New Game

Well since we last spoke I had recived my $100 on pokerstars and played away happily, for a week or so at least, then a combination of varience and bad decision making has blown some money.
So I have decided to change my game for a bit and play 6-max NLHE cash, pretty much exclusivly. So far it has been good, which surprised me a little as I play pretty a tight solid game and didnt think that would be suited to Short handed. Although I have seemed to naturally loosen up, which is annoying in one respect, as I cant seem to loosen myself up when I want to. Its only micro stakes, so no great profits (but theres the word I like profit) I am enjoying my poker again, which is great because I was losing interest for no apparent reason.
The reason I said that I would play short handed cash "almost exclusivly" is that obviously if I fancy a tournament I will give it a go. Also if I get offered to play in tournaments for other people, like tonight for instance, I played the $100k guarenteed tournament on Mansion for Zebediah again. Well first of all I wasnt extremly impressed with the softwear, although the sounds are good(same as old Tony G site, brought back good memorys!) The tournament is a $100 buy in, although after about 1 hour and 30 minutes it becomes a little crapshooty. I know the tournaments have to end at some point, but I would have expected a little more play for my money. I have to be honest I made a rather large mistake calling a shortish all in with an up and down straight draw, but that was my only mistake, I think... I never really saw any hands, I had AK once which I doubled up with, and AA once which I managed to sweep up the blinds with. Anyway basically with the blinds at 100/200 I had T9suited in the BB and a big stack who had been raising more often than something that happens a lot, raised from middle position, so I pushed, and he turned over KT off. What can you do, I was out in 243rd out of 518. Not great, but not bad for my first attempt at a $100 tourny. There were a few things I didn't expect to see though, for instance an all-in push (4.5k chips) with only 350 in the pot. Im not saying that bad play gets irradicated at this level but I wouldn't expect strange plays like that.
Anyway I moved back to the cash tables, erase the disappointment of the tournament. I have been doing well, finishing up in the majority of sessions. I am enjoying short handed, so definatly going to stick at it.

On another note, I have added a link to Paul Sandells go and have a look!

So close yet so far

I played in The Hendon mobs tournament at PKR last night, it was basically a freeroll, you had to buy in with $5 and them after your tournament you get the balance refunded. I have no money on PKR so I played in the place of Zebediah, who couldn't make it. I had great fun, the structure was a bit quick for my liking, but hey who complains at a $5 tourny structure! There were 29 runners in the game, I was feeling everyone out in the first few minutes, then I was disconnected(argh, bloody sky broadband!) for 10 minutes! I had lost a couple hundred chips. Everyone seemed to be playing tighter than a camels bum in a sandstorm, the only way I could really pick up chips was by getting in first for the blinds, so I did that. I made it to the final table with average chips, which was only about 15 times the BB. Again I had to steal the blinds to stay afloat, then I was presented with a few big hands and it seemed we were on the bubble in a flash, and I was fairly comfortable so i decided to sit back and wait for hands, which i got. I entered the heads up like a 3/1 chip lead over DaMatrix, but from then on the stacks were up and down like a brides nighty (thank Vicky C for that one!) And true to my heads up form I lost. No disrespect intended to DaMatrix, but with my chiplead, I really should have finished the job. Gutted I didn't finish the job but pleased I got there.

Start your own

Here is a link to wingows where you can get $5 free to start a "Jesus Challange"

http://affiliates.wingows.com/redirect.php?Affid=51890

Once you sign up please start a thread on UKPL in the personal challange section to let us know how you are all doing!

http://www.ukpokerlife.co.uk

Good Luck!

A new day, a new challange!

I have decided to give a Jesus Challange another go, this time not on "Jokerstars" but with Wingows poker, mainly because you get $5 free as a sign up bonus, but also because they do 25c SNG's! These games are extreemly easy and I should be able to boost my bankroll rather quickly. It started off with a win and a 2nd, then for some reason I thought calling All ins on the first hand was a good idea(twice!) To be fair, I did have AQ suited and JJ, both times ended in a last place finish. The second blip was when I had sub conciously decided to try and baninize at every chance I got for a screenshot (http://www.banincult.org.uk/) This infact cost me 3 or maby four sit and gos, but did get my screenshot!

