Saturday, August 26, 2006

Poker Break

I have probably only played about 20 minutes since i returned from Vegas about two weeks ago. It a total poker famine which is going to last until i get to Barcelona on the 12th September.

Feels weird not playing at all, i was playing so many hours especially online January-May, and since then not too much at all with Vegas and loads of other stuff keeping me busy.

I'm really excited about the rest of the year with the tournaments coming up. EPT events in London, Barcelona, Baden and Dublin in a short period, as well as Betfair's own tournament in Singapore. Other than those i wil probably also play Masterclassics in Amsterdam, Swedish Open that i came 2nd in last year and the WPT at the Bellagio in December.

I am also going to order a new monitor. I need one that i can play nine tables with no overlap. Any recommendations??

I was in the opening broadcast by ESPN of this year's WSOP a few days ago. Someone is sending me a link to download, and if its interesting i will post it on here.

Friday, August 11, 2006

At airport

There is a big delay to my flight home so i thought i'd write a quick update.

Betfair have opened up a 25/50 both $$ and ££, so i expect that my swings will become even more extreme in the coming months. Recently, i've felt that i have been playing pretty good at Hold'em, but not very well at PL Omaha. I managed a 10 hour session yesterday and i think the higher stakes forced me to concentrate and play better, and i had a pretty good session. Well enough for me to upgrade to the comfort of upper class on the way home :-D

I had fun in vegas, but i can't ever imagine myself doing the whole World Series of about 6 weeks. Met some decent guys who play on Betfair... Joey Lovelady (Protege) who cashed for $30000 in his first live tournament, and Ben Blackmore (Benno) who has a blog here. Hopefully their fledgling poker careers won't be corrupted too much from what they learnt from Dubai in the last few weeks.

The next tournaments for me will be EPT Barcelona and London. I expect the fields will be even bigger than season 2, and the entry fee has gone up, so i can't wait to give them a crack.

Tuesday, August 08, 2006

Vegas - Its over baby

Nearly time to fly back from Las Vegas again. I haven't played any live poker since i busted out of the main event. I spent the last few days funking for Richard Gryko, who stormed through the field and finished in 50th place paying $165000. He was due a big result. I had a decent percentage in him, so i've had a winning trip even if it wasn't a result of my own play :-)

Had a bit of a grim day online a few days ago. Not one of the worst... but certainly in the top 10. Lost a £14000 pot with KK on a AK6 board when my opponent had AA... sigh. Then the VERY next hand i had KK again shorthanded on the £25/£50 and walked into AA again in a £10000 pot. How i hate KK at the moment.

Luckily the bad day was followed by a good day which wiped out a hefty percentage of what i lost. A4 was good for a monster pot on a AQ4 board. It may have been the biggest pot i have won in No Limit Hold'em... at around £18000.

The next few months are going to be reasonably quiet poker wise. There aren't any tournaments i will play before the EPT starts again, and i am going on a non poker holiday for 5 weeks before that.