Well what a month its been. Im glad to say i finished off with a nice $1680 winnings for 3rd/42 in the $270 game i played this afternoon. My exit was on a pot for almost 2/3 of the chips in play A9 vs 88 preflop but i had won a few coinflips and was lucky enough that my better hand (60-80% favourite) held up a few times as well so i cant really complain.

So my final winnings for May are £1900 cash and a $13000 WSOP main event package ($3000 hotel accomodation and $10000 buy in). Im very happy with those figures and i certainly would have took that if i had been offered it at the start of May. So close to the $22500 ladbrokes poker million package as well but in poker some things are just not meant to be so not to worry :)

Im not setting any targets for June as the world cup is on and im also in Scotland for at least a week and intend to have almost a complete break from poker up there. Hopefully the weather will be good also so i can make the most of that rather than be in front of a computer.

I have a $215 multi on party poker that i subbed for weeks back to play sometime in June.
I also have $182 and $160 qualifiers for smaller WSOP events to play in June. They are only 1/36 and 1/25 on paper but obviously my odds of winning are better. Both were only subbed for $25 or less so are basically no pressure freerolls anyway. As soon as ive played those i will decide my dates for Las Vegas and book my flight. (Less than 2 months to go :) )

Pretty unsuccessful monday when i mainly played sixpacs has been followed up by towards the opposite on tuesday. No joy in the 15k (which i had subbed for on monday) tonight despite getting a big stack early a couple of big pots went against me. Also subbed for a $270 afternoon game tommorrow for $30 , this will be my last chance to boost up the monthly profit which i believe is lingering around the £1k mark at the moment (not forgetting the WSOP package as well :) ). Out tomorrow night so no chance of any biggies then.

Usual story in the £50k when a very low chippie played his nut flush completely backwards to take 1000 off me against my trips. I was then 60% of starting stack so committed to an AKstd and lost to QQ preflop. No joy in a $18 rebuy i played as well although i played well 1 marginal hand let me down and went out KQ vs A10 preflop for reasonable sized pot in the end anyway. Decided multis were not happening and finished very early for the night then.

quiet couple days. few value cheap tourneys last night with no joy towards the business end.
Today ive played 4 Multis this afternoon:
1) a $160 with only 9 players, annoying as bubbled , was a joke at 4 players left, the big stack had no idea how to bully and it was certainly not the 4 handed agressive game im used to. Only being a medium stack when i tried to up a gear the other player hit and i was left as a weak stack. Tried this a few times before i beat jj with 22 only for 1010 to run into kk a hand or 2 later so i was back where i started.
2) 20euros 64 players , went out 10th for about 40euros on a pot to go 2/10 on huge stack relative to blinds. AK vs 88 alas no joy.
3) £10 satellite to the £120 £50k tonight and i made it using lots of stalling a little bit of balls when getting weak. Was gonna buy in to the £50k so definitely saves some cash anyway
4) freeroll with good bounties, no bounty players on my table and had all 4 games on the go at this time so did not take it seriously at all.

So close to nice money , but returns match just more than investment so hopefully get a bit further tonight in 1 or 2 games.

God i hate this game sometimes. So little play the last 2 days through being lazy meant i was really up for the 109euro game tonight on betfair. Dunno why i bothered , was the worst standard starting table ive ever been on in it and that was apparant after only about 10 hands. Anyway as usual i lose a 1500 pot preflop allin AK vs AQ when the blinds are only 15,30 then hav only 1000 chips left so have to tighten up dramatically only to see so much bad play it was just sheer frustration watching. Probably be the only game ill play tonight now other than a freeroll elsewhere. I now know how i really want poker to progress the next few months. Im happy with £1500 tax free a month and once i reach the sort of figure in a month im only playing select games and reducing my hours of poker down to the sort of time ive put in over the last few weeks. i reckon im only playing 15-30hrs of poker a week a moment and once the weather improves thats enough. No point putting in long hours when you dont need to in my opinion.

