Live Poker

For a few weeks now, I have been arranging to go to Aspers casino in Newcastle with a few friends to play in their weekly Friday night £20 freezeout. 14 people turned up and at about 6.30pm we left for Newcastle, arriving at Aspers at about 7.15. We all registered and brought in for the tourney and had a few drinks before the start at (I think) 8pm.

The structure was ok I guess, there was a 4K starting stack, with 1K added if you were in your seat for the first hand of the tourney, making it a 5K stack with 30 minute levels, however, the blinds doubled each level and so after a couple of hours, it becomes a bit of a shove/fold game.

It quickly became clear that the standard of play at this tourney was very poor. About the third had in, a player 4 seats to my left called a raise preflop and then called 3 streets on a AK7T4 (or equivalent) board with Q high, only to win the hand vs 53o.

About 20 minutes in I get 77 in mid position and decide just to limp as I know I will get action if I hit a set and given the players at the table, would probably get 4-5 callers if I raised, who would call me down to the river with A high, not something I really want with 7s given all the overcards that are likely to hit... so I just limp, about 4 other limpers and the flop comes down 5 way, KJ5. I check, a player to my left bets and is called by 2 other players. I decide that 7s are surly not good here and muck. Turn is blank, the player to my left bets again and is called by 1 player and the river is another blank. The player to my left bets about 1/10th of the pot and is called. He shows A5 for A high and the other player mucks T9, folding 7s suddenly looks a bit weak....

About 20 mins later I get KJo in the BB, the player in MP who is a massive fish and has played in almost every hand so far (and managed to treble his stack) limps along with a couple of others and I raise it to about 4.5BBs in the BB. The fish in MP calls and everyone else folds. The flop comes Kxx with 2 diamonds. I bet out about 2/3 of the pot and he calls, turn is the J of diamonds, putting 3 to a flush on the board, I decide to bet a little under 2/3 of the pot putting about 2K of my 4K stack on the table and my opponent goes all in. I have seen him call down to the river with a lot of weak hands, but the few times he has shown aggression he has always had a strong hand so I was pretty sure he had the flush here. I eventually fold, he says 'good fold, I had you there' and shows me A4 of diamonds.

After about and hour and a half the blinds are 200/400 and my stack is 3.3K so I am looking for a spot to get it AI. I am in the BB, there are 4 limpers including the player who turned a flush vs my 2 pair and I look down at 98 of clubs. I check in the big blind and the flop comes down QT7 with 2 clubs. The pot is 1200 and I have about 2200 left, I am really hoping to get it AI as an open ended straight draw + flush draw is pretty much the nuts here. It was me to act first and I had 3 options: 1) Open shove 2) Go for a c/r 3) Bet out and hope to get raised. In retrospect I think option 1 is by far the best because, since I am probably only 50/50 here and the pot is already very large compared to my stack, I am quite happy to win the pot on the flop. Open shoving either wins me 1200 100% of the time, or, when I am called, 6000 50% of the time (assuming that if I am called I am 50/50 to win the pot). Since my tournament life was on the line, and openshoving gives me the most fold equity, I think it would have been the best line to take. However, instead I decided to bet 1000 into the 1200 pot (don't ask why). I get called by my flush friend and everyone else folds, the turn bricks and I am left with a 1200 stack and the pot is now 3500. I shove and he calls me with T8, I manage to miss all of my gazillion outs on the river and so bust out in about after about an hour and a half.

I find that 3 of my friends have also already busted out and so we go to the bar for a drink and I get a bite to eat. We chat about the usual for a while (bad beats) and I decide to put my name down for the £1/£2 pot limit cash table, even though I am nowhere near rolled for it. About 15 minutes later a new table is started and I buy in for the minimum £50. The table was self dealt and we started out 6 handed. All the players brought in for £150+ apart from one other studenty looking player who brought in for £50 as well.

