The Dark Night...

Ok,it wasn't that dark but after catching up with my old mate the Connecticut Cod I played a couple of $16,18 player turbs on Stars and took 1st and 2nd for a nice wee profit.

Feeling confident I hit up the Party $22's and ran like hell losing 12 buy-ins over 26 games.Clocking up a couple of $20 bonuses helped a bit and as usual on that kind of run if just a few key hands had held I'd have made a profit.Party's latest update seems to have messed with the sng filter in the lobby though as once again I found myself in a Double or Nothing game and yes it did take me until the bubble to actually notice.( I cashed which was something I suppose)



I loved the reasoning one particular donkey came up with in the chatbox after being berated by someone he sucked out on."I call when I think I'm going to win".( obviously regardless of cards held)

I think I may go back to three tabling for today's grind.I read a Patrik Antonius interview last week where he said that he was only comfortable playing three tables and although I can play four I sometimes feel it makes me try and force the play too much.For example I reraised AJ over a regulars open raise last night and there was just no way I was ahead in that spot.( he had KK)It can be too easy to get into a coinflip mentality where I'm just looking to double up or crash out and move on to the next one instead of focusing on playing my best game.

The WSOP is over for now until November and I think it's great news that Phil Ivey beaten over 6000 donks to make the final table.He's one of the shorter stacks but can never be written off.If he wins I can see it attracting a zillion new fish to the tables all wanting to emulate pokers undisputed number one player.

Not much else going on here today although Two Pies should be popping over later for some ps3/poker action.He has been taking Nacho out during the day for me as he starts work around 4pm and this makes life much easier and more guilt free for me.He said he doesn't want money but I'm insisting on a couple of quid a day as a paid dog walker would cost more than double that and whilst he only lives five minutes away I don't want to take advantage.He wrote his car off recently ( MOT had expired so no insurance) and if I don't get my sabbatical from work I'm going to offer to pay him 10 months dog walking money upfront to help towards a new car for him.

I'm also looking forward to the 3rd Raisetheriver league game tonight and shall be spite calling very light from the outset tonight so be careful when stealing my blinds! Late edit:That should read I'm looking forward to raising AJ within the first 5 mins,hitting my J on the turn and losing to a flopped straight!( A4)

Sport is so dang boring at this time of year.I can't stand cricket ( couldn't care less who wins The Ashes) and the only time I've ever got into golf was when that French bloke blew his chances in The Open a few years back trying to play a ball out of the water.Roll on the new football season starts!

Back soon..

Trip Report

My mouth hung open a little, "Durrr" style, when I checked out the cashier page shortly after winning an all expenses paid trip to London to see the Full Tilt Million Dollar cash game.Full Tilt had been more than generous and I resolved to pop in and see the Queen about making Sir Alcanthang's knighthood an official one after all the hard work he had done to ensure two British players made it to London.

The Britblogger challenge game had been run over the last ten weeks and finishing in the top two had won Bullmeister and me our trips to the big smoke.I only knew Bully through playing the Brit Blogger games but it didn't take us long to get in touch regarding our plans for London.The Big man started the wind-ups right off the bat by telling me he'd been credited with nearly twice the amount I had received as prize money!

I was up early to catch the train from Glasgow to London on Wednesday morning and when the 6ft 5' Bullmeister joined me a couple of hours into the journey at Preston, I managed to quickly squeeze in my opinion that players shouldn't take $5 blogger games too seriously and thankfully this seemed to stick in his mind as we got around to discussing an outrageous bluff I'd pulled on him during the last game! Bully turned out to be a top bloke and I thoroughly enjoyed his company over our two day stay.

After checking in at our hotel it was straight to the Hellenic Centre for the big game.The atmosphere seemed relaxed and after ordering a couple of beers from the free bar it was time to settle down and watch some of the worlds very best players do battle at the felt.

The tone was set when Patrik Antonious and Phil Ivey were both in blind for $100k each on the first hand! Ivey's 73 spiked a 3 against K6 and a small ripple of applause broke out.I can imagine how I would feel if I lost a big pot at low stakes I play at and people started applauding.One of the floor guys was quick to ensure there was no more clapping at moments like that.

The audience itself was small and and most had no clue about poker as they were paid extras.Both Bully and I felt it was a shame that real poker fans couldn't have been used, but for the sake of the production we could understand it as everyone turned up on time,the players were pretty much left alone when milling around on breaks and there were no interruptions to play at the tables.( despite Bullys threat to streak naked and my temptation to step forward and flick Durrrs ears or push his gaping mouth closed!)

There was plenty going on away from the tables too with players playing roshambo for huge money right beside us and Chinese poker for even bigger stakes going on too.There was gambol in the air as well as the cards,that's for sure!

Bully became close friends with one of the actor extras he was sure had starred in Last of the Mohican's!Upon receiving his actor friends business card before leaving on Friday it became clear that Bully's Oscar winning buddy had mainly been starring as a clown/magician at children's parties!

Other interesting highlights were the change in young Tom "Durrr" Dwan between day one and day two.I realise the boy will take a coinflip for $100k without blinking, but at one point he lost his $150k stack and watching him sitting waiting on a reload ,he looked like a wee boy who had won a competition to play with the seasoned pros who were all chatting away like old buddies.From what I could see his play was still fearless during day one, but he was very quiet and just didn't seem to fit in at the table.By day two he was still playing almost every pot ,his confidence around the other pro's seemed to have grown and he was a lot more chatty and outgoing.

Mike Matusow arriving at the table and not caring who was winning but just wanting to know who the loosest players were was quite funny, as was his $5k promise to anyone who could drag Hellmuth back to the table after the Eleven time bracelet winner stormed out.The Hellmuth blow-up came after the tournament director casually touched his shoulder to get his attention and had more to do with him being down over 200k and him playing up to his poker brat image than anything else it seemed to me.

