Another long post.. 100% poker!

Report 3rd May-I' m happy to report that the Irish Open Deaf Poker Championship was a great success!!! But the preparation and the aftermath of the Irish Open Deaf Poker Championship was stressful, sometimes I felt like banging my head off the wall especially when it came to arranging the return of equipment to Paddy Power. I felt it would be a better idea to have it in a casino the next time. Save more money that way anyways. The tournament itself was great fun, I was busy playing/worrying about everything but it was great to see everyone enjoy themselves. I wasn’t really looking forward to playing in the tournament itself but the usual bad standard was even worse because our players didn’t wanna get knocked out of the biggest tournament we have hosted to date. But I wasn’t complaining as I went into super-aggro style and hovered up the chips. I always wished I could understand the general banter in casinos/pubs as most of the time they seem to be having a good craic, so this time it was great having no communication issues with the table on this occasion and I made the most of it by trash talking most of the time which was pretty funny. Key hand for me was when I was chip leader at a table when I wake up and find KK, make a huge raise cos there were 4 limpers in the pot. Only one of them folds and the pot is now worth more than what I had behind. Flop comes down pretty shitty 599rainbow, gets checked to me and I push and get called by Nick O’Halloran with A9. I lose the head and tell him what a bad and risky pre-flop call it was to make when he had a comfortable chip count (he was 2^nd chip leader) and he rubs it in my face smirking “But I won the pot” without any concept for overall expected value. With 5 BB left, I push with k8 suited and get a call from Stuart who dominates me with k10 and I’m out of the championship that I organised when the I get no help from the board. But thankfully some donkey didn’t win the whole thing. While the final table consisted of some really dodgy players, thankfully the title was contested between two good players in Julianne and Keenan, with Keenan coming out on top to win €920.

Report-10th May &17th May:: The following Saturday I played in the €55 DC in CHL. Even though I got off to a great start when I flopped a full house and was stacked by someone holding trips, I spewed it all over the place like some donkey calling in bad spots and being too overly aggro. I had been meaning to go back to reading strats and theory but didn’t and after that night feeling disappointed in myself, I decided to go on an undefined break and spent every night of the week reading strats online. The break was going well until last Friday when after working late at work, I was walking to my bus-stop and went by CHL but found the temptation to play in the €20 satellite far too tempting and went inside and only found 5 players playing with three tickets guaranteed!! It was great value and I got off to a brilliant start when I managed to get it in with quads against a full house! Lol!! We got down to four players and then all of a sudden a heated exchange of words breaks out between Mick and Declan who were sitting shoulder to shoulder with each other. I dunno what exactly was said but Mick was obviously annoyed cos he invited Declan to step outside and sort it out lol. Eventually the others calmed them both down and Mick had the satisfaction of busting Declan when his AK was too good over A8. I was really pleased to get a ticket worth €115 for the handsome sum of €20!

