Recovery continues....

Right then lots to update since the last blog.

I have managed to profit about £2,000 since the last blog so things are finally looking up once again.

My plan is to drop down the limits from 2.50/5NL and 5-10NL to 1/2NL and 0.50/1PLO. After a good run to tend to go mad and do my nuts, usually on the Friday night on Betfair! So I think by dropping down the levels this will dilute the pain in terms of monies lost because I will be buying in for $100 on the 1-2 tables not my usual $250 on the 2.5-5 tables. Notice my continued trend of always buying in with half of the max amount, I don't know why I do this, it must be a psychological thing.

As promised in earlier blogs I am committed to improving my Pot Limit Omaha game and have been having good results of late on the 1-2 game as well as the 0.50/1 tables. I do find though that the 0.50/1 game is impossible to get anyone to fold pre flop, a raise to 3.50-6 dollars is nearly always called by all players as the ones round the back ate always getting favourable odds for their investment.

I got a phone call from the Professor the other day asking if I was adept at delivering speeches....to which I replied 'I guess....' He then went on to ask me to be best man for his July Wedding. This is truly a great honour and something that I am very proud to be part of. Unfortunately his wedding falls on the weekend that I had scheduled to go to Brno to visit the Hag, this has had to be put back to August 2nd and I am likely to be joined by the umpire who celebrates his birthday that weekend.

Ended up getting a ticket for the Champions League final but had to reluctantly give it to a mate who was going with his wife because of my house moving being imminent and flights being so damn expensive....last check was close to £1k for return to Athens :-(

I have played a bit of live poker in the last week, playing at Sovereign Poker in Farnborough on Wednesday for a £160 profit. Best hand of the night was A3o flop A37 all diamonds. Everyone called the fiver bet to see a turn of a black 3 for my house. 1st positions bets £25. I call after deliberating for a while deciding what my best course of action will be for the river. River brings a black 6 and the guy bets £20 into the pot which is now at about £100. I raise all in for £75 more and he calls with A6. A good river card to bring me my action.

Thurs I made the trip down to Brighton to visit the umpire, play a little online and see what action was happening at the Grosvenor Festival. The main event there was a 4 day £1,000 NL Holdem tournament, 300 runners and a prize pool of over £300k with £92k set aside for the lucky winner.

The Murg drove down to Brighton and we started off with the Umpire and I side by side online on Betfair, different tables and games with the Umpire playing mainly PLO and me favouring NLH.

I managed to profit £700 in 3 hours of play and we then decided to make the journey down to the Seafront to the Casino. I went straight up to the card room desk and put my name down for the £100PLH table and was informed that there was one seat remaining, which I duly took and sat in with 4 black £25 chips.

The table was full of all sorts of players, from the very young to the very old, black and white. My first impression of this table was amazement of how many chips were in play and how many of them were pink (denoting £100) Guys were sitting with stacks - yes plural of these and I counted a rough 13/15K on the table, obviously making my £100 very vulnerable.

Anyway I fold a couple of hands then pick up JT to a £15 pre flop raise, I call and flop the nuts with AKQ against a guys AJ. Quickly march onto £250 from the initial £100. Then the Umpire sits down at the table as a seat becomes available over the top of someone's unmanned stack. £500 is his pull up and I immediately notice the difference between our respective 'rolls'.

After about 3 hands I call a £5 extra bet because the whole table has called with the monster that is 62s. The dealer deals out a 623 flop giving me top and bottom pairs. I decide I am check raising all in on this flop. The umpire bets the pot everyone else folds and I raise all in for £150 more which the Umpire calls after umming and arring a bit. Turn 9, River 8. He tables 86o for the bigger two pair, another outdraw from the Umpire to the Binner....lots of history there! :-)

I feel my head go slightly hot after this as I pull up the further £200 in my wallet. This head heat lasts 2 hands (in which I call £25 pre flop with t6o!!) then I shout at myself internally to calm down and not to waste valuable money on shit calls.

I pick up AcJs to a £35 pre flop raise and decide to see a flop with 3 other players. Flop brings JK2 with 2 clubs. The turn is a Qc and all the money goes in with me against a loose player. His rag King holds for a decent sized pot and I am down to the felt in terms of money in the wallet.

I leave the table and make my way to the cash machine and withdraw £500 from there to sit back in the game with. I pull up £200 then whittle that down so have to pull up my final £300. AJ comes to me again and I see a flop of JT4. I have called £35 pre flop to see this sort of flop so I'm not in the mood to fold now when the loose player of the table bets £150. I move in immediately knowing he will call the remainder which he does. There is £600 now in the middle and the worse turn card in the world comes down from the Poker gods. a Q. He looks like he loves that card and I am resigned to losing the pot and take a quick £800 loss in a big game. River is a blank and I quickly table my cards hoping that maybe he is playing something that hasn't hit the board, I cant actually think of a hand that the queen hasn't improved. He shows J7 for one of the only hands I can beat and shakes my hand saying he is happy I have won. £600 with one pair is a rarity these days in the live games, have to go back to Reading Rugby Club back in the day for that sort of hand taking down that sort of pot.

The final hand of note from Brighton was my 66 and a board of 88769 against the Umpire's J8. That one made me another £250 profit for an eventual profit of £70 from the game. I decided to leave at this point. Only a couple of hours into the game but at my highest point.

We drove back to the Umpire's and I managed to negotiate another £700 profit online from a 1-2 game and a couple of 2.50/5 games for an overall profit of 1.5K for the night.

I travelled to the new Luton casino on Sat night for the £5k Guaranteed £20 re buy tournament. I saw no cards whatsoever in the tourn and ended up finishing in 75 out of 85 runners. I sat down in the £250NLH cash game and ended up losing that 200 quid when my T9s didn't improve on a board of J862 with 2 spades. I bluffed £85 off on the blank rivered 2 and was called by a tight player with QJ. Earlier I managed to lose with a house of sixes on a board of 69373 to a pre flop raised 99! sick.

Looking to play again soon and will post some hands as soon as I have uploaded them on my home PC.