I've been trying to avoid cash games recently as things haven't been going well. I won't bore with details, but it's fair to say I'm down in recent weeks. By some small miracle, I think I may be about even or maybe even slightly up for the month, but it's not been a good time. I know it's only variance, but considering I'm technically playing massively out of my blonde bankroll, I'm morally down a bit so have avoided them.

April has been a good fun month though, the main reason being that I have made my debut at Dusk Till Dawn and what a place it is. I played the APAT event first of all but was card dead throughout and never really got above my starting stack. Then I decided that I'd take the plunge and play some NL100 cash games. Managed to lose most of my initial buy in and decided to call it quits with £20 left which I put towards the evening freezeout. I think I started on some weird tilt having played about 80% of the hands in the first half hour or so. In the end, I had to walk away for five minutes to stop me playing. It wasn't that I was playing rubbish, they were all genuinely playable hands, but I was playing OOP and building up a really loose image and people were calling me with rags and that's not my general style. Perhaps I should have stuck with it! Ended up going ok in that but was moved tables and didn't really fit in to the new one. One guy was obviously a semi decent player and was raising in position a lot and I took a stand in the BB with 8's when he raised a bit. I pushed and he thought about it and decided to call with QJ. The board helped him and I was out in about 60th or something like that.

Back to the cash games and I figured that I had the live game figured out a bit more now so sat down and after a while lost most of my cash with KK against a set of 9's. I raised to £8 with after a few limpers and it folded to the 9's who called. Hit his set on the flop which came 10 high and he bet out £4. I raised to £15 and he called. The turn came and he bet £4 and now I became suspicious so flat called. When he again bet £4 on the river, I knew I was beat but wanted to see and I couldn't fold for £4 into a £60ish pot so called and found out. I was actually pleased that I figured out I was beat and put him on a set and I think if I hadn't I'd have lost a bit more as I was bound to raise the turn bet. Thankfully I didn't and I'm not sure he played it well, but anyway, I was down to £20 again. I sat with just the £20 for a while and once I realised that perhaps I played the loss well, rebought another £40 and it was good that I did as soon after I doubled up with AK and picked up a couple more pots and all in all I was only literally a pound or two down for my first live cash day.

I learned that live cash is different from online in quite a few ways but think I adjusted ok in the end. The main thing is that people will call raises with anything. One hand on my table, a lady limped utg and someone round the table raised and she called the raise, I think it was about £6 or so. Anyway, she won the hand with something like 83o. Obv the raiser was a bit miffed but like she said "You shouldn't limp if you're not prepared to call the raise" Well, I can't argue with that, but perhaps you should look at the limping range lol. Turns out she's apparently a good player in the game and has won some womens tournament fairly recently, but I didn't know who she was.

Sovereign Poker opened it's doors again recently and I popped down for the £20 with one rebuy on Thursday. I felt good before turning up and fancied myself a bit. I'm not sure what the feeling was but it was good to take 2nd and £230 for my efforts. 27 turned up for the game and I started out ok but didn't really hit any massive hands for a bit. I managed to lose half my stack calling an all in from a shorty but got it back fairly quickly calling him again with AQ which was good and on I plodded to the final table where I started in ok shape compared to the others, but not good in terms of big blinds left. Down to 5 and someone suggested £50 off for a saver and one guy who was CL said no as he wanted to continue to bully - fair enough if a bit unfriendly, but we played on and he ended up fairly short and the same person suggested it again and we all agreed. Had I not been so short myself, I'd have disagreed here to get back at him, it seemed a bit off to not accept first of all then want it when conditions didn't favour him, but then you do play for yourself I guess. It was him I ended up heads up against and I couldn't really adjust to things. He was very aggressive and played well, I have no complaints about losing. I ended up calling with KJ against A6 and was quite excited when the flop came x J 6 but another 6 came on the turn and that was that. I think I should have called to an earlier all in with T9s but there you go. Quite pleased with the £230 and I'm definitely going back, it's a great place and only 15 mins away on a good run, beats driving in to London in an evening and they have a lot more games in my price range.

Where I work, it's fairly rural and I've been meaning to bring my camera in for ages. When I forget there's pheasants, deer, hawks and all manner of wildlife about, when I remember, it's rarely there of course.