First hand I am in the BB and get dealt QQ, the button and small blind limp and I raise the pot, they both fold and I decide to show. I think that showing hands in poker is generally a bad thing as you are giving away information, but playing with a 25BB stack I want to build myself a tight image, and raising the first hand isn't going to do wonders for my image unless I show a good hand.

After about 20 mins there are 9 players round the table, most of whom have a full £200 stack. The standard of play is appalling with 4-5 limpers in every pot and 2 fish to my right who habitually call down to the river with T high just for fun, I would seriously compare it to a 1p/2p game on pokerstars.

I get dealt A9s in MP after the 2 fish limp, I decide to raise pot before realising that it was probably a bad idea because there are 4 players to act behind me, I only have 25BBs, and the button was really aggro. So probably a bad raise, but it was too late. The button calls as well as the two fish to my left and the flop comes down a glorious 478 of diamonds giving me the A high flush. The two fish check and I decide to check to the button because I am about 90% sure he will bet. He obliges, the 2 fish call and I call with the intention of betting the turn. I don't think slowplaying is bad here at all because given my stack size, a half pot bet will put me AI on the turn. The turn is the 5 of diamonds putting 4 to a flush on the board. The first fish checks and the 2nd one bets about 1/5 of the pot. I shove for about 1/2 the pot and the button and first fish fold. My opponent asks me if I have the 6 of diamonds for the straight flush and then calls with the K of diamonds. Et voila, I scoop a pot of £138.

I continue to play tight, folding small pocket pairs in early position and not raising without a premium hand, even in late position. My stack stays at around £130 for about 40 minutes and I suddenly realise that I am playing with scared money. I was playing way above my bankroll with money that would affect me far too emotionally if I lost it and so I decided to finish the orbit and leave the table.

The next hand I get dealt AK of hearts on the button. The player under the gun makes a very small raise (just over a min raise) and is 3-bet by another player in early position. The two fish to my right cold call the 3-bet and I pot it to £45 on the button. The raiser and 3-better both fold and it takes the first fish a couple of seconds to call, the 2nd fish folds. The pot is now about £100 and I have just under £100 left. The flop comes down 367 of clubs and it is checked to me. I decide not to shove because I am probably not going to get called by worse and I think that I can fairly easily get to showdown because my opponent is so passive (he has regularly checked down top pair to the river). I check behind and the turn is the J of clubs, I curse the poker gods and check behind again. The river is a blank and again, it is checked to me, I check behind and my friendly fish turns over T9o with the T of clubs. I decide not to show my AK and instead call over the waitress for a cup of tea.... it was either that or shout abuse at the fish, but I think a cup of tea is more +EV.

I wait 2 more hands, fold them both and then leave with an £80 stack, I go to the cash desk to cash out and then find my friends at the bar.

4 or 5 of us it appeared were still in the tourney and it was down to the last 2 tables, but given the standard of poker I was not surprised. About half an hour later it was 1.30am and breakfeast was served in the restaurant, I opted for another cup of tea and we all exchanged bad beat tables round the breakfast table.

Another half an hour and there was only 1 of us (a Stockton lad who I don't know) left in the tournament as Matt had busted in 9th for about £100. We finished our breakfast and were presented with at £10 free bet for spending over £10 in the restaurant. We managed to run it up to £90 on the blackjack table before loosing it all and we decided that it was time to go home.

A bit after 2am we left Aspers, but it seemed that none of us had had enough poker and so we went to Aidens college in Durham to play some 5p/10p cash.

At about 3am we started the game in the canteen of Aidens college and I have to say that the following events are very blurred in my mind and so are probably not 100% accurate.

This is what I remember: The game was 6 handed, and 4-5 way flops were not uncommon. Even though all 5 of us were fairly good poker players, the standard of poker quickly deteriorated. A couple of hours in I get dealt 2 suited cards (can't remember what they were), its folded to me in the small blind and I raise, the big blind folds and James who straddled UTG calls me. The flop comes down paired (99 I think) with 2 diamonds and I c-bet. James calls my c-bet and the turn is a 3rd diamond giving me a low flush (7 high I think). I check to James because I think he bets a lot of the time here given the board texture, he also knows that I am a bit weak tight and so will give up on pots a bit too easily so it would make sense for him to bet here. He does and I c/r him all in, he thinks for a while and eventually calls me with (I think) Q9 for trips. A few murmurs about slowrolling are heard, and James who was dealer for this hand takes about 2 minutes to deal the river card, eventually dealing a Q giving him a full house (live poker is so rigged!).

