Rolling along...

Last nights pokery fun began with a rather unspectacular 10/16 finish in the first Raisetheriver league game.Congrats to Yorkiepud for taking it down.I didn't catch many hands and eventually ran my AK into a pair and didn't improve.

Next up was Interpokers $11 headhunter tourney and although I didn't make the money ( 53rd) I did take a few bounties and managed to cover the cost of my buy-in.Well done to Dudley for winning £144 in the ££ game later on.

The cash tables were calling and I settled down at a Laddies $100 nl full ring table which was more than a little loose.I lost my $100 buy-in when I slow played 55 on a 10 5 A flop,checking after another Ace on the turn and hoping I was letting someone catch up a little.An innocent looking 6 on the river gave Mr 66 the better full house and I couldn't get away from his all in raise.

The good news is that I didn't gulp at losing $100 ( seems to feel just like losing a $50 buy-in does).I hit a couple of 6 max tables and pulled back $20 before I spotted a very juicy looking $200nl full ring table and decided to get invloved.I won my first pot with a semi-bluff flush draw which boosted my confidence, before I won one a $422 pot ( $230 profit) with the mighty J10.

This is how it went down...

** Game ID 803075995 starting - 2007-08-04 03:39:25
** The Strand [Hold 'em] (1.00|2.00 No Limit - Cash Game) Real Money

- staffy-king sitting in seat 1 with $40.90
- nofhopec sitting in seat 2 with $225.88 [Dealer]
- Acornman sitting in seat 3 with $197.00
- swapper sitting in seat 4 with $189.60 :Only played 5 hands but had seen every flop and already looks like he may be tilty.

- sparksride sitting in seat 5 with $114.96
- tigerlily sitting in seat 6 with $80.00
- kenn213 sitting in seat 7 with $257.46
- Salvadanaro sitting in seat 8 with $246.85
- vika sitting in seat 9 with $94.00
- darlolalex sitting in seat 10 with $286.31

Acornman posted the small blind - $1.00
swapper posted the big blind - $2.00
** Dealing card to Acornman: Jack of Spades, 10 of Hearts
sparksride raised - $4.00
tigerlily called - $4.00
kenn213 folded
Salvadanaro called - $4.00
vika folded
darlolalex folded
staffy-king folded
nofhopec called - $4.00

Acornman called - $4.00 : J10 is not a hand to go to war with preflop but a $3 call into a $19 pot here is almost automatic.

swapper raised - $6.00
sparksride called - $6.00
tigerlily called - $6.00
Salvadanaro called - $6.00
nofhopec called - $6.00
Acornman called - $6.00: Not keen on the reraise from swapper but not folding for another $2 in a million years.

** Dealing the flop: Jack of Diamonds, 7 of Clubs, 9 of Clubs

Acornman checked :Perhaps this was a weak check and I should have bet to find out where I was, but the average pot was $69 and I didn't want to have to fold to a reraise here.

swapper bet - $18.00
sparksride called - $18.00
tigerlily folded
Salvadanaro folded
nofhopec folded
Acornman called - $18.00:pot is a good size and though I'm not sure I'm ahead, sparksride has already called an all in preflop with j2h ( and won)and his call here doesn't worry me too much.swappers bet didn't seem too strong either.( 1/2 pot)

** Dealing the turn: King of Spades

Acornman bet - $24.00:I was trying to take control of the pot here and slow down the villains because I really didn't want to have to call a bet much bigger than this from them with only my J10.

swapper called - $24.00: This backed up my feeling that he wasn't too strong.

sparksride folded: Glad he dropped out.

** Dealing the river: 3 of Spades

Acornman bet - $69.00 : went with my gut feeling and bet out as I felt swapper was weak.

swapper went all-in - $143.60

Acornman called - $143.60 : Very close call indeed.I did think he was weak but now? Hmmm.I went into the tank and looked back over the betting so far.Surely he would have reraised more preflop with QQ/KK/AA, and although he made a post flop bet continuation bet, it was only half the pot which smelled weak.His call on the turn when I bet out after the scary King fell also seemed weak.Calling another $70 into a pot of $347 seemed like decent value.

swapper shows: 10 of Clubs, 10 of Spades
Acornman shows: Jack of Spades, 10 of Hearts
Acornman wins $422.20 from the main pot : Ship it!

I won a $97 pot with AJ v KJ on a 10 J J 3 5 board not long afterwards after limping with my AJ.I was pleased with my play in that hand too, because a villain who had limped too preflop bet out $15,another went all in for $35 and I reraised to $120 ,forcing out the first villain.The first guy wouldn't bet out like that if he had J10 or 1010 and therefore I had to conclude I had him beaten ( QK maybe?) and I was spot on with my read on the all in guy.( KJ /QJ or A10/K10 type hand).

My table broke up and I headed over to Bet365 to have a last blast there before bed.I had two tables going there, when either the site lag or laptop slowed right down, and I timed out with trip Queens on a ragged board with the villain betting into me.Why is it the moment my hand was folded by the software, the "I'm back" button suddenly appeared and activated right away despite me frantically spending the previous two minutes pounding the reraise and even the "all in" button?!

That tilted me slightly and it went tits up for a while as I lost my 365 cash table winnings from Thursday night due to a couple of poorly played $10 turbos and some cash table donkery.

I took a wee break,sorted my head out and took a shot at a $200 nl 6 max table at 365.Pocket tens have been lucky for me this week and were again as I called a preflop raise with them and hit trip tens on the flop.After my checking down disaster with the 55 earlier I didn't mess about and reraised the villains continuation bet on a J 10 6 board.He reraised and we ended up all in on that flop.The turn was a K, the river an Ace and I half expected the villain to show a Queen and scoop the pot, but his cards hit the virtual muck and I'd doubled my $200 starting stack.

I did go to bed not long after that ( 5am!) and was feeling very happy indeed with my nights work.The main positives were losing the $100 early on and not being too bothered,my big hands holding up and actually acting upon my reads and instincts most of the time.

Ok, I'm far too tired to write anymore just now.Don't forget to register for tomorrow nights Bloggerment game...