I've finally won a tournament on Stars! I decided to play the $8.80 marathon at around 9pm last night thinking that a couple of hours and making the money would be good. Had to have an early night as I was up at 6:50am to take the parents to the airport, but some 6 hours later and I'm still in and have not only made my first Stars final table proper, but managed to get back from being short stacked with 5 left to level with the other two when there was 3 left where we did a deal and split the money evenly but played on for the win which I'm delighted to have won.

I played with a bit more of a positive attitude, almost 'playing to win' and made a few calls that perhaps I'd have passed not long ago. There wasn't many, but there were a few key points where I doubled up after pushing instead of folding after missing the flop which came in handy and I only really took two knocks, but I was covering my opponent easily otherwise I'd have avoided the confrontation I think. The first one I didn't think I was going to come back from. With 30 left, I raised with AT to be called by the BB, who then checked the flop so I made a continuation bet that basically implied I wasn't folding and would call anything he did. He pushed and turned over a straight draw which puzzled me a bit - I couldn't work out the logic of checkraising on a draw when it was clear I wasn't folding for the extra it cost to call. Anyway, I had a gutshot that would have beaten his high st, but he hit the low card for the straight and I was down to 30th out of 30. He then typed in "Sorry man" which is slightly patronising as he's clearly not sorry and said that "I usually lose out on the river", well I'm not surprised checkraising on a crappy straight draw. I just can't figure out what he though I was on apart from a steal, but what did he think he was ahead of, he only had 9 high.

Anyway, thankfully I did make a comeback, then on the final table, I took a knock with AJ against A3 but came back again. I was sitting as the CL with 6 left and in the big blind then UTG pushed all in for 455k. I held AK and obviously should have called, but the blinds were only at 8000/16000 and it was out of character for him. Not only that but 455k would have left me in a critical situation so I wimped out and folded. He claimed to have done it by accident and was thankful I didn't call, he had JT. The way I'm looking at it now is that I was only 60/40 to win anyway and could have easily lost. Had I not won the comp, I'd have been regretting it now! LOL

Ship the win, my first on Stars and a lovely payday too. I've uploaded the HH to Here if you are in need of something dull to watch, although it's missing the last few hands for some reason.

Saw The Cult at the Forum on Saturday night and oh what a gig, totally superb live rock band. From the opening with Sun King to the closing with Sweet Soul Sister, it was just relentless. For some reason, when we arrived I was on auto pilot and ended up right at the front in the mosh pit for the gig. I think I must have forgotten my age for a moment. Thankfully everyone else round me was in the same age group and I had a great time. I still ache now, I'm so unfit and the pain of the pit takes it's toll on me these days. Ian threw his tambourine and it landed right by me, but I was too busy saving my life for the umpteenth time to grab it. Rich managed to get a set list that was thrown into the crown, but tbh, it's nothing special. The tamba isn't really, I'm sure he does it every night but it would have been cool. I have some picks on my phone I'll upload soon. Counting Crows are playing in the summer, must get a ticket to see them, I can't forget, I love the Crows. I expect the missus will come with me to this one.

Started on my 'serious' cash game tonight and had a 45 minute session that went ok. I've decided that I'm going to play up to an hour and if things are just plodding or not going well, I'll take a break then fire up again if I feel like it. I used to just sit there all night folding then lose it all in a bored moment, so short bursts are what I'm going to try, with a quick PT review after.

I hit some lovely cards early on, but then not much. Ended up just under $15 up which is 19.19 PTBB/100 which I'm happy enough with. It would have been better had I not lost $4 on the blonde only table, I shouldn't really play those fun games whilst trying to build my BR. My VPIP/PFR was a bit weird at 20/10 but I was limping on someones BB a lot. I have over 1000 hands on him and he folds like 80% of the time to a BB steal so after a few steals, I decided to call/bet the flop and take it that way instead, seemed to work ok anyway.

I'm definitely playing better. My biggest loss on the 'normal' tables was only $1.70 and I had a couple of $%+ wins with Aces, Kings and AK but played much better I think.

For the month of February, which is when I really decided to start even though I had a min month crisis blip, I'm still down $35, but I really did play much better today and I played pretty well yesterday for my Sunday Night Painful Tournaments and only got knocked out by bad beats so I'm in good spirits and looking forward to the next session.

Here's an exciting graph!! See how well I was going before going on tilt. On it's way back up now though, that's all that counts

I know I am a better player than I have been recently and I'm putting it down to being constantly tired. Took an early night last night and was asleep by 10pm , up at 7am as usual and despite feeling bit tired still, I feel a lot better overall. I'm sure a coffee will sort out the tired feeling then I'll be raring to go again.

I've had pretty poor post flop game in the last week so I decided to finally get around to watching Brystmar's SSNL series last night and even though I've only watched the first one, I've learned so much I think. Perhaps learned is the correct term because in all honesty, I knew a fair bit of it, I just didn't do it and I really do need to focus, not go on tired/tilty calling sprees and sort myself out before I lose all my hard earned bankroll.

