Doubt
Yes, I’m afraid it’s another dour title. I know some would have me pegged as very loose/aggressive but some days it just feels like dreadfully weak/passive.
I went out in level 5, with 7000 chips at 150/300. I made it 850 with J-J and got swiftly re-raised by Norbet Holting, the tight guy. I re-pushed and there was a momentary glimmer of hope when he dwelt and even after the call with Q-Q, I picked up more outs on the 9,10,Q flop, but a fourth queen sealed the deal.
I bumped into Andy Black on the beach yesterday morning and ran it past him.
‘Down to 7000 I was looking for a spot’, I said.
‘Why were you looking for a spot’, was his reply.
I enjoy our occasional chats, Andy comes at the game from a different angle to most and I always go away with something new to mull over.
The real damage was done when I just called a Barry Greenstein raise with K-K. He led for 1200 on the 2,6,8 flop, 3000 on the turn and 6500 on the river. The board was ten high and I guess having played the calling game all the way I wasn’t about to pass on the river. Result; I got to see his set of 2’s.
I dunno, barring a pre-flop re-raise, if I do raise him on the flop I'm really not sure if I believe his inevitable re-push, so maybe by playing the hand so meekly I lost the minimum.
The one other hand that could have been played better was a pair of nines. Again I just called a raise from the aggressive Dutch player on my right, Peter, who’s surname escapes me. The flop was ten high, I called his 1200 bet and when he checked the second club on fourth street I bet 2000. He called, we checked the red jack on the river and his Ac-Jc scooped the pot.
There were other hands of course and pots that went my way but looking back the overall fault appears to be a lack of pre-flop aggression, especially when, in the above situations I had position. I don’t think I was overawed by the moment, I just took a too cautious approach and perhaps a lack of pre-match focusing was the root cause.
A real shame as this event is set on the most spectacular of stages; the card-room is breathtaking, with eleven of the biggest, most beautiful, glass windows I’ve ever seen, separated by mirrored columns that gently taper into the room, all allowing a dramatic panoramic view over the bay to Monte Carlo. Oh and as you can see, the roof comes off, James Bond style, at the push of a button.
Finally, I feel duty bound to mention Barry Greenstein’s jumper. I’m sure you’ve seen it on the telly and believe me, it don’t improve much in the flesh. Think Alan Partridge on a bad day. Perhaps it’s a decoy, there to distract and pacify his foe; whatever, it seemed to work as I wasn’t alone in donating a nice chunk of chips over to him.

Gold Soundz
I’ve always been into my sounds and grew up immersed in my Dads record collection; Beatles, ELO, Supertramp, Randy Newman some Billy Joel and by the time I was earning a few quid down at the local supermarket, it was regular trips into town on the bus to visit Dublin’s best second hand record store, Freebird in Grafton Street.
We picked up a new, deep bookcase recently which means that at long last, I can now get all my old vinyl out on display. Just seeing some of those old covers takes me right back, cataloguing my formative years into 12” size pieces.
Here’s a list of favourites, a little over the ten, with a crossover to CD about halfway through:
Friends, Beach Boys - very short, quirky and mellow, this sounds like it was knocked up in the garden shed using nursery instruments.
Tonight‘s the Night, Neil Young - Neil Young records manage to pull off the neat trick of feeling messy yet structured; a dark journey elevated by some alluring melodies.
Quadrophenia, The Who - a chunky double with a beautiful full size twenty page booklet containing grainy black and white stills depicting the gloomy scene. Quality product.
London Calling, The Clash - I was around at a friends house after school and he had managed to borrow this record for an evening - a double album in a single sleeve with handwritten lyrics on loose sheets. I was hooked after just one listen.
More Songs About Buildings and Food, Talking Heads - still so fresh and punchy after all these years.
Imperial Bedroom, Elvis Costello - twenty years on and I could still listen to this swish album every day.
Hatful of Hollow, The Smiths - the early Morrisey and Marr compilation.
Hawaii, High Llamas - one pot cooking with Brian Wilson, Burt Baccarach and Steely Dan
Dog Man Star, Suede - a sprawling, all encompassing, urban classic.
Wake Up! Boo Radley’s - sonic Beatles sounds.
XO, Elliot Smith - pained, beautiful voice with lyrics and irresistible tunes to match.
The Big Romance, David Kitt - complex, quirky, softly spoken electro folk.
A Ghost Is Born, Wilco - a great band, their best work.
The Trials Of Van Occupanther, Midlake - steeped in the 70’s its simple themes hark back to living in woods and hunting deer. Every track works and the two short closing tracks wind the album down beautifully.