The €115 freezeout was really enjoyable. I had two really good players at my table, Mick and Conor (Lazare on boards). Mick kept using the stop & go tactic against me while Conor had a good read on me, often 3betting my pre-flop raises. So I tried to stay out of their way and pick up the small pots but my stack wasn’t increasing fast enough in proportion with the blinds so I had to get into pots with these two. I had to counter-act them so I started 4-betting Conor and calling Mick’s flop bets and pushing him off on the turn, a lot of the time with air which was a bit hairy for me. There were two major hands in the tournament that were significant to me. I had about 9k with blinds at 300-600, folded around to me on the button, I find KQo and raise to 1.4k, happy to take down the pot there and then. But Conor on the small blind, re-raises to 3k-I don’t like this but then the BB pushes his short stack of 5k in. It’s obvious what the BB is at but I’m glad he pushed as it makes my hand looks stronger than it does and I go all in myself. Conor dwells up as calling would take a massive chunk out of his stack but eventually he does and tables 66 whilst the BB tables 55. I got a beautiful king on the flop and the turn and river is a blank for the boys and my chip lead is boosted to 23k. Three hands later I tangle with Mick who I have just about covered. I limp in from CO with K10 suited. Mick raises on the BB and I call. The flop brings AK5 rainbow. Mick insta-bets. I know instantly from the bet size that he doesn’t have the Ace but I cannot afford to raise with ten as my kicker so I flat call. Turn comes 5. This is a great card for me. Mick puts out a small bet, he doesn’t exactly look that confident so I ask how much he has behind “About 10k”. I figure if I come over the top, he’ll fold. I want him to go all in so I flat call again. River gives a harmless looking 2 but Mick pauses before going all in. I don’t like his body language now, he looks very assured and instead of insta-calling, I stopped to ask myself if he would be mad enough to raise with X5 preflop? Or would he really play Ace rag this way? I wrack my brains as to why his body language changed on the river, it takes me about 4 minutes to decide. The only two things that swayed my original plan was Mick’s body language and my gut instinct. I folded showing my king and said “if you’re bluffing, by god it’s an excellent bluff”. He tabled 43 offsuit, the cheeky bollix was betting with air and got lucky on the river to give him the straight. I never entertained the idea that he had 43. Folding on the river on a pot of that size is generally a mistake but trusting my instinct turned out to be the right move although I did feel tilted that the play didn’t turn out how I wanted it to. Just as well for him the river gave him the gutshot straight. I was immediately back to where I was three hands ago and with the blinds going up and the final table being formed, I was pretty much amongst shorties. I didn’t wanna play tight until the bubble burst so I just went into aggro mode and got busted when a steal went wrong and ran into a pair of aces. Win some, lose some I guess!!

23rd May: A week later I played in the €30 FO in the Fitzwilliam on the Sunday after watching Leeds lose their playoff final 1-0 to Doncaster which was sickening. The prospect of League one football next season is depressing! Anyway The Fitzwilliam really impressed me, the place is big and feels like a proper card club. There were over 60 runners there but the standard was woeful and I quickly amassed a very healthy chip lead and got to the final table with Tim. Long story cut short, I pushed with KK and got called by some fool with A10 who of course spiked an ace on the flop to leave me gasping for breath with 4BB, which I push on the next hand with KQo and get called with JJ. No help from the board and I’m out in 8^th place for €50. Lol donkaments!

3rd June: Am writing a report about Sweden-will post it up within the next few days.

Regaining normality!!

I haven’t posted on this in a while so I’m probally gonna type up quite an update here. Recently I've feeling a bit fatigued when it comes to playing poker seriously so I've given it a break with the exception of playing the regular tournament in the local for the bit of craic and banter with lads. Online poker-I mess around a little bit on betfair, but will probably never be able to concentrate properly thus introducing the need for poker software which for sum reason my laptop doesn't agree with. I'm tempted to get a new laptop cos my laptop is shite anyway but I m not going to as I'm too lazy and besides if it prevents me from bleeding money online then its probably a good thing.

In the last few weeks I've come to realise just how much poker has consumed my social life ever since I took it up over a year ago so the break and loss of desire to play has meant I'm going out more and doing "normal" things. I've decided I'm definitely 120% quitting from Ashbourne Utd and so Paul & I had a meeting with some deaf lads, and basically we are going to get together every thurs for a training session until the end of may to see if we have the numbers of lads required to enter a team in the league for next season and reform officially as St. Vincents DFC. After the meeting, we went out to Quinns pub for a few scoops and I got caught up in the antics of drinking shots of whiskey throughout the nite as we moved onto Messrs Maguires. Met this really cute girl and I got her number. Next morning I woke up still half pissed and very jolly and proceeded to text her. It could have proved to be disastrous as I definitely appeared to be over-eager but thankfully she replied and from there on during the week I asked if she fancied meeting up for a few drinks. Naturally being the charmer I am, she said yes! lol!

Had the training session on the Thursday evening, there were 16 of us, 4 of which were schoolboys based in the wilderness of Ireland so they were deducted as potential players for next season. Glen McGrattan was also there lol! He's sound but as footballer I'd be embarrassed to be on the same team as him.. He can’t kick snow off a rope!! So realistically we had about 10 or so people that could be interested to commit properly to play club football next season. So we're gonna have to work hard on getting our old players back from their current clubs if we are to enter a team into the league next season.

