Close but no cigar.

WEEK COMMENCING MONDAY THE 1ST DECEMBER.

Before Luton on Thurs I played Teesside Mon and Tues. I did not cash in either event, but however did make the final on Monday which is my 3rd consecutive Monday final. Unfortunately I exited in 10th place which meant no financial reward for the effort as there were only 7 prizes.

Thurs bought the trip to Luton but also the snow that blanketed the north. It took me over a hour just to get out of Teeside. Down south there was no sign of any adverse weather. I managed to take my seat only 5 Min's late.

With 13 prizes and a first prize of just over 20 grand It was worth the effort of 220miles of continuous driving.

Ninety three hope fulls eager to get there hands on the wonga started the 1 day event, with a 45 min clock.

My starting stack of 5000 soon increased to 9000 by slow playing pocket kings versus AQ on a Queen high board.
Then I got moved tables!!!!!!!

Moved onto the table that included Mark Goodwin and Sam Tricket who had been busy early on increasing there starting stacks to well over 30k.

This table was really aggressive with both Mark and Sam having there own personnel duel. Nearly every pot was raised pre flop.
I certainly had to play a very patient game hoping to flop a monster hand and trap one of these but alas it did not happen.
Every time I was involved with either of them they slowed down or got out of the way.
It was only after the tournament ended when speaking to Mark did he confess that him and Sam had discussed my chip position in a break and had both decided not to double me up as they new if I had chips I was dangerous. A compliment there some where but as I was sat with them from 80 players down to 29 maybe you can realize how hard a position I was in.
Mark especially was in no mood to tangle he folded aq suited to my re raise preflop and pocket nines on a 5 5 2 flop ( I had pocket queens) but I could not extract anything out of him.
As the tournament progressed I never got over 12k in chips and it was down to my patience and blind stealing that I survived to 23rd place before exiting holding AJ suited versus pocket tens, the tens holding up.
Again I played the best I could giving the circumstances and with a bit more luck maybe I could have gone a little further.
I held pocket aces twice and pocket kings 3 times but all I got were the blinds.

I played the £250.00 1 re buy on the Thurs night.
Going really well i made a bad mistake to donk all me chips with the ever so grate full James Browning.
No excuses simple bad play on my behalf. The only saving grace is that since this blog started it is as far as I can recollect the only bad hand I have played.

My mate Dominic Kay 3 way split the event and as I had %5 of him it did return £270.00. Well played m8 hopefully you can use this to progress back onto the poker circuit.



Woke up Friday and decided to stay in Luton and play the Friday nights £200.00 rather than Bristol as to be honest I was pokered out.

Very unfortunate in this event as early on holding pocket two,s on a flop of 6 6 2 all my chips ended up in the middle versus the blinds holding of 6 4. He rivered a 4to leave me with a few chips which evaporated on aq versus pocket jacks.

After this played a little cash game £100.00 sit down no limit.

First hand I get dealt pocket jacks it is raised to £25.00 pre flop with two callers.It comes to me and i,m all in, they all call.

Flop
J 3 2 RAINBOW
SCOOP
good start.

I played my customary 3 hours showing a profit of £425.00, ah well i bit of a profit helps with the costs.

Now over to our regular feature...

"STAR IN A REASONABLE PRICED BLOG".

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

James Browning.

Again one of the stalwarts of the poker scene here in the north east, James seems to be around since time began.
James the ever so analytical has survived where many others have come and gone.
You say you learn off every player you come across and one of the best things you can learn from James is money management.
His experience in this department is with out doubt the best in the country, with out fear of contradiction. I have mentioned this before in previous postings in the blog how important it is. Sometimes when I am a bit indecisive about what to do I always ask myself what would James do.
A massive plus in this world in which we play.
You need many disciplines to survive in poker and gambling, but money management is the most important and James is the expert.

To survive in poker you certainly need to be able to play a bit and maybe James is a bit underestimated in this area by some.I hear it often "how can you play so tight" etc, I just laugh to myself and think he will still be hear in ten years time, but will you?.

James has been playing on the circuit as long as I remember. There have been no large cashes for James but consistent final tables for several years.
Year after year James consistently cashes and finances his way through the poker circuit.
This year James is ranked number 1 in the world in tournaments under $1000.00 and you can,t get much better than that.
Just last week James made another final at Luton in the £500.00 event.

James is one of the best cash game players in the country, I can,t think of anyone who consistently profits year after year.

To end, if calsberg could make a winning gambler then James would be it.

So that ends our 5 weekly series of the top 5 north east players in my opinion. As I said previously in no particular order apart from Steven Lui at number 1.

So Steve Lui, Keith Hawkins, J law, Hamid & James sit at the top of the pile in the North east with the standards and ability we all hope to attain.

Now the hard part I have to think of another feature for next week.

I have got something in mind which requires a bit of audience participation so tune in next week to find out whats in store.

I will update our bankroll next week once all this weeks costs have come through.

L8
A final well done to Dave Maudlin who finished in 6Th in the gala poker tour grand final yesterday. A excellent performance by Dave.
Dave has now earned the nickname of Dave awesome Maudlin.
well done m8.