"Doubling up"

Neteller: Last week $136; Current $358
PokerStars: Last week $198; Current $222 (+24)
CD: Last week $106; Current $212 (+106)

Total: Last week $662; Current $804 (+130)

A good week for my poker. I broke my record for the largest single winning hand with an $88 win with three Jacks which turned into a full house on the turn. This isn't a surprise since I am now playing .25/.50 with $50 buy ins, which my roll currently justifies.

Sadly, I lost a hand to the same player I took down with the Jacks about 15 hands later. I had 77 and the flop came 278 rainbow. We ended up all in and he had a pair of 8's, dammit. Still at least I hadn't lost as much as I'd won earlier.

On Friday night I pushed my record a bit further when I had QQ in late position which I raised x4BB. This was called by one player and the flop came Q79 - which looks great until I tell you they were all diamonds (ugh). I put in a half pot bet and was called, which I didn't like at all, as I have to suspect he is slow playing me with the flush. However I figure I've still got 7 outs and blow me if one of them doesn't appear - the turn is a 9! Ok, my turn to slow play. He checks and I bet a quarter of the pot - he raises and I go all in and he buys it for $122. Nice. Turns out he had AK diamonds. I think he should have gone all in on the flop, which would have put me to a very difficult decision.

Before the session where that hand hit, I played in the "Raise the River" league tournament. There were only 14 players but a lot of them are very good, so I was delighted to come through and win it from RickyRosa (current league leader I think) who, when heads up, went all in with KQ, but was unlucky enough to find me with AK.

I'm finding the raisetheriver.com site very helpful, particularly the discussion on the forum about play in the latter stages of tournaments. I took some of the advice and ended up 16/527 in a $300 tourney on CD. I only made $3, but at least I know I seriously tried to make more, which is the whole point.

I'll be missing from the "bloggerment" this week as I'm actually going to play some face-to-face poker with some friends in the village on Sunday night. I haven't done that for over 30 years, so it should be interesting.

Meanwhile I've liquidated the Laddies account - there is no particular incentive to play there.

"A tale of Aces and Kings"

Neteller: Last week $130; Current $136 (+6)
Inter: Last week $96; Current; $0 (-106)
Ladbrokes: Last week $236; Current $234 (-2)
PokerStars: Last week $217; Current $198 (-19)
CD: Last week 0; Current $106 (+106)

Total: Last week $679; Current $662 (-17)

An indifferent week's poker. I couldn't get anywhere in MTT's and SnG's (the worst "bad beat" I'll whinge about in a minute).

I made some compensation at the cash tables but then a couple of nasty's knocked me back again. My best win was some $50 or so with AA v KK which held up nicely. However I also got hammered when my own all in pair of Kings met a pair of Aces - though at least I didn't lose as much as I'd won previously, as it was a shorter stacked player.

The really bad beat came in a $10 Sit and Go where I'd got down to the last 5. I had Aces and my "all in" was called by the biggest stack - he showed AK. I started counting my new stack. The flop came 10 3 6 rainbow. Fine. Turn = J. I recognised the threat and was shouting "not a ....ing Queen" at the monitor when of course a Q hit to give him the straight and me the boot. I don't even want to check on how far ahead I was pre-flop but I do know I'm still favourite by something like 10/1 before the river card. Ughh.

I played on Inter mainly but got fed up with the number of disconnections I was getting and decided to bail out - particularly since CD had made a good bonus offer to tempt me back.

"FIRST SIT AND GO SUCCESS"

Neteller: Last week $230; Current $130 (-100)
Inter: Last week $5; Current; $96 (+91)
Ladbrokes: Last week $216; Current $236 (+$20)
PokerStars: Last week $232; Current $217 (-15)

Total: Last week $681; Current $679 (-$2)

In the end I decided on the Inter bonus for my cash game play - at the lowest it's achievable for No Limit players and at least it means that I will be getting some of my rake back. Some poor play (all right, I admit it, I'd had a few beers) meant I dropped a few dollars there though and at the other cash tables.

However on the bright side, I've had my first ever "Sit and Go" success - a $10 + $1 jobbie on Ladbrokes. I just jogged along picking up and losing a few chips here and there until in got to gubbins time with 5 players left. Then I started getting really aggressive if I picked up anything remotely playable. It worked fine. In the end I was heads up with a guy with twice my chips and turned that around when he went "all in" in the small blind with A7. I called him (naturally) with AK and this reversed the chip situation. After that I just waited for any sort of a hand and picked him off. Really pleased with that one.

I also had a long run in a $3.3 + $25,000 guaranteed tournament on Stars. Because of the rebuys (a format I had never played before) some of the play in the first hour was little short of incredible. One guy named "Chanel88" made 15+ rebuys in this period. Even when one of his numerous all ins hit he didn't stop pitching in with damn all. It made it really nice for the rest of us on the table as most of us built up good stacks picking him off. 2417 started this thing and I was looking likely to make the money nearly 3 hours into the thing when I couldn't resist and all in with 77. I was facing AK and lost to a king on the flop. Very poor play on my part - a lapse in concentration more than anything.

All in all, I played 5 MTTs and 4 SNGs this week and made a profit on them. It was my cash game play which let me down, pulling me back to around break even on the week.

There won't be much to report on the poker front for a week or so now as I'm off on holiday.