Did I really want to go out though? I mean I had just handed over two weeks rent to play a poker tournament – a feat that some would already describe as borderline insane – and I also felt like a lukewarm Death sitting at the table so it pained me (even more) to think about how I’d feel if I was making shapes on the dance floor. I still had a gigantic hickey on my neck which I wasn’t all to pushed about displaying for all to see and even at the poker tables, despite my best efforts to cover it up, the players were asking did I get hit by a sliotar in the neck. How I wondered if anyone would have believed me earlier on in the week if I had told them that rather than the by now tired excuse of an allergic reaction to aftershave. Anyway, I’m kind of going off on a tangent. This post is about the homosexuality of poker and that’s what I intend on talking about!

The tournament itself got off to a duck arse start. We got a 20k starting stack and 30 minute blinds with all the levels included which meant that nobody was in any rush to go anywhere. I lost 2k at my first table when I missed a few combo draws but changed gears on my next table to build up to close to 30k. This was without getting any massive hands but I was able to value bet effectively and managed to induce the odd bluff here and there. My first big hand of note came when I had just been moved back to my initial table after a few levels. We had just sat down after a break and the table was half empty. I called a raise with A8 and flopped two pair. I called a bet on the flop and raised the turn and river with the river falling another ace, giving me a house. I seemed to have a very rocky image at this table which was proven when I had someone fold Kings to me preflop for the very first time ever! Half of me is still in disbelief that someone could possibly fold Kings preflop but when Dave Tutty raised to 1600 and had another player push in for 4.8, I grabbed my bundle of green 5k chips and reraised to 24k. Dave thought about it for seemingly an age before folding what I assumed to be something like TT or JJ. The guy who pushed had been tilting with a bag of spanners, all I remember is that I hit my set on the flop and he was drawing dead by the turn! Even just thinking back on this hand has me shaking my head in either disgust or disappointment – I can’t quite figure out which and at whom it’s directed! Maybe Dave can shed some light on this sometime?

I continued to accumulate over the next two hours until I lost half my stack by calling a river bet on a straightened board in the hope of chopping it only to be shown a gutshot that had got there. Suddenly I was below average and the possibility of going out in Waterford was once again reignited. I really did feel like shit though. I was shivering like mad in a room that everyone else was complaining was a sweat box and my eyes felt like needles were being probed into them when I looked at anything that resembled light. Even in my lethargic, nigh-on comatosed state, it didn’t take me long to surmise that strobe lights and pints wouldn’t be the solution to all of my problems. Although in saying that, it hasn’t stopped me in the past! I realised that even if I did get knocked out and got the last bus into town, I’d probably just collapse onto a bed, sofa or any surface that could possibly support my weight and not stir for a good twelve hours. So, given that I had now got it into my head that I wasn’t going to be able to make it to the Forum, I decided to dig deep and try bring what little A-game I have to the table.

I went relatively card dead for a while, and managed to keep my head afloat by raising anything remotely connected from late position as I tried to use my tight image to pilfer the blinds. It was working quite well until Colm Reville was moved into my buttons big blind. His blind is stubborn enough to attack on a normal day but it gets even trickier when there’s 20 pints thrown into the mix and when he has the perfect reshove stack of 15BB’s. So I practically postponed the pillaging of the blinds exclusively from late position and started stealing from other areas of the table, targeting some of the other tighter blinds sitting at the table. A big hand for me came when I found QQ under the gun and raised it up to 3.5 times the big blind only to have Ray Kent reshove from late position for what was about 15BB’s. I made the call and he had JJ which didn’t improve meaning I was now up to 97k, just above average!

Not long later, Billy Fitz opened in early position to 14k and I found AK and reraised to 40k. Action went back to him and he shoved for not a whole lot more. Even if he had enough to make an effective 4bet shove, I’m always snap calling Billy in this spot as I’m always a run and jump ahead of his range. He had A8, which (I hope) is the very lower part of his range here. My AK held and I was now one of the chipleaders as we approached the bubble for the final table. The Fox really came into his own here and subtly played up this fact. He was hovering below average himself but urged everyone not to go crazy on the bubble – while stealing left, right and centre of course . He was directly to my right so I was really losing out as he was always getting into the pots first and my small blind also found its way over to him on a few occasions. I did manage to get most of them back though when I got two streets of value from second pair against him.

