Friday, July 27, 2007

All Work and No Play!

Apologies gentle reader, I planned to pull up the hand history of the last blogger and do a write up - as it is the most I have enjoyed a blogger game for some time (in terms of my play rather than the banter!). Silly boy that I am, sometimes - I didn't save the hand history, so lost it. Doh!

Anway, from what I remember, pushing all in with 88 after a raise from the overly aggressive Kennl and taking down his 10 J. Then my AK took down Acorn's 10s (shock horror!) and I was sitting about 3rd on the leader board. Few steals and re-raises with AA twice and KK once saw me flirt between 2nd and 3rd, and before I knew it, it was bubble time.
I don't remember a 'bubble period' lasting as long as this, with chips moving from one player to another fairly regularly. Odds were being taken on who would win/bubble and it seemed to change a lot!. MSaban raised and I re-raised with AA - he tried to pry out of me what I had, telling me he had KK and would fold if I told him i had AA. Not sure if he did - but out of respect to other players at the table, I couldn;t answer and he finally folded.
Then, i called in the SB with 56 sooted and Mike Saban checked his Q6 and we saw a flop of 5 6 2 (I think). When I 2 x bb bet, he pushed all in! Thought for a few mins as there was a str8 possibility, but decided to call and took his chips to put the remaining 3 players fairly level.
The lead stayed with Hammerheid for a while, adn Kronsdat and I took from each other, then came the hand that I thought had won it for me.
I raised to about 5 x bb with KQ sooted and Hammerheid called. It was a lowish flop and I bet about 3/4 of the pot, and he called. Oops, I'm in trouble here, methinks. Another low card hits the turn, and I'm thinking if I check here, I've lost and am seriously depleted. So I push about 3/4 of my remaining chips and Hammerheid thinks for a while before folding. I showed my bluff (I think) and was now the chip leader.
Kronsdat then took out Hammerheid and we were heads up. The hand I've blogged previously killed me and a few hands later K took down the pot for the win.

Overall, a good game, some great play on the final table - I got the feeling a few players were on the top of their game, and I was pleased, no honoured, to have taken 2nd :-)

Not played too much since, as work is so, so busy at the moment - seem to have a million things to do a day, get some of them done, only to find more at the end of the day. Need to get to grips with the Pareto Principal (80% of your results come from 20% of your time), but it does remind me of that very funny line from David Brent in The Office:

'I thought I could see the light at the end of the tunnel, but it was just a bloke with a torch carrying more work for me'

Looking forward to a night on the table tonight, feeling like I'm actually looking forward to playing.

Toodle Pip!

Sunday, July 22, 2007

Another Bridesmaid at the Bloggerment

3rd time as a bridesmaid (cough, cough - one time winner, of course!!).
First up, big up, massive respect to Kronsdat for winning.

It could have been very different, if my 99.6% favourite on the flop hand had won! But the way I've been running recently, I'm please to have gotten 2nd place -I felt I played well, tight, patient, aggressive at times, and one particularly brave steal when down to the last 3 that put me in a big chip lead. Sometimes the deciding factor is a little luck going against or for you - I experienced it myself when I won - so no complaints.

Report to follow tommorrow, it's getting late.

So I have to settle for posting this:

Thankfully, Acorn has washed it, though quite what those stains are around the 'rear' I don't know!!