Blackpool GUKPT

Just a quick post to wish Sunny gl, he goes into the final day of the Blackpool GUKPT main event, 4th in chips with 13 left. Good luck also to our good friend Martyn Cavanagh. Full chip counts below:

Martyn Cavanagh -- 257,000
Sunny Chattha -- 305,000
Brian Clarke -- 145,500
Damian Evans -- 225,000
Zachary Ford -- 151,000
Darren Hickman -- 244,500
Andreas Hoivold -- 519,500
Guy Johnson -- 360,000
Gareth Jones -- 225,000
Herbert Kasbauer -- 81,000
Eddie Lundon -- 198,500
Stephen Slavin -- 114,000
Alan Vinson -- 613,500

Updates will be here from 2pm http://blondepoker.com/forum/index.php?topic=38327.0

Other than the main, we've played a few of the side events. I finalled the omaha event, finishing a slightly disappointing 8th but nevermind. I also had a fun time in the £500nlh - came back for day 2 with 3bb after getting Skalied on the final hand of day 1. Ran that up to the chip lead with 3 tables to go and then bubbled it lol. 

Not sure if James plans on doing a write up of his TV event as we're travelling for another week or so and he hasn't got a laptop atm. The result was accessible from the link I put up before, he ended up finishing a very unlucky 4th for $40k. 

888.com Poker Open V Final Table

Since my last post, James and I have been to Dublin and back, Praz and Jim have played EPT Budapest, I went to the Grosvenor Grand Prix and James and I both played the latest TV event, the 888.com Poker Open V.  We both cashed in the €1500 main event in Dublin but no big scores, Praz had his usual sickness in the EPT, losing AK to AK then AK to KJ deep on day 2. The Grand Prix paid 45 places out of 57 runners, so cashing there wasn't exactly an achievement. 

On to the more important stuff tho, I finished 3rd in my tv heat, stop n go'ing 6s into A4, but James came through his unscathed and into the semi which played out yesterday. After an epic 3 handed battle (top 2 go through to final) he came through again to take his place in tomorrow's final. Below are the chip counts and payouts. 

Michael Keiner (518k)

Paul Zimbler (418k)

Craig Young (411k)

James Akenhead (289k)

Richard Wheatley (282k)

Mike Partridge (182k)

We're all going down to the studios tomorrow to cheer him on. Updates will be found here tomorrow:

http://www.matchroompoker.com/forums/forumdisplay.php?f=5

One time etc. 

Thanet GUKPT main event final table

This was the 18th leg of the GUKPT since the tour began in Jan 2007. Since finishing second to Praz in the inaugral event I've only sniffed the cash once, bubbling leg 3 in Manchester. Thanet was to be my second cash on the tour, and my second final table. 

Late on day 2 I was moved to Praz's table. I had just over average and he was flying with a newly acquired double average stack. At this point things were looking good for another double final table but the deck soon saw to that pitting praz's A3 up against 55 on a board of Q335A, with praz having led the flop. When play got down to 3 and then 2 tables, I ran quite bad with the table draw. Our table was by far the strongest. With 20 players left I held the chip lead after a couple of nice double ups, 1st when an otherwise solid player went mental on me with 10 9. I hadn't raised his blind once so far but my reputation preceded me when i made it 6k to go and he moved in for 70k. Kings held. I then picked up kings again an hour later and got it in preflop against the Chip leaders 9s and held. From there things didn't go quite so well and as play got more short handed my table draw and dry run of cards saw me finish the day in 8th spot when the final table bubble burst. 

From here I needed a nice run of cards or a fortuitous double up to get back in contention. This final was considerably stronger than in Bolton but I still thought at 9/1 I was a sniff of value, as was Andrew Teng at 8/1. For me whichever of us could double up would have a shot at taking on Chip Leader Jamie Brown. Unfortunately it wasn't to be me. After Simon Trumper quickly departed in 9th place, I followed soon after having played just 2 hands. In the 1st there was 1 big blind as the sb had just busted. We we playing 4k 8k and I raised to 20k from the cut off with KJ. Dave Penly called in the bb and check raised my flop bet of 24k to 60k on a board of 8 7 2 rainbow. I was forced to pass and he accidentally flipped his cards exposing A9. I'm not sure if Dave makes this play if he hasn't lost a chunk on the 1st hand to the Chip leader. Am still slightly surprised as if I turn up with a hand here he's done most of his stack on the 1st 2 hands he plays. In the next hand I'm dealt AJo and now with 10bb I open shove and am looked up by Paul Rigg's AK and don't improve. That was fun. 