Fast forward 15 minutes and we were on the final table with 5 players going to get paid. I was third in chips. We lose a player on the very first hand with blind on blind action. AQ for the small blind and AA the big blind who was about to become a monstrous chipleader. I steal a few hands with Ace-rag before picking up AK and having a shortstacked big blind shove over my raise. I call and am racing against 22 but I never get off the line as the flop falls 2-3-3. I build my stack up once again over the next hour as the entire table seems to have died until my good mate Ollie St John limps his button, even though he’s shortstacked. The small blind, who’d been playing very well, decides to pounce on this and shoves. I’m lucky enough to look down at KK and snap it. Ollie passes Ace-8 face up and the small blind sheepishly turns over T-4o. It’s all about timing in this game and he was just extremely unlucky to run into the card rack that I was becoming! I hold and knock him out.

Play continues at a snails pace until I pick up QQ in mid position and make my standard raise which is just under 3 times the big blind. The Big Blind is the same player who shoved with the deuces earlier and he once again shoves. He’s even shorter than the last time we tangled after losing a big pot a few hands earlier and his shove doesn’t even cover my raise! He has A4 and once again my big hands hold. We’re now down to 7 players and I have around 200k. Two hands later and I look down at AA for the first time in the tournament. The chipleader raises from early position to 20k. I reraise to 80k and then the small blind shoves for 128k! I nearly jizzed in my pants Lonely Island style when the chipleader announces that he too is all-in! I fist-pump-jizz call but little do I realise that absolute carnage is lurking around the corner!

So I’m all-in, in a three way pot that makes up over 60% of all the chips in play, with aces! The small blind has JJ, the chipleader has KK. Paul Warren then says that he folded KJ! It’s then that I make the mistake of thinking about the money – €2.2k for the winner, €1500 for second. With 60% of the chips, I could comfortably blind out to second and still ought to be castrated as punishment for not taking it down. I’d been running extremely well all day and apart from the one brainfart where I called off half my stack over three streets in the hope of chopping a pot, I’d also been playing well. I honestly can’t remember the flop. What I will remember though, and I swear I’ll have it with me for life, is the pre-pubescent screeches of delight and the pounding of the table from Vinny as it came down Jack-shit-shit fuckity fuck fuck! FUUUUUUUCCCCCCK!!!! If there was any consolation to be had from this it’s that of the only two fucking outs in the deck, it was the one that didn’t force me to run down Main St and dive off the pier that did indeed fall. So I suppose I can be thankful for that at least. This hand just encapsulated Poker’s homosexuality for me. No game should be allowed to be so gay. It’s just wrong.

I was still left with 120k in chips though and with blinds at 5k/10k, I still had room to play. As a tournament blogger, I witness bad beats for a living so at this stage I just shrug them off and comment on their sickness before getting back to business. I chipped back up to 220k without much difficulty as play had slowed to a complete crawl. It was then that it was suggested that we just break the bubble there and then. There were 7 players left and only 5 due to get paid. We were playing for 10 hours at this stage so we agreed on taking a total of €400 off 1st and 2nd and giving €200 to 6th and 7th. The game was suddenly on steroids and two players were eliminated in quick succession. I then knocked out Ollie in 5th when he shoved from the small blind into my big blind. I saw an Ace which made the call easy and a Ten along with it which made it even easier. Ollie had actually picked up 77 so was unlucky for me to actually have a legitimate hand as I was probably calling there with a whole lot worse. Needless to say I hit my Ace and Ollie exited in 5th.

When we were four handed, Fox was in an ideal position. He had a complete weak-tight nit to his left who was opting to play Mafia Wars on a laptop across the room instead of playing hands and he also had direct position on me and Fox isn’t afraid of the resteal if he smells a rat. Despite Fox being to my direct left or right for the entire tournament, we had avoided a clash thus far. That was until he raised the 5th hand in a row. He raises to 35k under the gun with blinds at 6k/12k and I make it 105k with A7 in the big blind. Fox’s raising range was incredibly wide at this point of the tournament and I hadn’t defended my big blind in a long time. I’m playing a stack of just over 215k so I realise that I’ve committed myself to this pot. And I’m not very happy about it. I also realise that I’m behind in this hand when he starts asking for counts. I try talking Fox out of it saying that I think I’m ahead and point out that I’ve already committed myself to the hand. After thinking for a while he just flat calls. I shove the flop in the dark for a half pot bet and it comes Q58 with a flush draw. He isn’t all that happy but calls with AQ and I fail to improve. I’m not sure if I’m happy with how I played this hand or not. I’m pretty sure he folds out all his better aces on the flop (AT+) and I think I did just enough preflop to make him think I held a pair. I’m not sure if he folds underpairs on the flop though or even if he just flat calls with them preflop. I finish 4th anyway for €520. I tip the €20 and am offered a lift back into town which I jump at.

