Tale of the unexpected

Just back from Ibrox where another gutless performance saw us draw 1-1 with St Mirren and stay 3rd in the league.Totally unacceptable for Rangers.I'm still backing the manager though.I don't think he realised just how poor the team was when he took over in June.I've not been impressed by his signings but the transfer window opens soon and I'm willing to give him more time to turn it around.I'm fairly sure Le Guen is now aware of the enormity of the task facing him.I just hope he has the solutions and doesn't turn out to be Rangers version of Santini at Spurs or Perrin at Portsmouth.

To the poker and I played the late night crap shoot again last night and after an early exit I watched Rottie play a fine game in the $5k gtd at laddys only to go out 14th when her KK was beaten by 99 hitting a 9 on the flop.ITM at least but should have been more.

Found the s-man online later and he joined me at a $50 nl 6 max table.After a slow start I picked up Aces and beat Kings for a nice pot before the s-man headed off to bed and I hit a $100 nl full ring table.

I hope anyone reading would give me credit for being honest enough to highlight my own donkey plays in my posts but I did lose a big pot at $100 nl which I felt afterwards was fairly unavoidable.

I'd not been at the table long and had no good reads on individual players.Maybe my mistake was calling a raise and reraise with AQ soooted in the first place, but I had good implied odds and the raises were a little strange.First a raise to $2,reraised to $3 and finally reraised again to $4.The reraise to $4 was what fooled me, as the villian made that raise with QhJh and when we got to the turn I just could not give him credit for that hand, due to the way he played it preflop.Certainly for an extra $1 it disguised his hand beautifully, but why anyone would put in a 3rd raise with QhJh I'm not sure.I actually expected the 2nd raiser to make a big reraise back and thought I would be folding preflop.Here's the hand history with a brief summary of my thoughts.


Zilla25 posted the small blind - $0.50
spread posted the big blind - $1.00
** Dealing card to Acornman: Ace of Clubs, Queen of Clubs
pst7221 raised - $2.00
danny777 raised - $3.00

>>I'm not keen on calling a raise and reraise with AQc but was it was still fairly cheap ( obviously a 4bb raise would be $4 at this level and even the reraise didn't amount to that).

Acornman called - $3.00
DaddyT called - $3.00
Bnormind folded
Jonmelon007 raised - $4.00

>>> They say the 4th raise is usually Aces.I reckoned he must have a hand like QQ/KK or AA to make the 3rd reraise here although due to the fact it was so small I was willing to keep an open mind.

Zilla25 folded
spread folded
pst7221 called - $4.00
danny777 called - $4.00

Ok,I'm not liking my hand much but as its heading towards a $20 pot and we haven't seen the flop yet I do like my odds to call here.


Acornman called - $4.00
DaddyT called - $4.00

** Dealing the flop: Queen of Diamonds, Jack of Spades, 7 of Clubs

>>> Ok,I've hit my tptk ( top pair top kicker) but I still don't like my hand too much after all the preflop reraising that was going on.I could maybe have bet here to "see where I am" but my reckoning was that I could already be behind to KK or AA and seeing where I am could leave me in a tough spot if I was reraised.

pst7221 checked
danny777 checked
Acornman checked
DaddyT checked
Jonmelon007 bet - $5.00
pst7221 folded
danny777 called - $5.00

>>>hmmm $5 into a $20 pot seems weak to me and I was tempted to reraise but reckoned that the villian could be making that weak lead type of bet with either a very strong hand like KK or AA and was hoping for me to reraise with exactly the type of hand I had or he had a hand like KQ and really was quite weak.Although preflop there were a few reraises nobody had even doubled the others bet so perhaps they were all weaker than I thought.

Acornman called - $5.00
DaddyT folded

** Dealing the turn: Queen of Spades
danny777 checked

>>> Ok,I'm hoping my KK/AA/KQ read is right here and going with it.

Acornman bet - $18.25

Jonmelon007 raised - $36.50

>>>I looked back over the betting here and as mentioned simply couldn't put him on QJ and although JJ did worry me here too I decided I was ahead and....

danny777 folded

Acornman went all-in - $67.75

Jonmelon007 went all-in - $32.34

** Dealing the river: 9 of Clubs
Jonmelon007 shows: Jack of Hearts, Queen of Hearts
Acornman mucks: Ace of Clubs, Queen of Clubs
Jonmelon007 wins $171.18 from the main pot

With hindsight perhaps folding preflop was the correct move but overall I don't think I made any big fishy mistakes in that hand.( feel free to disagree!)

Anyway I took a short break to clear my head before hitting up a couple of 5 player,$5 turbos on Pokerroom.Made a lot of aggressive moves and generally felt a litle better.The poker gods just had to toy with me though and I went out of the 2nd one when my AK sooted was beaten by my hand of the night...AQ.

I may never be the most skillful but I can certainly be the most resilient so I got back on the horse and headed to FT where I managed to hit a few hands and come out on top.( 6 max $50 nl).

My poker year starts and end on Oct 31st as it was Oct 31st '04 I started playing for real money.Current stats ( and I may revisit to edit later as I'll be playing tonight) are Full Tilt $599, Party $280, Ladbrokes $1678,Pokeroom $764.Total $3321 ( + $200 for Dec).

Total on Oct 31st '06 = $3276

Nov - $165
Dec + $200
ytd from Oct 31st = + $35. Total profit since Oct 31st '04 = $8375

Righty apart from editing these figures later I reckon that's me done for the year.I'm too lazy to do a year review.I started looking back over some of my posts but as they would generally cure insomnia I gave up!

By the way if anyone has anything they'd like to see less of or more of ( commas perhaps )on this blog please let me know.


Righty I would like to wish all fellow bloggers,readers and sponsors a very happy new year when it comes.See you next year...