BACK TO THE QUIET LIFE

Neteller: Last week $113; Current $113 (-)
Ultimate Bet: Last month $442; Current $453 (+11)

Total = $566

Profit on the month = +$11

B&M money = £2,398 (+£14)

Well, with the very able assistance of my wife and two daughters, I've managed to be a one man antidote to the recession and spend the APAT money. I'm now the proud possessor of a new wide screen plasma telly, nice big monitor for my computer, an iphone for daughter one, a lap top for daughter two, and a fine selection of new clothes for the wife and I. Buy shares in Curry's now.

On the actual poker front it has been a case of up, down and then a minor recovery. On the $11 games I shot up to 537 in 8 games and then went into a tailspin with only one miserable 3rd place in 14 games. Three wins in my last 5 games has pulled me into a position where I have made the grand profit of $11 on the month. Downswings like that are to be expected, but they are still tedious to bare. However I don't take it too seriously. Basically I know I am a winning player at this level and I have the bankroll to see out things like that.

I haven't been able to do much at the Cricket Club lately either. I am regularly in the last 3 or 4 but I haven't won outright for a while. Some new young players have been joining and a couple of them have learned quickly and developed decent games. This means that we have about 5 players with tight/aggressive games and the remainder are very Laggy. Inevitably some of the LAG's get lucky and chip up early and then bully with big stacks. One of them did me the other night - calling my all in on the flop with 44 against my QQ - he hit the 4 on the turn of course. Still it's fun and I'm sure I can start winning again soon.

Meanwhile, since I was in Nottingham for the night, I went down to the "Dusk till Dawn" club - the largest in the country. Very nice set-up. I had hoped to play in a £25 freezeout but got there too late. I played some .5/£1 No Limit Cash and won the princely sum of £16. There were a couple of seriously poor players who donated nicely (what is it about the Chinese that makes them such wild gamblers?) but sadly I never had a hand to go up against them with myself.

It's good to see the Bloggerment tournament on PokerStars back again too. (9.00 on Stars "private tournaments" - password "donkament"). That is basically where I learned how to play tournaments. No luck so far though. I've had folk sucking out against me with flush draws I hadn't given them the odds to call for the last two weeks - again, my turn will come :-)