On Wednesday me and James go to play the televised 888.com UK open. This is my 1st event in this format, James and Praz have both played one before. Betting is available on Blue SQ and our line ups are:

Heat 4          Wednesday 29th AM

 

 

 Karl Mahrenholz              5/2

 Rob Cooper                     9/2

 Richard Berridge              9/2

 Anu Sareen                     5/1

 Didier Deckens                5/1

 Rodolfo Ploeger               5/1

  

Last Longer       Karl Mahrenholz       4/7           Anu Sareen     5/4

 Heat 5         Weds 29th PM

 

 James Akenhead             3/1

 Ciaran O'Leary                 7/2

 Dimitri Mascarenhas         9/2

 Paul Grummit                   5/1

 Thomas Combet               5/1

 Willie Bruer                      5/1

 

 

Last longer      James Akenhead       8/11        Ciaran O'Leary      Evs

Basically these events are crapshoots, but there is a certain amount of strategy in them and by the looks of the ones I've seen before, not many people play them correctly. Anyways, should be fun am looking forward to it

Karl

Road Trip

The idea of a road trip conjures up images of spring break, sun, speed and all else "s". Was a coastal trip of Southern England encompassing all the delights that Brighton and Margate had to offer in October going to fit the bill? Probably not but then, this is work remember. 

The main event at the "Harbour Lights" festival at the Rendezvous was the first stop, and a much better than expected line up turned out for this £500 affair. 15k chips and an hour clock 

ensured there was plenty of play. A fully champered up Flushy was in good form and quickly took care of James by finding a way to get A10 all in pre and get there against a frustrated pair of queens. At least the dog was able to make the most of the ever over expensive Seattle hotel which came in second in the value stakes only to a tournament with £50 juice that wanted to charge for a buffet. Frankie & Bennys ftw. 

I'd managed to play some really interesting pots against some fun opponents by the time 

one move too many had seen me dwindle low. Dave Colclough had been playing very snug all day and so I was fairly sure his late position raise on my blind did in fact indicate a hand. J8hh isn't getting passed for a minimal raise though this side of the brighton pier and a couple of hearts on the flop followed by a check raise all in was enough to send me in search of James. Was nice to learn later that fellow Blue Sq stable mate Kevin "oh look my giraffe just changed colour" O'Leary locked up the win. Wp that man. 

Sunday was a lazy day before we drove around the coast to find the answer to the question 60% of my facebook friends were posing....where exactly is Thanet? The lovely Lady on my Sat Nav was over-ruled by an instant Jaymee. Equipped with nothing but a strong sense of smell and a determination to drive along the sea, Jeff and I followed behind in my car whilst wondering if we should accidentally get lost so we could go back on the M25. To be fair we made it to the wonders of the Travel Lodge Margate in record time, stopping only for an Authentice Italian in erm, Rye. 

During the week I heard many references to the Travel Lodge as "prison cell bock H" and the like but I would like to put forward the case for it being the ultimate in Hotel Accommodation. Not only was it on the door of the casino, with an all important Nandos, F&Bs and Chiquitos within folding distance the maid had developed the best ever method of putting fresh towels, toiletries etc in a bag outside your door rather than bursting in 4 times every morning like every other maid in hotel history has done. A poker player's dream.

The GUKPT undercard this time around included a £200 and £300 NLH and a juicy looking £100 plo rebuy. The locals were out in force and were something a bit special. I managed to make the final 2 tables of all 3 whilst missing the money in all. James finalled the £200, Jeff the £300 and then again winning the PLO. But for a standard double suited aces all in moment with 12 left (thankfully not against Fraser this time) I might have given him a run for his money in that one. Here are a couple of the more interesting/fun hands from these side events

(1) £200 event day1, I'm drawn on James' start table and have got off to a great start, chipping up to abot 25k from 6k. I've been raising pretty much every pot that James hasn't beaten me too and pick up AsKh. The big blind is the only caller, a local and seemingly erratic player with a penchant for overbetting. The flop comes J 10 3 all spades. He bets into me for 2x pot. I make a big reraise and he instantly moves the lot in. I make the obligatory call and get shown the 10h and 6d. I was never going to crack that and a shot at a 45k stack when the average was 9k was gone. He enlightened us as to his thinking about the hand when stating he was going to go play roulette if he busted. Same game different table. 

