Bubbling Bubbles

Despite not feeling very well yesterday, I hauled my arse down to the Alea Casino in Glasgow just in time for the start of the £22 turbo game.There were 71 starters and I felt quite sharp during the first few levels.As a mainly turbo sit and go player I'm not used to making many laydowns, ( as it's mostly a preflop game) but about midway through the third blind level I raised 1010 from the button and a solid player flat called from the small blind.I led out on a dry 9 8 5 rainbow flop,got flat called again by the sb and when I checked the turn and he led out, I thought through his hand range and folded my overpair to the board.He showed his set of nines and I felt like I'd adapted my play from my usual sng mode.

After that I was dealt a few decent hands and managed to keep chipping up with a few steals when I was the big stack at my table.After just under four hours I'd made the final table and was hoping for a decent cash.There was talk of a 10 way chop ( £148 each)but we decided to play on until the money at least ( top 7 paid).The main reason for the chop talk was that it's a turbo with 15 min blinds and even the bigstacks didn't have much over 10bb.

I felt I'd played well ( and run well) up until that point and then I was dealt AK under the gun.For some reason all my proper thinking about ranges/position/chip stacks went out the window and with the blinds at 4k/8k and a stack of 95k I chose to raise 22k instead of just shoving.I suppose I had it in my head that a just less than 3bb raise from UTG would look very strong, but it was a stupid move.One of the guys keenest on a 10 way chop ( not a shorty) flat called from the blinds and alarm bells should have rung.The flop was a J 6 4 rainbow and again I feel I made the worst play possible by leading out for 30k,leaving myself just under 40k behind.The villain tanked for ages before shoving and suddenly I was left in no mans land.It was my own fault and I was left knowing I had to call off the rest of my stack to try and hit two overs or fold and be left with 5bb.

I chose to fold,he showed 1010 and I could have kicked myself for the way I'd butchered the hand.There were plenty of loose donks around but this was the final table and I was against a guy with a big stack who had been talking about a ten way chop.After my preflop raise mistake even check shoving the flop ( assuming he didn't just shove) would have been a better option.Anyway I folded my big blind to a raise in the next hand and then shoved 7h6h when it folded to me in the small blind only for the big blind to wake up with QQ.Out 9th for a payout of precisely hee haw!

I arrive home in time to watch Barcelona wipe the floor with Man Utd in the Champions League Final.Messi,Iniesta and Xavi and co were an absolute joy to watch and thoroughly deserved their win.After that I fired up some poker tables and played sngs as I watched "The Deer Hunter".There are a ton of classic films I've never seen and this was one of them.I did enjoy it and parts of it were gripping but it did seem to drag on a bit ( the wedding especially) and it certainly won't go down as one of my all time favourites.

On the online dating front I've given up on the idea of trying to be honourable and just emailing/chatting to one woman at a time! The only problem is that I think I need some kind of spreadsheet to remind me what I've said and to who!

Back soon...