If you take into consideration the six buyins or so I (stupidly) lost I think my finishing balance last night was rather good($6.46) Anyway Im back at the tables again!

I have a thread on UKPP/L for my challange...http://www.ukpokerpaper.co.uk/forum/viewtopic.php?t=443

Get over there!

Also try a Jesus Challange!

Update

Well right at this minute I am participating in some freeroll sng's on full tilt, havent managed to come first in any as yet, have final tabled a lot, SERIOUSLY, too many. The chance of a free(litterally) package to the WSOP is something I HAVE to take a shot at. The new site is going great, loads of action on the forum, we also got a mention on Sky Poker, thanks to Tony K.

I am also hoping to be playing my second live tournament with a £30 freezeout at Stanley Cascades in Lieth. I have no idea what kind of level of play to expect, I know a lot of the players work in Scottish Widows, so it will be fun beating up on them. The tournaments are run by officepoker.net, I was told there will be 50+ runners so that makes for a prizepool in excess of £1500, which aint bad, hopefully I will get my mits on some of that come Saturday evening.

AA Vs 72

I'm still undecided whether Hua playing the 72 was plain stupid or an act of genius. To be fair pre-flop no body had shown any aggression, with two limpers why not raise from the big blind and attempt to take the the pot there? Hua wasn't to know that Furst had pocket aces, when the flop hit 77Q Hua was in prime position. Both players were playing to trap the other, it was a great hand to watch. When the money went in Hua was a 95% favourite to win the hand, and then the A hit giving Furst the Full House. It just goes to show that any hand can win in NL Texas Hiold'em.

Our new site is born

UK Poker Paper

This is our new site, the forum is up and running! UKPI members use your same logins and passwords. We hope to have the whole site up very shortly, on which my interview with Joe Beevers will be. hope to see you all there!

www.ukpokerpaper.co.uk

Full Tilt Freeroll

I was sitting online, so I thought i'd give one a go. The tourny started with 2696 runners, 27 places paid, a MASSIVE $15 for first place. The early stages of these tournaments call for a tight-aggressive style I feel, there are lots of maniacs around, but remember maniacs can catch hands sometimes. I doubled up in the first few hands with a pair of twos from the big blind catching trips on the flop. I then litterally did not play a hand for half an hour, when again I had nines in the hole which caught trips on the turn, where i doubled up again. Five hands later I was dealt QQ, and I some how managed to dodge either of my two opponents catching, one had 66 and the other had KJ(?!) So after quickly doubling then tripling up, I was sitting on around 17K, which put me in 31st position out of 906 remaining at the time. With my large stack I was able to play a few more hands and picked up a few medium sized pots, which boosted me above 20K, with the blinds at 50/100 I was in pretty good shape. With less than 3 minutes to go to the break, I decided to play hard ball with a pair of 6's, i raised a medium stack all in on the flop(893 rainbow) he decided to call me and then proceded to catch a full house with an eight then an ace, thats life. Even with this mistake, I had comfortably made the break with just over 16K chips and being 52nd out of 729 freerollers remaining. For a freeroll there is still a massive amount of play left in the game at this stage, the average stack is 5.5 K and the blinds are only just about to go up to 60/120. Its good to see you can still get an ok poker game for free!

