Inbetween Days

Enjoyed a fine dinner with Mrs A last night before hitting the tables late on for four 20 plyr $5 turbos at Pokerroom with Miami Mark and failing to make the money in any of ‘em.I had my best chance in the last one but it was after 1am and I let my concentration slip and donked out after a good start ( and an excellent hammer bluff).

From reading other poker blogs I note that Cryptologic have already thrown in the towel and no longer allow Americans to play there.I checked last night and their $3k gtd only had 267 entrants which made me think that there could be a short term opportunity for players outside the US to take advantage of the current situation where there are guaranteed prize pools.I don’t play many Mtt’s so I may be way off but it could be worth checking out Mtt’s at site that ban our US friends.( At least until they reduce the prize pools accordingly).


I’m going to use my forthcoming break in Egypt to give some more thought to next years poker goals as I’m in several minds over which direction to take.I really enjoyed Joannes recent post about how she plays blogger mtt’s v her usual mtt games.What really struck me was the sheer focus and hard work that she puts into an MTT.Now I enjoy chatting to friends on IM ( or playing whilst Mrs A watching tv) but I don’t know how many times recently in an MTT ( or even an sng) I’ve woken up to a decent hand from early position and wondered how the hell I should play it because I’ve no idea how the table is playing due to lack of attention.


For example I’m dealt Aces UTG ( 1ST to act) at the start of level 3 having barely played a hand yet.Is it a crazy table where I’d get 4-5 callers if I raise 3* bb or is it so tight I’d be lucky to get one caller with a 2bb raise? Sure I’m obviously paying some attention to the table, but poker is a game of incomplete information and whilst I can get away with at the lowest levels most of the time,if I’m to even consider moving up the stakes ( cash or tourneys) then I need to be willing to put in a lot more work.Assuming I can cut it then obviously the rewards would be greater financially but part of me says that if I can average $4k profit per year playing mostly $50 nl with some tourneys thrown in then why would I want to get all serious and sit in silence taking notes on the villains and how they play etc etc?

Ok the mission to conquer Halo 2 begins again in 1/2 hr.Time to squeeze in a few hands..