Late Night,Small Cash

I fired up the Pokernews tourney on Sat night at 8pm only to find it had actually started at 7.With a 30k starting stack and 15 min blind levels my error didn’t cost me many chips and I managed to double up a couple of times with Aces within the first couple of hours.After my weekend mauling at Party it took me a while to settle into the game and in truth I don't think I played very well at all.I didn't do enough 3 and 4 betting and although the structure obviously favoured more skilled players I'm certainly not in that group when it comes to deep stacked multi-table tourneys.

My first real play of the game came about when I raised with 7h6h from early position and was re raised by a fairly loose aggro player in the big blind.I shoved all in over the top of his raise and he called with AK.I nipped to the toilet as the hand played out and when I returned I discovered I'd doubled through and earned some nasty chatbox abuse from the AK villain, which after a few smokes only raised a smile.( I didn't bother replying)

Just under 5000 players started and by 3-4am I was more than ready for bed.A quick look at the payout structure revealed it was very top heavy and I'd need to make the top 10 for a decent cash.( just over $10k was the first prize) I felt I should have been open raising more often around this time, although it was difficult as most of the other stacks at my table were far smaller than mine and the perfect size for shoving over any raises I made.

About 5am I raised with 4d5d from early position and called a reraise.When two diamonds came on the flop I led out and when shoved on I made a tired donkey call and missed my flush v KK.I was veering between being desperate for my bed and telling myself I'd already played for nine hours and I'd be letting myself down if I donked off the rest of my chips at that stage.After that hand I was down to just over 1m chips with the blinds/antes totalling 105k.I effectively had 10 big blinds and plenty of sng experience so that's when I felt most comfortable and I began shoving quite liberally to chip up again.

I finally busted in 41st place for $128 when I called a raise with Aces and check raised the original raiser on a 5 J 10 flop.He had 55 and that was that.I didn't feel too bad as I'd run well enough to get to that position in the first place and I wasn't playing great poker.I was too focused on my own cards even during hands I was involved in.I could put that down to tiredness and the fact that although having a wee smoke helps my game, I was nearly comatose by 3am!

Although I was completely exhausted yesterday after 5 hours sleep at least I'd cashed and the time spent earning that $128 put me off just gambling away my last $260 on Party by playing $55 sngs! I watched "Source Code" last night,played only four sngs and had an early one.
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Walking through Glasgow at lunchtime today I saw a sign stating "Caution:Men Working Overhead" beside an office block and it seemed really stupid to me as it's not as if they guys above cleaning the windows are going to fall and land on me.There's something to mention on my blog I thought...As I walked a bit further I was suddenly soaked by water coming from the cleaners above and the warning sign didn't seen so silly!

Back soon....

Common People

I've been jumping from one site to another over the last couple of nights,playing everything from a $6 turbo to $200nl Full ring at Full Tilt.

Mrs A and Step A also arrived home early yesterday afternoon due to the rainy weather at the caravan site they were at.Considering she spent most of last night at her friends place two doors down ,I'm not kidding myself that any serious talk we have is going to lead to any change in our current situation.I'll need to tell the letting agency to give my tennant ( in my flat)2 months notice early next week and I don't reckon there will be any going back after that.

Back to the poker and I think I've been playing reasonably well and having been coping quite well with the usual swings in fortune.I've also been laying down my big pairs far more often when I've felt they are beaten and although I've still made the occasional awfuckit call,I've managed to keep my emotions in check afterwards and not leak more $$$.

I read a couple of great quotes from a Bobby Baldwin interview over at Tao of Poker ,
"There's always more to learn about poker. Also, make certain that you can take a punch. You will lose big pots. You will lose everyday for a month sometimes. You have to have the confidence that your game will prevail in the end."
"Even if you are the best player in the world, you still have to contend with Lady Luck. She can be a bitch sometimes."

I think I still need to start each game with more confidence.Part of the problem is that I detest arrogance as a personality trait and yet a certain amount is required to say to yourself "I'm the best player at this table and I'm going to show it".In reality though there's no need to be the best player as long as there are one or two fishy types who are obviously out of line with their play.

Mind you, I saw one player raise all in preflop for a buy-in with A8 and the other guy call that bet with Q10soooted.Total fishfest? Well the caller was some guy called Phil Ivey....( Full Tilt high stakes table the other night).All meta-game and way above my head I'm sure but on the face of it ...he's a donkey!

I enjoyed my wee stint at the Full Tilt $200 nl table I mentioned and I'm tempted to devote my whole FT roll ( nearly $1500) to taking a shot there.I have enough faith in myself to know that I'm very very unlikely to go broke playing $50nl on a $3k roll ,let alone the $4.5k I have in total and taking a wee shot doesn't seem out of the question.I have also been two tabling $50nl 6 max more often and finding that mutli-tabling helps make the decisions more logic and read based and I'm not letting emotions cloud the issues as much.

It's as though sometimes in my head I need to separate my leisure poker ($6 turbos etc) from the more serious stuff where I'm not just playing to pass time or have fun but to try and make a decent profit.

Ok,it's a lovely sunny day.I'm off to watch more of Wimbledon and walk Nacho.

Here's a couple of songs from the album which helped me through my last break up.Truly "Different Class"...