As they sometimes say, today is the first day of the rest of my life

WEEP!

Nothing, nothing has gone right today. Tourneys been knocked out of with decent hands to runner runner crap and I'm just being owned by the short stack buy iners in the cash games - obviously you'd call a raise with T4s out of position, then he continues to reraise all my raises and raise every big blind of mine despite being UTG. So I lose one buy in to the T4s when he obviously hits a flush, then I lose another buy in to another guy that can't fold and rivers a straight.

Money down - lots for me
Likeliness to give up - high
Current bankroll - what it was when I started playing the cash again
Likeliness to tilt - critical

I knew I shouldn't have gone back to play some more tonight. I got away lightly earlier and got a bit of a let off and somehow finished a massive dollar up. I was tired, calling to much, raising with average hands I knew I should of folded, but I decided to carry on. Then I lost a bit of a bigish pot to a short stack buy in scummer with a pretty bad beat, but to be fair, I probably shouldn't have got involved to start with. Descission to play tight, next hand AK so I raised to $2.20 (11xBB) preflop and was called by another short annoyance who hit with KQ after I decided to put him all in on the flop. It ended up just him and me HU for a bit and I clawed some back, but he donked it off to some other short buy in pests before I could win it back.

I have stats on a guy that's played over 3000 hands on the network and he's nearly $300 up - that's over 30bb/100 at this level. He's running at VPIP of 10%, PFR of 8% and he doesn't attempt to steal blinds. Gone to showdown 25% of the time and won 65% of the time at showdown. The known hands he's won with are all respectable - I need to be like this. Tomorrow (or whenever) is going to be better. I've had one losing session so far, and that's enough.
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Anyway, I had to have a losing session sooner or later, and it was sooner. Total loss for the day of $33! OUCH. Getting to $800 isn't going to be easy if I keep doing this.


Total Blonde BR at $140.80

Profit so far $30.94 - Not sure how this is worked because I'm sure I started on $60, but I'll go with it for ease of figures. Perhaps the rest is on my lappy.

BB/100 - a dissapointing 4.11 after tonight

Just as I discover Sovereign in Farnborough, the GC does too and it's reduced to 31 runner £8+2 max tournaments 3 times a week :( I turned up last night to find out the disappointing news but still played (money saved!) and had an enjoyable time.

Also got my fat arse on the treadmill yesterday. I only managed 15 minutes but that was because I tried running too fast for a bit - I'm so unfit I can't handle it. But, a start is a start.

I played some cash whilst watching the England match the other day. Started off well winning almost a buy in fair quickly, then I somehow decided that some guy didn't have enough to raise me when I was holding the massive AT in the BB. I was probably right - it was the 5th time in a row he'd raised my BB so taking a stand would happen sooner or later, but I played it so bad. Then a couple of hands later, I lost it all thinking my pair of Kings were good against trip jacks. Quick reload and a change of attitude to play better and I was off again. Managed to win a few dollars back then another serial sb raiser decided to raise 4xbb after it folded to him, so I repopped to $2 with 54s. He called and checked the flop so I bet 5 into it. He flat called then checked the turn so I fired $10 into it which I was sure would get rid of him. He flat called again and checked the river. I sort of decided that I wasn't going to give up here and if he flat called again, I'd just quit. Anyway, I shoved for my last $16, thankfully he folded and I was up to just under $40. Very next hand and I have AA in the small blind, fold to the same guy who raises to $1. I reraise to $3 and he calls after a fold from the BB. We both check the flop after I hit trips and all the money goes in on the turn. Thankfully he's hit trips too and I get a lovely double up again and then decide to call it a night so I don't donk it all off again!

Last night I went to The Western for the £20 double chance but didn't do any good. I decided to come a different way home to avoid driving past BK and ordering a XL bacon double cheese, so I went via Acton, and still ended up fancying a burger so I stopped at a shop. They had samosas there too so I ordered one to eat before my burger. I was munching away and the guy asked if I wanted salt and vinegar on my chips! Rather than say I didn't order them, I said yes please and instead of a burger, I've had a full meal and a half on my way home. I'm such a fat mofo. Got to stop, healthier eating is coming.

I ventured to Sovereign Poker in North Camp last night. I joined in November I think it was, but they're still working with the old rule that you have to wait 24 hours after joining before you can play there. I was a bit apprehensive about playing somewhere new,but I have to complement the club, it's great! There was a mixture of all age groups who were a friendly bunch and every table had a dealer - a good dealer too. I thought that the dealers may not be up to much given that they're on every tournament there, but they were all first class. Side games were also on the go for those who were knocked out early. Didn't do great myself, managed to make the last two tables by not getting into trouble, but I called for the last of my chips with AQ against a raiser who as it turns out, had kings, oops.

Only took me 20 minutes to get there and only took 13 to get back. It's a bit better than the 45 minute minimum each way at The Western.

Great place, fully recommended, will be back.