It’s 3am and I’m hoping that I can meet up with people from The Forum who I assume are meandering back towards town at this time. They’re nowhere to be found though and the forum is deserted with the exception of some poor soul who’s slouched over a railing getting sick all over themselves, something which isn’t all that distant of a memory for me! I make my way back into town and find a few people but the majority are already gone. If only I had a phone that worked. I think I may as well put that €520 into my yearly phone fund just to be safe!

When the tournament started, I asked for a cup of coffee and took my seat. For about three orbits of the table, it’s like I have butter on my hands because I just can’t catch a card! I was just about to complain out loud when I find Queens in the small blind. The crying baby gets the bottle I think to myself as I see 4 players limp into my small blind. I make the obligatory raise and get just the one caller – the button. We see a flop of 5-6-9, with two clubs on board and I bet out 1500 which is around 2/3 the pot. I get minraised (and a bit) to 3500. I kind of freeze for a moment. Surely he’s raising his button with tens and better preflop so his range for raising the flop like this must be made up purely of sets and flush draws with the overs, but never something like AK or AQ which he probably would have raised with preflop. I really want to fold, but I call which is horrible, I know. The turn completes the flush draw AND the straight draw and I check-fold when he bets 3000… into a pot of almost 10k.

A few orbits later and I get my coffee. I take a sip and see two queens again. Alex raises under the gun to 550 with blinds at 100/200. He’s fond of the minraise and a bit in all kinds of positions at the table so I wouldn’t read too much into that. I’m a sat a few seats behind him, in early position, and make it 1800. It’s folded around to the small blind who calls. He’s just arrived at the table and I have never seen him in my life but I tend to assign new players to the table a pretty generic range of hands until I see evidence to prove otherwise. I think it’s quite prudent to do this at the table as it means you don’t get into any nasty spots with players whose tendencies you have no idea of! Anyway, I rarely think that a new player to the table is going to flat call a 3bet and then call a shove, so when Alex ships from under the gun when action gets back to me, it’s usually going to be followed by a fistpump. In this case it wasn’t. He had Aces.

I didn’t even have time to finish my coffee!

I eagerly await the $50 to arrive into my Ladbrokes account, but in the meantime I’ll have to try find something to keep me occupied and I think I’ve found something in the form of a gym membership. Running around like a Duracell bunny on Wednesday reminded me that I like to exercise so I looked into joining the local Kingfisher gym and have been offered a day pass to check out the place before committing. They offer some great Student deals so I look forward to trying out the place tomorrow! Even if the place isn’t to my liking, I at least get to kill a few hours before work!

It’s just gone 1am and I’m stumbling around a nightclub looking for my friend. I haven’t been this drunk in all of four days and it takes me a good 20 minutes to actually stop and ask someone in our group where he is. Turns out he’s already gone home meaning I’ve been pacing around for no reason other than wearing down my shoes! My other friends are having one of those drunken heart-to-hearts down in the smoking area that you just know they’ll probably have no recollection of come morning so I figure there’s nothing really keeping me there so decide to leave. And then it grabs hold of me.

The urge to get some hours in at the poker table suddenly envelops me. Our local club runs a cash league which rewards players who spend over 50 hours at the tables over the duration of the league. I’ve been creeping ever closer to the magic 50 mark over past number of weeks but the deadline is looming and I’m still a bit shy of the target so I opt to head up to the club where I’ve been informed there is lively game in progress. I’m fully aware that everyone is going to be licking their lips when they see me fall through the door, so I devise a plan to buy in for only €50 and play tighter than a ducks arse underwater and let them pay me off. Sounded easy in my head anyway!

I sit in and ask for some coffee before taking out my wallet and hand over €100, instead of €50! Not a complete disaster, as I can still play tight and now I stand to win more should I hit a big hand! Unfortunately, if you stand to win more, you stand to lose more and I soon realise that my plan has unravelled when I go all-in on an A-4-5 board that has two hearts after it’s checked to me. It would be an acceptable play if I had something like two pair or even the Ace, but I was playing with 7-8 offsuit! So much for playing tight! I haven’t even finished counting my chips when I see someone else shovel all theirs in! I hit an eight on the turn meaning this anal pounding I’m getting has eased slightly. A ten falls on the river and I’m told that I’m ahead as they missed their flush! I excitedly turn over my eight only for him to flash a ten! The table looks a bit shocked when they see my cards turn over and they all collectively lick their lips when I reach into my wallet once more!

