Nollaig Shona agus Athbhliain faoi mhaise daoibh

Merry Chritmas and a happy new year fishcakes!

Mini heater??

Played live at the Cactus Jack club in Bridge-end just outside Derry on Sunday after my nice ship on Saturday night. It was a 160 Euro Freeze-out and I got off to an absolute flying start, some of the play you see from live players is just LOL. I really cudnt be bothered boring u all with the details, but its enough to simply say that in one hand a guy stacks off 150 bbs to me with JJ on an A323 board with me holding AA.

Managed to build and hold a big stack through-out but ran out of steam somewhat and bubbled it in 12th, sigh.

Monday it was back to the grind online and was going well in a few, but ultimately it was in only one, the $26 19.5k gtd on Full Tilt, that I made any notable headway, finishing 3rd for $2.5k

Today I only registered for a handful and pretty quickly was 2 tabling the daily 80k on stars and the 8.30pm $50 on FTP, ended up busting the 80k in 70th odd but I managed to build a chip lead stack in the 25k with 24 left and 8.2k ftw...

Plodded along til the final table where I couldn't really build that decisive tourney winning stack, eventually busted 6th for $1600 when my 10 10 filled a boat on the river of a AJJ410 board, but obvs no good vrs a slow played AJ!!

So, in the grand scheme of things its been a pretty good few days, just hoping that the run good stays with me a little bit longer cos it feels nice to be a luck-box now and then :) way to watch the rest of Ironman laters fishies

WHEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEE!!

Lol so its Saturday night and I'm just after chopping the 7.30pm 20r on Full Tilt after doing a deal Heads Up with "TheDylan". Actually had a decent chiplead HU, but then I doubled him 88 vrs JJ so that evened things out. He is a good regular so we decided to discuss a deal - we took 8k each and played for the remaining $840, which I also managed to luckbox - so managed to bag just under 9k!!

Feels absolutely great to be honest and this is my biggest score for quite some time, at last all the grinding has paid off :) felt I was knocking on the door making deep runs a lot recently and it is seriously just a great feeling to win a MTT like this with such nice money for the winner....

Was actually very close to heading out on the beer tonight and it was pretty much a last minute decision to play - lol doesn't it always work out like that!?? In all honesty I was determined to put in as many hours as possible before Xmas week and boyyyyyyy am I glad i decided to swap a night on the tiles for a night on the grind!!

Soooo, a very nice time for some shippage, this completely eats up whatever makeup I had and a very timely nice cash out to boot, weeeeeeeeee

Die Poker

I really wish I had something positive to write about every entry but poker is way too gay for that. It's 6am now, and just after bubbling the final table of the 14k $20r 6 max on full tilt with 4.5k ftw. Sweet.

Gut wrenching it really is, as I managed to build a chip lead with 9 left sitting with over 70 bbs, 290k @ 2/4k. However a few hands later I run QQ into Aces in what was an awful cooler imo. I wish I could post the hand but having trouble saving full tilt hand histories. Anyways, I flat a button raise (4 handed) with the Queens, and proceed to get it all-in on after check raising the 335 flop, FML. Surely there is no getting away from it here??

It left me with 20 blinds but I cant pull it together again and obv its another final table bubble... feels so shitty to go from hero to zero in the space of a few hands.. poker can die lol

Another Day, Another Dollar

So, as I start another day at the grind I thought I'd make a little post. Its almost impossible to keep this blog updated on everything that happens poker wise, unless its very newsworthy. And unfortantely, when faced with the harsh reality of tournament poker, it is true that the vast, vast majority of time you're going to be confronted with failure, thats simply the nature of the beast.

So, with that in mind, here are a few things that have happened the last week or so poker wise that escaped the mind when posting a regular blog:

- 8th December, 7th in a $69 40k gtd on Full Tilt for $1500. Particular disappointment. Was 2/7 with $12k ftw when I misplayed one hand badly and ending up busting a few hands later :(

- 9th December, Final Tabled the $28 big antes Tourney on Stars, finishing 4th for $500, $1400 ftw

- Couple of final tables in the $20 180 mans on stars but disapointing to finish 8th and 4th. These tournies are very much a personal favouritie of mine, its just a pity they don't fill up a bit quicker.