The second hand after the break I get 9T of diamonds in mid-late position, I am first in so I open with a pot sized raise, I recieve one caller. The flop comes Jd Qh Kd, So im on with a straigh draw, flush draw and an outside shout at a straight flush. I reckon I should have bet but I never, we both checked, then the next card was 8d, that meant I had hit my flush, so I put out a pot sized bet, which again Phatmama called, the last card was 4s which changed absolutly nothing and I put out yet anonther pot sized bet, and again PM called, all she had was a pair of Jacks. I picked up a nice pot which pushed me over the 21K mark. Phatmama was some player, cant believe she lasted so long, she played EVERY single hand, credit to her though, she just pushed me at the wrong time, I had caught top pair with my K9 and all she had was A high, so that helped me up to 26k in chips and in 28th position with 562 left. I had yet another slip up, I was dealt 77 in late position, so I raised pot sized, and was re-raised by the next player who had taken Phatmamas place. I felt compelled to call, so I did. The player Had AQ, an hit an ace on the flop, that was me bumped down to 18K but still well in the game. The blinds have been raised to 150/300 with an ante of 25, this has made play a little more frantic again, I have bumped up to 21K im chips again, so happy days! I have now reached the second break with 15K chips, I never really lost any big pots I just lost a few small ones and blinds and antes eating away at my stack. I am 95th out of 188 remaining, I still need to make a move or two, and I will risk going out to get up the ladder. The blinds have now been raised to 250/500 with ante of 50. At this point, I have to admit I was tempted to play AT off suit from mid position, but thankfully an early raise and a call put me off. A few hands later, I was really feeling the pinch, in the big blind I recived A6 of diamonds, so I checked, two diamonds came on the flop, so I pused my remaining 11K into a 6K pot, still recieved two callers, as it turned out one of the players caught a straight and i missed my flush, which was unfortunate. I finished 168th out of 2696, which isn't bad, but it isn't in the money.

A Very Sad Day

Yesterday saw the closure of the best poker site/forum that I have seen, I am, as you can imagine, a little upset with this news. My life at UKPI started around a year ago, I stumbled in there as a matter of chance, and happened to bump into a really nice bunch of people, so I never really left. When I joined, I was not at all a good poker player, not that I am now, but with all the help and advice I recieved on the site, I can at least say i'm competent. There have been a number of events in the last few months that surely have contributed to the closure, which are all regretable, its now time to move forward. My final thanks to James W for setting up the site, and therefore introducing me to a number of great people, as well as everything else that came with the site.

The good news is that we are in the early stages of making a brand new site, details will follow....

Gala Report

I have finaly got round to writing my report of my first live game, so here it is...


The day has finally come when I will be stepping into a bricks and mortar casino to play poker. The whole week I have been building up to the game, playing online multi-table tournaments and reading as many articles on live play as possible. I arrived at the casino an hour before the dealers shuffled up, relaxing in the lounge wasn’t so easy with the sound of the slot machines and this won woman who was clearly on a roll. I sat myself on the comfortable looking seats in front of the television for the football, with a drink I managed to relax for half an hour, thankfully I am not a Blackburn Rovers fan. I decided to stretch my legs before entering the card room, as I was walking past the entrance area I saw John Higgins enter the casino, Graham Dott was also already in the building, I was hoping I would be sat at one of there tables, the attention would be on them rather than me, the newbie.