(2) £200 event day 1 - last level of the day, again I'm sharing a table with James. Also on my right is a short stacked Mickey Wernick. In this hand he limps in on the button, I complete the SB with 105o and the bb checks. At the time I had the BB tagged as a weak/tight/passive kind of player. I was later to find out he makes roulette boy look like Phil Helmuth. The flop comes down A K 3 rainbow and I lead at the pot, pretty sure Mickey isn't limping with any of that and that the BB is trapped in the middle and can't really play with most of his hands. Anyway, he calls and Mickey passes. I'm pretty much done with the hand now, not intending to spew chips off to someone with the intent of calling me down. The turn is a 4 bringing a second spade. I check and he checks behind. Just as I'm thining how nice a 2 would be, the 2s rolls off on the river completing the back door flush and giving me a wheel. The pot stood at 5k at this point and I decided to go for full value and bet 5k, attempting to test his stubborness. The BB player laughed and said "5 for a 5?" Which was immdeiately followed by "I'll raise, 5k more". Not giving this guy any credit for being able to make a move, the speech and his overall demeanour convinced me he thought he had the best hand. Sure I could be chopping but it's not too likely we both have a five and surely any sane animal is going to just call the river with a 5 now the flush has completed. I gave him credit for Ax of spades, sighed and mucked my hand. He turned over Kh2c for a rivered 2 pair, turned to me and said "I thought you had a straight". Go figure.

(3) £200 event day 2. I made it back to day 2 with an average stack and 25 people remaining. I was sat next to Mr Colclough again. The only other person I recognised was the guy from Banzai who has taken over the Bet365 adverts. We later began to refer to him as Mr GAMBOOL. He like to...GAMBOOL. I'd played only a couple of hands prior to my exit hand, losing less than I probably should have to Colclough with a flopped top pair against his pair and flush draw in the blinds. The others I'd won uncontested. In this hand it's folded to me in the small blind and I make a standard raise with a pair of 7s. Mr GAMBOOL comes along for the ride. The flop is Q 6 4 with 2 clubs. I make a continuation bet which is called. My read on the flop was he wasn't too strong. He took his time to call and didn't look too pleased. 

The turn was an off suit 5 now giving me an up n down draw. With the stack sizes as they were I could bet again and if called there were lots of rivers which would leave me with an awkward stack size and not being entirely sure which rivers will have hit my opponent. I decided to go for a check raise all in and luckily Mr G obliged with a nice chunky turn bet which confirmed to me I was winning. Mr G was so distraught by this that he had to whip out his Lucky Buddha and go into the tank for a good 3-4 minutes. It was obvious Mr G was a local hero and the rail quickly filled as this pot developed. After an eternity he echoed the words ok...GAMBOOL and his J2 of clubs emerged victorious much to the excitiment of seemably everyone in the casino. Marvellous.

As the main event started we all felt very happy with how we'd been playing this week and hopefully that we could catch a break or 2 and make it deep. Afterall each of us had only cashed (and finalled) one of these before. Hopefully it was our turn again. 

GUKPT 2008 - Leg 8 - Thanet

By Sunny Chattha
We will be in Thanet (Broadstairs/Ramsgate/Margate etc) this week for leg 8 of the GUKPT. Full tournament schedule available at http://www.gukpt.com/

Hopefully I can celebrate my 23rd birthday by winning one of those blue square paper weight/trophy thingys. Good luck everyone playing, have fun. weeeeeeeeee.

Catch up

By Karl Mahrenholz
So here's a few hands from the WSOPE and EPT that I've played this week.