4 games played today

2 sixpacs 57$ and £33 , won 1 of them unplaced in other.
2 multis £27 and $109

In the £27 10k tournament i got the usual exit hand at only level 2 when i raise with AJ and get a AA10K board b4 the other guy raises me allin only to show AQ

I am pleased to say the $109 18 player was much more successful. After winning AK vs 1010 and 66 vs A7 for 2 huge pots preflop 3 and 4 handed respectively i went heads up 27k vs 8k and took first very quickly when i raised a AcKc10Qc board with 4c2c and the other guy moved in with AJc and missed the river, love the way he didnt raise preflop and only 400 on flop to let me in so cheaply lol. $1500 profit will boost my monthly profit nicely and give me some freedom to enter what i like up to the end of the month.

Well my sixpacs profit has probably about covered the entrance into the few multis ive played with no success. It just aint happening in 200+ player multis , seem to get beaten in nasty ways these days rather than steadily making the cash like i used to. Example tonight was in the 15k on level 2 when the blinds were only 15,30.

i have 33 and flat call behind someone, another guy makes a minimum raise (awful play) with AQoff , flop is Q63 (2clubs) , neither AorQ is of clubs btw. pot was 270 ie 3 callers and raiser in pot. i check raise a very low (awful play) 100 bet (did consider the flat call but wanted a huge pot or a no risk small one) with a pot raise which is flat called. turn = Q and i bet 600 into 640 which is also flat called, i only have 1000 left now. river is a 6 making a Q63Q6 board , what a joke. i check and decide to pay off the 500 bet hoping the idiot had KK or AA as was getting 7-1 on my money. Im left on 500 chips when 98.14% of the time after that flop and my big betting i would double to 4k, absolute joke.

Similar in the 109 euro last thursday blinds were 25,50 and i got involved in a blind battle with still my 2k starting stack. im in bb with KJ and call 150 bet from sb who is agressive with rubbish even at low blinds. flop is QJrag and i raise his 150bet to 300 for information which is flat called. Turn is a king and i bet 600 , he raises me all in for my last 800 with K8 and manages to spike one of 3 queens for a split pot (his only outs) .

These 2 beats sum up my £50buy in or higher multis of late where it just aint happening, most annoying thing about both is how bad the other player has played the hand. that AQ was really bad with tiny bets and raises pricing everyone in and for the K8 to call my flop raise with nothing then commit to a board which means hes only drawing to the split and hitting really takes the piss somewhat. Thats poker though and thats also why im trying to target the £20-£35 buyins more so i dont get too annoyed with shit like that in them.

It has been a quiet few days, ive ventured back to playing sixpacs ranging from £20 - $50 buy ins and have done really well so far. Probably made £300-£400 since friday without playing too many. Unfortunately i vaguely remember going $400 all in with AK on a 2,5$ cash table and running into aa when i was drunk friday night , funny enough i havent played cash since. Enjoyment of the game is back in a limited capacity , still i know ive been lazy lately especially given the shit weather the last week or so. Did some calculations last night and im still £500 in the profit for the month (plus the WSOP seat and accomodation) , hopefully at the very least i can finish £1000 up for the month but at the end of the day i would take the £500 and WSOP seat if that had been offered to me at the start of May. Difficult to forget coming so close to a $22500 package as well but thats the rough side of poker i have to learn to deal with.

After last weekends disappointments its been a quiet few days and may remain that way for the near future. Enjoyment factor of the game is at its lowest this month, get impatient and annoyed at the tables so easily.

Did try a few $100 stts yesterday and managed to unplace in all of them including 2 x 4ths. My stt $100 record this month reads played 8 unplaced in 8. Unthinkable for me considering the record i had in March was played 68 with a ROI (return on investment) of 30% . April i got bored of them and only played 13 with a ROI of only 5%.

Actually i was unplaced in 42/68 in March , so only placed in 38% of them. Thats only 8% ahead of a luck based 30% but the nice ROI came from winning so many. In fact i won 13/26 that i finished in the top 3 in. 2nd = 5/26, 3rd = 8/26. Ive never really looked at detail at these stats and its easy to see how they represent my good attacking and gambling shorthanded play to take first as often as possible and not hold out for 2nd which really is very similar payout to 3rd in a 50/30/20 % stt payout structure.

Think i would be more concerned about April and Mays figures if i had played more of them, really these stats only mean something when u look at a bunch of at least 50 or more.

After just a small cash loss for a drunken cash session the only game ive played is the $950 6pac 161 entrants poker million tournament.