The next 4 hours or so involved me playing some of the worst poker I have played in a long time, including such gems as 4-betting 73o preflop vs James and then betting 2/3 of my stack on a board of AKJT, James tanked for ages, almost folded, but instead decided to raise me with AT, of course I couldn't call and so had to fold. Other classics included Nick calling my raise blind and then check/minraising the flop without even looking at his cards, the punch line being that I folded! This annoyed me so much that a couple of hands later I decide to check blind in the BB after a couple of limpers, the flop comes down A35 and the button bets into me, I decide its time to look at my cards and look down at KK, the best hand I have been dealt all night. I am too tilted to fold the flop and so call and manage to get to showdown, only to be shown A7o by Sam. The best hand of the night however has to go to Nick who called the flop and turn with an open ended straight draw, hitting it on the river, only to find that he in fact only had 4 to a straight.

At about 8am Aidens students started appearing for breakfast and we managed to grab some cereal and toast before returning to the game, it also turned out to be 'Aidens Day' an annual festival and students started setting up 'ents' around the canteen and bar area, seemingly oblivious to 6 people playing poker in the corner.

At about 9am it happened, the hand that almost killed me. We were playing the 72 game which meant that if any player won a pot with 72 then they got 25p from each player at the table, however, for some reason in the 8 hours of poker so far, only 2 72s had been dealt. So anyway, I am in late position and look down at 72o, Nick limps and I raise, getting called by James and Nick. The flop comes 553 with 2 spades, it is checked to me and I bet just under the pot hoping to steal it there, I thought that betting into both James and Nick would look really strong here as they know that I know that they will call me down with K high (or something like that), but no, James calls my bet and Nick folds, the turn is another low card, maybe a 6 and we both check. The river is the 2 of spades putting 3 to a flush on the board and James bets about £6 into an £8 pot, I have £3.50 behind. I think for a few seconds before showing my hand and folding, surly I am NEVER good here. I ask James to show his hand and he eventually turns over AQ. I stand up and feel physically sick, I think I was actually shaking. Never have I felt so bad at poker, every bluff I had made was called, every call I made was bad, I had been bluffed out of god knows how many pots, and then this! I couldn't believe it, and it took me a good 10 minutes to get back to the table, still feeling physically ill.

With my last £3, I decide to shove AT of hearts from the BTN and get called by the usual suspects, Nick and James. The flop comes down J high, Nick calls James' bet, but folds KTo to his bet on the turn. The river comes a third spade and James shows KT of spades for the flush.

Somehow I have 85p left (not sure why) and so made it a bounty for anyone who bluffed James out of a pot, anything to make me feel better.

At 11.30am, we decided to finish the game, and went home. I ended up breakeven for the night, winning about £35 at aspers and loosing about £40 at the home game, but even though I played some of the worse poker known to man, it was such fun.

Anyway, now hopefully I have enough FPPs to but a wife :)

Ups and Downs

Having been up about $400 playing 50NL, in the past 2000 hands I have dropped almost $300 taking my monthly total at 50NL over 9000 hands down to only $100. Add bonuses and RB to that and my balance is currently at around $300. At least its in the green.

My 6BI drop at 50NL has made me realise that my game is far from as good as it should be. I have had a few bad beats and coolers over the past few thousand hands, but I think that the downswing is mainly due to being outplayed by other 50NL regulars in small to medium size pots. In brief, I give up way too easily in pots and so get bluffed off a lot of my medium strength hands.