As I noticed the players streaming into the card room I decided to follow. On first appearances the room was small with seven tables and a control area, above which was a screen with all the 120 players seating positions. I was sat at table eight, seat seven. I had a quick look to see if John Higgins or either of the other snooker players were sat at my table, unfortunately not. My table was in the other half of the room, it was separated by a wall with a gap at one end, this side was much the same as the first. I was one of the last players to sit at my table, so as I removed my jacket I used the opportunity to observe the players, nobody appeared to be nervous, but neither was I. Even though I had been building myself up for the event I defiantly appeared to be nonchalant. An older gentleman sat on my left, he put on what can only be described as an Oscar winning performance. The man was clearly a regular in the casino as he knew all of the staff by name as well as sixty per cent of the other players. He proceeded to create the image of a dotty old man, by continually asking what each chip was worth , the table had defiantly created a false sense of security towards the player. I had arranged my chips into 4 neat stacks, and had decided not to play with them incase I mess up and sill them all over the place and look like an utter donk. At this point the tournament was running twenty minutes late and the dealers were told to shuffle up and deal. Lots of thoughts were running through my head, all the advice I had been given over the last few days, it was time to put myself to the test. This may sound strange but I was ecstatic to squeeze my cards and peer down at an absolute horror of a hand, ten three off-suit, this just calmed me down and observe the table that little bit more before making any decisions. The table seemed to set its standard raise at four times the big blind pretty quickly, the older gentleman a previously mentioned didn’t hold anything back, he was firing in massive bets like ten times the big blind and was content at picking up any scrap he could. The one piece of advice that stuck in my head the whole time was “be patient” and I never played a hand for half an hour or so, not that I had any playable hands really. The time came when I picked up Ace Jack off suit in middle position there had been one early position limper, who was in a lot of the action, so I decided to pump it up to four times the big blind. At this moment in time my heart was pumping like there was no tomorrow, I could feel it in the side of my head, imagine if I went all in, but it was time to calm down as everyone folded. Obviously a poker players goal is to win the tournament, but at this moment, I have to be honest I was thinking I would really like to make it to the first break. In my first live tournament, I think lasting more than two hours would be an achievement, a small one maybe, but at least I knew I could handle the situation. In the next forty-five minutes I only had some semi-playable hands, which I limped in with then laid down to a raise. I was sitting on the button with Ace King of clubs, there had been one early position raiser who has been playing a lot and was chip leader at the table, there were two callers, I had decided to call also. The flop came down with a Queen and two rags, and two clubs, action was checked round to me so I bet out about half of the pot. I don’t know what made me do what I did next, but it worked, I made a deliberate move to lean forward and stare the guy in the eyes, the guy thought for about ten seconds, which felt about ten minutes and mucked his cards. I was so surprised and relieved that the players did not pick up any obvious fear out of me. The best part came when I was stacking my chips, the chip leader mentioned quietly too the player next to him “he’s a confident guy eh.” It may seem silly that I was proud of this, but if you had felt my heart going when I was staring at the guy, you would be proud too. It was now fifteen minutes too the break, I had picked my stack up too around ten thousand chips, which was above average at the time. I know there were still hands to be played but I was thinking that I have hit my goal of getting to the first break. Yet again I picked up Ace King, this time off-suit, there was only one other player in the pot, who was a solid Glaswegian who had raised to three times the big blind. I did actually consider folding, but I had to see what the flop brought. Unfortunately there was nothing too pretty for me the flop read six seven nine with two hearts, and the player fired out a bet, which may well have just been a continuation bet but I gave him the benefit of the doubt as he had shown down nothing but good hands up too now. To be honest nothing else of not happened until I had reached my goal of making the break. The last hand with Ace King had taken me back down to roughly my starting stack, so I was still comfortable with about sixteen big blinds. We had already lost 32 players by this point and I was seriously chuffed to not be one of them. I walked out of the card room and straight to the bar to get a glass of water, no alcohol for me tonight. I was also glad too see that my girlfriend and my friend had decided to stay, so I had a little chat to take my head away from poker for ten minutes. I have to say the seats in the bar area were not comfortable at all I was seriously glad to get back to the table, well after a quick pit stop. I remember walking into the room with my head held high and confident in myself, the next step was to go and do the business.

As I sat down I noticed that there were now antes in the game, which made my stack slightly less appealing, but still workable. Within a couple minutes I was in the action in late position with pocket twos, two middle position limpers, so I decided to see a flop. The flop came down with an Ace four and two, I had caught trips, and the action was checked to me, so I checked. Then a six hit, still no flush on board so when it was checked to me I decided to bet three times the big blind and everyone folded. It had picked my stack up a little bit, but I had wished for more. We had been down to seven handed for a while and then another player was eliminated, so two new players had joined our table. Both of them were keen to set the tone by entering a lot of pots and raising. I wish I was capable of doing such things, but I certainly was not going to do so with the garbage I was being dealt. Then one of the newer players raised to three times the big blind from first position, and it was folded to me, I looked down and I saw pocket nines, I looked at my stack which only had around seven big blinds and with the antes as well, I was short, as well as that the player had raised the two hands prior too this. So all things considered I think I made the right move in pushing all in. It was not much over double his original bet to call, I made myself look like I wanted to turn my cards over and beat him. I really believe he almost talked himself out of calling, then the brutal words came “I have to call” he turned his cards over to show King Jack off suit. I have to be honest my first thought was of Tony G berating Ralph Perry for playing King Jack, and I was extremely happy that he had called, then that King hit on the flop, and there was no help for me. It was “Goodnight Vienna” for me.

I was absolutely distraught and that may seem a little over the top but that is the best word to describe my emotions. I felt I had not made one mistake the whole night and I lost, I am sure every single poker player has done what I did, I went through EVERY single hand in my head over and over like I had OCD and still found no answers. In the cold light of day, well the light of the online poker room, I realised that it wasn’t my fault and it just wasn’t my night. On the whole the night was an amazing experience, and I will defiantly be back in a card room in the very near future.