Never got going in the beginning (flop 2 pair lost to a nut flush on turn, flush lost to a full house on river) and only got above my starting stack when i called an all in 2k reraise from my 450 raise with AJ about 90 minutes in. The other guy only had A9 and i held to go to 3.5k (starting stack 3k). If i lost i was on about 500 but just too weak to fold an AJ at that stage.

I started getting a few hands after that , the nicest one being 44 utg calling and getting a board 964610. Didnt quite double on that pot but probably got another 2/3 onto my stack by just calling a bbs bets and only raising the river where he folded and stated he had the 9.

Another notable hand was aa in the sb (bb = 300) , decided to limp as i knew bb was a bit agressive so could well try and steal there, i hadnt limped before either. Sure enough his raise to 900 was a good start, flop AJ10. Check he bet 1500 , i went to 3000 and he folded. I had 3 ways of playing that, lead out and hope he thinks i have J or 10 and tries to represent the ace, or flat call his flop bet. Didnt like leading out and risking no action and didnt like the risk of a king or queen coming if i flat called and not knowing where i was.

My exit came when i gambled my whole stack on a draw. The 25k chippie had been raising 40% - 50% of hands in last 5-10 minutes and i took a flop for 900 on my bb with J10h. The flop was rainbow 982, the big chippie was on the button and we were only 5 handed at the time. I check raised his 1500 flop bet all in for my 9k stack knowing he could only call with a big pocket pair or trips , both of which at the time seemed unlikely. Even an A9 would struggle to call there and would only be 50% if he had A9 againt my J10 anyway. As it was my instinct was wrong and he held pocket kings. I still had a 30.1% draw which failed to hit but as always with these moves its so important to have outs if your instinct is wrong. The pot was to go 6th or 7th out of 38, pays to 18 , and with the blinds at the low level they were im sure i would have been about 80-90% to make the money with that stack. No regrets , on another day i hit the draw or he folds his missed flop and i go up to about 15/38 which would have been my highest position in the tournament up to that point. I had been floating between 20th and 25th for ages and was looking for a semi-gamble pot like that to try and guarantee making the cash and to get a more usable stack.

Reality hits home. After a very sleepless night it's hit home how cruel and unlucky i was lose the heads up in the fashion i did for a package difference of $21550 in value. Im left with the $950 satellite for sunday which at present feels like a kick in the teeth. I think an all day drink session is called for to get it all out of my system and compose myself for tommorrow which will be a 6 seater multi with about 150 players in it. Certainly wont be playing any poker online today and wouldnt want to.

its an even funnier game ............CRAZY in fact


well tonight was meant to be very little or no poker. Entered 2 freerolls , one with points on bl sq which resulted in a respectful 3rd (win only) out of 21 players.

The other was a ladbrokes 2448 entrants poker million freeroll. Winner gets $22500 package , 2nd - 10th get $950 satellite . (Approx 20% i would estimate were sitting out so say 2000 entrants.)

After 4hrs 15 minutes i just lost a pot heads up AJ vs 64 allin preflop for 2/3 of the chips in play. Wasnt as bad as it sounds as the other guy thought he might push me off my raise by putting me all in and i had been fairly agressive in the latter stages. Gutted , drained but surprisingly not that pissed off yet , im sure it will come in due course.

2nd is the 2nd worst place to finish in that, the worst being 11th obviously LOL.

Its a funny old game.............................

Strange that only 4 days after my 3rd biggest win ive gone back to the "i cant be bothered" "im not enjoying playing" poker player again.

Ive hardly played , but when i have my enjoyment for the game has been significantly lacking. Probably lost about £500 since monday, about 50/50 cash and tournaments.

For the time being i think i mainly put it down to the good weather outside, poker just aint fun when summers here.

I guess im back to the play only when i really want to mode , i have won enough money that i dont need to play all summer if i dont want to. As ive mentioned before , its not about the money for me its the lazy easy money lifestyle. Enjoyment is the biggest factor at the end of the day.

Wasnt gonna play 2nite but decided to enter the 15k for a change for £55, 275 players entered.
After a bad start missing all flops with no big hands i managed to progress to a good average stack then 2 pots reminded me again how its nice to avoid preflop allins as much as possible.