So, I have decided that for the rest of the week, I am not going to play any more 50NL, but instead spend time watching deuces cracked videos and reviewing my game. I am going to try to find spots to double barrel, and generally attempt to win more hands without a showdown. So as not to blow my entire months winnings, I am going to play a minimal amount of 25NL for the rest of the week to try to iron our some of my leaks.

Update to follow...

UPL Trip Report

I probably should have written this a little while ago, but have been a bit lazy recently so here it is, my UPL 4 Nations Grand Final trip report:

Early Friday afternoon I met up with a guy called Nick who was going to give me a lift down to Nottingham. At about 4PM myself, Nick and 3 other eager poker players of whom I had only me one before set off on the two and a half hour drive down to Nottingham. The journey was very uneventful and poker was the main topic of conversation. In the early evening we finally arrived in Nottinham and managed to find our B&B which turned out to be a lovely little pub fairly near the centre of Nottingham. It was decided that it would be a bad idea to go to the poker room that evening and so instead we decided to play some cash in the hotel. Unfortunately, no one had brought any chips with them and so Mav was sent off to the local news agents to change a £20 note into 1p and 2p coins. We ended up playing 5p/10p cash for a couple of hours and ended with a £2 sit n go, resulting in a bedtime of around 4pm... probably not the best of ideas considering the day which awaited us.

On the Saturday morning, we were all up for breakfast at 9.30am and were out of the hotel by 10.30am. Nick had somehow managed to leave all his clothes at Uni and so we had to do a spot of shopping to buy a shirt for him as the Dusk Till Dawn club has a no t-shirt dress code. Having braved the early morning Saturday shoppers, we drove to the club, arriving at about midday. We waited for about half and hour to actually get into the poker room as every player had to register with the club, but it was worth the wait! The Dusk Till Dawn poker club claims to be the 'Premier poker room in Europe' and I have to say, it probably is.

We were issued with our 'Team shirts', England was in red, Ireland in orange, Scotland in blue and Wales in green, and proceeded to register for the tournament at the cash desk. There were then some team photos taken and the start of the tournament became immanent.

There were 153 starters in the tournament and I was seated in seat 8 of table 13, located near the front of the room. The other players at the table all seemed pretty nervous and I am sure that for almost all of them, this was their first big live event.

With a 4K starting stack and 24 minute blind levels starting at 25/50, there was plenty of time to play good solid poker, especially with the Dusk Till Dawn dealers who were very proficient at quickly shuffling up and dealing. It was immediately obvious that the standard of poker was very poor. In the very first hand the UTG player limpcalled and c/f the flop and it very quickly became clear which players could be exploited at the table. About 15 minutes in the first person was knocked out and received the humiliation of a cheering crowd as he made his way to the bar, but after that players were being knocked out left right and centre, especially it seemed at my table where a player was knocked out almost every single orbit. I was playing my usual very tight style and managing to steal a few blinds here and there, keeping my stack around the average size, and about and hour and a half in, I had about a 6K stack, however, the player to my left who was very loose aggressive had managed to accumulate a massive 18K stack and so I had to really tighten up my stealing range as I was pretty sure he was shoving a wide range on me if I raised the button.

As the antes started to kick in, the game started to change a lot, now that the blinds + antes were equivalent to about 1/5 of the average stack, it became very profitable to steal with a wide range and open shoves from late position were very common. About two and a half hours into the tournament I have only seen one flop where I raised AK over an UTG limper, he calls, and the flop comes AT7, I shove for about the size of the pot and after thinking for a couple of minutes he mucks. A couple of blind + ante steals had kept me with a just below average stack but I was running really card dead and only had around 10 big blinds left.

The first break was (I think) around 4.30pm and I met up with the others for a quick drink and to see how they were getting on. It seemed that only myself, Nick and John were left in the tournament as Mav and Sean had both busted with QT. We had quick bite to eat and then returned to the tables.

