Viva Espania!

Reports that Yahoo Answers are written by Sir Waffles are still unconfirmed....

Back from my break a bit later than I hoped after spilling tea on my keyboard and having to shell out £90 for a new one.Using the slider buttons on Stars I was still able to play poker and put in decent Mtt sessions most evenings while watching the action from Euro 2012.Although I made a few final tables, overall I lost money and it just seemed that every time I played a vital hand I would get royally screwed over by the deck.Losing coin flips is one thing but continually get by big hands busted by Ace rag and other 3 outers gets very frustrating.Hands like one of last nights crackers where I get it in with AK V AQ for the world,the flop comes KKJ,turn is a blank and of course the 10 falls on the river just seem to keep on coming.

I mean sure I'm still learning Mtt's and of course I'm making mistakes but my luck has been so awful I still believe I can make money without having to revert back to the push/fold world of sng/hyper sngs.

When footballers talk of playing "one game at a time" I want to kill them but somehow when the great Roger Federer said it after coming back from two sets down at Wimbledon it forced me to refocus my efforts to do the same at the felt and to try not to dwell on past bad beats when playing.

I also realised I may be overthinking things sometimes.Amatay posted a hand where he folded JJ after an UTG raise and a rereaise.Other Mtt pro's agreed it was a fold as an early position raise followed by a reraise generally means Jacks are toast.I was wondering how loose the UTG raiser was.If he was raising a lot preflop had the re-raiser had picked up on that and was therefore 3-betting light etc then maybe Jacks are still good.If the two players were known regs than maybe my thought process had some merit but in general I'm just talking myself into a bad call there and that's even if the HUD stats showed UTG was raising a lot and the re-raiser liked a 4-bet.

Yesterday after going to my wee nephews 2nd birthday party I went to Alea casino to play the £22 Turbo game.With 10k stacks and 15 min blinds it's a real crapshoot but I fancied a live game for a change.Not much to report.Lost a few thousand chips with AK when I missed the flop and eventually shoved QQ into AA with just under 6k left and blinds at 300/600.

Came home,ordered a Domino's pizza and registered for a load of Mtt's as I watched Andy Murray win in four sets at Wimbledon.With my roll on life support again I gave the $55's a miss although I couldn't resist the late night $44 Turo and $33 Sat Speedway tourneys.I wish I had because I crashed out of both quite quickly!

I did make a deep run in a couple of $27 KO $20k Gtd games but once again lost sickening hands at vital times.One hand at a time....One hand at a time!

I was still in an $8,$8k Gtd standard speed game with 1100 runners and managed to attract some chat box abuse for calling a cut off shove with QK and beating Mr Unhappy's QJ.Mr U had been stealing 65% of big blinds and I just felt I was well ahead of his shoving range."You've played like a nit the whole game and then you call with QK" he whined.I was down to a couple of tables by that point and although I rarely chat I replied "Sorry for adjusting my play,it shouldn't be allowed".He then hoped I had aids, I thanked him, wished him "much love" and off he went.

I had been card dead and nitty but my own Big Blind steal % was nearly 70% so I was making the most of my image to try and chip up where possible.Eventually I made the final table as one of the shorter stacks and got lucky after a few orbits when someone shoved their QQ into my Aces to double me up.After my live game exit in the same manner I did feel a bit sorry for the villain there and the thought that "maybe Queens are cursed today" crossed my mind.

Of course cards have no memory,it's one hand at a time and all that so I had no hesitation in 3-betting QQ after an open from an aggressive player when were down to six players.He had AQs ,hit his Ace on the flop and I took 4th place, $696 and a sharp exit for my efforts instead of taking the chiplead and a real chance to take it down.Ahh well that's the way the cookie crumbles.

Next weeks plan is to help Step A fill in her passport renewal ( I'm paying for it for her 18th),visit my folks on Thursday as usual and I'm heading down the M77 for a dinner date at Frankie and Bennys on Wed evening.I've only swapped a couple of messages and texts with the woman ( she looks like a hotter version of Tanya from Eastenders)so as ever I'll just see how goes and won't be too fussed if there's no spark at all.

It's paella for dinner tonight as I got Spain ( and Poland) in the Raise the River Euro 2012 sweep.I'll be hoping they play better than they did in their semi v Portugal and have enough about them to see off the pasta munchers in tonights final.I did think England would make the semi's at least but forgot how good they are at messing up penalty shootouts.Still, I have heard that Roy Hodgson watched Spain complete over 800 passes the other night and has a special plan for England to do the same.He's asked Rooney to apply for Mastermind...