POKER: Poker's gonna get ya

I've been cutting back on the face-to-face games recently, mainly down to a lack of time and the start of the football season. Naturally, this has been mirrored by an increase in my online play, mainly in cash ring games (rather than my usual specialty of single-table tournaments). Not for me the heady world of the No Limit tables, though - that £100 freebie from Victor Chandler I wasted was enough of a lesson where that's concerned. OK, so even playing the limit tables I've recently spunked almost the whole of my PokerStars account and I'm down on my VC account. But I also managed to turn the £17.19 I had in PartyPoker into £48.98!

This is mainly down to the brilliant tactic of sitting on the 50c/$1 Beginner tables, waiting for a hand that hits the flop, then betting it and watching lots of deluded people call. Sadly, this skill doesn't transfer everywhere - hence the loss of $19 on Stars. I'm starting to think Stars is just full of grinders as all I do is hand money out when I'm there and never make any back. I think I'll pay it the occasional visit to keep my hand in and stick to the other online poker rooms. Still, I'm up overall, so I'm not going to cry over spilt chips.

The one face-to-face game I do still attend regularly is the monthly Poker Meetup. Well, I am a founder member so it'd be rude not too. Last week's game was superb - and from that statement alone it should be obvious I made some cash there too. It was a surprise to me as much as everyone else on my tournament table - at one point I was down to 700 chips (out of 2,500) and clearly going out in fifth place. Then a single hand where I made two-pair and two other players called my all-in bet with no hand turned that around. Just a few hands later I had knocked out two people and was in third spot - an unlikely entry into the money positions. When the chip leader put out the remaining player I was guaranteed second place and happy to still be in there. Even more crazy, just three or four hands later I had turned my 2-1 chip deficit into a healthy clay mountain and had the other guy all-in. My A/10 offsuit held up and I took home the £45 first prize. Like I said, superb! It was telling that our table finished its tourney about an hour and a half before the other tables, as there was some extremely aggressive, loose play going on.

Thankfully, things slowed down after that. In an extrememly tight cash game I finished 45p up so just cashed out for my original £5. That still made £35 profit on the night, though. Let's face it my 'live game' balance could do with the boost...

Just to make it simpler I'm removing my poker journalism takings from the list. I have no aspirations of being an accountant and it's just a column too far when it comes to doing these posts. Besides, this way is more honest - that freelance money went on beer and fryups, not poker.

Face-to-face
-£77 (+£35 from the Poker Meetup)
Online
£46.63 Victor Chandler Poker (-£6.89)
£48.98 PartyPoker (+£31.79)
£1.05 PokerStars (-£11.10)
----------------------------
£19.66 Poker Balance (+£48.80)

There's a worrying Post Script to this usual poker roundup. It seems someone has spotted me for the sucker I am and decided to open a poker room within walking distance of my house. Oh well, I hear you can get good money for one of your kidneys on the black market.