September Poker News

September 29th, 2006 - In the last update, I over-hyped myself for event #13 of the World Championship of Online Poker. Pot Limit Hold'em, shorthanded tables, two of my supposed strengths. When the hour came, I didn't last 2 hours. Compounding my misery was the card rack on my left, he was literally showing down Aces, Kings and Queens every orbit.

Ace King on the button when short stacked, I compared via MSN, to the opportunity of being on deserted on an island with the Worlds hottest chicks. George W. Bush would bluntly say, "You don't pass it." Of course, the card rack has other ideas and re-pots my raise. Brazenly evident that he has AA-TT or AK. My attitude was, frankly Mr. Card Rack, I don't give a damn, all-in (or re-pot, re-re-pot etc).

Mr. Card Rack invaded my desert island, bringing along a pair of Queens. These bitches ruined my paradise and turned all the hot chicks in to lesbians (no wait, that wouldn't be bad). Ah, flawed logic is killing my game at the moment. You catch the drift, I lost a 'coinflip'.

On a less insane note, PokerStars support team are absolutely World Class. Every time I've emailed these guys they've been outstanding. Now, If only I could WIN, I would tip BIG ;).

September 14th, 2006 -  Why haven't I updated my website in weeks (some people have asked)? The answer is that I'm generally lazy and have done nothing mildly entertaining to report. It's been the usual stuff, 24 hour online poker sessions and waking up post 2 pm most days. Since I've been back from Las Vegas, I've been consistently losing with only the occasional tournament win, which brings profits tantalising close to break even line but not yet above. I blame the craps tables evoking the gambler in me, I can't recall passing a marginal situation in months.

September 20th, 2006 - I reached the 2nd round of the World Championship of Online Poker (WCOOP) heads up tournament last night. On the 6th hand my opponent put all his chips in on the turn, as a 4 to 1 underdog, and as luck goes at the moment, he hit.

The full WCOOP schedule can be found on PokerStars

I plan to play most of the Hold'em events and the Pot Limit Omaha8 on the 26th. Steering clear of all the re-buy, razz and stud tournaments. Dead money would be an understatement!

September 25th, 2006 - My poor play around the bubble continued in the WCOOP $500 Pot Limit Hold'em event. Props to PokerStars, the event was superbly structured, at no point (before the exit hand) did I feel pressured to risk my stack. I had just below average stack, with about 20 players to go until the money paying positions.

Believing my untarnished image would be enough to squeeze through a risky re-steal out of the big blind, I re-potted the buttons initial raise, committing half of my stack in the process. He rapidly put me all-in and declared he had a big hand. I had the choice of short stack survival for $300 profit, or call the remainder of my stack, get lucky, and have a great opportunity to final table a WCOOP event. I chose the latter, and KQ didn't suck out against big slick.

The next event I'll play is the Pot Limit Hold'em shorthanded event. I couldn't ask for anything more, Pot Limit Hold'em plus shorthanded are probably my strongest games. So, bar any bad mistakes I should go deep.