Back to basics.

Well after the positives and negatives it was back to basics and on Monday played the £20.00 re buy at Tees side.
Tees side has reintroduced a extra 15 minutes re buy period and cut down the time late entry,s are allowed to enter the tournaments in a effort to boost the pots.

With 40 odd players in the mix it was well attended and created a prize pool of over 3.5k a excellent start.

I actually got of to a good start and got chips quite early. Some decent starting hands and situations allowed me to finish the re buy period with double the average and with no re buys or add on,s.

I noticed my starting hand selection had improved maybe the verbal in Blackpool was still in my head.

The period between the end of the re buy period and the final table was a bit of a roller coaster for me twice my AK walked into pocket kings, but somehow managed to survive to make the final, lowest chips but hey beggars can,t be choosers.

The final was a long drawn out affair. I doubled and trebled up easily and also outdrew pocket kings with pocket jacks when a jack arrived on the flop (did I mention my son was called Jason)?.

Eventually a deal was discussed among the five remaining players. A even split of £600.00 for four of us and the chip leader taking £720.00.

Now as I have stated in previous posts I will only deal; if it is good for me, and this time it certainly was.
Factors were that with a average stack of just over a 100k the blinds were 5000/10,000 a crap shoot situ here.
Also it was now after 3am in the morning and we had been playing for 7 hrs long enough by any ones standards.

So my back to basics strategy has shown a instant success with a profit of £580.00 a real good start.

Resisting the temptation of the £10.00 re buys at Tee side I headed up to Newcastle for the £50.00 freeze out on Saturday.
With 53 runners it held a decent prize pool. A good starting stack and clock make this comp very player friendly maybe a bit too player friendly.

Down to the last couple of tables and fairly healthy in chips the following hand played like this.

Me holding 7 - 9 in late position opened the pot with a 3 x big blind raise, the big blind eventually called. He had a decent chip stack so my thought process was it might be possible to win this pot if a raggy flop appears, or, I might get paid if I flop a two pair or better.
The flop 10 - 10 - 8.
A nice flop for my hand defo a flop I can bet into.
However the big blind had other idea,s and opened up with 4k, I called leaving myself 8.2k.
Up and down I could certainly afford to see the turn and make my decision after the turn.
If I hit a six or jack felt I would get paid. However was a bit wary of his possible holding of jack ten.
A nice little six appeared on the turn.
The big blind immediately put me all in which I duly called, flipping over my straight but no match for his holding of 10 - 8.
He had flopped a full house.
EXIT ME.

Quite possibly I could of got away from this hand but would of been very hard. Did not feel so bad as over all I thoroughly enjoyed the game and played very well through out the competition.

A little compensation is I played the "pot limit" hold em game and managed to record a £260.00 profit for a couple of hours work.
I got paid off, on pocket fours on a flop of ace- four - two, my opponent holding ak.

Dave obviously did not know my son was born on the fourth!!!.


Trading went very well this week.

Eleven hours work produced a profit of £725.00, very nice and very welcome after the costs of Blackpool.

Did not have a lot of time on sports this week and it was the weekend before I could do any serious research.

Bet £200.00 on Preston to beat Norwich which obliged at evens.
Bet £200.00 on barrow which lost.

Sunday bet £200.00 on A.Madrid away at evens which lost.

So sports produced a loss of -£200.00.

So our previous balance was £15,023.00

POKER + £530.00

TRADING + £725.00

SPORTS - £200.00

CASH GAMES £260.00



Weekly profit £1315.00


Balance ends up at £16,388.00.

It was aprox 12 weeks ago I started this social experiment and already I/we have made £6,388.00, which is fantastic. We have had no major costs apart from Bolton & Blackpool.
We have also survived at bit of a barren spell loccaly at poker and with out tempting fate we may have just turned the corner.
It is too early to take the + 6k as a average but if we were we would be on a annual income of over 25k TAX FREE.!

So over all a forward step after the backwards one at Blackpool. I have to say I have enjoyed this week. Lots of rest in between poker, and playing quite well is a bonus.
Back to basics.

Congratulations go to Lynn Buemont who for the second year running has won the Betfair,s ladies championship.
As well as decent prize money Lynn also receives sponsorship into events next year.
A fantastic achievement well done Lynn.

As a footnote I joined in with a local syndicate for the scoop 6 jackpot at the weekend. As I know nothing about horse racing I left the selections to the experts.
So close with 3 winners and 3 seconds, unlucky, next time.

Now over to our weekly feature.

"Star in a reasonable priced blog".

The honour this week goes to non other than...

Tees sides own...

John Law.

Now any one who knows how John plays please let me no as honestly I have not got a clue.
After several years of playing along side John I am still not sure of what his game is all about but hey so what neither has John.

I am sure deep down in John,s head somewhere there is a strategy.

John has been one of the most consistent winners at local tournaments for many years.
Between here and Newcastle he has consistently won his pick of competitions.

Not content with local success John has transferred his success to national competitions.
He is currently ranked number 61 in the uk in the most prize money list, hot on the heels of the other two north east players Keith Hawkins & Carlo Citrone.

In 2005 John came as close as one could get, to winning a wsop bracelet.

In the $1000.00 no limit event, Heads up and pretty even in chips all the chips end up in the middle on a flop of J - 8 -5.
John opponent holding q-8 was deep in the mire against Johns holding of J - Q.
Unfortunately it was game over as a 8 appeared on the turn to give his opponent trips, so close but yet so far.

With countless final tables throughout the UK John is one of the most feared players on the circuit as his many ranking results confirm.

I think it is fair to say that when ever you are in a pot with John you are never quite sure where you are.

2008 has been a quiet year for John on his travels but I an sure it won,t be long before he re-discovers his form and justify,s his place in the north east,s top players

So John Law joins S Lui & K Hawkins as stars in a reasonable priced blog

until next time
L8