With so many players being knocked out at my table (3 in one hand at one point), there was a huge turnover of people and so it was difficult to get a good read on any of them. About half an hour after the break, there were about 80 players left and they were dropping fast. The antes + blinds were now about 1/2 the size of my modest 5K stack and I was looking for a point to get it AI. Up to now I had only shown 2 hands and they were both KK and so I was getting a lot of respect when I made an occasional raise. The player two seats to my right was also shortstacked and appeared to randomly shove at some point every orbit seemingly regardless of his cards, so I would have been quite happy to get it AI vs him with any A or PP, and even though he went on to win the tournament, I really don't rate him as a very good poker player. The player directly to my right was the same player who had left our table several hours before with an 18K stack to return with a 3K stack and some story about 'some idiot calling him down with bottom pair' so he was also fairly shortstacked but seemed to now be playing a very tight game.

With about 50 players left, Nick busts out and its just me and John left. About 15 minutes later I get A8 in the SB and its folded to the BTN who limps. I decide its time and shove my 5BBs into the pot and am called by the BTN with 99, the flop comes down.... blank..... A..... 9! Turn is another A, but I don't manage to spike any of my 4 outs on the river. Somehow I cover the BTN and am left with 1.5BBs and by some miracle get dealt AQo on the button. The CO (the player who had 99 the previous hand) open shoves and I call but end up trying to spike and A vs KK. So after 4 and a half hours I busted in 41st place.

I got another drink at the bar and cooled off for a while before getting on the waiting list for one of the 50p/£1 cash games going. About 10 minutes later I was called up to my table and ended up sitting opposite Nick. I bought in for £50 with the intention of not re-buying if I got stacked as I was playing a bit above my bankroll. Some of the players at the table were truly awful, with the player to my left randomly open shoving £25 preflop with hands such as T7o whenever he felt like it and a player 3 seats to my right who's standard line every hand would be to limpcall preflop, call down to the river and then check raise AI. I played very tight, and managed to grind out about £10 by flopping a J with JK and stealing a few blinds. The only interesting hand I played was against Nick, I was UTG+1, the UTG raised and I decide to flat call because he was a very tight player and I think his UTG range is probably ahead of me here. There are several callers including Nick and the flop comes AT5 giving me a set. The UTG player checks and I bet £20 into a £25 pot. Nick tanks for ages and finally folds AJ, and the UTG player mucks KK. An interesting spot and I have to give Nick a lot of credit for folding AJ to my single flop bet, he made a great laydown. I only played a couple more hands, and finally left the table with £46.

John ended up making the money and eventually busted in 18th (congrats to him for cashing) and we decided that it was a good time to make the trip back up to uni.

All in all, Notingham was amazing experience. The Dusk Till Dawn poker club is truly magnificent and the entire day was such fun. Looking back over my actions, I don't think there is a single hand I would have played differently and I am very happy to have made it that deep in the tournament.

Lost the biggest pot of my life

Its 2:15AM and I am pretty much in shock.

Poker has been going well lately, I have played about 8K hands this month (3.5K 25NL and 4.5K 50NL) and am up about $400 including RB and bonuses.

I ran very well tonight and in about 600 hands was up $250, and then I ended up in the biggest pot of my life!

Full Tilt Poker, $0.25/$0.50 NL Hold'em Cash Game, 6 Players
LeggoPoker.com - Hand History Converter

SB: $44.55
Hero (BB): $148.45
UTG: $4.95
MP: $147.40
CO: $55.70
BTN: $9.25

Pre-Flop: T T dealt to Hero (BB)
UTG calls $0.50, MP raises to $2.25, 3 folds, Hero calls $1.75, UTG folds

Flop: ($5.25) T 3 2 (2 Players)
Hero bets $3, MP raises to $10.50, Hero calls $7.50

Turn: ($26.25) Q (2 Players)
Hero bets $20, MP raises to $50, Hero raises to $135.70 and is All-In, MP calls $84.65 and is All-In

River: ($295.55) J (2 Players - 1 is All-In)

Results: $295.55 Pot ($3 Rake)
Hero showed T T (three of a kind, Tens) and LOST (-$147.40 NET)
MP showed Q Q (three of a kind, Queens) and WON $292.55 (+$145.15 NET)


I am in no way upset with the way I played the hand, MP is a solid player and I am pretty sure that he folds QQ/KK/AA to a re-raise on the flop and so calling flop and betting into him on the turn extracts the most value from AA/KK/QQ/AK/AQ/AT hands, so I put this down as a simple cooler. But DAMN, $292.55 is a LOT of cash.