Met the cute girl, Amanda on Friday nite. I had vague recollections of what she looked like but being sober on this occasion, I proceeded to mentally pat myself on the back when she arrived. Lets just say I probably wudnt have had the confidence to approach her in Messers if I was sober cos realistically she was way out of my league! Date went well I think, she was easy going as well so that always helps!! ;)

Saturday played poker with the boys in Derek’s house. Pretty decent of him to ask me to come out even though we’re just friendly acquaintances. Played a €50 FO, came 3^rd to get my buy in back and €10 worth of scalp on top of it…. Ah it was all in the name of fun really, stayed on to watch the Calazghe fight-it wasn’t a great fight. Went home afterwards cos I had to get up early.

Got the 10am bus into finglas and then proceeded to get a taxi to the AUL complex, we were missing quite a handful of key players from the Irish team. I really came to get a bit of a workout in the warm-ups cos I was nowhere near match sharp and Damon duly worked us keepers out properly. Match was a disaster; we lost 3-1 and performed poorly. I got ten minutes under my belt. I was really rusty and it showed with my kicking. But at least it was nice to get a run out all the same. I enjoyed being with the team, it’s always good fun being with the lads in a competitive environment.

Tilted!

Friday: Played a €20 satellite into the €100 game in CHL. Top 3 get a ticket. I bubbled which is happening too often lately. Go on a bit of a mini tilt and end up buying into the big game, which I had intended not to do. Run well at the start, 3 tables so it had about 27 runners. I reach FT, suffer massive dent when my QQ run into a lady’s KK. Push and the lady calls and gets a runner runner straight for the second time that night against me. I buy €120 chips upon exit and blow it all on the cash game of ohama/hold’em.

Saturday: Went to the Deaf club. EGM was a no-go because there weren’t enough people. Tournament got 18 runners. Standard was woeful. Play only two hands, TT and 99. Lost on both of them and I’m out in 15^th which I don’t really care about. Jay went on to win it.

Sunday: Ashbourne Utd away to Raheny-was an unused sub thank god. We had a bazillion chances to score but could only put the ball in the back of the net just the once. In typical fashion, Raheny don’t get a sniff until the dying minutes of the game where they equalise from a free kick. Only ourselves to blame for not taking our chances and killing the game off. Play the €100 FO in Coolquay later. Again 3 tables so it had about 27 runners. Standard was poorer than on Friday. Just before getting to the FT, I double up when I sucked out on the river against some messer with an awful hand J2 vs. AK. I apologise and he replies, “ah fuck off you deaf cunt”. I lose the head and go on uber tilt and spew my chips and butcher my exit hand horrifically-KK. A cock up with the tournament clock afterwards didn’t help and I leave the place feeling as frustrated as I have ever felt in a very long, long time.

Monday: Still not over what happened on Sunday. Can’t help as it keeps playing on my mind. I also am a bit frustrated with the fact I had it in me to win the thing if I had just ignored him. Certainly not going to play in the Coolquay again.

The long lonely walk home…

I had football training beforehand, the first proper session since I got injured. It was so boring, in comparison to Fran Butler’s sessions with DCU. My shoulder is way too weak for me to fully participate in a match but the game against our relegation rivals this Sunday is a must win game for the club and is the most important game this season. After the session I told Damo I wasn’t ready and that I hoped Marcello will come out and play in goals. But he didn’t look that confident that Marcello would turn out so I am feeling the pressure to return prematurely. I have to wait and see what happens on Sunday but it would be a massive gamble for them to play me when I’m 70% fit and also it wouldn’t be fair on me to cope with the pressure in playing in a game that could make or break us.

