post to update a few things

yes yes, im a lazy f*cker, only updating this now, a lot has happened since a month ago.
i went to manchester for the GUKPT, as is becoming standard with me now, i found the game soft, cruised up to 30k, and failed to make day 2 by going out in the last level of day 1 !!
I was quite annoyed really, i managed to get 3/4s of my stack in with 66 , which doesnt sound good, but im not 100% sure exactly where i played it wrong.
After having peaked at 30k, i was playing 25k and comfortable, around average with over half the field gone, when a loose player who was raising a lot opened for a standard 3bbs in mid position. He has me covered, i have 66 in the cut off, and decide to call, he is agg and can fire some barrels, or indeed he may have a hand, i decide if i hit a 6 i could win a big pot, so i call for set value. As soon as i do this, i see the small blind looking at the pot, now im thinking, this is a great time for him to squeeze, the mid pos guy could have a wideish range, and i can never be that strong, he fires out 6k on top on the original 2400 raise. Now, im done with this if the original re raiser repops, or indeed if he folds i probably just give it up also, but he decides to flat call. Its back to me, and its 6k to call with about 22k already in the pot, and some implied odds on top of this, i could fold here, but i decide to call and re assess on the flop.
The flop comes 458 rainbow. The SB jams for 8k, the big stack folds, and now , i have to call another 8k into a 30k pot, with at least 6 outs, and the chance im ahead of a squeeze or AK type hand. This is an auto call (i should probably fold to the re raise pre but i didnt). So, after wondering how i managed to get 16400 in with 66 leaving me about 7.5k behind, im delighted to see he has AK off and im favourite to have a huge stack......K on the river and im short.
im patient with the 7k and end up raising half my stack on the cut off with AQ for the SB to rejam, when obv i cant fold any hand, so i call and have his KQ !!! crushed til he flops 2 Ks and im out.
After this i had the worst online cash session ive had since march 07 when i lost 2 12k+ cash pots in a day at 20/40.
It was friday night, late, best time to play, found a 10/20 table with 2 awful players, one of them one of the worst ive ever seen, bingo, great chance to win 5k im thinking, and salvage the day.
What happened next could be put into any nightmare and not look out of place.
I was immediately alerted to how bad one of the french players was when i opened the button 6 handed to 80 with 77, frenchy calls from the bb. Flop comes a rather nice looking AJ7 with 2 hearts. He check calls 150. Turn is a 3rd heart, a 5 or something he checks again, ive no particular reason to think he has FD, and dont want to give him free 4th heart, so i bet about 380, he snaps again, turn is a horrendous 4th heart, so it goes check check, im AMAZED to see the gentleman has 22 with the 2 of hearts !!
Anyway, about 2 laps later i raise his button again with Q9 diamonds, i was isolating him a lot as he always calls pre, and folds a lot of flops when he totally misses. Flop comes another excellent Q97 with 2 hearts again, he check call pot again. Turn comes a 3rd heart, he open shoves for 2k, big overbet. Ive no idea what he has, but dont think he has a flush so i call, he has T7 with the T of hearts, and bingo, 4th heart on the river again, grrrr, steam from ears time.
I reload, call a raise of 80 on position after 3 callers with 22, flop comes AQ2 with 2 spades. Original raiser bets 300, 1 caller, i make it 1k, raiser calls, caller calls again. Turn comes a 4, i jam for 1200 after he checks, he calls with 75 spades, river is a spade, lovely !!
Now, im tilting a bit, reload and call a raise with A5 suited, flop comes A95 and i get it in vs A9, ffs, 8k gone in just over an hour, just as well none of the conspiracy theorists who think it might be rigged saw this session.
Next live game was JPs 750 masters, lovely structure with 1 hour clock and 15k stacks, and some awful pub style players. Got nicely through day 1, without much worries or tough spots, then early on day 1, duke doubles me up by 4 bet shoving over my KK with 77. Im cruising at 100k 4 tables out, and im a great position to cash. Im quite for a while, and under no pressure, i decide to open it up a big and raise with 76 suited in mid pos, i get called by a very loose player who i felt may be on tilt after being bluffed off a pot just before by paul coyle, who final tabled, and i must say this guy certainly likes the huge 2 and 3 barrel moves. Anyway, flop comes 467 with 2 spades, i lead for 10k, this other guy jams for about 80k.......i call and he had 68 of spades and hits the 8 on the turn, and the 5 of spades for the str8 flush on the river. Very next hand i get TT , and tiltily get it in vs Coyle, who for once has a hand, AQ, and hits his Q. Dissapointed to go out of this, really should of had an edge given the structure 4 tables out , and a huge missed chance with a nice prizepool. Nice to see some decent lads getting a nice cash in this too.
Played the omaha the next day, ran awful, hardly flopped a pair and then donated my stack to sean gregory with a poor move out of frustration, after this i played an incredibly soft cash table against several people who could hardly stand and won about 700.
Went to Newcastle with another GUKPT chance, really hoping to grasp it this time, for my vegas fund, and to repay mike and brians faith in me. After playing a turned straight very bad early on and losing some value, i played great for the rest of the day, getting the most from each spot and making some good calls. Apart from one hand, a loose player raised, i called with QQ, to trap. Whilst he was loose, he would fold a lot of hands if i re raised there, flop comes T high, i expect him to fire and i raise and win the pot , he confuses me by checking, i fire, and he puts in a decent reraise, uggg, i call, turn is a blank, and he jams for 10k , theres 10k already in the pot......now what can i beat, he looks comfortable, im sure he thinks he is ahead here, surely he cant put me on AT, he must have TT or AA i decide, i can only beat QQ, my trap has backfired, i fold, i dont show, he shows JJ, sick inside now.
