Ladbrokes: 241 dollars
Pacific: 201 dollars

Total: 442 dollars

REVENGE IS SWEET.

I had a great start to the week. Immediately after posting the blog last Sunday I had a two hour session where I could do no wrong - they occasionally happen :-) Suited connectors duely connected or suited up. My pairs hit trips ... the works. This bumped me up 35 dollars, no problem.

Since then things have been quieter, though still going in the right direction.

I did get some sweet revenge though. With a pair of Aces I subsequently hit trips on the flop and, just like last week, duely got bashed over the head by a runner, runner flush on the river, after two villains called me all the way. I was still belabouring the cat about that one, when the next hand awarded me two jacks. Well a man has to have principles, so I set out betting into them again and duely collected trips on the flop once more. (The Poker Gods must be trying me out). The same villains called me all the way again, but this time my J's held up like men. There is some justice!

I did a bit of two tabling on one evening last week, which is what moved the Laddies account up a little. I'll do more of this I think, but it does require more concentration (naturally).

After mentioning Kicking King and Harchibald last week, I see that they are now both out of Cheltenham. Very disappointing. I shall have to develop a new equine hero now that the kicker is hors d'combat for a while (sorry about the pun).

Meanwhile I have had a chess setback. I am now playing "the edge", having seen off J's challenge for the time being. However after a good start I blundered a piece. We will have to see if I am good enough to give the man odds!

My Chess and Diplomacy (the game) playing has never attracted much attention from friends and acquaintances, but Poker always gets a comment or two. They often ask whether I make any money at it and are quite surprised when I say yes. They then usually ask how I achieve this to which I have developed the response, "I always makes sure I play with people who are worse than me!" When you think about it, that is the essence of it really. It makes no sense at all to play with folk who are better than you are, you will just lose money. Thinking back, this also makes obvious sense of the fact that I could never get anywhere in ring games at Laddies with "the edge", "J" and "Rosie". There were too many of us "playing properly" for anyone to make much progress. Still, the chat was fun.

My current theory is that I will take the Pacific account up to 300 dollars and then look to move up to 50/1.00 games.