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.