Without hole card cameras it was hard to follow every hand in great detail.Ivey's set of threes beating Ferguson's Aces for over $500k stuck in my head and a couple of spectacular Ivey bluffs also caught my eye.I'm looking forward to catching more on the Sky sports coverage during January.

Overall it was a fantastic trip.Henry from Full Tilt made us very welcome and it was an honour and a privilege to get within touching distance of guys playing poker for nosebleed stakes.Bully and I didn't like to bother many of the pro's during their breaks but Chris Ferguson was a pleasure to chat to and Gus Hansen was kind enough to sign an autograph for his number one fan ( my Mum!) after the game had ended.

I've missed out winning at roulette,avoiding sniffer spaniels ,the fine Indian meal Bully and I enjoyed on Thursday night,me sitting down next to Bully at a fast food outlet and offering him the barbecue sauce he'd requested only to find it wasn't Bully at all,the sexy secretary at the window across the road from the Hellenic Centre and the receptionist losing our room key. (Bully wound me up that we'd probably been robbed!)

Thanks again Full Tilt.It was a blast!

I haven't played much since I arrived home although I'm looking forward to tonights Bloggerment and RTR league games.I did manage to catch up with Al Eleven last night for the first time in ages and I hope next time it won't be so long!

Tomorrow I'm chilling out and then on Tuesday I'm off to Amsterdam for a couple of days.Back soon....

No flight...still jet lagged!

Thanks to all who turned out to play in the Bloggerment on Sunday and congrats to Splunk1, who took it down.

I scraped into the money with a 3rd place finish, although by the time were three-handed I was quite short-stacked and was eventually forced to shove unsuccessfully with 104 sooted before I ran completely out of fold equity.

I did play a couple of interesting hands along the way.See High on Poker for Jordans excellent analysis of one of them.The other interesting one was where I made a pot odds call ( getting 3-1 from memory) with 910 and got lucky against Wee Gems dominating hand.

I haven’t had much luck in blogger tourneys recently and although 3rd place was in the money I had a good think about why I didn’t go on and take it down.The conclusion I came to is that I didn’t take enough risks to build further when I had a big stack at one point, and instead stuck to my usual 18 player turbo type gameplan where I always aim to make the money first.That plan seems to work as I’ve more first place finishes than any other position in these 18 player games ( mostly $16).Next time though,I play to win!


I played a wee $6.50 ,18 player turbo with Juice afterwards and took it down to make it three wins in a row in these wee turbos.It may only be a $6.50 game but I don’t think I’ve ever won 3 sng’s in a row.( sometimes feels like I can’t win 3 hands in a row!)

After my first day back at work yesterday I was feeling almost jet-lagged with tiredness and didn’t feel like playing any poker at all last night.I wasn’t completely sick of of the game and did enjoy watching the huge cash game on Sky sports featuring a table of top pro’s.I enjoyed Phil Ivey being interviewed not long after losing big pot and being asked “what the problem was” only for him to reply that there was no problem and that fluctuations were to be expected over a four hour session.Poker isn’t like many other pursuits where if you lose it’s always because you played badly.I reckon that’s what makes it so mentally taxing.

Tonight I’ll be watching the Rangers game and will only be playing poker afterwards if I feel motivated.I will be downloading a few cardrunners videos for tomorrow night as I’m heading to the ex’s to look after Step A for the evening.

Ok,thanks for reading.Back later in the week..

Britbloggerment 6 + 2nd chance game

Don't forget to register for tonights game.Everyone welcome!

We've also arranged a 2nd chance game with a 10.30pm start time.Unfortunately Stars don't allow the turbo format I was looking for but that doesn't mean we can't play it that way! Password is Donkament and all welcome.


Well Rangers drew 3-3 with Hibs yesterday and later on Mrs A and I rented "The Departed" and ordered in Pizza.We both really enjoyed the movie and afterwards Mrs A insisted I play poker whilst she grabbed the tv remote to watch Springer.I could hardly complain, but I think Jerry tilt kicked in during my first $15 sng as I raised with 22 and didn't lay it down to a solid player who came over the top whilst the audience were screaming some garbage about giving Jerry a kiss.I'd like to give him a Glasgow Kiss to shut him up.

Anyway after that sng I two then three tabled $50 nl 6 max at Party before adding a couple of $100 nl tables too.( max 3 at a time).The bottom line was that I finished up about $50 for the night.This included raising with JJ ,calling an all in from the maniac type who had been raising every hand and beating his AK.This was at $100 nl and he said "nh" before questioning my call.I was tempted to justify it but another player reckoned it was a good call and I just added a wee "hmmm" before watching the villain reload and tilt off another stack.( sadly not to me!)

I lost the last hand of the night with a slight case of last hand syndrome ( a leak I'm still working on) when I raised with AQ and went all the way ( $50 nl ) against AK on an Ace high flop.Silly and preventable but we all make mistakes.It was heartening to read Sbrugbys blog and note that he mentions he tilts and makes wrong reads and mistakes at times.This is a guy playing at the very highest levels and who generally kicks ( including Phil Iveys) ass.

Just read the front of the News of the World magazine where some new bint in The Bill ( tv prog) declares she wants to be a "WAG".This is the phrase that seemed to come to the fore at the last World Cup when the players partners were described as such.Surely though she doesn't want to be a Wife And Girlfriend but a Wife Or Girlfriend.Still, I can't seem 'em putting that acronym on the front page...

I'm going to update my stats on a quick post tomorrow as I plan on playing a little today first and anything could happen....