Sulk
I travelled down to the very friendly Grosvenor venue in Cardiff with Chris Bruce in a swift, ever so slightly dangerous, two and half hour run - him driving, me pumping an imaginary brake.
It was a busy morning and I just never got around to eating anything before we set off; luckily Chris had some wine gums in the car. The tournament started at four but for some reason the casino saw fit not to serve any food until the ‘eat it if you dare’ buffet which was set for nine. The food and one or two inexperienced dealers aside, Blue Square once again put on a very good show (one girl put the discards straight back onto the top of the deck, good job she was pretty).
Even with just half the field present on Thursday, the place was buzzing. Neil Channing organised seventy five runner £200 last longer which is sure to be a nice 15k sweetener for one of the finalists. Yes, I partook, but no, I won’t be picking that pot up.
I was really, really card dead over the seven hours with one A-Q, one K-K with which I managed to pocket a whole 450 in blinds and 10-10 twice, both of which had to be slung.
The biggest pot I snagged was got by making a patented iffy call, in a raised pot, with an 8-6 on a suited 8,7,7,4,J board. That rocketed me up to 18k and with another one or two modest pots going my way I actually reached the dizzy heights of a low to mid twenties stack; the makings of a good session all appeared to be present.
I then overplayed a flush draw when I could have taken a free turn card, promptly dropping back to 15k after feeling somewhat obliged to bluff the river when I missed everything. Two 50/50’s headed south during the next two levels and I was on life support for the last half hour with a puny 6k. I found just about the worst spot when I made my last stand, calling all-in holding K-J against Roberto Romanello‘s big stack and A-K.
Tournaments are tough and with the numbers now regularly hitting three hundred, realistically I guess I shouldn’t expect to be hitting as many final tables; less finals in theory then, but more wonga when you eventually get there.
Chris, who finished the day on a very comfortable 50k, managed to shave twenty minutes off on the return journey home - luckily for me I got to sleep through most of it.

Here Comes The Weekend

We head down to Cardiff in the morning for Day 1a of the GUKPT. This is my third crack at it and it would be nice to get past level 5...in fact making Day 2 would feel like an achievement of sorts. Day 2's and final tables in Main Events have been something of a rarity in recent months and I have to go right back to last June at the Irish Poker Tour to remember what it's like.

I've done a little homework though, some tweaks and one or two small additions to the arsenal so yeah, I feel confident and am sure that I will get a good run at one soon, it's just that of course in doing so there may be many more early baths along the way.

We're straight onto Monte Carlo next week, with family in tow, for the EPT Grand Final and then it's the annual Easter pilgrimage to Dublin for what is bound to be the biggest ever Irish Open.

I'll decide whether or not to play the WPT Championship event at the Bellagio based on how I play/run at those three.

Dortmund EPT
Let me get some of the more amazing plays I spotted out of the way:
· 300/600/75, new guy arrives, I limp, SB makes it up and BB promptly passes. After the hand I mentioned that he was in the BB and his reply was, ‘Yes, that is correct’;
I dunno, maybe he's onto something, he did have more than his starting stack.
· 150/300/25, EP makes it 700, MP makes it 1600 and new to the table, they both looked rocky, I passed A-K. Back to EP, he re-popped it up to 5100 and MP called.
On a Q,7,5 flop EP took his time, asked for a count and eventually fired out 6000. MP dwelt long time and passed J-J face up. EP flipped up 6-6.
· A Johnny Lodden hand. A big crowd had gathered on the adjacent table so I sneaked a peak. All his chips were in the middle on a raise, re-raise, re-re-raise 3,3,10 flop. There was nearly 70k in the pot and Johnny’s last all-in push meant that the unknown foe only had to call another 6, maybe 7k. Somehow, he passed and Johnny flipped up A-5. How does he get away with that shit?
The good news was that on the five tables I played on, each had a good mix of ability and I was pleased with how I handled myself against the tougher foe.
A good start meant I was up to 20k by the end of level 2 but I was unable to build on that and had to wait right up until the end of level 9, when I flopped Broadway with A-Q. I almost doubled through and was just stacking the 35k when I picked up 8-8 in the BB.
I called a 3000 raise having posted 800 in the BB and opted for a check raise on the baby 2,4,4 flop. He made it 3000 and I re-popped to 9600. He took along time and finally re-pushed all-in for a further 12,500. I kinda knew I was behind but couldn’t bear to release, hoping that this was a real rush - it wasn't though and sure enough I got to see his two aces.
Down to 10k I didn’t hang about too long but couldn’t manage a suck-out when I ran an A-9 into two tens.
In all, I played a patient game, just perhaps a little too patient. Cardiff next week, a little tweak here and there, we’ll see what happens.

