The Easter weekend of 2012 was spent like every Easter weekend should be spent, poker-ing it up.

I arrived up at the Burlington late Thursday night and ended up staying the full weekend till Monday evening. For the craic, I’ve decided to give an almost “session-by-session update” of my weekend, along with thoughts on the session. Unfortunately, since there were a good few sessions, I won’t remember all the specifics from hands. I jotted down a few of the bigger hands following a session in my phone, so most of these are based on four-line summaries of 6 hour sessions. Read more…

I’ve been thinking about changing the style of this blog a bit. So far, it’s mainly been tourney reports with a few other things thrown in. I’ve been thinking about spicing the blog up a bit and throwing in some more random stuff. This could be anything from more pictures and links within blog posts, to extra blog posts about stories that don’t quite fit into any other one blog post. We’ll see how it goes, but hopefully it’ll make the blog a bit more interesting to read. Read more…

So unfortunately, things have been pretty quiet and pretty uneventful lately. I’ve played two tourneys since my last post and I also played my first cash sessions of the new year.

I didn’t play any cash in January but came back with a bang in February. The first session recorded was a one figure win (a fiver) and in the second session, I won SEVEN TIMES THAT! (that’s 35 euro for those of you that did pass maths). The run continued and I brought my winning streak to 4 sessions in a row (thankfully #3 and #4 were in the 3-digit range). All streaks have to end sometime and this one ended with me losing a ~€1300 pot. It was a bit of a gross one (4 way action, 10d8d on a 9dJsKd, turn came a queen, got all the monies in, up against AdJd, Q9o (and a hand that was mucked before showdown) and the river came a ten) but I can’t complain. I’ve been experiencing the nicer side of variance in the cash games recently and long may it continue! I haven’t been playing every night, but any night I have played, the games have been pretty decent. 1-2-5 ROE or sometimes just PLO, with a decent bit of money on the table. They’re not huge games by any means, but there’s definitely enough money there to make it worth going in. Read more…

I haven’t quite gotten off to the start I would have hoped for 2012. I’ve played two tournaments, the IPC and the IPPF and bricked both.

I kept meaning to write a blog but never quite got around to it due to Christmas and it’s associated events.
In my last post I said “The year isn’t over yet though, and there is still some stuff to do between now and December 31st!”. One of the those ‘things’ to do was win a tournament, and I’m happy to report that I can check that off the list. I was hoping it would be the $10mil guarenteed on Stars, but the 7 figure will  have to wait till 2012. Read more…

I won’t quite do the full year review post just yet. I’ll save that for a bit later in the month, coupled with the ‘aims for 2012′ post! Right now, I think it’s just time for a brief update on how the poker has been going. Read more…

Things have not been going well lately. Since my last entry, I’ve been to Dublin twice for the BoylePoker IPO and the PaddyPower Irish Winter Festival. Neither have went well…Read more…

I’ve been taking it easy since Killarney and have only ventured out to play twice. Was a bit burnt out after a lot of weekends away so was looking forward to staying put at home for a while. Just had a look there, and I was actually away 6 weekends out of 7 from mid-August to the end of September. Throw in a few cash games along with that and you really do see the hours and the miles pile up. Obviously the fact that things haven’t been going swimmingly does make the whole grind a bit tougher to deal with. Read more…

Here’s a hand from last Wednesdays game that I was fairly disgusted over…

About a half an hour I hit quad fours there’s 32 odd left and my tables 8 handed at 100/200 blinds I wake up with UTG+2. Folded to me I make it 575 with around 14.5K behind. Nick is in middle-late position and he thinks for a bit before 3 betting me to 1650 in total. Everyone quickly folds and it’s back to me. I’ve played with Nick before obviously, and I think Nicks range is huge here and I think I’m mostly flipping, but I also think he might do this with AJs or less depending on his mood. I obviously could be dominated, and I contemplate re-raising as Nick had around 8300 starting the hand. If I raise to around 4.75 I put him at a decision for his stack, as apposed to flat calling and playing out of position for the remainder of the hand. I neglect the raise and make the 1075 call. Flop come . Top two and backdoor nut flush draw. I think about how best to go about the hand and decide to check hoping he c-bets, I can flat and get his stack in on the turn or river.. Nick bets 2k into 3650. Leaving him with 4625. I don’t know if it’s better to shove as he has committed nearly 50% of his stack into the pot already. The turn could bring scare cards that might get him off the hand, such as another club, another ace or Queen (all depending on what he has obviously). I flat and the turn bring the . NUTS! I’m hoping he thinks this is a card he can shove bluff. I check, and Nick takes a min before shoving.. I instant call of course, as Nick turns over . I think he shoved on the Queen knowing he was behind, put it was a great spot to bluff if I didn’t have it. 97% to win the pot I’m happy out. With a stack of 28.3k I’d be in the race for chip lead and have a stack to build on for the final table. Unfortunately the dealer turns over the case , I’m left disgusted and a pot of just under 17k to split….

Afterwards I wonder all the ways that pot could have played out differently, any thoughts?