Somehow, over the 900 hands I played today I managed to still finish up $50 so I can't complain, but I am in total shock. Despite all this I haven't (yet) gone on tilt and I hopefully wont. I am not going to play any poker tomorrow, and so will have some time to cool off.

Going to try to sleep now but somehow I don't think it will happen, loosing a pot like that is going to take a little while to get over, but hey, its only money!

I went to Nottingham last weekend to play in the University Poker League 4 Nations Final but haven't got round to writing a trip report yet, so hopefully will get that done in the next couple of days.

Damn! Poker is so rigged!

Hello 50NL

I have been running pretty well so far this week. Played 1.5K hands of 25NL on Tuesday and ended up $44 in the green. Wednesdays 25NL session brought some good luck with me getting it AI pf with KK vs AA and spiking a K on the flop for a $50 pot, as people always say in poker, the luck evens out in the end so I guess I had some luck on the way. Even so, I didn't find many good tables on Wednesday and so only finished $40 up making it $150 total for the month which is pretty good going for me.

Today my 50NL 'Stake' arrived and so I topped my FT account up to $500 with the intention of re-depositing if I go on a downswing. Apart from Monday when I played my 1 hand of 50NL by mistake, I have never sat at a 50NL table (not to mention 4) and so I was pretty nervous when I decided to start my first ever session of 50NL at about 6 this afternoon. I got very lucky again when I ran KK into AA and rivered a flush, and a couple of hands later got it AI with AA vs QQ PF for another $100 pot. I ran really well for the whole session but lost a lot of small pots by getting myself into tricky situations postflop, and after 400 hands I was up $72.

At about 11pm I started my 2nd 50NL session and soon ran KK into AA again, but this time the poker gods were not kind to me and $50 disappeared with the click of a mouse. I did not spew as much as my first session and I made sure only to play at good tables with at least 2+ fish, resulting in a solid grind finally finishing the session down only $34.

So the day ends with a $38 profit at 50NL as well as $20 in bonuses and a bit of RB... which comes to just over $50. I think my postflop game still needs a lot of work, but with good table selection and some confidence in my play, I think I will be able to eventually beat 50NL at Full Tilt.

Here is my biggest online pot to date:
Full Tilt Poker, $0.25/$0.50 NL Hold'em Cash Game, 6 Players
LeggoPoker.com - Hand History Converter

SB: $54.05
BB: $93.60
UTG: $50
Hero (MP): $93.35
CO: $63.70
BTN: $45.55

Pre-Flop: A A dealt to Hero (MP)

UTG folds, Hero raises to $1.75, CO folds, BTN calls $1.75, SB raises to $5.50, BB folds, Hero raises to $17, BTN folds, SB raises to $49, Hero raises to $81, SB calls $5.05 and is All-In
Flop: ($110.35) 3 3 2 (2 Players - 1 is All-In)
Turn: ($110.35) 2 (2 Players - 1 is All-In)
River: ($110.35) T (2 Players - 1 is All-In)
Results: $110.35 Pot ($3 Rake)
SB showed Q Q (two pair, Queens and Threes) and LOST (-$54.05 NET)

Hero showed A A (two pair, Aces and Threes) and WON $107.35 (+$53.30 NET)

Am off to play in the UPL (University Poker League) 4 Nations Grand Final this weekend so online poker will have to wait until next week, but at least 50NL is off to a good start.

Next post will be a trip report from the UPL Grand Final, probably on Sunday.

Until then.... happy grinding.

January in Review and Good Start to February

Sorry for my short post yesterday, it was pretty late at night/early in the morning and I was not really in the right mental state, hopefully this will be a more comprehensive post.

