Finished work early enough to play the stars sunday funday 100k - was planning to go away for a couple of days but going to leave it until tomorrow. Lost a load of chips early on when AK missed its flop - was called by AJ and the J on the turn and A on the river were enough for me to be short stacked early on. A series of steals and double ups with marginal hands which I managed to get called by people with worse kept me in it and i actually had an average stack after 90 mins. Had about 8 or 9 BB's when 44 in the cutoff seemd like a good steal opportunity. Might have been if the SB didn't have KK. I don't seem to get many bad beats on stars but sdon't seemto give many out either so it was back to the pavillion.

Was also playing dashboardpal's charidee tourney - he's off to Vietnam to save the world and the $700 raised will go a long way towards making a difference there. I don't give to charity that often (apart from the monthly Greenpeace membership which many wouldn't consider charity anyway) but it seemed the right time to do it as i'd been doing well on stars lately and wouldn't miss the 10$. Actually won the tourney (28 runners) mainly due to one guy donking off chips so he could get to the pub and then everyone having a laugh on the FT - calling with any A rag.

Unfortunately entered a 2000 added 10 rebuy on Laddies - knew i shouldn't as I am very very tired - built up a biggish stack in the first hour then lost it in the second - firstly by calling too much on after the flop trying to hit a flush and then a series of missed flops with hands I wanted to play.
out about halfway down the 500 odd field - shame as i'd put myself in a good position.

For some reason I then entered the 11pm rebuy and the 11:30 turbo mtt (got to try and defend my title :-)) - no luck in either - a decent enough 43 / 251 in the ten rebuy but nothing to report really.

Well for some reason i'm still awake and playing the GY - just keeping my head above water - as I type I just went all in from cut off with A3 suited - only had 5BB's left so needed to nick somebody elses but even as I did it i knew it was a bad move - luckily they folded - ooooooooooooh -- AA. bollocks - 4 x BB raise from mid but they all folded. Just doubled up nicely though with 5 BB's left and from cut off - 1 I all inned with AK - cut off called with A10 and the rng failed to bring the ten - in his position I was folding A10 but each to their own. Some dickhead (mrscott)thought he needed to go all in with any 2 and his J2 held up against my AJ in the BB - he'd been all in from UTG - flush shared board. I then had the Dundee Aces in the SB and his KQ beat me - back to 6 BB's. After going all in 2 or 3 times with absolutey f all he then found AK twice and beat decent players with AQ each time. This guy should be out - i'm not usually so annoyed about idiot play but he's now 2nd in chips with 19 left.

AK utg with 3 and a half BB's left was good enough to double against AQ so thats bought me a bit of time - one more double and i'm in with a good shot at the ft.
Desperate now - A4 from the cut off stole the blinds but living on borrowed time. Playing 7 handed - 14 left - A9 from utg plus one - called by BB's KJ and the JJ flop ensured I didn't even have a get out fluke clause. Bit gutted really - thought I deserved better there having avoided the worst of the muffs.

Ah well tomorrow's a new year and all that - well it will be by the time I post again - so merry 2008 to one and all - and gl.

tired and ill but half heartedly played the laddies 3 rebuy and a stars 5$ toureny ealier with no success. Slept for an hour and woke up just as a 2000$ added omaha PL hi lo was starting on Ladbrokes - with a 500$ bounty on Steve Davis. Haven't played much hi lo but it looked like a laugh. Finished a creditable 62nd out of 228 by having a pretty tight range of starting hands and at one point was 20/100 before seeing a few flops with must see hands and ended up hitting nothing. Got them in with a reasonable hand at the end but again hit nothing. Ended up costing me 40$ including re buys and add on which wasn't very sensible but I enjoyed it.
Also played a stars 8$ tourney but quickly gave up on it to concentrate on the Omaha.
Probably be my last games for a couple of days so hopefully the new year will bring a change of fortune.
Hahahahah - entered a 5$ turbo mtt muppet fest for a laugh - with 3 min blinds it's pretty much anything goes - not complaining as $358.53 is the biggest bankroll boost i've had for a while on Ladbrokes - just ironic that the biggest win for a while comes from the worst standard tourney. Might get pissed and play the graveyard to celebrate. Working tomorrow but fuck it.

GY was ok - saw a few flops early on but didn't hit - then had to fold QQ after an UTG 6xBB raise by a guy who I know to be a good player follwed by an all in by someone I didn't know with a lower stack. UTG turned over AK - it was that or KK AA knowing him so QQ turned out to be a good fold as I didn't want a race that early in a tourney with a decent blind structure and anyway he hit his A. Dead after that but doubled up when the SB made a routine raise and I pushed with A6 to his 55 and hit the 6. Doubled again with JJ on a low flop and was doing ok until it as folded to me in the SB - I have 10 BB's and all in hoping to steal or double - would have been happy either way except that my timing was off as the BB had AK. Prefer that to going out to a bad beat anyway.