But anyway after the training session, I went home and headed straight to the pub. After the disappointment of playing so badly in CHL on Saturday night, I was relying on the usual Thursday night game to re-instil my belief that I am not really that bad (?!) I arrived a bit late and it was a little disappointing to see only 14 runners. Anyway I managed to get my initial stack of 2.5k up to 11k at the break. Purchased the add-on of 5k and when play resumed I was 2nd chip leader. FT had 9 players. There were two hands that defined my tournament, one was a squeeze play- blinds were 400/800, I was in the SB. Everybody had limped in when the button made a min-raise. There was 7,600 in the pot so I decided to squeeze before I even looked at my cards. (J8o) Squeeze looked to be perfectly executed when one by one the whole table folded except the short stack. He turned over JJ and I was duly exposed with my hand in the cookie jar. But it was still a good strategy to deploy. Lose half my stack but get it back up to a healthy 14k when I pick up KJo in the SB with blinds at 500/1k. I complete the blind after a few limpers. BB checks and the flop is J45 rainbow. I bet out 2.5k and get called by the CL who is a very loose player in MP. I know then that he has the J but I’ve a better kicker since he would have raised p/f if he had AJ. I decide to push if the turn is harmless since I figure he will call me with a pair of Jacks anyway. Turn is 6s, I push and get called. I laugh in exasperation when he turns over J4!!!!! Limping in with J4o from MP… Just LOL!! River is a blank so I get up and walk home. It’s never nice walking home after being knocked out. When I first started out playing these tournaments, I would get knocked out and find myself walking home with questions and self doubt ravaging my mind every week. Then I started improving and start to cash. And then Bam (Michael) would drop me home afterwards. So my early exit last night meant that this time I had to embark on the walk home with the old insecure thoughts running through my head about my play. But this time I knew deep down, I couldn’t do anything about donkeys limping in from MP with J4. It was his play that was questionable more so than mine.

Right now I am in work, organising a sweepstake for the Grand National tomorrow. The horses cost €1 apiece. I drew Backbeat and Nadover outta the bag, priced at 159/1 and 499/1!! Lol!!! But sure, it’s only a bit of fun! :-) I doubt I’ll have a punt on the GN tomorrow in the bookies; the race springs up too many surprises to be able to pick a winner from the racing post. Am looking forward to the poker after work in CHL and tomorrow night in the Deaf club. Not going out for a session simply because I know I would be wasting my time texting the boys if they are up for it. But all the same, I don’t mind playing poker all weekend! It’s fun!!! :-)

The aftermath...

Again it’s been a while since I’ve posted an entry so it looks like it’s gonna be another long one. I keep promising to post more regularly to make the posts shorter and more bearable to read but I can never muster the effort on a regular basis to do so.

Anyways this is what has happened within the last fortnight since I last posted.

Easter weekend:

As per tradition, I went to the inter-provincial championships which were being held in Galway this Easter. Once again, I was unavailable to play due to injury but I took up a new role, featuring as the assistant manager of the Munster team that was managed by Joey. It was a knockout format so we were drawn to face Leinster in the semi-final. It looked like as if the match would be going to penalties but our hopes of lifting the cup were dashed by a late goal that was headed in by Ross Byrne. The defeat meant we faced Connaught in the 3/4 playoffs. We trounced them 15-0, which was a bit embarrassing. The night beforehand was a bit of a disaster. Since it was good Friday and the pubs were closed, Donal, James and I were left twiddling our thumbs in boredom after all the players went to bed early because of their matches the next day. So we decided to head to the Eglington. But Donal and myself did not have any ID so we were turned away whilst James headed on inside by himself. We decided to go to the 4aces instead and arrived to find a cash game just starting...

It was a bit shambolic really, the chips were grimy and sticky. I didn't like the blinds-they were €1/€3. But all the same, we plumped ourselves down and bought in for €100 apiece. I quickly lost my stack on a pair of 9's with a flush draw. The villain called my pf raise OOP, called my flop bet and shoved the turn to show 42 for a straight. 42.. Jeez.. So I went on tilt and duly lost another €90 when I got it in with AK pre-flop only to come up against AA. Cue uber tilt and I cannot get out of there fast enough, leaving Donal to play on his own.

Thankfully I didn't play any more poker in Galway whilst I was there, never had the chance to really as went on the lash every night and duly paid the price for it when I came home. Recovery doesn't get any more easier and as I struggle to cope with the depression and loss of energy I promise myself that I would give up the sessioning for a good while.

Pick up a bout of flu over Easter but manage to shake it off to play the local pub game at the last min on Thursday night. 16 runners or so, pick up €200 for finishing 2nd to a total luckbox (he had 10 : 1 chiplead over me when we got to HU, I claw it back to 6:4 before losing the battle in the one hand). Saturday night- I try to organise a few drinks in town (so much for vowing to give up the sessioning) but get no takers so I head to CHL for the €55 DC with Frank. It got about 28 runners, I haven’t been playing too well but manage to get to the FT along with Frank who has about 6BB left. 8 players left, top 5 get paid. I bubble with a badly played QJ that I attempted to steal the blinds with from LP. So agonising finishing one place off the money but given the way I had played that night, I don't suppose I can feel aggrieved because I know my play that night didn’t deserve any reward. I recovered my buy-in on the blackjack tables later but still went home feeling pissed off with myself. Lesson learnt.

