End Of Month Games / January Review

Only played one $27 multi yesterday, was trying to win a share in ladbrokes new horse for entertainment value really. Got deep before getting outdrawn by ridiculous calls 3 times in a row and crashing out in 15th/62, paid to 3.

I played an hour or so earlier on cash and lost a few hundred $ before whats ended up being a 10 way play off for a $2500 to the GUPT at Walsall. In fact 3 were sitting out so it was a 7 way play off, win only. Now the fact i seem to have picked up the flu that seems to be hitting loads of people in the area definitely didnt help in this one.

I actually play near perfect poker for the first 90 minutes but i think i missed every flop 3 handed and was maybe a bit impatient cos of my head spinning from the intensity. Blinds were tiny and i had no preflop allins at all so i cant moan about the structure. I also was very unlucky as the only half decent player was directly to my left and if i had position on him im convinced it would have been a much different story. I basically was leading from 6 players down but could not get any significant advantage 3 handed for some reason.

Anyway this pot cost me the chip lead. Raise to 600 in the sb with J9off , flop AQ6 i bet 800 he calls (i hav 7k b4 this hand, he has same). Turn is a 6d and i bet 2000 which is flat called, now i assume he is on a monster or chasing but i dont hav the bottle to push allin on the river. This was a big turning point as he checked and showed QdJd which basically ruined my chances winning from there on. Left on a gay stack of 3500 i know im in trouble and try to refocus. stacks are 12k vs 3500 vs 4500. Anyway with some steady discipline i only ever make it up to 4500 again b4 losing a wad with bottom pair against middle pair on flop. Down to 3k and my final hand pretty much summed up my game 3 handed. top up to 200 in sb with J9, flop is A,9,6 and i chk raise a 200 bet to 600. Turn comes a low 2nd heart and i push all in 2000 for the 2000 pot ish (it was 6100 in total). Called instantly by 9h3h and river is a heart, as i expected really, given that this pot would have put me right back in with a decent chance. As ive said i think a combination of missing everything 3 handed, having a spinning head and being a bit impatient got me in trouble in the end but thats poker. Im very annoyed cos of the effort i put in when my heads spinning to high heaven but in this game you dont always get what you deserve for sure. Ill definitely take the positives out of this at it was good practise for the dome but in the end i made mistakes for the reasons mentioned i guess. Apologies for waffle but im spinning big time.

Now im not too sure if this is a good time to be writing a January review but what the heck, maybe it will make me feel better.

I think when im in the mood and being serious my game is at its highest standard ever, be it cash , or multis. Unfortunately this last week or so ive lost a bit of motivation and enjoyment in playing. I would hope this will change with a break and some live poker mixed in, it definitely wont do any harm anyway. In the end i was £5290 up for the month which is more than this time last year, in fact its over 40% of the first 7 months profit last year ! About 1/3 of that was from cash and 2/3 from tournaments.

February will be similar to last year in the sense that im away for live games, but the main difference being i have a laptop. If i choose to play online in vegas i have the option. No targets, just to enjoy the game where possible and try and be lucky in the dome crapshoot.