I played a total of 10,738 hands in January: 5,766 of 10NL, 4,872 of 25NL and for some reason I managed to play 100 hands of 25PL. I think 11K hands is not bad for a month where I didn't play a huge amount and I am pretty sure that it will be one of my lowest volume months. I played 10NL at the start of the month and netted a modest $35 + about $40 in rakeback for a total of about $75, not bad but I think a 10NL winrate should be a bit higher than this.

For the second half of the month I played exclusively 25NL and ended $76 down (3BI). Given that this was my first serious shot at 25NL, I don't think it was a disaster... I ran pretty bad at times and tilted a bit, but I think that my game has improved a huge amount in the 5K hands of 25NL and being down 3BI in such a small sample is almost meaningless. On the up side, I earned $40 in bonuses and about $20 in RB at 25NL therefore only putting me about $15 down, turning a loosing month into a slightly profitable one.

Playing at Full Tilt has been especially beneficial to my game due to the general tightness of the games. It seems that at 25NL it is difficult to find tables with more than 2 fish and so I often find myself playing pots against regs, something which I didn't have to do at 10NL. Most of the regs at 25NL are pretty bad, but since they are a new specimen that I have not previously encountered, learning to beat them is a challenging and high variance experience. I have started 3-betting more from late position with a wider range, protecting my blinds from habitual stealers and not c-betting flops which are either very unlikely to have hit me or very likely to have hit my opponent. These new adjustments have taken a while to get used to, but I can't say I have had any major trouble at 25NL so far and I am confident that my anticipated leap to 50NL will go smoothly.

As far as criticizing my play in January goes, I think that I still find it difficult to play weak hands out of position against aggressive opponents and I am still playing my draws too passively on the flop. I have gone from playing 18/16 at 10NL to 21/19 at 25NL, which may not seem like a huge difference but bear in mind that 18% to 21% is a about a 15% increase which is not insignificant and I think that this comes about from isolating with weaker hands than I did at 10NL due to the reduced number of fish at 25NL.

Febuary has started well, I have played 707 hands of 25NL and 1 hand of 50NL when I accidentally opened up a 50NL table and didn't realise until I had posted the big blind. Luckily I was dealt JT and flopped TP and so currently have a $1 profit at 50NL over 1 hand which means I am running at 100ptBB/100 hands (sustainable?). At 25NL I have made 4BI in 2 sessions and it looks like I am finally running well again. I hope to play between 15K and 20K hands this month and it looks like I will be moving up to 50NL very soon so things are going to get interesting.

Until next time...

Moving On

Not been playing much poker recently due to work, so sorry if this blog has been lacking content over the past week, but since I have played very little poker, there is nothing interesting to write about.....

Having said that, this has been a fairly good week for poker. I played in the Facebook UPL freeroll on Monday night. There was about $500 in the prize pool and 180 players registered. I decided to give it a go and managed to get down to the last 16 players with an average chip stack, at which point there was a major power cut on my street for 2 hours and I blinded my was out in 8th place for $18! Its better than nothing but 1st paid $127 and I was pretty sure I had a good edge at the final 2 tables. (I can add this to my list of reasons why I prefer cash over tourneys)

Next stop was not until the week-end uni poker tournament on Saturday. I decided to play the £10 freezout this week, played fairly good poker apart from 1 hand where I 3-bet an UTG shortstacked raiser with KQo and called his AI... he showed AK. I played tighter than usual around the bubble, and I eventually got down to the last 3 with the chip lead. I played my usual aggressive 3-way style, but ended up having to fold to a 3-bet 3 hands in a row, crippling my stack. When it got down to heads up I had about 1/5 of my opponents stack and it only took 2 hands for him to knock me out with TJ vs 9T. I ended up with £30 for 2nd place.

I played some 25NL cash on Saturday night and ended up 2BI over 450 hands, helped along by rivering quads vs 2 pair and hitting a few sets.

Sorry for the short post, will write a more interesting update soon.