Good,Bad and Ugly

On Friday night I was over at the s-mans watching "Man on Fire" and only played a couple of turbos ,coming 3rd in one.

Yesterday I was a Ibrox to watch Rangers beat Dundee Utd 3-1 with two cracking goals by the Nacho man.After the game I picked up my dog,Nacho,and took him for a long run at the pitches.

Later I found an excellent HBO show on the Virgin cable tv choice thing called "Taxi cab confessions" set in New York and Vegas.They placed several tiny hidden cameras in taxis and recorded customers revealing some fascinating stuff about themselves.It's quite an old show ( recorded mid nineties) but well worth a look.

The 'Stars $6,$16 and $27 turbos were calling and I just had one of those nights where I kept getting continually outdrawn by inferior hands on a repeated basis,over and over and over again.If that wasn't happening then the shortstacks I was playing would hit their miracle cards and leave me feeling like I was pissing against the wind.

I took a wee break from Pokerstars and managed to get rivered at a Party $11 game which convinced me that it's me that's rigged and not any particular poker site!

I feel I've played enough games to be able to take a step back and look closely at my own game when things aren't going well and not deceive myself if I'm adding to my bad luck by not playing my best game.The good news was that despite the repeated kickings lady luck was dishing out,I did feel I was playing well and I wasn't letting the beats knock me out of my stride.

I fired up another $11,came 3rd and then managed a 2nd place finish on a $33 single table turb on Party before going back to 'Stars to play some more $27 games.I wish I hadn't bothered.I bubbled twice and had a couple of 6th and 7th place finishes.The only positive to take was that I wasn't being outplayed and the $27's seemed no less fishy than the $16's overall.I can be quite a stubborn determined person and at 4am I was ready to fire up some more and try to ride out the nasty variance and bag at least a win or in the money finish to make a dent in my Stars deficit.( $178 down over 15 games)

I decided I was too tired to commit to another set of turbs and that a Ladbrokes $100 nl 6 max cash table was the best place to play until I'd finished my last smoke.I found quite a wild table with plenty of cash being splashed around and was about to go to bed $30 up when this hand occured.I had been playing quite a solid game up until this point but can't help feeling I let a little of my old "last orbit syndrome" kick in and affect me.One of my Stars $27 bubble finishes involved me raising with A10,getting the money in on a ten high flop,watching an Ace fall on the turn and and the river bringing a Queen to make Mr KJ his straight.No wonder it's called a gutshot! Truly sickening moment.

Anyway in this cash hand I called the $4 raise with K10 as I felt dallens preflop opening range was wide and he seemed the type of player I could stack if I hit the flop hard.

** Game ID 981337401 starting - 2008-05-11 04:30:40
** Baudrillard [Hold 'em] (0.50|1.00 No Limit - Cash Game) Real Money

- dallen4 sitting in seat 1 with $110.62
- --ErnieEls-- sitting in seat 2 with $62.58
- _Superb1ues_ sitting in seat 3 with $52.78
- Frogatron sitting in seat 4 with $293.56 [Dealer]
- Teikumseh sitting in seat 5 with $108.37
- Acornman sitting in seat 6 with $130.61

Teikumseh posted the small blind - $0.50
Acornman posted the big blind - $1.00

** Dealing card to Acornman: 10 of Diamonds, King of Spades
dallen4 raised - $4.00
--ErnieEls-- folded
_Superb1ues_ folded
Frogatron called - $4.00
Teikumseh folded
Acornman called - $4.00

** Dealing the flop: Jack of Spades, 3 of Spades, Ace of Diamonds

>> Missed the flop and only have an inside ( gutshot) straight draw.

Acornman checked
dallen4 bet - $8.00
Frogatron folded

Acornman called - $8.00 >> Loose? Tilty? Justified? Hmmm!

** Dealing the turn: Queen of Clubs

>>> 4.30am and I finally strike gold!

Acornman checked

dallen4 bet - $22.00

Acornman raised - $44.00 > I thought he had the Ace and that my bet would look like a weak semi-bluff of the spade flush draw.If I didn't have the Ace this looked the most likely reason for me staying in the pot and I felt the villain may commit his stack here to protect his hand.

dallen4 went all-in - $76.62
Acornman called - $98.62 >> sweet!

** Dealing the river: 8 of Clubs
dallen4 shows: Ace of Hearts, 3 of Hearts
Acornman shows: 10 of Diamonds, King of Spades
Acornman wins $222.74 from the main pot

I only played a few more hands after that,renewed the hay in my stable and after braying contentedly I finally got some much needed sleep.( about $12 up overall across all sites for the night)

Todays plan is to watch the climax of the Premiership season,take Nacho to the pitches,give Step A a lift home and hit the Bloggerment later on after dinner.

First I'm off to check the auction sites for tickets cheaper than £2.5k per pair for Wednesdays Uefa cup final...

Nice shot

I did so much rushing about last night I missed the start of the Raisetheriver league game.When I did get there I was fairly card dead until I got it in with 77 and lost a big pot to QJ.I was left with 115 chips and managed to come back and scrape a 3rd place in the money finish after running 22 into QQ to go out.

After that I played a $16 turbo and my recent crappy Stars tourney run continued when I limped with KJ on the first hand and reraised a small bet on a ragged King high flop.KJ is not a great hand but I didn't think I was outkickered because the villain didn't raise preflop.He called my reraise and when I pushed after a 10 fell on the turn ,he gleefully called with his K10.K10 was one of the hands I put him on so perhaps it was poor judgement on my part...



I then dropped $20 at Pokerroom and $30 at Laddies before deciding to use my Bet365 take a shot roll at a $200nl 6 max table.

I can't find where to download the hand histories at 365 and I've not set Pokertracker up yet for that site, but the bottom line is that my $200 buy-in was sitting at around $180 when I picked up QQ.All my money went in against a player I'd just watched get lucky and river a flush v a set a moment earlier.It held up and on the very next hand I raised 910d from the button and was lucky enough to flop the straight.The same villain ( tilting possibly) gave me the rest of his stack ( his hand was mucked ,I wish I knew what he had!) and in two hands I'd gone from $200 to $485 and was starting to wonder why I don't play higher more often!

Just finished watching Rangers play poorly and lose 4-2 to Hearts this afternoon.Must do better!

The wallpapering and painting is nearly done at my flat and I'm just about ready for tomorrows big move.I've checked and my cable connection is working so I will be playing in this weeks Bloggerment.

The hall and kitchen lino arrives on Monday with the living room and bedroom carpets to follow within the next week or so.I'm also about to order new blinds for every room and they should be installed by next weekend.The flat is a bit bare ( no sofa in until carpets arrive) but I think I'm actually looking forward to getting back there now and making a fresh start...