Poker Panic

Just realised I have only three more nights of poker before my weeks break to Majorca.I'm actually looking forward to the break from the tables rather than panicking as I've enjoyed playing far more each time I've come back from previous breaks.My mate is moving house tonight ( yes I did offer to help!) so some pokery fun will be squeezed in tonight after this post.

After so much play at the weekend I've been easing my way back in gently this week so far.A nothing night last night really after winning $15 at Ladbrokes and losing $17 at a Pokerroom 5 max game.Pokerrooms 5 max tables were where I first got the short-handed bug and realised I could win at micro-stakes 5 max nl.I only played there for about 20 minutes last night and felt I'd just begun to get a handle on the tables ego-maniac but my sensible head was on and I headed off to bed.

I love playing players who think they are tables appointed poker superstar and who make large overbets and showdown rubbish to try and tilt the table.Last nights example raised preflop and then went all in for $64 on a low ragged board and showed AK when the table folded.He soon lost most of his stack when one of his fancy plays with 2 sooted cards cost him v a player with 2 higher sooted cards.These guys can actually be quite easy to bluff because if your playing a tighter game than the table they think they have you pegged as a predictable player when I finally make a move on him ( whilst representing something obvious on the board as it has to be kept simple for him).

Bought my final book for going away with.Christopher Brookmyres new one "A tale etched in blood and hard black pencil" has only been out for a few days and I can't wait to get started on it.He ranks alongside Carl Hiassen as my favourite author.I hope Mr Hiassen has a new one out soon too.I need my fix! Also taking "Freakonmics", "Long way Down"-Nick Hornby,"A man called Cash"-Steve Turner and that highbrow intellectual book that I'm sure schools will start using soon instead of Shakespeare ....Robbie Fowlers autobiography.

Ok here's a couple of snips from the paper which made me smile....

Last laugh: A reader tells us about an office night out at a comedy club where quite a reserved chap made the mistake of going to the loo during the main turn, and was verbally lacerated from the stage. The heat from his face, apparently, could have powered a three-bar fire.Our reader was then amazed when another chap stood up and walked to the loo, only to be bawled at by the turn: "Where are you going?"But in a Glasgow accent he gruffly replied: "I'm going for a pee before the comedian comes on," which left a deafening silence from the stage.

A Gourock reader just back from a cruise to the Canaries tells us that, sadly, there were a couple of deaths on board owing to the elderly nature of many of the holidaymakers. Rumours on board had spread, however, that the death toll was even higher, so when our Gourock chap found himself sitting next to the ship's doctor for dinner that night, he asked if the rumours were true."When you get ice cream for breakfast," the doc told him, "you'll know the fridge is full."

Pulling rank: Spotted recently in Kosovo, a large sign outside a US army base which, in the flamboyant military manner of our trans-atlantic cousins, announced the location of a unit claiming to be "Second To None". A mile down the road, the sign outside a usually understated British base was hastily changed to "None".

Thanks for reading and please visit Flopyjt's new poker blog,the latest quality addition to my sidebar...