Poker Confidence + Welcome Wattie

It’s been a fairly break even couple of nights since my last post with not much to report ( which has never stopped me before ) apart from unlucky hands.

It began with an odd wee hand against a solid player where we both made mistakes and probably ended up pot committed without really meaning it to end like that.I had 66 and raised from the small blind ( after it folded to me) ,he reraised,I decided he thought I was stealing and as I had a pocket pair I reraised back ,he reraised all in and I called.He showed K10 and hit a King on the turn to knock me out.The mistake I made was not to reraise all in initially and create a proper pressure point.( copyright Doubleas)


I ran into a cracker on my next table with about 6 left when I raised from late position with 66 and was raised all in by a fishy player.I made the call,he showed 44,flop of 6 Q 9 followed by a 4 on the turn and another 4 on the river.Hmmm nice!

I didn’t have much joy on Monday night either ,running my Aces into tens ( 10 on flop) and losing a race ( don’t mind that so much) with my tens v AK.

I managed 2nd in the last sng I played and felt quite proud afterwards because I managed to get my money in as a huge favourite twice against a major fish and I bounced back from his 2 outer suckouts to place in the money.

Along with Miami Mark I did win another $26 token in Full Tilts $8.70 18 player turbo.I'm not sure when I'll use it although Fri night at 3am for the $25k gtd is a possibility.


Previously I wrote about being confident at the table and how it can affect my play.I’m aware that I seem to play a far better game if I get a good start especially at the cash tables.It’s taken me over 2 years and a load of stats to back it up, to prove to myself that I’m actually a winner.

Part of the reason is simply down the fact that I've never particularly excelled at any sport or hobby and didn't start playing poker with any expectations at all other than spending a maximum budget of £50 per month.

I thought I was a fine badminton player as a teen, until our church badminton club played another and we were thrashed.I can play a reasonable ( eh Juice!) game of pool but I'm not a great player.I love darts too and have a board in the attic, but am I any good? Nope.I enjoy my X box and Ps2 games but am I a fantastic gamer who quickly learns and kicks ass in most generes? No,I'm not even very good at the first person shooters I love.


Perhaps my slightly negative attitude is down to me being an old git at 34.If the Internet and online poker had been around during my teens I may have had a lot more faith in myself but I think as people get older they tend to realise that many of the dreams and hopes they had as a teenager will never come to fruition and some were totally unrealistic to start with.As a teen I had a definite air of invincibilty in my own eyes.I may have been ignorant ( who me?!) and naive but I felt I could be the best at whatever I did and that my immortality meant I could drive my car hard and fast without any problems.Nowadays I read sad stories of young lads killing their friends in wreckless car acidents and think how easily it could have been me in their shoes.

Maybe it's simply a fear of failure that stops me pushing myself too hard at the poker these days.I see 5000 people playing freerolls and feel proud at least that I can make money at $50nl and so far at $11 turbo sng's.

It amazes me that there are still so many poor players around.I carefully selected a 'Stars $15 sng last night because it seemed fishy.I came 2nd but what was remarkable was that according to Sharky the table (apart from 1 winner who was + $88) had lost just under $25k between them! Who says sng's are tightening up?!

Ok,I'm not sure the confidence thing came over as I wanted but I'm gonna hit the publish post button anyway.

In other news Rangers have tonight named former manager,Walter Smith,as our new manager.He brought us 9 league titles in a row and his assistant will be my football hero ,Ally McCoist.Smith has left the Scotland managers job to take over and though he wasn't my first choice I hope he can provide a safe pair of hands and guide us back to the top where we belong.

I loved the wee advert in my local paper that declared that "Calderwood Bluestar are looking for experienced players.Players born in 1994 should apply".Most of those players won't be 13 yet! So long as they've played in a couple of World Cups eh...

Bad news from this afternoon is that the IT security team at my work have found a way to bar access to all blogs.I'll still be catching up at night after they blocked bloglines recently too.Baaaaa!

Ok,that's all for now...