I've decided to go back to reading articles on strategy and theory for confidence if anything else as my confidence has been dented playing at cash tables and this has kind of carried over into tournaments (but not to the same degree thank god) Plus you can never have too much knowledge on these two elements! Right now, I'm reading Ryan Fee's Strategy guide, which makes the bus journeys home from work seem that little bit quicker.

On Saturday IDP are having their monthly tournament. We're also having an EGM to incorporate a new constitution and to elect a new committee in accord with the constitution. I'm up for staying on but I don't know which capacity-Secretary or Chairperson. Will decide closer to the day. Will probably play in the tournament afterwards as well... It'll be fun trying to put some guys on a range of hands anyway! It'll be a bit of fun; it's not the WSOP anyways. At least I dont have to worry about Donal sucking out on me cos he won't be there! :)

A verrry long entry!!

Ok since I'm unable to connect to the internet right now and there's nowt to watch, I thought I'd might as well type up an entry for the blog so here goes:

On the social front things have been good the last few weeks. My shoulder injury which has had me sidelined from football since February has meant I am able to go out at weekends and not worry about my club commitments. I've actually enjoyed the improvement in that aspect of life and I no longer can feel like a recluse. I've come to concede that my enthusiasm for the game has finally waned after playing club football since I was 8. So right now I think I probably won't be playing club football next season because I want to enjoy life as much as I can, go away at weekends, go on the beer on Saturday nights and not have to worry about football commitments. To me, football has been a chore this season and when one starts to see it that way, then it's time for them to go a different way. For me, it is somewhat sad that my personal outlook on the game has gradually gone from being obsessed to half-arsed. Perhaps it's because subconsciously I am frustrated at getting injured all the time. Maybe when I recover from the shoulder injury, I might have a different perspective. Time will tell.

But anyway back to the social aspect- Went out to Carlow for Joey's birthday with the lads at the end of February. It was some mad weekend. Drank on the way up to Carlow on the train Friday night, got hammered. And then woke up just in time to grab breakfast before breakfast was no longer served after 10.30am.. Ate a delicious breakfast and duly obliged to throw up on the way back to the hotel room. Thank god for the fire-exit, otherwise the corridor would have been splattered with half digested sausages and bacon! Lol! Then Tim, Joey and myself thought it was an excellent idea to have one pint as hair of the dog. That one pint turned out to be the first of many as we did not stop drinking till the early hours of the following morning with the rest of the lads joining in throughout the day. Needless to say, I was once again hammered as early as 3pm but managed to solider on with the best of them! When we returned from the nightclub that night, Eoin made us all laugh so much when he thieved some drink from the hotel bar (which was closed after 4am) and was later caught red-handed when he was pulling a pint of carlsberg for me behind the bar! Amazingly he was let off by the security staff, who ushered us to our rooms as we were being a bit raucous for their liking!! Oops!!

Following week I jetted off to London to catch up with my mates. I have to use up my annual leave before the end of March and with Ryanair flights totalling at €10, it was far too good an opportunity to pass up. Crashed at Greg's late Thursday evening and headed immediately to Camden Town for a few jars with the lads. Actually to think of it, the whole weekend was one big session but nonetheless it was good to catch up with the crew in London. Managed to squeeze in a game of poker, but the standard was so awful I found myself not wanting to play and got busted early when I went all in blind, prompting some silly remarks from one or two guys who had supposedly expected a lot more from me! Lol! Even though I had enjoyed my break, I was glad to be going home on the monday. London is far too big and expensive for me. I must have squandered about €400 which is quite a lot considering accommodation was free. But the fact it's massive makes me appreciate Dublin all the more, despite its many faults. In London, there's so many people at the one time, I can't help but feel I'm just merely existing like I'm literally an ant in a swarming and overpopulated ant colony. In Dublin, I just feel like I'm someone, and there's a more friendlier vibe in the city. Although I must say for some strange reason, I feel more confident chatting up randomers in London-something I would never have the guts to do here! Probably cos I know I won't ever see them again if I get shot down!