I reach into my wallet once more in the whole hour that I’m there. I finally throw in the towel when I don’t feel confident that my Queen-Jack is good any more after I check-raise on an Ace high board only to find myself getting two callers. Needless to say, it wasn’t! I’m down €240 which translates to pretty much the entire contents of my wallet and at this stage the coffee is starting to sober me up. I really wish it didn’t though, because now I’m kicking myself for shoving with a gutshot and basically throwing money away. This especially hurts because I know I’ll remember exactly how I lost the money in the morning whereas had I not knocked back cup after cup of coffee, I’d wake up not having the slightest idea!

Indeed, waking up is a painful experience! As well as having the obligatory woodpecker going at my head, I have this subconscious voice shouting all kinds of abuse into my ear! I try my best to take no notice and start thinking about tonights game, a €35 freezeout with €1k Guaranteed. It’s a small game when you compare the size of the games in Dublin, but it attracts a nice crowd of players with “colourful” styles so there’s certainly some value to be found. This, I decided, was going to be my make or break night with regards qualifying for the league finals. If I didn’t pick up a result here, I was going to struggle to be able to play in tournaments or sit into cash games for the next week or so. With my fingers and toes crossed, I bought in and found myself sitting down at a great starting table!

Within the first few levels, I manage to build my stack up to 12k from the starting stack of 9k. I manage to flop a house with 8-3 from the blinds and check all streets before check-raising the river and getting paid! I then manage to double up off the then chipleader when I pick up AA for the first time in 3 weeks! It’s raised under the gun to 600 which is called in one spot. I re-raise to 2k from the blinds and get two willing callers. Flop is Q-Q-6 and I check-raise allin after the original raiser bets out 3k. He calls with KK and I hold. My next big hand comes some time later when I raise with King-Jack suited under the gun(!). I find a caller in the big blind who says he feels lucky. The flop comes 8-9-3 and gives me the flush draw. He checks and I make a continuation bet and he immediately announces all-in. I snap call and he curses me and tells me he has nothing. “‘Nothing’ is probably ahead of me right now”, I say to him. He turns over KQ which I really didn’t want to see, but I hit my flush on the turn and all is well in the world once more!

I reach the final table 3rd in chips, but I have the two chipleaders sitting directly to my left which is far from ideal. The player directly to my left has a massive chip lead, with about 30% of all chips in play but amazingly he managed to limp/fold his stack away which by all accounts was an impressive feat. I knock him out when I limp into his Big Blind in the hope that he’ll check his option but I haven’t noticed that he’s now shortstacked and he duly shoves. It’s not much more to me and I’m certain of a coin flip so I make the call and hit my King to topple his Ace high. I pick my spots for the rest of the final table and get into the money.

It’s not all plain-sailing though as I then lose a race with King-Jack suited which puts me down to 5 Big Blinds which really hammers home the fact that anything can happen when we’re playing with average stacks of 10 Big blinds! The chipleader soon finds this out the hard way when he goes from dominating the table to sitting out in his car within 3 hands! This gives me some leeway, as all the players remaining are relatively solid. I get a few pushes through and then I knock a player out when he shoves from the Small Blind and I call with Ace-Ten that holds.

We’re now three-handed and play for a while but it seems as if we’re just passing chips around to one another so I suggest we chop it three ways for €290 each. I feel as if I did have the edge when we were three handed as I certainly had the momentum with me, but I had this mental goal of winning more than I lost the previous night and really didn’t like the idea of finishing third. No-one opposes the deal and we play one hand for the tournament points which I win when I slowroll the bottom pair .

So, I shoot myself in the foot one day, but make a full recovery the next! I’m also now presented with a dilemma. I need another 11 hours to qualify for the cash league final which takes place Monday week but this tournament win means I’m now 50th in the tournament leader board, with the top 45 qualifying for the final! It would be agonising to miss both by such a small margin so I think I’ll focus on one of them for the time being. Trouble is, I don’t have a clue which one to commit to!

To say I’m confident with my exams would be bare-faced lie – apathetic would be far more suitable word to describe my feelings toward college in general. I just wish I knew that the results of this years exams will be what my potential work experience employers will be what they’ll be using to evaluate us. I can just imagine it now, my classmates jetting back and forth between London, Toronto and Paris and me being sent out to the industrial estate to work in a call-centre!

