Competition Time...

As per my edit to the monthly stats post, I played five $16's without cashing on Monday night which left me up only $423 for the month of June.I suppose it's still a winning month and I shouldn't complain too much.It was just frustrating as I've been making a lot more in recent months and with a week off work too,I was really hoping to reach at least the $1k mark.

My main achievement in June was knocking one of my hero's,Jennifear ( Punkinbear on Stars) out of a $16 turbo. I managed to resist acting like a starstruck fanboy and stuck to a quick "gg"!Her posts and articles on Pocket Fives have been a huge help to my game and she definitely makes my top 3 list of most fearsome online female players.( Along with Annette _15 and a certain Bristol blogger)

I managed to get July off to a reasonable start last night,winning one of the four games I played for a $44 profit overall.Not much else to report today.I'm looking after Step A tonight and won't have net access which is a good excuse to take a night off from playing poker.( I'm still sad enough to take my laptop and watch some previously downloaded Cardrunners videos!)

Here a couple of quirky wee poker hands I've played over the last couple of nights which should probably be filed under the "What were they thinking?" category!

PokerStars Game #18493899678: Tournament #93995760, $15+$1 Hold'em No Limit - Level I (10/20) - 2008/06/30 - 19:10:19 (ET)
Table '93995760 2' 9-max Seat #4 is the button
Seat 1: zagga (1630 in chips)
Seat 5: gavana77 (1200 in chips)
gavana77: posts small blind 10
poundurace: posts big blind 20
*** HOLE CARDS ***
Dealt to zagga [Ah Kh] >>> Ahh good old AK.I sit poised over the raise button.

gretske: folds
Shtack: folds
Norskei: calls 20
zagga: raises 80 to 100 >> 5bb or so is standard for me here.
hmloor: folds
ro1_nl: folds
johnny502: folds
gavana77: calls 90 >> Hmmm,I have a caller.
poundurace: folds
Norskei: folds

*** FLOP *** [2h 5s 4c] >> Not great flop for my Big Slick.I'll probably make a decent continuation bet to represent a big pair and hope the villain folds.

gavana77: folds > Perhaps I should forget the c-bet and just hope he folds! ( if it's not clear gavana77 could have checked here instead of just insta-folding!)

zagga collected 240 from pot >> Ahh Big Sick,so powerful it can make villains crumble and fold.

zagga: doesn't show hand
*** SUMMARY ***
Total pot 240 | Rake 0
Board [2h 5s 4c]
Seat 1: zagga collected (240)


PokerStars Game #18516067948: Tournament #94114633, $15+$1 Hold'em No Limit - Level I (10/20) - 2008/07/01 - 18:27:00 (ET)
Table '94114633 1' 9-max Seat #1 is the button
Seat 1: NuttyProff (1500 in chips)
Seat 2: zagga (1500 in chips)
Seat 3: master_fp (1500 in chips)
Seat 4: paco02 (1500 in chips)
Seat 5: Totò 17 (1500 in chips)
Seat 6: Supachico (1500 in chips)
Seat 7: zeze1978 (1500 in chips)
Seat 8: tof17 (1500 in chips)
Seat 9: M.S. Hanson (1500 in chips)
zagga: posts small blind 10
master_fp: posts big blind 20
*** HOLE CARDS ***
Dealt to zagga [Qh Ad]
paco02: calls 20
Totò 17: calls 20
Supachico: folds
zeze1978: folds
tof17: folds
M.S. Hanson: calls 20
NuttyProff: folds

zagga: calls 10 >> It's been a fishy looking game so far and I don't fancy playing my AQ out of position postflop against players who can't fold.( if I raise and miss flop).

master_fp: checks
*** FLOP *** [Ah Qs 4s] >> Bingo! Not much to worry about other than 44 and that would be a cooler.

zagga: bets 80 >> Hoping anyone with an Ace reraises me and wanting to build the pot and not scare anyone off just yet.

master_fp: folds
paco02: calls 80
Totò 17: calls 80
M.S. Hanson: folds
*** TURN *** [Ah Qs 4s] [6h] >> safe looking turn card.

zagga: bets 240>> I bet about 2/3 of the pot which I feel is enough to price anyone out of drawing to the flush and not enough that it will scare anyone with an Ace out of the pot.

paco02: calls 240
Totò 17: folds

*** RIVER *** [Ah Qs 4s 6h] [9h] >> Glad it wasn't a spade and not I'm too worried by the 9h.I reckon I'm still ahead although I'm not sure what I'm ahead of!

zagga: bets 520 >> A busted flush draw won't pay me anything so I'll bet enough to get value from my AQ if I'm up against a worse Ace.

paco02: calls 520 >>

Ok,I don't think I've ever offered any prizes on this blog but I'll transfer $10 on Full Tilt or Pokerstars to the first person to tell me in the comments box the hand paco02 called me with! I'll leave the competition open until my next post on Friday...( probably around 6-ish BST)