The Longest Day
The good people at Thomson neglected to let any of us know that they had postponed our flight home from Goa by 24hrs.
Just getting to the airport was a bit of an ordeal as the sun was very up by the time we eventually rolled back to the hotel...a few hours later, hungover and seedy, with minimum air con in the back of a mini Hiace, barrelling along the skinny and twisty roads really wasn't much fun.
When we finally arrived a Thomson rep broke the news, but luckily with just half an hour to spare I managed to get the last seat on the far superior Jet Airways plane; the only downside was a tedious eight hour stopover in Mumbia, where I at least managed to eventually get a cheap room and slept away the hangover.
I got into Heathrow at 7am this morning and am on my way to Luton for the afternoon flight to Dortmund.
I think i'll be skipping tonights welcoming party.

At Ease
There were two more comps out here which of course I couldn’t resist, a $500 and a $1000. I never got going in either which at least meant that feet have been put up and I’ve had a couple of hot and sweaty trips outside of the resort.
The beach at Palolem is pretty amazing with lovely warm, rolling waves, twenty odd beach bars and huts and a brilliant backdrop of tall curving palm trees.
On Saturday I slipped on some rocks trying to get from one beach to another resulting in a nasty bout of rock-rash on my right arm and back; not nice, but it could have been a lot worse. The water appeared to be shallow but being sandy, I couldn’t see the bottom and suddenly I plunged down about five foot, scraping myself as I slipped.
I doubt it’s gonna fall off or anything, but it’s in an awkward spot and will be a tight, stinging nuisance for a few weeks to come - worryingly, it’s also my raising arm and I’ll need to get some left-handed practise in by the time I sit down in Dortmund this Thursday.
The internet connection is extremely wobbly out here and a few of the online hotshots have had more than a few nervous disconnects, but sickeningly it seems to add to the thrill of it all; and naturally, once again, after a few days away with these guys, I feel drawn into depositing onto the latest soft site and having another crack at the cash games.
March and early April are so busy though that I’m being a good boy and haven’t booted-up for a fortnight, the plan being to hold back until at least after Easter, by which time I hope to have had a little coaching, along with learning the ins and outs of Poker Tracker or something similar.
It’s a day off today then we fly back to Gatwick tomorrow evening where I stop over before heading to Dortmund in the morning, with a suitcase full of (dirty) shorts and T-shirts; I hope the German dress code isn't too strict.

The Come Down
After seven hours of steady progress, I bombed out of the APC tournament in level 8. I was up to 20k by the end of level 4 and pretty much hovered around there for rest of the evening.
I’d played a patient game but just had one of those rash/frustrated/ray of hope type situations. I made it 1800 with A-J and the aggressive BB re-raised me to 5500.
I swear I meant to pass but this chap, aggressive as he was hadn’t yet played back at me and I just had a hunch that this might be the on cue re-steal, so all of a sudden I’ve kind of convinced myself that I can still pick this pot up and so I re-pushed, another 14k all-in, but he shrugged with a well I guess I have to call you type look and flipped up an A-K and out of the blue, just like that, I’m was out the door.
Cue rocketing body temperature, immediate depression and a frantic longing to be home; bad beats are nasty, but when you only have yourself to blame it feels a whole lot worse.
Fortunately, a gang of us left the resort not long after and headed down to one of the Palolem beach bars for some beers and a few hours later it didn’t seem quite so bad.

The Run Up
Three days in and all is well. I played the lively super satellite yesterday, went deep, played well but just couldn’t muster a final push.
We played a few sit and goes in the wee small hours on Tuesday, £100 in and I found myself with a big chip lead heads-up. Dubai was bored though and bought the short stack for £400, went all-in blind on consecutive hands, I of course obliged; what on earth was I thinking, you can guess the rest.
A lot more players have turned up since we arrived and any doubts about various guarantees getting met can hopefully be forgotten.
I’ve been pretty lazy, not rising until lunch is almost over but I did manage an early-ish night tonight and will be rewarded with a beautiful pre-breakfast dip in the warm sea tomorrow morning.
Tan-wise, the arms and face are coming along nicely but any notions of a bronzed tummy, chest and legs are futile; it pains me to report that they will be, forever pale.
The tournament starts at one, great structure, good line-up, good overlay, lets try not to muck it up.