Anyway, i play a set well against same player later and end the day of over 49k, and cruising in 8th place of the 60 players left, in with a shout for once. On day 2, i get a nice table, im 2nd in chips on it, behind James Akenhead, who is overall leader and a very good player, Also on the table is Dara O Kearney , winner of the drogheda deepstack, and also a very good player. Id been chatting to Dara over there, hes very solid, and an interesting character. He posts as Doke on boards, and you should read the link in his signature to his article about a race where he ran 200 kms in 24 hours, its an amaznig read !
Anyway, im cruising on 57k, apart from James and Dara the rest of the table are very poor. Inexplicably, i clash with James, he raised in mid pos, i look at AK in the bb, i dont want to clash with him, i could call and play a small pot, i decide to reraise his 3k bet to 12k, as he has a wide opening range, and i wanted to take it down pre, he calls after thinking and seeing how much i had left. Im surprised he flats here, and worried, flop comes Jxx, i give up and check, he checks, turn is a K, i lead at it for 3/4 pot, i think im probably ahead now, he thinks again and calls, the river is the ace, he jams it. Now in reality he has a set here or has me bet almost always, im getting a huge price to call, and he knows this, he also knows i can have AK here a lot , i really should fold, id have 20k behind and still in the game, i call, he has a well played AA, and im out.
Quite annoyed with myself here, yes, i had top 2, but in reality, against a good player, i dont like the way i played the hand in general. I then lost 400 in cash, clearly on tilt, then i wished Dara luck and headed home.........another missed chance, next time.
I got back into playing STTs online and have been doing ok again, and recovered lately in the online cash side of things.
Im about 24k up now on the year on ipoker stts and about 45k on cash.
I had a few nice runs in online MTTs also, including 2nd place in the 50 rebuy 50k gtd for 8k, just before i went to newcastle. There was 13.5k for 1st, and i lost a race for 5.5k heads up, but still a fantastic result. I didnt know the other guy, but both of us woulda liked to chop as we were even heads up, but theres no facility for this on ipoker.
I had a nice little run in the sporting emporium last week also, got out of the house for the 100 freezeout on friday, and managed to win this for €1200, 31 runners, my first live win since the chop in the november 1k game.
With confidence gained from this, i headed back in on friday, with my girlfriend Cat , there was another 100 freezeout, and interestingly we managed to get heads up in this, we chopped it (i had a 85k - 40k lead).
Then, back there again for their tourney lead final, i dont play live in there much, but i scrapped into the top 40 for there league final play off in 37th, i was one of the shortest stacks starting off, but played some good stuff that night to chop it with mick stephens for 3k each.
After this i headed to Paris, met up with my scottish mate Graham Clarkson, we spent a couple of nights going to Roland Garros by day to watch the french open tennis, and then playing cash games in the Aviation club by night. The tennis is great, you can get right up close to the play on the outside courts, and the athmosphere on centre court is good. A bit of rain dampened things slightly, but still a great thing to go and see.
The aviation clubs is amazing, monday night and 12 cash tables in full flow. Games run on well into the morning and the standard is lower than anywhere in Ireland.
The players are extremely loose, play large stacks, and call far too much. Theres a lot of mixed games and graham was playing dealers choice games with 5 card Omaha hi lo and Concheval amongst the mix.
The NLH consisted of 2 tables of 5/5 nl with 250 min buy in and 2 tables of 10/10 with 500 min buy in. I was happy in the 5/5 game, with average stacks of about 2k.
First hand i sat down i saw a flop of 678 and 3 1.5k stacks in the middle, 2 blanks and 1 guy shows J9 and the pot is scooped by 75, interesting stuff.
I limped JJ under the gun, everyone limps, looney on the blind makes it 60 as usual, i jam for 500 (bought in short to start off with), he insta fist pump snap calls me, uh oh, flop comes AQxxx with 3 diamonds, can i be good , of course, he shows 33. (i know in a decent game this would be a weird way to play JJ, but not against these guys).
The membership is €100 to get in the door, and after this on the 5/5 tables its 25 quid an hour in rake, this is easily beatable.
On the 2nd day id AA and KK cracked, by 66 and 45s and was stuck 1800 early, however, over 2 nights in there i cleared €2100 after rake. I will defo be back, might like a week in paris after i get back from vegas.
Last night i just missed out of the sat for the SE 1k game online, making an unecessary move with 88 with 7 left and 3.5 seats, needless stuff, but then i won 4k at 10/20 afterwards, so good night in the end.
Overall im up $70k online in 2008 and now down €5k live. This leads to an overall profit for the first 5 months of about €40k.
Im going to play the 270 game in the fitz for the 1st time in a year tonight, then the 1k game in the sporting tomorrow.
On sunday week the 8th June im off to Vegas, playing the shootout on the 9th.
We have the house for 5 weeks, Marty has organised it, its a cool pad with pool table, swimming pool and even a basketball court, cant wait to get over there.