I was out in town last Monday, celebrating Paddy's day at an IDYA party in the porterhouse. I'm not the biggest fan of the drinks in porterhouse, but the pub crawl I was trying to organise beforehand never materialised as the boys never got back to me about it so I just went directly to porterhouse upon arrival in the city centre. Bouncer at the door asked me for ID, before asking me where I was coming from. When I said I had just arrived in town from my house, he refused to believe me and said he was pretty convinced I was drunk! Lol!!! But in the end, I managed to talk my way in and started my paddy's day celebrations in earnest. The party turned out to be decent despite feeling a little out of place at the start cos none of my peeps were there!

As for the poker I managed to play another two live tournaments in succession to the one I had played in last Thursday in the local. After picking up the €350 the night before, I decided to play the €100 FO in Winners on the Friday. With 3.5k guaranteed, it was good value with 30 runners. I got good run of cards in the first level which I dislike, as I like to be able to fold marginal hands and get an early insight of my opponents play whilst the value of the blinds are generally irrelevant to your stack. Anyway I suffered a dent to my stack when I had to fold AJ and AK on the river after the same guy had betted heavily into them. I was not that convinced the guy had me beat but as I said, the blinds were still really low and I wasn't short stacked by any means. But I doubled up anyways about ten minutes later when my pocket Aces came up against pocket Kings. I went on to reach the FT without having to go to showdown in the process, so I think my image was that of a rock. My stack dwindled to 8BB so it was a case of picking my spots and pushing to steal the blinds/pot. Doubled up with A8 v A7 and my normal game strategy resumed. Picked up the Aces again in UTG, made the standard raise to be re-raised by a shortie who flipped Queens and duly absorbed half my stack when he spiked a Q on the river. About 5 hands later with 7BB, I found Queens and was called by AdKd. Flop gave him two pair, turn and river were blank and I found myself in 8^th place. I was disheartened not to cash, but happy overall as I knew the hands I went to showdown with couldn't have been played any better. But overall, I'll be making an appearance there again cos the atmosphere was really friendly and it was excellent value for €100.

The next day, after much humming and ahh-ing, I played in the €50 DC in CHL. In hindsight it was a mistake as I wasn't as eager to play as I had been the previous night. I preferred to go out on the booze, but the rain and financial situations of my mates meant I had the choice of either staying in or playing poker in town. When I sat down at the table, for no reason I can explain- I was full of restless energy and played like a possessed maniac as I entered every single pot bar one in the first level! I can't explain why I played so incredibly loose. All I know was I was far too restless to sit tight and play my normal game. Granted I didn't feel all that comfortable with the style but one thing I noticed was that the other players didn't too. It was an education in a way to adopt a style that totally contradicted the style I had played the previous night. I got looked up more, people were checking expecting me to raise. The irony I suppose was that even though my stack went up and down a lot, by the time the add ons were given out, I still had more chips than those who had been playing tight. It was a style I do not envisage permanently adopting in the future, (I later got busted with 88 v JJ preflop after the break-Even to think of it, I'm cringing at how reckless that was) I realised I could take something from that style and incorporate it into my present style as I can't expect to win €100+ tournaments playing super tight. But all in all, despite an €150 outlay for the two tournaments, I had managed to reduce the deficit to €20 when I won €90 at blackjack over the weekend and pick up €42 in the cash game in Chris house after the tournament in Winners.

I've still not played any online poker since the problems with my laptop. So I've been forced carry out drastic measures on the advice of my sister's boyfriend, Conan who reformatted the laptop or something like that. I've lost everything I had but on the flipside, at least it's like new now and running a lot faster. So when I get the WEP key for the internet at home, I'll download ipoker first thing after connecting to the internet to see if it works perfectly! It better cos I'm dying to play online poker!

I'll be off to Galway later today for the Easter weekend to serve as assistant manager to Joey and/or to get hammered.. Something tells me it's gonna be a weekend of madness either way!! :-)

Till next time!!!

My head is melted... (High Poker Content!)