Also watched forum mascot Mitchy in a pokerstars freeroll with over 4000 runners - was great fun watching him win - $15000 first prize but a deal made it $10000 - he appreciated the support from a few of us although he isn't quite as chatty at the table as on the forum. Can't say I really know anyone online but you get a fair idea of who people are and it was nice to see someone who's fundamentally a good guy take away a decent prize.

Well thats probably it for this year - off to the countryside tomorrow for 3 days piss up - possibly deserved as I haven't had a day off work since about the 19th Dec - finish work about 9 tomorrow so might stay home and play the sunday 100k and a private game thats going on on Stars but will probably piss off and forget about poker for a few days.

So happy 2008 and may all your dreams come true (apart from those ones about really weird stuff)

Can't be arsed writing much but just wanted to note down what's happened - played a 10 dollar freeze on stars - 1200 runners - 135 paid - hung around for a couple of hours but went out about 280th - no real opportunities or cards. Also played the forum game on Ladbrokes - 19 runners and all good players - big chip stack and slow blinds so it makes for a great game. Didn't get as many flop seeing hands as I would have liked but won a fair bit when my 99 hit it's set. Was just getting to the stage where I needed to muff when I was lucky enough to get AA and doubled up. After 3 hours i found myself heads up and a 3 to 1 chip dog. got them in with pocket tens after a 996 flop but Tony2005 who had been chip leader for a while had pocket sixes for a flopped full house - no complaints as he'd played well and deserved the win. these games aren't really about the money but 51$ for a 10$ investment was nice.

playing the 5$ rebuy on Stars and the 10$ rebuy on Laddies so will update in a bit.
Hmm - 2666 runners in the stars game - was about 600/1200 after nearly 2 hours when I found QQ in the SB - button calls - i raise - 8 4 2 flop - I bet - he raises and I put him all in - his pocket 8's had hit and that was the end of that - maybe should have folded to his raise but a flopped set is hard to get away from when you have a high pp - also he'd been a bit loose.

currently 33/109 in the laddies 10 rebuy - 278 runners with 30 paid so fingers crossed. Bugger. Out 34th. Stupid play probably and I won't enjoy looking back at this when I read it in a few weeks time but I was low stacked - 33/34 - with about 4 and a half BB left when I got the Scandi aces (Jack ten suited) in the SB - now i'm probably folding to any raise and calling if there are calls before I act but it was folded round to me and I pushed all in to lose to the BB's AK suited. He'd been pretty tight so I was expecting a fold or would have been happy to race a small pair. Really don't know how bad that was - could have done with the 40 odd dollars for cashing (30 invested with a rebuy and add on) but mtt's aren't about cashing - with 278 runners the decent money is in the top 3 so maybe I was right to push.
Ah well tomorrow's another day.

Very tired tonight and the bad beats are kicking in which doesn't help. 10$ freeze on stars got off to a bad start when JJ lost to Pocket tens - crippled me a bit then lost a race with AQ v 77 and that was that. Played the 10 rebuy that started just after I went out and couldn't get going - so when my QQ got beaten by the mighty KJ hitting a straight i decided to cut my losses and get out. Not going to start anything else tonight so that just leaves the pp freeroll and the 5$ second chance on Ladbrokes. Soon got bored with all the cash players on the freeroll and went out early. Played Ok in the 5$ 2nd chance - but very tired and disinterested and by the time I was about 75/85 from 400 runners I did something stupid - think it was all in from early position with QJ off or something similar. Wasn't too unhappy as i really didn't feel like playing.

Hmm - played a 30$ freeze on stars as it was the only tourney starting when I got in at 9am from work - bit above the level I should be playing bankroll wise but confident enough in my game so thougt i'd go for it. 180 runners - 18 paid.
Started slowly and lost a few chips - made some good folds as the field was small enough to do well without having to race. Got nicely back in it with a couple of blind steals followed by a double up with KK. I was about 45/70 with roughly 12 BBs when I found 77 in the sb and flat called - BB made a small bet so I called. Flop came 888 and I was pretty sure I was ahead as with a higher pair his initial bet would have been bigger - unless he had nines or tens and I wasn't going to let that put me off. I went all in as he had a big stack and didn't want him calling and hitting an overcard. He thought for a while and called with QJ off - J on river and that was that. I exited to general sympathy from 2 guys who had been discussing every hand played (chipgreed and perfect_read) - something I don't normally like but these two were doing it with the class that is normally lacked by know it alls who feel they have to criticise every play.

