Made the Final!

Qualified for the final of the 888.com/Sun newspaper competition next Friday by coming 22nd from 503.Top 30 qualify. 888.com is a skin of Pacific Poker and the software is dreadful.Poor interface but luckily very poor players too.£10k worth of prizes but I expect the field to be about 150 because they had to play 2 tourneys on Thus and Fri nights due to registration problems.Mrs A fancies the 2nd prize of the trip to Monte Carlo but a seat at the UK Poker Open would do me.

Not much of a tourney report.I just played a tight game and took the few chances that came my way to double up enough times to be sure of getting in the top 30.Won 65c too and took that to a limit table and turned it into....$2.26.Moved to an NL table and reached $8 before crashing.Still don't like the software.It doesn't show the pot size or the size of any bets until it comes to your turn.

Back to Pokerrooms $1 nl tables and made a tidy $68 for the night.A new player joined the table.He was in the BB and I called from late position with 2d3d. Flop came 6d4d3s and I reckoned I had so many outs I had to bet $3.He check raised me to $8 which I called and when the turn came 3c I called his $7 bet with my set and draws.I was worried he'd made his straight with a BB special 7 5 o/s but when the river came 5c I raised his $7 bet to $14 as it seemed a weak bet in what was a $27 pot by then.

I won and he started trashtalking about how could I call his check raise blah blah blah.His new friend to the left of him was agreeing and telling him how unlucky he was. I was thinking that maybe he had 66 or 44.Then I checked the hand history and discovered he played Q6 o/s.Told the table and he left before I had a chance to tell him I'd run it through cardplayer.com's odds calculator and I was 58% fav after the flop and 95% after the turn.I was wishing I'd raised more on the later streets but then surely anyone with his hand would have folded to a decent raise?
Maybe I broke my rule about tapping the aquarium but I had notes that said I'd played with him before and he was solid enough.

Lost $18 when I made top pair with A10 on a 10, 6, 4, 3, 4 rainbow board and was beaten by JJ.
Learned my lesson from my poorly played QQ laydown the other day.This time when the villan raised $3 pf I reraised to $7 to see where I was and was called which meant I was fairly sure I wasn't up against KK or AA.He'd been a bit loose so I only bet $6 on a flop of 7s 6s 10c hoping he would reraise with JJ or try and steal with AK or AQ.I bet $12 after 9c on the river and he called with k10 o/s for a nice wee pot.

Went out in the first hand of the Player points qualifier today.Raised $250 ( $1500 starting) and was reraised all in by AK who spiked a K on the river.
Left me free to watch Rangers beat Linfield comfortably 2-0 in a friendly.

Added another couple of quality blogs to my reading list.Please give them a visit and a link.
http://pokerboss.blogspot.com/ and http://pokerandglory.blogspot.com/.

Just posted this in Juices comments and its always handy if you don't already have your pot odds memorised.

Re pot odds: After the flop your number of outs * 2 = % of hitting on the turn aprox.5 outs = 10.7%.

If you miss on the turn its aprox the same chance of hitting on the river.

Easiest way on the flop to work out the combined chance of hitting your hand with both turn and river is simply your number of outs * 4 = %.

Flush draw of 9 outs would give you 36%.Close enough to the actual figure of 35% to use.

I hope Juice won't mind me quoting from his blog but I want to disagree with some advice he quoted :-) The rest of his post was sound advice and well worth reading.

"One good piece of advice i read last night was this: If you have the best hand pot odds dont apply to you. If you have the second best hand or are chasing a draw you need to calculate pot odds. Generally fold with 3 outs or less and proceed with 8 outs or more."

Nothing wrong with the last sentence but if you have the best hand you need to protect it and you have to make sure your not giving your opponents the chance/odds to outdraw you.If the advice had added "If your opponent is drawing dead" then that would make more sense to me.

Too often when I first started playing I was only thinking about how good my hand was and not enough about where my opponents were at in the hand.

Been thinking about my poker style at the moment and I think I need to raise more pf at $1nl.Pokertracker has my overall pf raise % at 6.19 but only 4.52% over 5222 hands at $1nl.
The Lethal Limper.I hope as I'm getting more and more comfortable at $1 nl I will start stealing more. Its much higher at 7.11% at .25nl.

I don't limp with the top pairs but do like to see a cheap flop and hit something before ramming and jamming it.I do like the fact that limping disguises your hand. Limping with AQ or even AK means winning a lot of pots from players who play Aces with low kickers when the A hits a flop.Of course I don't always limp with these hands especially on or near the button and its good to mix up your play a bit and not be too predictable.

I mentioned Pokertracker and I would hope I don't need to tell anyone just how vital this software is.( and no I'm not on commison). No online Holdem player should play without it.I've got stats on over 3000 players at Pokerroom and I believe at Partypoker it will even update in real time to let you know all your opponents styles.It also gives a real insight into your own weak and strong points.

I don't like programmes that actually try and advise you on how to play.Maybe useful as a guide but every table and player is unique and you need to tap into the your tables playing style.Following the rule about playing tight at a loose table and loose at a tight table may help and don't bluff too often at low limit or against bad players.

I watched a show called "Blue Heaven" a couple of years ago following the Youth players at Rangers. It was interesting that the coaches signed a player mainly on the basis that he travelled 90 miles from Dundee to Glasgow and back every day without complaint.He is a good footballer too but so are a lot of young boys.The point is that it was his attitude that won him his contract and I think attitude and temperment go a long way to making a good poker player.

I built my initial $100 ( Oct 31st deposit) to $700 late last year and blew it all.I redeposited in Jan and built it up again only to blow $400 in Feb. Cashed out $500 in April and started this blog with $471 at the end of May.Blew $400 in 2 days in June and have now built the bankroll up to $1322 so while I'm doing ok I'm well aware that while I feel my poker temperment is improving I've a long way to go before I can say I've banished tilt from my game completely.
I read somewhere that its better to back an even tempered average player than a tilt prone great player.

Ok I've rambled on long enough.Dinner then the tables await...