APAT event in Luton and also the Inside Edge freeroll to Luton funnily enough, but that was the GKUPT thingy. Anyway, was going well in both until I decided to call an all in with AK on the button in the APAT site and lost to KQ or KJ, something like that and went out in 23/4 - 15 seats and I was just 7 away. The IE one was going well too but I managed to bust out in about 40th. Then played a $2.5 mtt on Stars to vent off. This was quite fun and I managed to get really low, then really high and with 200 left, I was in the top 50, then I decided to call a small raise with 99 and push someone all in on a Q66 board but he had AA, then pushed the rest in for pot odds on a straight draw but it never happened. Also managed to spend a bit in a sat to the nightly $150k but failed to make a seat.

Lots of losses tonight. I'm a bit disapointed about the APAT one and also with the $2.5 one, I was so tempted to fold the 9's, I just had a feeling but when he bet small on the flop, I convinced myself he had missed and maybe had AT, AK, AJ - well I got one card right anyway.

On the plus side, I think I'm playing better at the moment, on the downside, my account don't really agree with me!

Onwards and upwards.

Took some more macros over the weekend. Took loads actually, but most were rubbish and I only ended up posting 3.

Following on from Monday nights small success, I played another sat tonight, the $5 rebuy into the $55 $50k on Stars and managed to win a seat, so more T$ for the collection. Also went quite nicely in the $5k $5 on Stars, finishing about 145ish out of about 2000 people. Had to go for it towards the end, not getting any decent cards and even if you made the final table you only got $120 I think. The payout seemed pretty crappy and very very top heavy to me. I'm not keen on paying 400 runners, especially when you've got go get so deep to get a semi decent return. I think even 200 into the money we are only on about $10 back. Surley it's not worth playing for 3 hours to get $5 profit? Anyway, I knew the rules before I started so I can't complain. Nice to cash in two out of two on Stars tonight.

Also played the Open on Sky but the software was so bad it was unplayable but I did hit a nice full house on a cash table to win a small profit.

Had a good day yesterday. Played golf for Richies birthday then off to the boozer for a few, as you do! Didn't feel great this morning, but I've been worse. I think I may give up the booze for a month or so, try and lose a few pounds and try to get a bit healthier in general, perhaps my concentration will improve - you never know.