The £10k WSOPE main event is fast establishing itself as the premier event of the year. Certainly in Europe. I much prefer playing in this event than I do say, Monte Carlo. Day1A saw me draw a table with Phil Ivey, Tuan Lee and Markus Golser. Action was fast but that was fine with me and I played a small ball style, never reraising before the flop, setting a few traps and making some moves post flop. I cruised up to about 60k and by leve

l 3 was vying for the chip lead. Everything in fact was going so smooth that I knew something would happen before the end of the day, although I did have to wait for the last level for it:

(a) Playing 150/300/25 I raised the button with 97 to 775. Willie Tann called in the big blind. The flop came 9 4 9 with 2 diamonds. Willie checked, I bet 900 and he check raised to 2900. I called. The turn brought an offsuit 6. Willie bet 4900 and had 13k behind. Passing is obviously out of the question, so raise or fold? If he has me beat He's probably going to bet about 9k on the river and I'm probably going to pay him off. If he was slow playing an over pair before the flop he would probably slow down on the river, if he gets called again. If he has a flush draw should I let him see the river without forcing him to put all of his chips in? My decision at the time was to set him all in. He called and tabled J9 which held. In retrospect I prefer just calling and seeing the river in position, but I don't think setting him in is too much of a m

istake and I'd only have saved a few chips in this instance.

I therefore came back on day 2 with a rather disappointing 32k which was slightly below average. Having said that, the super structure of this event meant I still had plenty of play. The key hand of today's play came about half way through the day

(b) Playing 300/600/75 I had just moved to a new table, on which I recognised Joe Beevers, Jamie Key, Chris Moorman, some old Full Tilt guy (Steve Brecher?) and Ted Lawson. I also recognised the Russian kid who won the Aussie Millions but didn't know his name. In this hand UTG+1 raised to 1700 (youngish American guy) and I called in the cutoff with AQcc. The button also called (another American online player). The flop came 10c 9d 2c giving me the nut flush draw. UTG bet out 3500. I was playing 35k at this time and decided to make it 10,500 to go. By the time action was back on me, the button had make it 35k and the original raiser had moved all

in. Both players had me covered. Wow. The original raiser pretty much had to have a set of 10s or 9s, leaving the button having either another set, or possibly something like 78cc. Worst case scenario, would be being up against a set and 78cc, leaving me with 6 outs on the flop. If I was up against 2 sets I'd have 8. I had to call 25k to win just over 80k, just over 3/1. If both players had sets I'd be getting about the right price, but if two of my outs were in either of my opponents hands I'd be little better than a 4/1 dog to win the pot. After lenghty consideration I decided to pass, figuring that with such a good structure, I could still work with 25k and get it in in better shape. I would have been up against 109hh for the EP raiser and a set of 2s for the button. The turn was a jack, which would have given me and extra 6 outs, and the river a blank 3s. Despite the fact that I would have missed, I think if I could play this pot again I would have called. If this hand had have been in any other event but the WSOPE I would definitely have called, because the structure of most events aren't so forgiving. However, t

his was a great opportunity to get a big stack, With such a strong field I'm not sure it is right to pass up this type of opportunity.

I nursed my short stack through to the end of the day, without getting any good spots to try to double up. I reshoved on moorman a couple of times blind towards the end as he seemed to have some sort of fascination with my blind :) I came back for day 3 on a short 33k, blinds would be 800/1600/200. My bust out hand is in my previous post, kinda standard given my stack size and the other opponents that were in the pot. 20 off the money, sigh :(

After busting from the WSOPE I quickly learnt that the EPT london was a sell out. I guess I really misjudged this, I know there was added money but I thought in generals the size of the fields were on a downward trend this year, and I don't remember this event selling out last year? Anyways, I wasn't too fussed about playing it after the disappointment of the WSOPE but by the time Thursday came, there I was queuing up as an alternate. I got in with 40 mins of the 2nd level still left, so not too bad. I had a different game plan in mind for this tournament than I had employed in the WSOPE. Mostly due to the different structures but also in part due to a lot of thinking I've given recently to my tournament game and my general approach in these events. I chipped up to about 12k and then in the second round of level 5, the following hand happened:

(c) I'm on the button playing 12k, blinds are 150/300/25. My image from the earlier levels was quite solid but since the last break, I've raised and reraised a couple of pots in the last round or so. The big blind in this hand is a young English player. I've learnt a little bit about his game from both watching him at this table (raising 107ss utg) and through things he has told me (was friends with the Hinkles and railed Grant against James). I know his perception of me would be as an aggressive player and he seemed the type who would want to play back at me. Anyway....on this hand I picked up JJ on the button and raise to 775. I'm dying for him to make a play at me. so him making it 2500 was both expected and very welcome. I can't really just see a flop with this hand and I'm never passing if I make it 6600, so I deicded moving all in would show more weakness. He made a brave call with a pair of Kings and they held.