This time last year, I thought that me being in a successful relationship was a laughable concept, fast-forward to today and I’m thinking the exact same thing. I did manage to break through the 3 month barrier and in fact, I can always say that this was a relationship that spanned across two years but ultimately I’m all to aware that I can’t commit to something to save my life and the idea of sacrifice for the greater good still seems too pagan-esque for me to subscribe to. It will probably take a small matter of Divine Intervention for me to believe in relationships in the near future and even then I’d probably be under too much stress to notice God himself pointing me in a particular direction!

What will I be busy doing? Well, undoubtedly Poker will be one of those things. I’ve been playing for 3 years now and it’s still as big a challenge as it was when I first started. The game itself keeps evolving, whereas in 2006 you needed only know the hand rankings to be able to make money, in 2009 you need to be a competent mathematician as well as a fearless aggressor. There’s no such thing as easy money any more and perhaps it’s the challenge of trying to remain a so-called “winning player” that’s keeping me hooked. Or I’m a compulsive gambler.

You could say that I have a clean slate. Or you could argue that I’m like an old record stuck on repeat.

I look down at pocket eights and am facing an early position raise of €7 which has been called in one spot already. I flat call, playing a stack of around €90, and the big and small blinds also come along for the ride! And what a ride it was.

My stack is now exactly €80, so I say to myself “No set, No bet” because I hate cashing out for odd amounts. However, any possibility of my hand hitting the muck vanishes when the flop comes down J-8-5, two spades. I don’t want to bore you with the details, but there’s a bet of €21 which is then called by the original raiser. I push for €80 and would have been happy to take it down there because I figure I’m going to be dodging spades if I’m called. The thought of someone taking down a pot on the flop is frowned upon though and I find a begrudging caller.

I try and decipher what exactly I have to dodge on the turn and river but I’m not appeased. I announce my hand and am told only that I’m slightly ahead. The turn comes a red six. It only completes a gutshot, but in a game like this, it should be viewed as a scare card. My opponent doesn’t look like someone who’s just sucked out and as it transpired, he had not yet hit his straight. The river is a red nine.

He triumphantly throws up J7! I swear, had I ate any food at the break during the tournament, I would have got sick all over the table. I don’t get angry or shout abuse. I just put on my coat and walk away, silently wishing that I could be that lucky in an important pot. Even if it’s just the once!

On the first night of event, I actually found myself winning money, despite taking full advantage of the PaddyPower hospitality budget and managing to spew away my first €200 buy-in by pushing on a four-flush, ace-high board with AK, no spade. The player with the 6 high flush pretty much beat my chips into the pot. Ugh! I can’t remember any showdowns later on that night because from there-on-in, I wielded the mighty Check-Raise as if it were the weapon of warriors! I got most of my profit when I led out on a paired board with a gutshot. The likes of Thomas Nolan and Nicky Power would be proud of me because despite being raised and the button calling, the lure of the gutshot was too great and I shipped the lot in. Fold Fold! Cash out!

The next two nights saw me run particularly badly. I flop the bottom end of the straight in a raised pot, holding 4h5h. I lead out for pot and I’m called. There’s the Ah on the turn, giving me the heart draw. I lead out for pot and I’m called. The river is a spade of some sort, putting three out there. I check-call his half pot bet of €128 and am shown the flush. I then flop the nut flush and get it all-in against top-pair and a redundant flush draw. He runner-runner’s a house! Sat at a table with people that I’m pretty sure all hate money, I decide to relent and perform that classic act of degeneracy by reaching into my wallet once more. One time! I sit tight and watch chips literally flying about the place. I find a pair of Jacks under the gun and raise. Some drunk English guy comes over the top of me for everything and now it’s my turn to beat someones chips into the pot! The flop comes 664. “I hit that, mate”. The turn comes an Ace “Waaaheyeeyeey, I hit that too”. He throws over the Ace-Four. Clean up on table one please! I buy-in once more and manage to recover €182 over the next few hours despite not seeing any spectacular hands.

