Now its freezing

Busted out of the main event... after playing for 11 hours.

Some random thoughts!

- I play better against good players.
- I shouldn't lose 5/6 pots with KK.
- Watching really terrible players winning so many pots by playing so badly, makes me think poker is not a game of skill.
- Be careful what you wish for. I had a tough table (ESPN table for 4 hours) to begin with and was playing pretty good, and built my stack with ease to 25000. I was wanting to feed on some fish though. My table broke.... it was the fish that ended up feeding on me.

Its cold in Vegas

Have managed about 15 hours online in the last two days. Yesterday i lost £9000 and today i won £7000. A good warm up for the main event..... I hope i don't have the cold deck in the tournament that i have had in cash.... losing two $10000 pots with the nut straight and second nuts all in on flop in Hold'em. There is skill in tournaments but if the cards don't fall right it doesn't matter if you are Phil Ivey or a total donkey.

Other than that been doing the usual stuff in Vegas... drinking, eating and sleeping (though not enough of the latter)

Looking forward to playing tomorrow. You can't really go into a field like this with any big expectations... i just hope i make the right decisions and see how i go from there.

I have a decent percentage in a few top players, so even if i bust out, i hope one of them can win enough to cover my expenses for the trip :-)

My four rules for tomorrow!

1. Don't limp into an unraised pot unless i plan to reraise.
2. Don't play KT or KJ non suited to a raise.
3. Muck any bad ace and that includes AT.
4. Don't walk KK into AA again.

The return

Well i am back in Las Vegas. I drew Day 3 for the main event so i start on Sunday. There is not much news on the poker front. I haven't played for a couple of weeks. I did an interview which can be seen here for one of the poker websites.

Home

I don't really like putting non poker stuff on my blog, but i guess the last post had people/friends guessing why i returned from Vegas, after looking forward to it for so long.

My Mum passed away after a long battle with a terminal illness. I was lucky enough to make it back just in time to see her. Of course, when things like this happen, poker isn't important.

At some point i'd like use poker to raise some money for the hospice that looked after her so well during her last 6 months, i'll think about that in the future.

Home from Vegas

The trip didn't last too long.... i've had to return for family reasons.

Good luck to any of my mates playing the rest of the events.

Vegas - Update 3

I gave the $1000 No Limit Hold'em a miss yesterday as it was full and the alternate list was huge. I decided to play the $2000 pot Limit Hold'em today. It was short and sweet as my QQ on the 4th hand walked in to KK. Very tough not to lose the 2000 chips with those cards... especially when it flopped Jack high.

Still feeling a bit tired/jetlagged so haven't played any cash games so far. My next event will probably be the $2500 short handed or the $2000 Shootout in a few days.

The Rio is better organised than last year. They have more food places and toilets, so the queues aren't so bad. I'm not going to start moaning about the lack of chips in the smaller events, as everyone knew that before they arrived. Be nice to have a few more though :-)

Vegas - Update 2 $10000 Pot Limit Omaha

I busted out of the Omaha after about 6 hours of play. Blinds started at 25/25 and i think after about 10 hands i was double the chip leader with 23000 ish. I hit top set three times and managed to win decent pots each time. It was the perfect start really and meant that i could afford to lose a few decent size pots without it crippling me. Couple of key hands that i lost then happened...

- I had AhTh8sQs. I made it 100 to play in middle position.... 5 callers. Flop came Qh9s5h so i had the nut flush draw and Jack for a straight. I bet 600. One caller and Paul Zimbler in the SB made it 2000 more. I called as did the other guy so there was about 8500 in the middle. Turn 7c.. so i now had a 6 for the straight as well. Paul no bet out 3200. This bet really priced me in to calling considering what was already in there, so i called. River a 4s and it was checked down. Paul had 5523 for a set and i mucked. I would have been on over 35000 if i won that hand.

- Next big hand blinds were 50/100. Someone made it 300 to play and i called with 467Q DS from the BB after a few other callers. Flop 35J giving me the queen flush draw as well. I bet 1500 and got two callers. Turn an Ace giving me my other flush draw as well. I check and the guy behind me bets 4500. I call as i need any 246 or 8 for a straight and both flush draws... so 24 cards improve my hand. I miss everything and start to feel its not my day.

After that i was pretty much card dead. I got lucky a few times when all in, and was between 1000 chips and 8000 for about 3 hours, but i just couldn't find a spot where i wanted to get my chips in the middle. My bust out hand summed it up.

Flop was A84 rainbow and my last chips went in... i had A8J4 and he had A8K7 and the king hit the turn.

Another day another tournament. Its the $1000 No Limit today no rebuy, so i'll get busy early or bust out i guess.

Vegas - Update 1

I arrived a few hours ago. The flight was tiring... managed to lose $55 to Gryko at Chinese Poker en route playing small stakes, and won it back betting on first bag to arrive off the conveyor belt.

I am very impressed with the Wynn so far. The rooms are fantastic and the bars are good from what i've seen so far. I headed down to the Rio after i arrived to register and see who was about. I managed to resist the temptation to play and i caught up with Dubai, Martin Green and Rob Sherwood and we headed to a steakhouse, and had a few bottles of wine. I bailed out early due to the Omaha starting tomorrow, but i learned more about the strategy for playing dice in an hour than i have in the last 5 years. Throwing a googli seems to be the way forward....

I'm looking forward to playing tomorrow. Its been ages since i played an Omaha tournament, and i expect there will be around 270 runners even though its a $10000 buy in. I'll will do some kind of update tomorrow... hopefully it won't be an early bust out story.

Vegas

I jet off in just a few days now. The excitement is building. My first event is the $10000 Pot Limit Omaha, and after that i'll be playing pretty much every event except the $50000 H.O.R.S.E.

I'll be updating my blog as often as possible as well.....