April Poker News

27th of April, 2006 - Poker has not been on my mind lately as my Mother suffered a heart attack a few weeks ago. She'll recover, but it's put things in perspective and my chaotic poker lifestyle on the back burner. I did play a couple of the Paradise Poker Masters tournaments, cashing in only the short-handed NL Hold'em event but overall it has been a disappointing month. Next week I hope to play in Blackpool, North England. There's a £1,000 event which in the past has generated tasty prize pools and the standard of play tends to be pretty poor. PokerRoom's $1000 Tournament is this weekend, the Grand tournament is by far the most skill-rewarding tournament on the internet, due to the slow rising blinds and 10K starting stacks. It's about time I went deep in one of these tournaments!

3rd of April, 2006 - Recently, I've been struggling to get motivated to play online poker for extended periods of time (and update the site). I'm in the midst of a brutal downswing which has contributed to this decline, but even before the downswing I was playing without discipline and generally joking around. For instance, the other day during the bubble stages of an $150 PokerStars multi-table tournament, I kept going all-in with 9 anything off suit. I couldn't resist. The entertainment value of bad beating the same player with 94 unsuited twice was more valuable than the five-figure amount for the winner.

The far more serious World of live poker should shake the stupidity out. I'll be playing a few small tournaments in Luton next week, especially looking forward to £500 Pot Limit Hold'em event, as I've cashed in every live PL event that I've played. In the meantime, the $1,000 Paradise Poker Masters tournament should gross a decent prize pool. I'll be playing and recording my play should instil extra discipline, watch out for the video some time next week. Webmasters, I'm selling poker domain names that I impulsively bought a while ago but have never developed in to websites.