Live Poker, Here I come!

This month I will be making my first appearance as a live poker player. The website www.ukpokerinfo.co.uk are sponsoring me to play in the £100+10 tournament in the Edinburgh festival during Gala's UK tour. I am extremly excited with the prospect of playing live for the very first time, I am also aware that this will be a very different experience from which I am used to. I am planning to arrive at the Gala maybury 2 hours prior to the event to get used to the scene and settle in, so if anyone is going to be there, don't be shy come over and say "hiya"

Learning experiences

I started a $5 Sng on Tonys on Monday night with a fellow UKPI'er, I played a pretty simple game I never moved much above the starting stack the whole game. I had played and won a few little pots which kept me alive, I had made it to the money and I seemed to be catching cards and switched up through the gears. The heads up began with me having a 3:1 chip lead, which unfortunatly I threw away to finish second.

Part of the reason I was playing little hands in the SNG was because I was also playing an PL Omaha cash game also against my fellow UKPI'ers as well as a few randoms. The game was fairly enjoyable, even though my play wasn't the best. Losing two buy-ins in any game is not good but the banter was good, and I enjoy trying to learn Omaha.

Sifting through the cash tables on the few sites I play on, there werent any that were looking good at all, except there was one 25/50 cent table on Tony G Poker that looked Very Juicy, almost a full ring with 70% of players seeing the flop. I decided to observe the table, and there were 4 players that I have seen play at lower limits, which I have noted as loose and rubbish. After 10 minutes of watching the table I had decided to Buy-in, that isn't something I Would do normally, but considering the players at the table i felt I had too. I sat down and again played a tight game waiting for hands, which in time came. The hour and a half at the table was good, had been up and down, I felt I had held my own at the table. Most important of all I had left the table with $20 odd more than I had sat down with. The first thing I am going to say, is I am most definatly not moving up the levels to 25/50 cent, and I would strongly advice people against doing so untill they have a big enough bankroll to do so. Also I have to add that the game was a good experience for me, hopefully will improve my game at the lower levels.

A few of you may notice I have added pictures on the left hand side of the blog, just thought I would make it look better.

After A break

After having a break from poker, due to being in Benidorm, among other things I feel that I should try new things. The greatest thing about having a break is when you get back to poker you have a new found excitement for the game, which definatly helps if you lose. You get that mentality back that we all had when we were younger that nothing matters except that we get what we want.

With poker there are so many different ways to experiment, especially online. You could change your style of play, the game, the limit, but I have decided to experiment a little with buy-ins. Obviously I am not going to jump to $50 games, that would just be throwing money away. I have so far played two SNG's at a higher level one $5(6 players), which I won, and an $8(20 players) game which I cashed in also. With the different runners in each I am experimenting with that as well, although that was not deliberate, both games seemed pretty much the same level. I have found that a simple poker is all you need to play, just don't do anything "stupid" That was one of the things that I wanted too know as how high up the limits will "simple" poker win. Anyway I'm off back to the tables to try and get some more wins!

As you can imagine I haven't played poker a lot recently, and not at all played on tony's much at all, although I played a speed $3 today with 18 runners. I was chip lead with 7 players left when my Kings ran into Aces, you cant really do much. I was 1 of three players seriously short when we were on the bubble, fortunatly one of the big stacks took 3 players out in one go with two pair. I went on to finish third.


Balance: $122.41

Quick Update

Well it is now after christmas, thank goodness, and now back into some propper poker.
The story with my heads up chalange is looking fairly average I have won ten games, and lost nine, which has put me down a few dollars. To be honest that is what I had expected, it is more about the learning, although winning is nice! My cash game is going pretty well, I haven't had a losing session for a while, but as well the wins haven't been that great either. While my cash game has seemed to take an upshot, my tournament play has lost it's direction, the most annoying thing is, I don't know what I'm doing wrong. At the moment I have been cutting back on tourny's and building my bankroll's through cash games. I do have the current challange of building my Tony G bankroll, which I have been doing, i have been playing on pacific as well, due to the small numbers on Tony's.


