Nearly a great week

It's been a great week, veiled in disappointment. I've had over £10,000 in live tournament winnings, but getting 4th earlier in the week, then so close to a big result in the GUKPT London Main event really left me feeling a little deflated. Illness-wise it's taken it out of me too, and I felt pretty rubbish this morning. I slept on/off until midday which is unusual for me, and really need to get in to see my consultant this week. I'm going to start going to the gym this week once my personal trainer confirms which day, and hopefully attempt to get in shape. Weighing in currently around the 90kg, I really would like to lose around 10kg's!!

Anyway, back to the GUKPT. I've had the pleasure this week of playing poker with some of Europe's top poker players, and feel that whilst i wasn't totally happy with my game, I certainly held my own. During the course of the week i've played with recent European Poker Tour champion Jake Cody, Neil Channing, Willie Tann, Michael McCool, Praz Bansi, Vicky Coren and many more. I played at some stage with all the guys that made the final table, and they all fully deserved to be there. It really was a tough field and I guess I should be happy with 16th out of over 300 entrants, but anyone who plays know it doesn't work like that!

I played my Day 1 on Friday, and it really continued like the event earlier in the week seeing very few hands. I got aces in the second hand of the day and picked up just the blinds. Fantastic! About 2 hours in I was dealt pocket 8's and put a small raise in. I was called in 3 places and the flop came AQ8. Very nice. I bet and get called by two players. The turn brings a king. Not the best card, but certainly not the worst. It makes a straight, but that would mean someone calling the flop with J10. Unless someone slow-played a big pair pre-flop then I should still be good. I bet again. The next player raises. He's a good player who'd been actively, but played the hands that were shown down very well. I know he's not calling the flop for a gutshot, and a big ace, two pair seems the most plausible. Then the guy on the button pushes all in. He was pretty poor. Overplayed a few hands and i'd tagged him as a player to get in pots with. I dwell for quite a while before folding. I'm so sure that i'm beaten, but laying down a set there hurt and cost me half my stack. The other guy had to call and he had AK, whilst the poor player had J10 for a turned straight.

After that i slowly built my stack up again to around 28k. No massive hands, just grinding out pots. I then had to make another lay-down that cost me over half my stack. I was still at the same table, but we'd lost most of the table by this point and I wasn't particularly enjoying myself. I like to chat at the table but was sandwiched between a cantankerous old guy on my left, and an arrogant old twat on my right. A guy in early position raised. He'd done this several times and so didn't necessary mean a massive hand. I had a smallish stack and after one guy called i put a meaty pot sized raise in with JJ. This left me with 14k behind and would probably have to call. Then in the BB a Spanish guy who's been a pleasure to play with and was happy to show off his hands pushed all in. He had me covered, and when the original and caller folded the decision was on me. I was getting over 3-1 on the call and the maths said i had to call. The Spanish guy then chirped up and said he would show me if i folded. I was so sure i was beaten after 5 mins I folded the hand and he showed AA. Good fold, but is it ever right to fold there. He could have had AK, thinking he was ahead and acted in the same way. Either way it kept me in the came. I doubled up when my QQ held against KQ on a J102 flop and ended the day below average on 32k.

The next day i knew i was going to need a little luck i had 20 big blinds and needed some early hands. I didn't really get them, but still managed to make some shoves at the right time and chipped up to 45k. Then i flopped a straight against Pryan who was sat on my left. He didn't pay me off, but i still managed to get up 65k+. As people had been dropping out at a pretty quick rate I was still below average, but well in with a chance. My next had was my main bit of luck during the whole event. With a raise in front of me I look down and see AQ and 3 bet. It folds around to the big blind who puts a big raise in. The original raiser folds and i think for a minute before shoving. A little reckless, but the guy who 4-bet had shown down weak hands that he'd played very aggressively and i thought maybe i could get him off the hand as it was nearly all his chips. He called (sigh!) and flipped KK (FML!). The board ran out 27J. The turn was another 7 and the river a beautiful ace! This doubled me up and from there I managed to keep my stack increasing.

By the time the bubble came around i had just over 250k, well above average. Normally I'd push hard on the bubble, but with me facing several raises before me every hand and seeing total junk i moved into the money leaking chips. I won one big pot against Ms Coren, but aside from that times were tough. We broke to two tables and against i picked the wrong card and got a very tough table draw. Sitting on about 18 big blinds and card dead i needed to find a spot to double up. A player in early position raised and seeing 88 i pushed. He had AK and hit a king on the turn. I left pretty much straight away after that pretty down.

I'm going to have a couple of days off live poker, playing online MTT's tonight and then Wednesday a satellite on Paddy poker for the Irish open. there's 10 seats guaranteed, so i guess at worst I stand a 10% chance of going to Dublin next weekend. Failing that, and the more likely scenario, I'll go to Dusk Till Dawn for the monthly deep-stack.

As of the start of April i'm going to try and play online one night a week of online MTT's and have set myself a $4k STT challenge. I'm just going to play the $16 turbos on Pokerstars and see if i can grind that total out in profit during the month. So far this year I'm running at a, obviously unsustainable, ROI of 40%. I'd be happy with half that!

Anyway. I'll post later in the week about my progress in the various things I've posted about here.