As I got out of my seat and made my exit, at the exact same time Praz was busting. His KK in the big blind no good against the aggressive button players AA. Must be so nice to be on the right end of these set ups. We both walked over to see Chaz was also all in. The thing about railing Chaz, is that you know when his money is in he's got the best hand. (Very similar to watching Jaymee....). He turned over a pair of kings and we all looked on as his opponent's pair of tens makes a straight. We run good.

Gonna finish this post with one more hand. Praz played the £20k high rollers event today at the Vic. Here is his exit hand, courtesy of Poker News

Disaster for Praz

Jani Sointula raised form the button and Praz Bansi in the blind reraised. Eventually they were both all in and on their proverbial backs.

Sointula:
Bansi:

Flop:

Turn:

River (close your eyes, Praz fans):

Bansi, a well-known and well-liked UK pro who freerolled his way into this tournament, looked as close to vomiting as I have ever seen a poker player look while still at the table. Sointula doubled up to 89,000, while Praz was down to just 13,000.

A dejected Bansi got the last of his chips in a few hands later with against John Juanda's , and a board put his cashing dreams to sleep.

Busto 60th in £10k WSOPE

Exit hand from Poker News...will write up a brief report later on

The biggest pot of the tournament has just been played out.

Frenchman Jean Thorel raised to 8,000 from the cutoff before Justin "BoostedJ" Smith reraised to 22,600. Karl "Mantis" Mahrenholz then called all in from the small blind for 21,200 and Thorel also made the call.

The flop came    and in flash of action Thorel moved all in, a big overbet compared to the pot, and a snap-call by Smith created a huge pot.

Mahrenholz:   
Thorel:   
Smith:  .

The turn came  and river  to confirm Smith rockets to the top of the leader board as his two opponents made their exit

London Calling...

I've been asked by a lot of people I've bumped into over the last couple of weeks when the site's going to be updated. Well, seeing as my compadres aren't exactly avid writers, you'll have to put up with my mumblings again...

The WSOPE began at the Empire this week and this kicks off quite a big couple of weeks with the massive EPT festival also already in swing. I played both the £1500 and £5k PLO events this week without much joy. I'll share a couple of interesting hands with you:

(a) £1500 nlh event. Still playing 25 50, UTG limps on the BB of the guy who's yet to turn up. MP limps and i'm in the SB with AA. Stacks are still 6k effective. I elect to raise to 300. UTG is a fairly tight player who will respect my raise but the MP limper has a much wider range and has seen most flops since we started. UTG folds, and MP announces raise, and makes it 700 total. This did take me by surprise as, although it's still early, I had a very solid image and was raising out of the small blind. For this reason I didn't want to reraise again and called looking to play a big pot on any safe flop. The flop came down K 5 5 which wasn't really what I was looking for, as KK was a definite possibilty. I checked and he checked behind. The turn was a ten. I checked and he bet 300 into 1500. I was worried by his post flop actions thus far, but my hand was quite under represented and so I elected to raise to 1000, both to gain information and to build a pot against AK types hands. He reraised to 2800 and I was forced to lay my hand down. In retrospect I prefer a flat call of his initial turn bet. If he has a hand which can call my turn raise (that I can beat) like AK, then if I call he is almost certain to value bet again on the river. If he has less than AK then he can't call my turn raise anyway. So a mistake, I think, but I would probably have lost the same amount of chips by checking and calling again on the river (unless that is some how he didn't have K's full). 

