AN UNHAPPY START TO THE NEW POKER YEAR

Online poker: -£164

CC game: +£35

APAT: -£50

Matched betting: +£127

Profit on Month = -£52    Profit on Year = -£52

I've had little joy at the virtual tables this month, with a losing sequence of 24 games before I finally won something.  Since the vast majority of these were tournaments, a losing streak like this isn't the greatest surprise in the world - the variance in these things is so great that a sequence like this is inevitable.  However as well as the usual bunch of suckouts I also think I was playing badly a lot of the time.  Too much messing about calculating lays for matched bets in European bookies rather than concentrating on my games!

I've cut that out and I've also decided to try to run up another winning sequence of sng's before I go back to trying tourneys again regularly.  Discipline needed.

The matched betting continues to tick along nicely - I've virtually worked my way through the British and Irish ones now and I'm moving into the Europeans.  I've also started experimenting with "dutching" using "asian handicaps" and other such exotica.

Highlight of the month was playing with the Raise the River folk in the APAT team tournament in Bolton.  Sadly there were lots of drop outs for various reasons.  Still it was good to meet up with Cogs, Amatay, DoV, Ant and Jakattack from the RtR games.  Bully and BurnleyMik turned up in the evening.  Because of the dropouts my mate Steve from the Cricket club game got a run out.  He enjoyed the experience of playing against decent players in a good atmosphere.  Sadly we failed to cover ourselves in glory, finishing about 15 of 25 in the end I think.  I lasted till about 9.30 in the evening, mainly thanks to Aces holding up against Kings.  With only 7x big blinds left I felt I had to go with an all in with tens against a big stacks early position raise.  He showed AQ and hit both of his cards so it was "good night Vienna".

Unhighlight of the evening was the buffet.  This featured a beef stew that was seriously awful.  There were any number of plates distributed round the restaurant area with little cairns of this seriously inedible beef!