99 vs A10 for pot to go 20th/108 left .....A10 was a 2k stack on button at 200bb stage but still was annoying when they called instantly when i reraised from the small blind. Left me on 2.7k which i sustained for a couple of rounds before getting dealt AKstd in mid position. Flat called 200 hoping a raiser would come in so i could reraise but also so that i didnt have to put my whole stack in whether i missed or hit the flop. A fool raised to 600 with AQoff then reraised me all in immediately when i raised him to 1400. Typed in some marginal abuse when the queen high board bust me , calling him a joke , christ when i make that move i would have a better hand than AQ 95-100times out of 100. Anyway pot was to go back to 40th/100 with a playable stack but i was gone. Still tired from the weekend , im happy with my play but i think its an early night after that.

ANIMAL WSOP ANIMAL WSOP ANIMAL WSOP

Its official, mission accomplished on Littlewoods tonight when i won a 10 handed final for a $15000 seat in the main event of the World Series Of Poker 2006 at the end of July.

Im absolutely drained after the weekend away with Ladbrokes (which was great, although the horse didnt over impress me) and the 3.5hrs 10 seater game, almost 1hr of that being heads up against a guy i could not finish off. Fortunately he was as passive as they come so i kept eating into his stack before he had to double up just to get back to anything between a quarter to a half of the chips in play. This must have happened at least 6 times where i was anything from 30% to 60% to win the hand when the chips went in. Definitely the most intense heads up game ive ever played for many reasons , time taken, value and strategy taken to name a few.

Finally with the blinds at 300,600 and 25k in play i was on about 18k vs 7k stack when i was dealt jj. I had about 18k vs his 7k at this point and i had been very agressive in the several hands preceding this.

He topped up and i raised to 1800, with a flop of 976 (2 spades) i pushed all in immediately knowing he would call with any part of it for his last 5k and also to protect and make any drawing hand (could be a fair few with that flop) pay over the odds. He called immediately with A9off and another spade on the turn meant he only had 2 aces and 2 nines left to draw at as i had the jack of spades in my hand. A lovely blank river and i was there after as ive mentioned above the most intense heads up ive had to date.

Earlier i had started badly and was 10th/10 for a while before surviving a AK vs 10s just to get back to the starting stack of 2.5k when the blinds were 25,50. I believe that was the only hand i was allin preflop where i wasnt left with any stack if i lost. One big bluff and 1 semi bluff gave me 2 medium to big pots when there were 5 or 6 players left and suddenly i was chip leader at a table which had tightened up as i had hoped it would as it went more shorthanded. Lost 1 pot with worse kicker and top pair and got overraised 3 handed when i had AJ and was never gonna call when i still had 6k left if i folded my 900 raise. Suddenly i was 3rd/3 , i didnt panic and attacked the tightest player for blinds which sustained me nicely before i got pocket aces against the chip leader on a queen high flop , he had Q10 and it held. Shortly after we were heads up when he busted the other guy and it was level chips, both having stack in the 12000s. The rest is above , if i fancy it ill pick out all the hands i had him all in to win from my hand histories tomorrow but that will depend on how easy i can find them.

Party On !!!

ok not a great night, never got going in my vc freeroll. The 109euro betfair game started well then 2 hands done me. Both in my opinion were played so bad by the other player so im not bothered as much cos they would easily bust playing the cards they had so slow at an early level.

1) flat called QJoff utg or in 2nd position, 5 players in the pot for 150 in total.
flop Qragrag i bet 100 flat called, turn = rag i check guy behind me bets 90 i call river = rag, i check he bets 120 i call and he shows pocket aces. Laughed a lot at that one cos he flat called behind my original call and allowed others in the pot cheaply then bet so small i could have easily caught cheap Q or J so could have easily busted. That took me back to just under starting stack as i had won couple of pots before that.

2) the curse of KK vs AA again ! seems to happen a lot lately usually in the 15k. Again the 6k chippie played these so slow they could have easily busted but then i guess they had 4k in reserve if they did lose to a 2k chippie. Had already noted they betted a couple of big hands really badly before that. UTG raised to 90, flat caller 90 behind, i raise to 210 ...small blind 6k chippie flat calls. Amazingly neither of the other 2 callers dont call another 120 here which is really bad imo as they've already invested 90 and with a flat caller at 210 already they have huge value to take a flop. Anyway a 10 high flop sealed my fate at only level 2 but again if i was one of those 90 callers i would call 210 for value every time so the aa easily could have busted again.

