All quiet on the eastern front

WEEK COMMENCING MONDAY 24/11/08.

After last Mondays success at Teesside took the obvious choice and again played the Mondays £20.00 re buy.
With once again over 40 runners a pot of just over £3.5k was generated.
While last weeks effort was a gentle route through the re buy period today's affair was a little more rocky. With my re buys mounting up I eventually got a hold of some chips just at the end of the re buys.
Not at all happy about some of the starting hands I played in this period, something I still have to work on.
Well they say football can sometimes be a game of two half's and so can poker.
All the hastiness of the first half disappeared as patience set in for part two.

Nursing a less than average chip stack through the numbers was precarious to say the least but some how I survived to reach my second consecutive Monday final.

All that was standing in my way was John Law one of the best players in Teeside with a boat load of chips and some one else who was at the opposite end in playing ability scale to John, but with a boat load of chips.

Somewhere in the middle were 8 other players hanging on for dear life.

Anyway a early double up at least give me the foundations to build and once Mr non ability shared his chips among the grateful dead we all at least had a chance.

After some patient play on my behalf I managed to get down to the last 3, J law and young Darren.
Now to be honest I really wanted to knock Darren out for no other reason than I wanted heads up with John.
I wanted to play him to test my game but unfortunately John had other ideas as he called my re raise with A 4, and my holding of A K held to take the pot.

Which left me and young Darren heads up. Darren is on a bit of a roll at the moment especially on the net where he seems to be tearing Ladbrokes up in tourneys for fun.
After the chip lead went back and forwards a few times we agreed to split first and second prize, both of us collecting just over £1000.00 for our efforts.

To summarize I really must not get into this multi re buy malarkey constantly and I have rediscovered my patience a necessary tool to survive in this shark infested poker world of which we swim.

Wednesday I played the £30.00 super satellite at Teesside for Galas grand final at Bristol.
With two seats available I exited in 10Th place. Was very pleased with the way I played and not too disappointed to exit holding A K versus pocket fives.
A lot better than the 75/25% of late.

Next week (Thurs) sees me travel down to Luton for the Grosvenor poker tour champions of champions tournament.
I qualified for this event by winning the £300.00 freeze out in January in Brighton. You can only partake in this event by winning one of the events on the gukpt, but the downside is the starting chips.
The starting chips is determined by the size of the event you won. So as a example I am starting with 5000 chips but some one who has won a main event will be starting with 10,000.
There is a prize pool of £70.000 so expect first prize to be about £20,000.00 so fingers crossed.
There is a mini festival on in Luton so will probably play some of the side events or dash over to Bristol for the Gala grand final on Friday.
No cast in stone decisions made as yet will take it as it comes from Thurs onwards.

Trading opportunities were a bit limited this week due to a busy schedule on my behalf . I managed to fit in 5 hours this week showing a profit of £95.00 which is very welcome.

Deal of the century.

I have been asked to include this story in the blog so never one to refuse OK then.

On the Sunday of the Teesside festival the night time event was a £50.00 double chance freeze out.
After being knocked out of the main by kq (it still hurts) I entered along with approx 70 others.
After the first ten hands I had done me first chance chips in and half of my second chance chips as well!
So I asked the guy next to me to slide his chips slightly into my box he reluctantly agreed, but thought I was bonkers.
Then I approached a couple of locals asking if they wanted %10. With in a few minutes I had secured (well at the last count it was 13) ten percents.

Now the coup de grace.

My monster hand of 7 3 off suit didn't fair to well against a raise and a re raise and I was out.
But now had umpteen 10% running for me lol.

The ironic ending to this tale is one of my percentages got a share in a deal and I have,nt seen em since.

Ah well "best laid plans of mice and men".

Now over to our bankroll.

PREVIOUS BALANCE £16,388.00

POKER PROFIT £920.00

SPORTS £no bets

TRADING £95.00

BALANCE £17,403.00.

Finally over to our regular feature " Star in a reasonable priced blog"

And the honour this week goes to non other than...

Hamid.

Now Hamid away from the poker table is one of the nicest people you will come across in north east poker but...
On the table he is simply awesome and certainly holds no Friends when playing.

When I said in a previous blog to progress watch the good players well this is certainly one you can watch. I know I did and it was the best decision I made.

Hamid along with S Lui have held captain at Newcastle since I started several yrs ago, consistency a sure sign of a winning player.

Hamid maybe has not played nationally as much as some but I have no doubt if he did regularly he would be up there with the best.

Hamid has showed consistent results when travelling.
Back in 2005 I remember Hamid tearing up a class Field of players not once but twice when winning two events out of 3 in Sheffield, including two firsts.

Back in 2002 Hamid recorded his largest cash when finishing 4Th in the £2500.00 main event named the "European championships".
He also finished 3rd in the £500.00 event at the same festival.
This was a fantastic achievement against a Field of some of the best players of the time.

I mentioned Hamid being one of the nicest people you can meet and maybe this little tale will verify this.

Way back not long after I first started Teesside held a poker festival. I at the time could only afford the side events, hoping to cash which would let me play the main.
No cashes in the side comps left me one chance to get in the main a one table satellite.
Before it started I was talking to Hamid and explained my precarious financial situation, asking his advice on weather if i did not get through how best to turn my remaining £120.00 into a seat. His reply perhaps demonstrates the man.

Look Paul go and play the satellite if you don,t get in I Will pay you in.
As it happens I won a seat but I have never forgot the offer.

So think this is a good way to end the blog and welcome Hamid as our 4Th star in
a reasonable priced blog.

May I take this opportunity to wish all the locals travelling down to Bristol for the Gala grand Final, come on lads
UP THE LADDER!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!

As a footnote I have put some of our blog money into betfair to let someone trade on our behalf. Can,t say who but next week we will find out how our initial investment has fared

until next week
l8.