Yesterday I took my camera in so armed with it and my 300mm zoom lens, I set off in search for a bit. The field to the back has a nice paddock type area at the back of it so I headed there. It was only when I reached the gate I realised that it's an idea to be fairly quiet and if I had been, I may have seen my pray rather than just a fleeting glimpse of furry bottoms leaping away! I stalked them ever so slowly and quietly for a bit and it took me about 20 mins to cross the small paddock. I finally reached a fence where I was going to rest my camera for a shot when the farmer came storming by in his dirty great big combine harvester (or some farming vehicle) spraying is crops and I've never seen deer move so fast away from me! With old steady hands here being in charge, I only really managed a couple of blurred shots. I should have taken my monopod!

Forgot the monopod again of course today, but I did manage to creep better this time and got this shot leaning on the branch of a tree.

Not easy shooting deer, I may need some form of hide.

If you play cash, you really need to track your progress. PT allows you to do this and gives you an output in a rough guide to how well you are going with the BB/100 figure and it's what we all go by as to how well we are going.

You really need to gauge it over a lot of hands though, but however many you've played, it's a small stat that can provide so much comfort or pain.

I was having another shocking start to my cash session last night. I'd raise it up PF with AQ, then they'd all call - 4 people to the flop all calling $2. So I make my continuation bet on an fairly non descript board, but one I've missed nevertheless, get at least one more caller and I'm all of a sudden $8 down. Early on in the session, I tried a cont bet on the turn too, but they still call. Other hands, I'd hit TPTK and be against shortstacks who always seem to call pot sized bets for flush draws. When I then bet out again and they shove, I'm committed so have to make the call and it's more losses.

I finally thought I had a nice pot coming when I was dealt AQ the flop came AQ3. My opponant only had $30 out of a $50 max buy in, but he was soon up to $60 after I paid him off.

All these things happened to me for the first hour or so and I was getting a bit demoralised. It was nearly midnight and I decided that at quarter past, I'd call it a night. Then something wonderful happened, I realised the power of position! I'm not talking being last to act so pop it up, I'm taking post flop position. Now the funny thing is, you hear position is key all the time and I thought I understood the concept of it, but for some reason I wasn't able to take that into my cash game. Tourneys, I'm ok in, I know how to play them (I just suck), but cash, I'm learning so when I raise preflop with 8's (for example), get a caller and the flop comes J 6 2, I'm looking forward to the stupid min bets that the callers does cos when I repop him, I know there's a damn good chance he's folding and I not only pick up his money from calling the PFR, but also another dollar or two from leading out on the flop. Don't get me wrong though, I have all sorts of stats on the go from my HUD so I have an idea if he'll fold to a raise on the flop or not.

At my lowest point yesterday I was down nearly two buy in's, but after a quick Eureka moment and a nice couple of hands that held up, I managd to finish the session (at 1am, my God, no wonder I'm so tired) $12 up. Now this may not seem a lot, but it's running at just under 4 BB/100 which after the start I had was a miracle. Not only that, but it meant that I didn't totally kill my month so far.

I think I learned quite a bit during last nights game and hopefully I will take it on board next time I play.

After the disappointment of Friday night, I was a bit nervous playing on Saturday, but I needn't have worried because something shone on me and I ran God like. I hit nearly everything and people called too, it was lovely. The only time I didn't get a proper caller was when I called a small raise with pocket 4's and made quads on the flop. I think I only made about $20 on that hand but I never find it easy to get paid off with quads. I ended up making all Fridays losses back and the same again in profit so all in all it was a good night.

Tonights was back to normality though. I didn't lose any big pots, just nothing has gone my way. By the time you raise preflop, make a continuation bet on the flop and sometimes the turn (player dependent) I've put $10 in to the hand, completely missed and had to let go to a healthy river bet. This seemed to have happened a lot with me tonight so I tightened up, but still kept missing. Every time I had a good hand, I'd just pick up the blinds, or if I were the BB, they'd fold to me - I had AA 3 times and made $4. Better than losing a lot I guess.

Anyway, the bottom line is that I'm down about $30 with no significant hands to report. I did get a nice double up with KK so without that, I'm nearly $80 down.

Managed to bubble a satellite freeroll for another mini WSOP package. Not sure how it happened, but there was 11 left and I was 11th. I was UTG with A5 and somehow min raised for half my stack. Someone shoved and I couldn't really fold for the remainder unfortunately so I made the call and he had AK. Obv no miracle on the board for me and I was bubble boy after about 3 hours which was most disappointing.

Monthly totals

Hands 2641, BB/100 5.14, Profit $135.71. VPIP 14.69, PFR 7.69.

I'm lost for words tonight. It was bound to happen eventually and I knew it was too good to last. Tonight I was on the table of doom and there was nothing I could do about it.