I dont get this pokertracker or HoldemManager malarky.. Its just way too much information at once.. Everytime I attempt to use it, my brain melts..

Myself being so dumb, I didnt test it using the trial version as I should have.. Cos I stupidly deleted my entire PPP hand history as it went back as far as the days I was using play money so the stats wouldnt be a true reflection of myself (i wanted to see my own stats as well).. So when I downloaded the trial version of HM (which is free up to 1k hands), I had no hand history to import. So i went out and bought a bundle of hand history for $6. But it was 50k worth of hands so when I imported it into the HM it wouldnt work unless I bought the full version, which I then forked out the $55 for.. So i imported the hands and was overwhelmed with stats, I dont even know what I m doing or looking for now... I yearn for the simplicity of the free PPP odds calculator which kept stats on your opponents, as I felt that particular function helped my online game a lot. But I'm gona have to force myself to learn how to use HM as its supposedly superior by a long mile!! I m not gonna play online poker without some sort of program that keeps stats cos based on the experience of using PPP odds calculator, stats are really useful and helps you make decisions better..

As for the live poker, I haven't played that much lately. I've only played two tournaments in the last two weeks. Both were down in the local. Played a €60 DC freezeout, got €200 for coming 2nd. Bit of a shit return but at least it went towards the beer money for following weekend with the lads in Carlow. Then again tonight it was a €30 buy in with a limit of 2 rebuys or 1 rebuy & 1 top-up for €20 apiece. It got about 2o runners. Standard wasnt the best. In thinking that, it makes me realise how much I've gained in confidence. When I first started out playing these games, I was so bad and at the time feared some particular players who I thought were really good. These day-as cringeworthy egosistical this may sound- I feel I certainly can hold my own comfortably at that standard... Anyway to get to the gist of the story, I was massive chip leader at the FT, probally had about 50% chips in play. One particular hand when we were on the bubble with the top 3 getting paid- I got 55 in UTG, blinds were 800/1.5k, so I raised to 5k. Folded around to the BB who pushed his 15k in the middle. I called he showed KJ but my 55 held up. And as I was scoping up the pot he remarked that "I was brave" to call his push with 55... I took that to mean "How can you call with 55, ya bloody fish?!" LOL!! There was logic to my decision to call but no point in waffling about it here!! But anyway, I went on to go heads up with Michael, the guy that runs the tournament. (Really sound bloke btw) The heads up only lasted 3 hands. The final hand when I had 99. He raised into me, I pushed (i had him covered) he called with KJ and duly spiked the J on the river. He doubled up and was around 15k ahead but then we chopped the prizepool which saw bring home 345e home.

I like to think pre-flop analysis is one of my strengths, but once again the need to improve my post-flop analysis was apparent. I know it myself.., but when people slowplay premium hands preflop, I tend to get trapped on the flop if I've caught a peice of it. I got caught out once tonight but got away with murder when I sucked out on KK with Q9 which gave me two pair. It's a leak I need to plug otherwise I'm gonna be the value at levels better than pub poker.

Even though I now have a few bob in my pocket, I'm careful not to make a big deal of it (or at least I try not to!), just as with every tournament I do well in. Having an ego is a massive flaw in anybody's game, so as hard as it is at times, I try to play that kind of stuff down and retain an realistic and harsh outlook on my game. I have no misconceptions about myself, I certainly dont think I'm great or whatsoever. I certainly think theres a whole lot I need to improve on, but playing in pubs is not really good for my game anymore. Its good for the craic and convenience of walking down the road for a game. But I have weaknesses that can only be improved by playing at levels I am not so comfortable with. I strive to improve as much as my potential (if I can call it that) allows me to, because I do not want to become the pub poker player who is percieved as a shark but in the harsh truth of the day is actually sub-standard.

Anyway enuff blogging for tonite.. I always keep meaning to do it on a more regular basis, as so to make it shorter, fresher and easier to unload my thoughts. I keep thinking of stuff and saying "oh i ll write about that on my blog when i get home or whatever" but i never get around to doing it.. I'm so lazy!! Next time I'll not type about poker! However much I love playing the game, I do have a life!!!

I bet tmw when I wake up, half this stuff wont make any sense!!

Till then, adios!!!