Bankroll: $133.82

Blackjack anyone?

I was sitting in a $1 30-seat SNG on Pacific poker, going onto the final table with a good chip lead and I was sitting comfortably. With only four places paid I had decided, rightly or wrongly, to sit back and wait for hands. Doing nothing at the tables frustrates me, I didn't have time to start a new game. There is a world of distractions on the internet, which is often my poker downfall. For the first time ever I click on the little "blackjack21" button on the bottom left corner of the screen. I've got to be honest I have never played the game for money before. I do have memorys of playing pontoon as a kid on rainy days. The minimum bet was $1, I dug deep into my pacific poker account and flashed a massive $2 on the table. After 10 minutes of play I was up around $10, just sticking to the minimum bet. At the same time the poker wasn't going so well, my pocket Kings had been quite frankly buggered by pocket 7's which enevitably caught trips on the flop. The blinds and my opponents were catching me, the bubble was fast approaching. I had somehow came up with a "strategy" on the Blackjack table, when I lost 2 hands in a row I would place a $5 bet. In total I did this 6 times, catching Blackjack once and only losing once. For the record I am not saying this is a great "strategy" or even a good one.
In my poker tourny I came fourth, which I was very unlucky to do so. I made a massive $0.25 profit on an hours good work. On the blackjack table however I had crept uip to $30, sticking to my "strategy" of minimum bets. At the end of my hour and a bit session I had made a profit of $53. That doesn't mean I will be changing games, for me poker is a much more skill based game. This brings me onto the subject of the online poker bans in America and more recently France. I for one think it is completly wrong that people go out and work, pay taxes on that money, then with the money they get to keep, cant even do what they like with it. Not for the first time the people in power make the absolute wrong decision. The next step is for government's across the world to take taxes off of peoples winngings, I wonder if they will be paying taxback on losses? If only! You may be thinking "what has this got to do with blackjack?" Well, I feel a lot of negativity surrounding online poker is to do with the gambling aspect of casino games. Where games like blackjack or online slot machines you are playing against the house, which enevitably wins. In poker you are playing against other people, of course the house makes some money, but in the long run if you continually make the right decisions, it is more than likely you will make a profit. For the reasons above I ask that online casinos should seperate casino games from poker totally and then, it may be possible to look for the revokation of the online poker bans.

Plan of action

I have already started shooting for my goals. For my Heads up goal, I have made a spreadsheet with space for 100 match records, so I will be able to see how sucessfull my 100 matches were. I will stick to Tony G's $1 HU matches I reckon as you get 2000 chips and the 10 minute blinds start at 10/20. There is plenty of play, or room for mistakes lol. I played my first match and won(starting how I intend to continue!) However things took a slight downturn, I made silly mistakes and lost two games on the bounce. I decided to change sites and move down to 50 cent matches to win a couple and gain confidence. I won three in a row, then the icing on the cake was having a winning return back on Tony's. So far it is 5-2, so going well.

As per usual I am playing at my 5/10 cent cash game, I had a moment of madness and lost a buy-in. I went away and have bought in again and I am up a couple dollars, so almost level for today.

Balance: $115.87

Poker Goals

As it is coming up to the new year, i felt the need to make myself some realistic goals with a timescale which I can reach my goals.

Short term (March '07)

Improve my cash game
Play 100 HU matches
Play 500 raked hands within a week on Tony's too play in the tourny

Mid-term (end of '07)

Earn an online bankroll big enough to sustain a 10/25 cent cash game.
Win a $5+ MTT
Play in at least one live Tournament

Long Term (2010(?))

Qualify for a large tournament e.g WSOP,WPT, EPT...