To start with I was playing as you'd expect, then every raise I made, someone would reraise, like all the time, so I'd raise with AQs to $2, someone would reraise to $6 and I'd give him some respect because the stats I had he was playing very tight. Anyway, this has happened a fair bit and I'm down about $30 and finally I get a hand - AA - lovely. This is the hand. I'm not sure what to say about it. If it wasn't bad enough losing a buy in to someone that's happy to call $18 preflop with 5's, he then proceeded to give me a rub down for about half an hour on how I could call with nothing when he had three 5's. Someone pointed out that I had AA and the other guy had QQ, but he still kept on being a twat. I'm not really sure what more I could have done on this hand. I guess folding the flop was an option, but I couldn't think that he'd call $18.50 preflop with anything less than KK so it was an obvious call for me to make. Another disappointing thing about it is that that's the 5th time I've run into someone making quads with under pairs to mine since Saturday - what are the odds on that? Bloody slim I bet.

I'd managed to win a nice pot on another table with KK earlier on so I wasn't in too bad and then I did get lucky with another pair of Cowboys against AA. I had a horrible feeling that I was up against AA, but then I usually do with Kings. There seems to be a setting somewhere where if someone has kings, someone else will have aces, it happens loads. That was almost a Get out of Jail free card. I was back to even for the day and thought I'd just play a bit more then call it a night.

Wasn't much later when I'm dealt pocket 9's and call a small raise from someone. I hit trips on the flop but check first. He bets and I decide that I don't actually want to give any free draws here so put in a healthy reraise and he calls. The money goes in on the turn and it turns out he's called me on a draw which he's obviously hit. OK, perhaps calling the shove was brave, but I do give these people too much credit. Are my bets weak? Something isn't right and it's cost me a buy in and a half.

Total profit for month $25.43 BB/100 1.54 Hands 1655.

Thankfully my cash game seems to be improving even if my DS game isn't all that. Another 671 hands towards the 10k goal tonight and more importantly, another profit of just under $60, running at 8.92 BB/100. This brings the total for April to 10.70 BB/100 for a $100 profit - ok, it's only been two sessions, but I'm running better than usual at 6 max games!

I'm quite impressed that I haven't lost a huge pot yet. My biggest loss so far is only $10. I'm not sure if that means I'm losing out on value elsewhere but it's nice not to lose a buy in. On the flip side, my biggest profit so far is 'only' $28.75, but that's not too bad imo.

Total hands so far 929, VPIP 13.89, PFR 7.87 and 10.70BB/100. I can't seem get the VPIP up at the moment - I'm in with all the hands I should be, but they're not coming that often. The profit is the main figure I'm working with though, if the VPIP and PFR comes, it comes.

Qualifying for the Million

I've played about 6 double shootouts for the Sunday Million so far and I just can't make it past the first table. I've been heads up in all but one I think but I just seem to be the unluckiest heads up person. I get called by gutshots that hit on the river and then he jams and I try and work out what he could have and decide my top two are good, so call and am out. I've run into quads at least 4 times, all of which I've been ahead preflop which is when all the money has gone in. I try and be patient and wait for a hand and end up pushing with those old rags AKs and run into aces of course.

I just can't seem to qualify for the Sunday Million.

Back to the cash..........

I was thinking about being able to play 10k hands at full ring in April and I didn't think it was possible so I decided to give 6 max a go again tonight and it wasn't so bad. Not only that but I'll get bugger all rakeback playing full ring games so there's an additional incentive for the 6 max games.

Perhaps I lost money earlier because I didn't have my 'cash head' on but tonight was definitely better. I made a fishy call with AK during a hand but my thinking was that a) I hate laying down to short stacks and b) I thought pushing was a bit much so I made the call and got a lucky result from it.

The other contentious decision I made was this hand where I called based on that the guy has raised at least my last three raises and had quite a high vpip so I had to call one time. I thought I had plenty of outs so made the calls and thankfully it paid off.

I'm not convinced either of the two hands would be +EV long term though!

Didn't really suffer any losses, the highest pot being $5.50 so I'm quite pleased with that. There were times where I could have got involved, but hopefully something has clicked and I'm not the fish I was last month (excluding the above two hands)

Total hands played tonight 258, VPIP 15.5, PFR 8.53 BB/100 15.53 Profit - $39.55. PFR could do with being closer to VPIP I suppose, but it didn't feel right to be raise all the time with the QJ hand man on semi tilt and raising my raises so much.