I did work my way back up to the 6k starting stack but could never really kick on. I continued to play solid and in the next notable pot I played, I raised UTG to 550 with AK at 100/200. A player in MP asked how much the raise was before saying "make it 1800". Action was folded to me. I felt for sure he had a big pair, QQ's most likely. He too had not been getting out of line thus far and this didn't exactly seem a great spot for him to make a move. I felt if I moved in I was getting called and so elected to see the flop and hope to connect. A low flop saw me check and him move all in. This hand has triggered much thought in my mind about the concept of embracing races in tournament play. I have always been of the mindset to avoid unecessary races, especially early in the tournament, but I have some very good players talk on the topic and who are of the opinion that this is a mistake. No one's edge in any tournament is that great and the chance to ammass a stack which you can then use to really kick on is worth the risk of early elimination. Food for thought.

(b) £5k PLO. My table draw saw me seating with Annette, John Tabatabai, Padraig Parkinson, Brandon Adams and David Williams. John and Annette were both very quiet and playing completely opposite to how you would see them both in a NLH tournament, obviously due to their lack of experience at this game. Padraig was also sitting tight, whilst the action was being driven by Brandon and David. I was quite impressed by Brandon and he began ammassing chips early. David however....

Blinds are 150/300. Williams raises from EP (he's opening a lot of pots) and I am the only caller(with a very solid image) from the sb with AdKd9c8s. The flop is Js 10s 5h. I check and he checks behind. I was quite surprised by this check as he seemed to be continuing on almost every flop. I could rule out the nut flush draw as I knew for 100% certainty he bets that and could also rule out Js, 10s or J 10. The turn card came another 10 and this looked like a good card for to make a move at the pot. I bet 1400 and Williams called. I was surprised by this call and assumed that he must have a bare 10 with 3 other random cards. The river was the 5s, pairing the board once more and completely the flush draw from the flop. I hadn't pretty much given up on the pot and decided to check. William's now bets 2500. This bet didn't make any sense to me. Given how he had played the hand it was impossible for him to have a strong hand here. I had 6700 behind and decided that he was either trying to value bet very thin (when he couldnt possibly get called by worse) or somehow had nothing and was floating my turn bet. Either way I didn't think he could call a check raise and so I, without much hesitation, moved all in for 4500 more. Now I know that he is getting over 3/1 odds on this call but any half decent poker player should be able to think through this hand and realise that it's almost impossible for me to me bluffing here. The fact that my check raise isn't huge surely makes it look even stronger. I'm exactly representing JJ or J 10 and (although granted he has never played plo before) this is how I would play those hands 80% of  the time. You can probably guess that yes he did make the call, and when i tapped the table he proudly turned over his 9h7s4s3h for a 7 high flush and the look on his face confirmed what a genius he truely believed he was. I would love to have stopped him before he called and asked him what hand he thought I had but seeing as he probably gave this no consideration I guess it would have been pointless. After this hand I had to sit through another couple of hours of genius plays as he put on a masterclass of how to limp in with hands such as J993 rainbow and flop top set, whilst getting someone else to put in 20k on a flush draw. I departed shortly before the dinner break, making my move with 2nd pair and the nut flush draw and getting a call by top and bottom and failing to get there. gg, fml. 

James has had good runs in both the preliminary events, cashing in the £1500 event and spending most of day 1 of the PLO as chip leader before running into a series of bad beats. On the very last hand of the day he check raised all in on a 5 4 4 board with A4 and got called by another genius with a flush draw. 

I took down the 200r on ipoker last week, and final tabled it again tonight before messing up one hand and then losing a race for the rest. Praz has secured his seat for the £20k high rollers event at the Vic next week which should be exciting. Despite an inevitably tough field, the smaller number of runners gives a great opportunity at a huge score. I'm playing day 1a of the WSOPE main event and am hoping for a run as good as last year. Will try to update more frequently on here along the way. 