Cash games

I play cash on Tony's at the 5/10 cent level. The maximum buy-in is $20, although due to my bankroll level, I buy in with $5. I am pretty new too cash, and I feel I'm getting a hang of the way to play. The ABC poker, with a few moves, seems to be the best way at this level. The thing that I have found, which goes against general concensus, is with the number of players per flop. When selecting a table, most people look for a high a percentage as possible, which does seem logical. Although I have found that at lower limits, such as 5/10cent, going to tables with 70%+ players/flop, isn't the best idea. When the percentage is so high, I seem to get outdrawn again and again, yes you can say, whnen the players play like that I will make my money back and some in the long run. Many people will disagree with this, but I have found looking for tables with 50-65% players/flop(on a 9 handed table) has been profitable, as there are a lot less random cards being played, while there are still some poor plays/calls being made pre-flop. In the cash game I am currently playing in with the players/flop within 50-60% I have more than quaded my buy-in, can't complain at all.

balance: $101.85

Back in the game

I started today with a $1.50+50 Re-buy, wasn't very good, just got tired of getting outdrawn by silly hands. I still felt I had to take a stab at it, took 2 re-buys then decided too call it a day. I was already playing in a speed $3 tourny, with 16 runners, it was going pretty good sitting in the top three chips all the way through the final table, when we got to the final three I stepped up a couple gears, and managed to take home the win. That had taken up an hour or so of my time, but it was worth it, I had felt. Then I turned my aim towards the cash tables, there wasn't much action at all, ended my short session even. There was another $3 Speed tourny in a few minutes and I was feelin good, so I hit register! There were 17 runners in this one. I hadn't been doing as well in this one, when we hit the FT I was only about average stack. Again I had reached the last 3 and again, stepped up the gears, I was the bottom stack less than half the other two. I will admit I got lucky, but who doesn't get lucky in poker sometimes? I came across a player called GrindKING, we were heads up, he had been slagging my play off for a while. I just had to beat this guy, and I opened the can of "whoopass" on him, he was not happy one bit. Ah well thats his problem, he can find a way to deal with it. Going to now try another re-buy, lets hope I can take my Speed form into it!


Balance: $81.90

Just too add on, There were 23 runners in that Re-buy, I was a massive chip leader goin into the final 6. Bullied the hell outta the table(I needed to leave) ended up coming third, which is officially my first re-buy cash! Still should have finished first. Only took two re-buy's and the add-on. Will definatly try another one, hopefully when I have lots of time.

Balance: $91.05

Another Hubbles NLHE Freeroll

The following post is an "as it happens" presentation sponsored by www.ukpokerinfo.co.uk the best poker forum going!

I fancied a bit of large MTT action, which you definatly get with one of these. Ten thousand runners looking for one of the elusive top twenty-seven places, which gets you into one of the weekly round two tournys with a $1000 prizepool. It does take quite a few hours and all-ins to get there. The best I have came is something around the 50th mark, which aint to shabby. The play in these things is terible at times, people go all in with all sorts of junk. I got dealt Aces in the very early stages which tirned into a Full house, should of really doubled up, didnt quite manage it. I have also been dealt Queens which doubled me up nicley. Half an hour into the tournament I am sitting pretty on 8,775 with the average at 3,169 and 4686 runners left. I'm only playing good cards, no point trying to bluff these guys, really impossible, trust me! It still amazes me as too how quickly the field cuts in half. In the big blind with Q8 off, no raises so I check, pretty much a miricle flop with a queen and an eight both hitting, I made a series of raises and ended up picking up around 2K, with Q8 off thats a damn good return. I'm currently sitting 246th out of 3974, going as planned so far. Just threw away just under 2K, I made a 4 times the BB raise with 66, and someone re-raised all in for not that much more and I called, they turned over queens, nothing hit, cant and won't complain. I lost another pot, then won another in quick succession. Then I went all in with AK against my Opponents AQ and he rivered a Queen. Down to 5 K, its a tough freeroll, il give it that. At the break I am sitting below average chips, but i'm still workable with 42 BB, as you can tell it has been a usual up and down freeroll, but the main thing is i'm still in. With just over a quater of the original field left, I would like to now aim for the top 100, if i get there, hopefully the top 27 is still in reach. In the morning I will definatly kick myself in the nuts for losing 500 chips on QJ off. Just one of them hands, nobody raises and you feel you have to take a stab, don't know why I bothered. That sent me in a negative mood, played 77 late position i raised, 5 callers didnt like that, I felt i had too push so i did, one of the players caught there queen and thats all she wrote. 2334th... Seems a waste of time really, im sure i will be back for more.