On the final night, I sit in once again with my 200 euro. I decide to soul-read a player after about 10 hands after he straddles and then raises after the entire table calls. I decide to rep the UTG limp with AA or KK and shove for €153 more. I flop a gutshot but I’m not sick enough to hit it and by the river, my hand is back in the wallet. I soon double up (and then some) when I flop Top Pair from the Big Blind with K-J on a draw heavy board. I check and the guy to my left leads out for about the pot and by time it gets back to me, there’s been 3 callers. Top pair is the nuts, and there’s a tonne of dead money in this pot. All-in! Call! “I have the King”, “So do I” is what I hear back as the dealer sorts out all the chips as we try and dissect each others hand, defiantly choosing not to show up. “Well, I’m beating a few Kings” I murmur, “Do you have the Ace?” he inquired, “Um, No” I reply, “I’m ahead so”. “Not anymore” I state as the dealer throws up a lovely Jack on the turn. I 100% expected the board to pair on the river to counterfeit me but the case €200 then became the case €460. But I’m still stuck.

The story has to have a happy ending though.

A few minutes after, I witness €700 being open-shipped into the pot. I had already folded but could sense that my time was near. In a straddled pot, UTG raises it to 40. He’s managed to become stuck for double what I was, but has managed to do it all in about 10 minutes! He gets two callers – both chinese. I look down at TT and make it €150, which is about 33% of my stack. I get three callers! I see a flop of KK7 which is actually pretty nice for me. They all check to me and I duly ship it all-in. I was probably 70% sure I was ahead, but think checking behind is just terrible given that I don’t want to give them a free shot to hit an overcard or to hit a set. Of course, had I been snap-called, it would have been sick and I probably would have gone looking for a nice piece of rope!

Thankfully it didn’t come to that!

Tonight I decided to go up to Blazin’ Aces card club and play their €50 Freezeout. It’s their most popular game and attracted 42 runners which is a tidy amount for a mid-week game! I got off to a good start, the first hand I raised with was KK in the second level which I found UTG+1. UTG minraised to 200. I’ve seem him calling off his stack preflop with trash before, so I was happy to isolate and made it 750 with effective stacks at around 10k. I’m called by UTG+2 and then, a competent player in LP makes it 3k and he is instantly called by the button who is a bit spewy unless he’s running well. UTG folds and I shove for my 10k. The problem is, it was an instant shove. I didn’t dwell up and made it pretty obvious that I had QQ+. The 4bettor looked in pain before folding what he said was QQ. The button also folded and I took down the pot, increasing my stack by 70% without having to see a flop! I think if I had paused for a while, I could have got QQ to call the shove, but that’s something I’ll just have to chalk down as inexperience.

The next hand that I got involved with was with QQ and yet again there was plenty of action preflop. UTG raised 4.5x the BB to 450 and I reraised to 1400. I’m called by the player to my left and it’s folded around to the SB who pushes for 5400. This is the same player who folded QQ to my shove earlier, so I think he’s strong. He probably has TT+, AQs+ almost all the time here. I simply call because if I reshoved, I’d only get called by AA or KK by the player to my left. I want him to stack off on the flop to me. The flop comes 7 high and I shove, hoping to get a call by 88-JJ. Instead, he folds. The other player has AK but I don’t need to sweat because a queen comes on the turn leaving him drawing dead.

After the break, I move table and sit down to see 6s7s in my first hand. I’m the HiJack and limp behind several other limpers. UTG leads out on a 7 high flop and I flat call. The turn is a spade which gives me a flush draw and a gutshot. It’s checked to me and I bet 2.5 into a pot of ~3.5k which is called. I hit my flush on the river and value bet 4.5k but he folds.

It goes wrong when I move table. I don’t pick up any hands and start to blind away. I lose a lot of chips with QJ, twice! First time, I’m in the SB and raise after it’s folded around to me only for the BB to push for my entire stack (which at this point is still above average). I fold. Then, a fairly standard ABC player limps UTG. I raise with QJ to isolate. Early position limps by ABC players generally mean small pocket pairs, so I raised because I know he’s going to call me to hit a set and I can bluff him off a lot of flops when I miss. The flop comes K-J-6, he looks like he’s hit the jackpot as he quickly glances at his chips before checking. I foolishly bet out and he pushes. Am I ever ahead I wonder! I decide I’m not and fold. I ask him did he have a set of sixes and he shows them. Great read I say to myself, but I know my bet on the flop was bad and I’ve tilted myself.

A few hands later and it’s all over! I have KsQs on the BB and there’s an UTG raise of 4.1k, with blinds at 500/1000. I’m playing a stack of 16k and decide to flat call and shove any flop with my reasoning that I will often fold out better hands such as small pairs and Ace-x when I shove for the pot on the flop. However, the flop comes 533, probably the worse board I could have hoped for yet I shove anyway and am called by AK which holds. Oh well!

I seem to have sorted out my internet connection, so I’m going to try get some hands in to try and get back up to respectable stakes!