Await next thursday for another shot at that tournament which a few months back i was on a run of cashing 50% of the time for 8 weeks or so. Lately though i cant remember the last time i cashed although usually its been the preflop allins that have demolished my stack towards the cash with bad beats.

Anyway 2 days off from poker now and a return on sunday to play the 10 seater WSOP winner only tournament.

£.5,1 nl , $1,$2 , £1,£2 steady enough for a £50 profit once u take out the sub qualifier entry fees on the night. Subbed for WSOP shorthanded $160 , 1 in 5 make it to final , 1 in 8 in final get package. Another chance of a package , gotta be in it to win it.

Still awaiting rakeback from Betfair and Littlewoods for April , hopefully get 2moz or sometime this weekend while im away.

Decided to go back on cash after that last post (apart from a $25wsop that i exit early)
Was playing £1,£2nl , a 10 player and a 6 player one. remained slightly up in the 10 handed without anything too exciting.

The 6 player one was originally fairly tight which suited me but the players changed gradually and i found myself playing with 2-3 loose agressive players. Called down £50-£60 loss before finally hitting a hand that i know i couldnt have played better. Illsworth was 1 of the 2 loose agressors at the table and i definitely altered the way i played the hand so that i looked weak on both flop and turn. When i checked the river i was so happy to see him bet out £40 into the just under £100 pot. When i pushed in he couldnt have called faster , slow playing the trips to look weak finally paid off.

Game #2237802834: Hold'em NL (£1/£2) - 2006/05/03 - 02:17:32 (UK)
Table "Homer" Seat 5 is the button.
Seat 1: KiTTyKaT (£163.25 in chips)
Seat 2: Paltkoma (£229 in chips)
Seat 3: Animal (£192.50 in chips)
Seat 4: illsworth (£307.25 in chips)
Seat 5: Masterpsy (£199.25 in chips)
Seat 6: Anrik (£323.87 in chips)
Anrik: posts small blind £1
KiTTyKaT: posts big blind £2
----- HOLE CARDS -----
dealt to Animal [Qs Qd]
Paltkoma: folds
Animal: raises to £6
illsworth: calls £6
Masterpsy: folds
Anrik: calls £5
KiTTyKaT: calls £4
----- FLOP ----- [5s Qc 4d]
Anrik: checks
KiTTyKaT: checks
Animal: bets £8
illsworth: calls £8
Anrik: folds
KiTTyKaT: folds
----- TURN ----- [5s Qc 4d][3c]
Animal: checks
illsworth: bets £30
Animal: calls £30
----- RIVER ----- [5s Qc 4d 3c][3h]
Animal: checks
illsworth: bets £40
Animal: raises to £148.50 and is all-in
illsworth: calls £108.50
----- SHOW DOWN -----
Animal: shows [Qs Qd] (A Full House, Queens full of Threes)
illsworth: shows [2h Ah] (A Straight, Five high)
Animal collects £394 from Main pot

I guess based on my stts and cash results it will probably be cash ill be playing in the short term inbetween tournaments of course.

Mixed evening, i reminded myself earlier why i dont like playing stts when i finished 4th and 6th in 2 $109s. 6th i could handle as card dead the whole game but the 4th drove me wild. was chip leader and watched the weak chippie outdraw against someone (including me once) 3 times before i called an all in overraise with 55 only to run into QQ. Promptly switched off for couple hours to regain focus.

When i returned i found my luck in tourneys was useless AK vs A8 losing preflop for 1600 pot level 3 in the 10k leaving me crippled on 300. Then chip leader out of 8 for a seat in $530 final QQ got overraised by a K8std which hit a king , absolute joke of a player but was only $25 so nothing new there.

Cash seems to go a lot better , made about £50 on £1,£2 before the tourneys, then after the tourneys decided to hit the $2,5$ 10 handed game for a short while as i knew i wouldnt be patient enough to stay on it long. Turned out to be a hit and run , i only played 20 hands and the 13th yielded a nice pay off , see below.

