Luton

Travelled over with Cat, who was gonna play the side events, met Paul Smallwood on the plane who had qualified online, and Dara had already played on the Thurs and had got through to day 2 with about 25k, hopes were high of a change in recent fortune.
Was having a decent year poker wise b4 vegas, disgusted with how i went over there, then online afterwards, despite winning 11k my first week back, i had a huge down turn.
Got 2 outered on river, all in pre or on flop 3 times for 4k+ pots in one day in 10/20.
Had a run of 6 bubbles in a row in 1k stts, 4 out of the 6 times getting it in dominating ahead.
I couldnt hit any draw, nor could i get anything to stand up, was unbelievable.
I was a little short on confidence going to Luton, but ready and knowing i still have a big edge in these GUKPT, and i really was due a result in 2008.
Got an ok first table and settled into the game, had about 10700 in level 2 when a guy who had been reasonably active made it 350 under the gun. I find KK on the button and make it 1100 to go. The small blind was a likeable, chatty sort of guy, he says to the utg, are u coming in as well, then he makes it 3600 to go. Alarms bells for me, utg folds , and i think about the situation.
Ive not been active, he must think i have a big hand, hes put in over 1/3rd of his stack out of position, and hes giving it some speech play, i start to fear the worst, then he says, u got tens there bud, trying to get me to think he might have jacks/queens, something i dont think he does if he actually has one of those hands, he must have aces, i fold the kings pre, he shows aces.
Bullet dodged, feel like im in the zone, and glad to still be in. Soon i play my second hand, i raise with AK, flop comes Kxx all hearts, i bet , get raised and fold again, show AJ hearts this time !!
3rd hand i flop top pair again, a 4th spade hits, he checks, i bet again, get raised, have to fold that with no spades. Finally, after a cut off raise, i get AA on the blind, I re raise for 1/4 my remaining stack, and go out to TT after a T hits the flop, what a nightmare 4 hours.......The way i ran in the states, and have ran in england all year is just unreal, surely i has to change soon.
Not in Luton though, despite doing well online over there, i actually won about 8k online over there (but then lost it during the following week where i more or less couldnt win a hand).
I dont want the blog to turn into a rant of bad beats, but jeez, i played the 100 side, game, the 250 rebuy side, and the 300 side, and didnt do very well. Cat went deepish in the 100 and 250, just missing the money and taking some beats too, depressing times for us.
In the 100, there was a local loon, literally jamming 3 times a lap, raising a showing air a lot, he had called a raise in 2 spots, open shipped a KK2 flop and showed 23 earlier. I finally get JJ after being card dead from the start, its loons button, i limp certain he will jam, he jams , i call, he has AA.
In the 300 game, i play really well, best hand i see in 5 hours in QJs, literally no AK, AJ, not one pair i could remember, im up to 26k, average 21k, and about 25 players left, blinds are 400/800 and the cut off opens for a large 4k, hmm, the button was short, and jamming a lot after being crippled, he jams again for 6k, i look at QQ in the bb, i re jam all in, cut off who has same stack as me has AA.
Incredibly, on the trip, i had JJ once, QQ twice and KK once, all 4 times someone had AA, odds on this are millions to 1, i had AA once, and lost to a set..........good bye Luton.
Well done to Dara, who played really well for a cash, he has an excellent report on this on http://www.dokearney.blogspot.com/, well worth a read.
Off to Cork next, surely i am overdue at this stage, will keep battling away.
Down €24k live now on the year, and up $70k online.......