- Step 5 on Pokerstars. Manged to win consecutive Step 3 and 4 and went straight into the $700 Step 5. Busted 7th AK < A10 which is the bubble in these so back to square one. In retrospect, playing the Step 5 was a mistake, after reading PocketFives apparently the best route once you reach Step 5 is to unreg and play the $700 MTT qualifier for the PCA instead. Understandably there is very little value in terms of the players in Step 5/6, so lesson learnt there. Gonna play a few more of these Steps in the next week, see if I can get close to shipping a nice wee package to the Bahamas :)

- 15th Decemeber, 13th in $69 $24 gtd on Full Tilt, was really feeling good about this one with $7.5k ftw as I had a really loose table image, but was coolered running QQ into AA in a 3 bet pot on a 9 high flop fml

So, that's about it, time to get back to the multi-tabling task in hand, gl

Runner Runner Fun

Played live again yesterday, the monthly £70 Freeze out in the Fortune Rooms Cookstown.

Got off to a very good start getting up to over 30k at 75/150 after my set of 9s get full value from A5 on a A79 5 board, all the money flying in on the turn. Lost a few pots and was sitting with 22k at 300/600, when a notorious monkey min raises to 1200 utg, I lick my lips seeing QQ in BB. Middle aged guy on button also flicks in the 1200 and I elect to "squeeze" to 4k. UTG monkey obvs flats as does the button.

Flop is a decent AKQ rainbow. I check to set up the check shove allin. UTG monkey bets 5k, button jams for 15k and I snap with my set. Button has been coolered holding AKdd for top 2. As I'm sitting watchin the turn and river roll out im simply focused on avoiding a King or Ace, and am relieved to see niether. However, as it turns out, a diamond on the turn has give him the backdoor flush draw and the river completes it!! LOL, so I'm a little shocked at this stage and dont really know what is going on but the dealer ships the 45k pot to the guy, and for the second week in a row Ive been all in with a flopped set only to be undone by runner runner :(

This left me crippled but grind for a while before losing a flip to bust mid game. Well done to "maccakidatc" for shipping the tourney for £1200! :)

Playin a ton of MTTs atm, so time to get the grind on and ship something, laters.

Expect the unexpected

Took a mad notion of firing up a fair few MTTs at 12am (Friday) after coming home from a local pub game I helped run and I sure as hell am glad I did! Finished at 6am with a sweet end result - shipped 2 tournies, the $5k gtd $50 6 max on stars for $2300 and a $10 KO tourney on Full Tilt for just under $1400 weeeeeeeeeeeee

Obviously I am well chuffed with the results of this unexpected session and things could have been even better as I ran deep in a few others but couldn't quite make it an extremely sick night lol

The feeling of winning a tourney is something else. To win 2 in the space of half an hour is great! I guess it helps ease the pain of the Galway satty disaster, after which I really did feel very, very pissed off with poker. This game we play really is a sick sick roller-coaster ride, and I may enjoy this brief and all too seldom feeling of vindication, satisfaction and relief while I can :)

FML

I just don't get it, last 7, 2 get tickets, of the Galway satty. This muppet has to be braindead...

http://www.pokerhand.org/?4964101

A live effort!

Depsite suffering quite a brutal hungover from Saturday nights exploits, I decided to play the 165 euro Freezeout at the Gold Club letterkenny yesterday.

There was a very surprising turnout of 113 players and with a 15k starting stack and half hour clock with all the levels included it turned out to be a very enjoyable game!

Got up to around 21k at 150/300/25 but lost around 8k with AcKh on a A xh xh xh board vrs guys limped J10hh. After this was pretty much on the back foot and grinded for an age but still managed to build back to 26k at 600/1200 when I pick up 88 late position 7 handed. Thought about simply open jamming to pick up the blinds and antes but ended up making it 2600, LAG fella reships 22k on me from the button. I decide its a decent chance to double up as the guy had already jammed on one of my opens the previous orbit and I swiftly call. He tables KJ off, and the door card is a delightful 8!! Nice life and already Im planning my assault on the table with a 50k stack. mmmmmm well not quite, as the safe flop of 8 10 2 was destroyed by a Q on the turn, and a fooking A ball on the river!! Quite a frustrating way to lose the hand but I guess its simply a race preflop anyways. Actually somehow manage to turn 3k at 600/1200/75 into 14k at 800/1500/75 but KJ comes back to crush me again vrs my AQcc to bust around 40th sighhhhhhhh.

Even though it was very frustrating to bust the way I did I have to say I really enjoyed the tournament, it reminded me of how I much i really enjoy live poker, when u have a well structured tourney with a decent sized field. So kudos to the Gold Club who put on a really good show and its a certainly a tournament I will check out again. Dermybigface was the last man from Omagh standing finishing 5th for 1400.

Galway is coming up this weekend, and I had planned to go down and maybe play a few side events but now im not so sure. Will see how online goes this week so will not rule anything out just yet...