It does pay to be fishy sometimes, shame about the river might have got a complete double. (could have been one of the 6 sole destroying diamonds though ! )

----HAND 15------
Game #2236159854: Hold'em NL ($2/$5) - 2006/05/02 - 23:33:43 (UK)
Table "Trinidad" Seat 9 is the button.
Seat 1: Stig ($449.75 in chips)
Seat 2: donaldduc ($109 in chips)
Seat 3: Wonker ($753 in chips)
Seat 4: bebop ($601.75 in chips)
Seat 5: Beer123 ($377.50 in chips)
Seat 6: Sayton ($498.75 in chips)
Seat 7: Babooshka ($492.50 in chips)
Seat 8: Acerag2 ($476.25 in chips)
Seat 9: Animal ($492.25 in chips)
Seat 10: kvalla ($416 in chips)
kvalla: posts small blind $2
Stig: posts big blind $5
----- HOLE CARDS -----
dealt to Animal [6d 4d]
donaldduc: folds
Wonker: folds
bebop: calls $5
Beer123: folds
Sayton: folds
Babooshka: folds
Acerag2: folds
Animal: calls $5
kvalla: calls $3
Stig: checks
----- FLOP ----- [5s 3d 7d]
kvalla: checks
Stig: bets $10
bebop: calls $10
Animal: raises to $35
kvalla: folds
Stig: calls $25
bebop: calls $25
----- TURN ----- [5s 3d 7d][Kh]
Stig: checks
bebop: bets $65
Animal: raises to $185
Stig: folds
bebop: calls $120
----- RIVER ----- [5s 3d 7d Kh][7c]
bebop: bets $70
Animal: calls $70
----- SHOW DOWN -----
bebop: shows [Kd Jd] (Two Pairs, Kings and Sevens, Jack high)
Animal: shows [6d 4d] (A Straight, Seven high)
Animal collects $632 from Main pot

Considered a day off completely which is unusual for me on the 1st day of the month, im usually itching to start a fresh month.

In the end i played from 11pm through to 3am.
failed $109stt
cash .5,1£nl and .5,1euronl....made about £200
couple of 10-20$ sub qualifiers...won a wsop limit one of these to go into a $182 next stage on 24 June, 1 in 5 get through next stage to final which is also 1 in 5. Would be nice to qualify for a smaller package to force me to go to vegas even if i dont make the main event. buy in is only $1500 the other $3000 in the package is travel,hotel and $500 cash.

Not too bad considering i wasnt really in the mood to play earlier in the evening. Think if i stick to playing only when i know i really want to i should enjoy it a bit more, winning does help though !!!

ok after crashing out of the 50k with AK vs AA (stupid overcommitment by me preflop but just wasnt in the mood to play really) i switched off early last night.

Final profit for April was £3106 which im happy with after 2 very flat months previous.
Also not included above is a 1% ownership in Laddies racehorse supposed to be worth about $2000 (cash will be included in my profits later in the year when they sell laddies). Last of all ive won a VIP trip to Newmarket this weekend to watch the 2000guineas, as i missed out on the Cheltenham Gold Cup this year that should be good for a laugh.

Target for May would be to make same £3000 to keep a bit of consistency going. I must put more effort into my games, sometimes i just play automatically and dont respect the cash ive invested in a game however big or small. Definitely need to up the number of wsop sub qualifiers i play also as ill be gutted if i dont make it there this year. Got a 10 way play off on May 7 for a seat so fingers crossed for that one.

The only thing i am worried about is my enjoyment of the game, despite a good month i still found myself not really getting into some games on some days last month and this ultimately is the most important thing to me. April was the first month i played a lot of cash games and allowed myself 1-2£k bankroll which i was quite prepared to lose just to experiment in whether i want to play more cash than stts and tournaments. I ended up winning about £1000 on cash in the end which is ok and at first i was enjoying the change but lately the enjoyment of cash games was just not there. In March i played stts and kept a record which in the end was similar profit to the cash games in April but again the enjoyment factor was just not good enough despite good results. Im still not sure what ill play in the way of stts or cash this month, just see where my mood takes me on the day. I look forward to seeing if my rakeback this week is more than usual after all the cash games last month (that rakeback will go into Mays kitty) , hopefully it will be a nice surprise but we will see. Also must avoid hitting the casino and blowing cash which i have done twice this year already which have knocked my profits by a significant figure which i wont mention.