Positive Thinking Rewarded

I knew if i put the effort in this mini bad run would change and it certainly did to some extent tonight. Generally i just played better overall and was rewarded with a £1250 package from a £77 buy in on Littlewoods with only 13 runners. I expect to use this to buy into a GUKPT tour event (see link from blog). Likely contenders being Cardiff or Plymouth but i havent even looked at the schedule yet but will shortly as im only left in 1 small multi now (no i busted before end of post, booooo).

Details of games:

Winners choice £77 :

13 runners and never got going early levels but as the blinds went up i got AA (7 or 8 left) and played it slow to get a nice double through to 3k.

From that point until heads up i was never allin and called, managed 1 or 2 resteals when 4/4 (but not too short stacked) and progressed nicely. The others knocked each other out which then left me 7k vs 19k heads up.

Played some good standard heads up play before picking up AA which i got reraised with. All the chips went in on the K44 flop and he showed 88. Sight chip lead i hoped i might chip away and avoid prefloppers if possible but when i got reraised holding AK after losing a little of my stack i felt i had to push and vs 10s i hit to gather all the chips bar 1800. They got back to 4000 before i finally won with A7 vs 86off preflop when the blinds had just increased.

So its not cash but its a decent buy in tournament with a fairly decent structure i think as well, finally something to look forward to and a step in the right direction.


12k £55

I decided to be a bit more agressive in this one and it paid off for once progressing to 2500 from 2000 early levels. Went totally card dead then though and nothing even linked at all for ages. Finally got AA vs QQ at 75,150 blinds and got up to the 4-6k range. I then lost AQ vs KK when there was about 60 players left at 200,400. Pot would have put me 15th or so at time but fair enough i had the worse hand. Just played tight short stack poker then without being called until i made the money. Finally crashed out 28th when i made a correct but tough call. In the big blind 800 with AJoff and 5800 behind a 8k stack moved in mid position allin. Now the range i would have with 8k there would be less than or a coinflip to an AJ too often so i decided to make the call as i wanted to try and get a stack now. AJ vs KQstd and he hits a full house, pot would have took me 15/28 but not to be.

Mansion $100

Mansion followed a similar pattern to the 12k to begin with and i managed to get to 5k before i went nuts check raising allin with 96off (i was the raiser preflop) on a Q,10,8 board only to be called ridiculously by A10 !!! The pot was huge relative to the blinds and i hit a 7 to get a monster stack. My new tactics at the moment include playing draws or strong draws very hard if i think i can get someone off a hand and i would have been happy to crash out there although the call was very very dubious anyway. Anyway with this stack i played a bit looser and stole on what what a tight table before losing a bit betting a flop at turn against a serial caller. Down to 7500 but still with plenty of loose table image i raised with QQ and got reraised 3800 allin by 77, exactly the spot i had been building up for. Anyway a river 7 came and i felt sick as i would have gone to 12k and about 20th/120 players. Left crippled i tightened up and picked up a double KK vs Q10std before and playing 8k finally crashed out with this hand. Blinds 300,600 and im in the bb with AJstd, folds round and sb playing 9k makes it 1800. I move allin and he calls immediately with KQoff and hits. Pot was to have gone 20th/108 (pays to 54) with a 16k stack
and again i felt a bit sick but more gutted really as i had taken the winners choice game before i bust in this and the 12k. Again i dont like mateys KQ call allin after raising , he should just push allin if he is going to call my allin (as the 8k stack did in the 12k) but these people pay my wages so i cant complain.

Blue square gave me a new password but have now locked my account for no reason so i have still had no chance to play cash games on their new network, email last night but still no response. Removed all trace of betfair as per last post which with hindsight im glad i did as my head felt a lot clearer in the multis tonight after that rant :)