Tournaments

Neteller: Last week $598; Current $8
PokerStars: Last week $96; Current $102
Full Tilt: Last week $78; Current $82
Inter: Last week $31; Current $31
Ladbrokes: Last week; $9; Current $21

Total = $244 (+22)
Profit on month = $80
Profit on year = $267


Since it wasn't doing anything, I've taken $590 out of the Neteller account and invested it in some furniture!

This leaves me with more or less my profit for the current year, which is enough to bankroll what I am playing.

I didn't play much Limit this week, hence the minimal movement there. I did have time to play some tournaments on Laddies though...3 x $4.40 $1,000 guaranteed and 1 $6.60 $2,500 guaranteed. I finished 15th of 262 in one of the $1,000 ones and 28th of 392 in the "$2,500 one. I definitely think my game is improving at tournaments and that a serious final table
position should come. (I'll spare you the full "bad beat" tale from my 15th place, but suffice it to say that the charm of 65 off is wearing a bit thin with me currently!).

The trick is to find tournaments with around 200-300 players I think as I don't want to be up all night playing these, which is what happens in the big money ones on Stars and Full Tilt. So for that purpose Laddies is fine - especially as I'm playing with their money!

It's amazing to see how much Laddies has deteriorated since I started playing there some 3 years ago. It used to be full of mad Scandies punting furiously on the Limit and No Limit cash games, but now there is a virtual desert there. The only players they have seem to be for the tournament games - fine by me since that is what I want at the moment. Hence the desperate attempts to lure back former players I suppose. The site can't exactly be a licence to print money at the moment though I wouldn't have thought.

ON THE UP

Neteller: Last week $598; Current $598
PokerStars: Last week $64; Current $96
Full Tilt: Last week $56; Current $78
Inter: Last week $31; Current $31
Ladbrokes: Last week; $14; Current $9

Total = $812 (+49)

I haven't played a lot of poker this week (a nice trip away to Whitby) but what I have has been successful, with progress on both Full Tilt and Stars.

I've only been going on this routine for three weeks now, but already I think it is the right thing for me. I am just finding nice loose .5/1 Limit tables on FT and Stars and waiting for my time. So far it's been working like a charm.

I'm going to use up the few dollars I have in Laddies and Inter on tournaments and see how it goes thereafter.

Meanwhile the face-to-face game at the cricket club is going on a league basis from September with a final tournament on a Sunday in November. Should be good fun.

TILT!

Neteller: Last week $598; Current $598
PokerStars: Last week $31; Current $64
Full Tilt: Last week $56; Current $56
Inter: Last week $31; Current $31
Ladbrokes: Last week; $23; Current $14

Total = $778 (+24)

Well, I have pretty much achieved what I set out to do this week, poker wise. I played a bit of Limit through the week and made a profit at it, bumping up my Stars account and at the weekend I played a couple of tournaments on Laddies.

I played two $4.40 $1,000 guaranteed tourneys and went quite deep in them, but on both occasions I went out before the cash. Looking at them afterwards, my play was sound, I just got unlucky at the wrong times...such is the way with these things.

I blew my "player points" on BigSlick on a $2,000 tourney and my play on that did annoy me on reflection. There were a very large number of sit outs on the tournament and I picked my way through this quite nicely with a decent stack just as the sit outs were being eliminated. However on the table there was a player who had irritated me with the irrational bets he was making followed up by irritating comments in the chat box. I ended up going all in with top pair, top kicker over his bet on a 3 flush flop. He called and had the flush and I was out. Daft - and that's exactly how I felt.

Let that be a lesson learned - switch off the chat box!

A SIMPLE PLAN

Neteller: Last week $437; Current $598
PokerStars: Last week $35; Current $31
Full Tilt: Last week $63; Current $56
Inter: Last week $31; Current $31
Ladbrokes: Current $23

Total = $754

I've been refining my plan over the holidays and decided that what I am going to do is play .5/1 Limit on Stars through the week and use half of any profits (!) to play tournament/SNG poker over the weekend. I'm hoping this will suit me as, when I am at work, I tend to be a bit tired in the evenings and don't seem to be able to play sharp enough poker for SNGs / tournies (at least not enough to make a consistent profit).

I've also ditched the iPoker network sites, as they are much tighter than Stars at the .5/1 Limit tables for some reason. I've got some "player points" on them that I can use for tournaments, but after that I'll leave them out.

Laddies has reappeared above because the sent me a gratuitous $10 and a seat at a $1000 guaranteed tournament. I finished 10th of 633 in the tournament for $20 which was nice.

Two hands of note. Right on the bubble I was lying 15th of 61 with a decent stack. I'm dealt QQ in the Big Blind. Under the gun (TAG with shortish stack) makes it 2xBB to go. Small blind, who has a medium stack goes all in. Tempting, but I fold as I don't want to be racing against AK or even worse a higher pair. Small blind wins with AA v AJ.

The hand I went out with I was 8th of 10 on the final table with 55K chips and blinds 5K/10K. Mid position player (no reads - hadn't played him till now) makes it 20K to go. I have 66 on the button. I went all in. He called and showed A10 off. He hit a 10 on the flop and I was out. On reflection I think this was a poor all in by me. I don't think I should have gone over the top of a raise but waited for a hand where I was the first aggressor to go all in. I was marginal favourite but I think I'd have been better off waiting on reflection.

Meanwhile the face-to-face game at the cricket club on Thursday nights continues to be good fun. I had a very fortuitous win on the last hand this week when we were down to 3 with the top two chip counts cashing. There was nothing much between the three stacks but I was marginally 3rd and in the big blind. 2nd biggest stack went all in (with A3 it transpired), top stack folded in the small blind and I insta-called with...er...58. The flop came A69. Turn is a 3. The dealer looked at me and said, "the 7 of hearts" and damn me if that's not what he turned over!