So, once again not unhappy with my play but nothing to show for it. An afternoon's kip followed by 3 hours work and hopefully I'll be back for more tonight.

Well came in from a wonderful evening's work to the ladbrokes xmas gift pp 3000 added freeroll - soon realised that i wasn't in the mood for poker when I saw that 1900 people had entered - most of them cash players - I hate cash games and i'm sure these guys - at least some of them - are good at what they do but I don't see what the fuck they are doing in MTT's - constant complaints of 'i'm bored' 'this takes too long' (my own sentiments when playing cash) etc were punctutated by calling big raises with shit and calling any size bet to ther river. I finally cracked and pushed all in on a Q high flop with JJ only for the table big stack / calling station to turn over Q10. To be honest I was glad to be out of it. Was also playing a 2.50$ freeze on stars - glad to be out of that too as I lost most of my stack early on when my 6x BB raise was called by the mighty J7 suited which hit his flush on the turn after calling a big bet on the flop.

Was pretty much giving up for the night but entered a 50$ freeze on Mansion - to be honest I can't really remember what happened but think I tried a bluff for big pot and it didn't work.

As for the rest of the night - well - ladbrokes first. I have a very small bankroll on there (about 30$) so can't really excuse 'playing' 3 X 3$ all in heads up sats to the graveyard. Didn't win one otherwise i'd currently be writing about how I played really well then didn't get a chance and finished just outside the money. Wow I even know how I do in hypothetical tournaments.

Continuing the sensible approach to bankroll management I then entered the 6$ quick blinds - 66 runners - sneaked on to the FT low stacked and left it as the winner - 118$ sounds like a million to me right now on Ladbrokes so i've now got something to play with on there. Still gonna have to play those 2$ stt's if only to finish off the series of ten I started.

Played 2 other stars tourneys tonight - the 5 rebuy which i somehow cashed in despite losing most of my hard earned stack when my early position raise with QQ was raised by the next guy with A9 - I called - he hit - crippled. I don't often give abuse in the chat box but made an exception. At least i cashed.

The other one was & 10$ freezout with 2285 runners. As I write it's been going 4 hours 40 mins and I am the extreme short stack - wahey got AK - now still very short stacked - 61 left but only the FT worth decent money.

There's something I really enjoy about these Stars mtt's - somehow it seems that decisions aren't automatic as they are elsewhere - each hand seems to require more on the spot analysis rather than an obvious response. Could also be the fact that i'm cashing regularly - something i'm starting to get suspicious about - this run of cashing in probably over 70 per cent of stars tourneys must be just a good run and down to positive variance.

Wahey - A9 utg looked very good with only 1 and a half BB's left and doubled against sb's 22. A few hands later i'm all in with AK from mid position and steal the not unconsiderable blinds.

I then find A10 in the BB - the sb is the only person left who has a lower stack than me so I call his all in - his A7 hits the 7 in the flop and once again it's goodnight etc. Still, 50th in such a big field isn't bad.

so merry xmas folks - no poker tomorrow as I'll be on a 15 hour shift explaining to the Sudanese refugees why they have to sleep outside so that the drunken French homeless can take all the beds. Cost of living is so low here that one or two decent cashes could see me giving up work for 6 months. Stars results seem to be encouraging in that respect but it's probably just variance and i'm shit at poker.

Just 2 mtt's today so far and cashed in both - Ladbrokes player point freeroll (yes i'm desperate on there) - came 30/586 or something similar for 6$ which i'm going to use to play the 3$ rebuy.

The other one was the sunday hundred grand on pokerstars nearly 20000 runners but managed to come 141st for about 178$ (10$ entry). Blinds increase every ten minutes in this so you need to keep up with it which I try to do by racing a bit more than I would do in a slower tourney. I did get into a couple of positions where i had a big enough stack to buy me time but didn't get anything I wanted to make a move with even against a smaller stack. With the stack dwindling and blinds and antes getting very intrusive I had lowered my range of all in hands - no point trying to see or play a flop in this tournament as it just doesn't happen - but every potential steal I was planning was foiled by someone raising before me.

Matters weren't helped when I was moved table - I had thought I had about 4 or 5 more hands with only one and a half BB's left but was moved into UTG with Q2 so had to wait for my BB. Was reasonably pleased to see 22 there but the only raiser had K9 soooooooooooooted and hit his 9 and it was game over do not pass go do not win 20000 and have a year off etc.

Used some of the winnings to play a 27.50$ freezout on stars to run simultaneously with the laddies 3 rebuy. Crashed out early in both though - tired and disinterested although i'm sure that would have changed with some luck or decent hands. Just as well really as I need the sleep.