Karl

Sleeping on the job

By Karl Mahrenholz
Bit of an overdue update I guess. Wanted to give James' piece enough airtime combined with general lazyness and not really being motivated enough to write much when nothing much has been happening I guess

Had a fun if unfruitful week at Luton for the GUKPT. As far as side events go the PLO (shock horror) was the most eventful. Down to 2 tables I was about 3rd in Chips and sat next to a certain Ian Fraser. He had gained a chip lead stack through some eloquent and highly skilled play. At 800 1600 he raised the pot from the SB onto my BB. I was playing about 70k to his 120k. I look down at Ac Ah Kh 5c. I reraise to make it 15k to play. He immediately announces all in (lol) and I make a brave call. I never thought it was possible to get it in preflop in omaha as an 80% underdog but I guess if anyone could.... Anyway his hand is Ad Kc Qc 4c. Vnh. This comes only 15 mins after offering me the advice that "AK was not a good hand in omaha". I look forward to some more nuggets at a later date. Anyway obviously I bust on this hand.

Played day1a of the main event and it amounted to 7 or so hours of torture. So much so that I can't really bring myself to dredge it all back up again. In a nutshell my premium hands were AKhh, JJ TT and 99 (on the btn). Each time I had to lay down preflop. By the time I got 10s again I couldn't bring myself to pass my short stack again and Colcough's QQ's held (mbn). Unfortunately I'm having to miss the Bolton leg of the tour due to other commitments, but am looking forward to a better trip to Thanet already. Just after I've worked out where that is.

Also played a couple of events at the Gutshot Series of Poker this week. The PLO was fun. Ended up busting with Aces when seeing a flop headsup I decided to go with on a safe looking 7 3 2 rainbow board. Don't think I had much choice given the stack sizes. His 6 6 5 4 had me drawing dead on the turn. The highlight of this tournament was passing the second nut flush to someone on the turn, who later admitted to not being able to see the flop. LOL. Main event there was a £500 affair and one which I came close to taking down last year (damn you ginger!) but this time around it was all a bit meh (think that's a techinical internet term). Lost a few chips early on establishing a loose/maniac image. Certain players were falling out of their seats to teach me a lesson with 3rd pair and I was looking forward to dropping them off in Value Town later on, but alas I was knocked out before I ever made a hand. Few bad spots which I'm not convinced I could have gotten out of cheaper from followed by losing a race for the rest.

As far as online goes, in the 1st couple of weeks of this month I set about trying to make this my worst ever month online. Ran terribly in my normal games and failed at a few shots in the bigger games. I'm punishing myself now by grinding the lower stakes for a whlie whilst I rebuild and have just managed to set up some daily limits on my account which I'm convinced will help me no end. Cutting out those -$10k+ days will be massive and I'm quite exicted to see how I'll be doing by the end of the year. Finally, had an "amusing" sunday this week when I managed to register for a bunch of tournaments before falling asleep. Sigh. I woke up just in time to attempt to salvage a GUKPT satellite which was already 3 hours in. Well, just to prove that Lazyness isn't always punished I managed to take that down. Better get the A-Z out...

My thoughts on the final

By James Akenhead
When I first started getting into poker I used to watch the World Series of Poker on ESPN and enjoyed it. Other than the entertainment value I actually thought I was learning a few things. It is a shame now to say there is really not much at all to be learnt by these broadcasts.

After watching the final table of event #2 I was shocked at how ESPN portrayed some of the players and their game's. Focusing on myself first off, there were a few key hands which I was sure they were going to include but decided not to. These were hands that would be 'good for TV' and maybe show a little more about the flow of this final table. As for the heads up match, this was astonishing. I feel Grant and I had a great battle with lasted over TWO HOURS and yet the public get to see two hands, one of them being the final hand.

As for Grant, ESPN make it look like he did not have too many tough decisions and that the deck favoured him. Maybe this is true to some extent but I think he played great poker and deserved to be heads up.

I think all this banter about Theo is not called for. Again it is obvious ESPN thrive on creating these 'situations', 'good guy, bad guy' etc, with the intention of making their program more exciting to watch. This is not a soap opera, this is the world's best poker players coming together and playing poker and should be taken seriously. Theo Tran has been made out to be the bad guy in all this and I do not think he stepped out of line at all. For all of you that have ever made a WSOP final table you will know how nervous and excited you can be and Theo, along with the rest of us were just that.

I realise that ESPN have limited air time so they need to edit the footage on a big scale. This precious time should be filled with poker rather than drama. Better still, stretch each final over three if not four episodes. It is not as if poker is not one of the most popular sports on the channel.