If Carlsberg did dull poker blogs, they'd do this one

[monkeyman]

[youtube=425,350]http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=oaFqNSLu6U4[/youtube]

First things first and I have to say how pleased I am that the APAT events are moving to 888. Firstly, Betfair is very much my first choice for cash games, but 888 is firmly in second place. In addition, my experience is that the tables move quicker on 888 than on any other site, so more hands played=more skillful deepstacks in my opinion. Top result that one and I look forward to playing as many of the online nationals as possible.
   I didn"t exactly cover myself in glory tonight. Things didn"t really go my way until the last 30 minutes of my session, but my play tonight was weak and I kept getting involved in pots I had no right to play.

Tonight"s results
----------------

Minutes played - 261
Hands - 676
Loss - 91 x bb  

[ronaldo07]

You opted into the raked hand leaderboard promo on Betfair? I didn"t even notice it till last night.

They don"t promote their promos very well

[monkeyman]

You opted into the raked hand leaderboard promo on Betfair? I didn"t even notice it till last night.

They don"t promote their promos very well

I"ve tried to register on four occasions and each time the software has had a glitch which has menat I haven"t been able to record my interest. My experience of these promotions is that I don"t play enough hands on the site to get onto the leader board anyway so I"m not hugely fussed

[monkeyman]

[youtube=425,350]http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=PibXTko6VC4[/youtube]

I had one of those sessions I wish I could put in a box and bring out on special occasions. Three monsters in the first 30 minutes meant I didn"t have to try too hard to have my best session of the month so far. Looks like I can afford one of those $50 deepstack thingies they do on 888 occasionally.

Tonight"s results
---------------
Minutes - 88
Hands - 295
Profit - 192 x bb

[monkeyman]

As from tomorrow I"ll be away for a week so there will be no more postings until saturday 19th. I"m off to Cheltenham and so far I couldn"t name a single horse I"ll definitely be backing. The Champion Hurdle in particular leads me to a different conclusion every time I try to solve it. When I return, I"ll play my first tournament of the year, the English Online Open which I"ve been runner-up in for the last two seasons.

Tonight"s results
----------------

Minutes - 117
Hands - 340
Profit - 44 x bb

[youtube=425,350]http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=GTd1SSYYyss[/youtube]

[monkeyman]

[youtube=425,350]http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=-M5Ue0x3b6c&feature=fvsr[/youtube]

I"m back from Stratford and what turned out to be a very profitable trip to the Cheltenham festival. After one winner (Sizing Australia) and a load of second places from the first two days, day three yielded winning bets on Big Bucks (10-11) and Junior (9-2). Yesterday turned into my best ever day at the festival with winners in each of the first three races (Zarkandar 13-2,Bobs Worth 9-4 and Final Approach 10-1) followed by a return from an each way bet on Indian Daudie (£6.20 place dividend on the Tote).
  If I was to allow myself to be constrained by rigid rules governing the control of my bankroll, I wouldn"t play tonight"s online national as it represents a larger than advisable percentage of my account. However, I"ve decided to play in each of the nationals for the following reasons:

1) Cash play is going extremely well at present and over the course of the year, I expect the cost of entering all eight events ($440) to be covered several times over.
2) I have made profit from APAT online events in seasons 2,3 and 4, so I think there is a realistic prospect of returning a profit again this season.
3) If things go really well the potential upside is huge.

I don"t suppose too many other people will be going into tonight"s event having not played a single tournament for 3 months, but there"s only one way to find out if this will affect me.  

[monkeyman]

Not playing any tournaments for a while doesn"t seem to have done me any harm at all. Tonight I finished 4th for a profit of $710. Time for bed now methinks

[Swinebag]

Pathetic work simon - 3 final tables in consecutive years and no wins - that is a terrible conversion rate IMO

[monkeyman]

Pathetic work simon - 3 final tables in consecutive years and no wins - that is a terrible conversion rate IMO

Oddly enough, although it was said in jest, I tend to agree that I should have taken down at least one of the three tournaments in question. Two years ago I think I was unfortunate as my departure hand saw me hitting top pair whilst my opponent, Paul Pitchford, hit the other two cards on the flop. Last year, I got my chips in as soon as I hit a flop and think that"s when I missed out on my best opportunity. There was one opponent I had in my pocket and overall the final table in 2010 wasn"t as strong as 2009, so there should have been plenty of opportunities for building my stack early on the final table I didn"t take. Last night I was very lucky. I don"t think I played at the top of my game, but seemed to find a hand whenever I needed one. 
 Last night"s result at least means I can underwrite the cost of entering the remaining seven nationals and one of them will have my name on it.

[monkeyman]

Oh dear. My first cash session for 10 days didn"t go at all well. I don"t think I"ve ever played worse; it was almost as if I"d forgotten the hand rankings, so time to call a halt for the day and try again tomorrow.

Today"s results
--------------

Minutes played - 73
Hands - 210
Loss - 181 x bb

[youtube=425,350]http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=cOVzXYEU3Bk[/youtube]

[monkeyman]

[youtube=425,350]http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=W66yhfMb4d0[/youtube]

After yesterday"s display of advanced muppetry I decided to drop myself back to 5 cent/10 cent level to try and rediscover my mojo. I can"t pretend I was on my "A" game, but I managed to find a couple of players who were even more f***-witted than myself and that"s the important thing. 

Today"s results
--------------

Minutes - 158
Hands - 432
Profit - 93 x bb

[monkeyman]

Here"s a band I was lucky enough to catch at the University of East Anglia in 1990 when they were still almost unheard of in this country. I bought a ticket for the gig on the basis of a magazine review without having heard a note of their music and within, at most, three songs, thought they were the best live act I"d seen. Despite the Red Hot Chilli Peppers lack of exposure in this country at the time, the venue was full to capacity (1500). I seemed to be the only local in a crowd full of american accents and can only assume that as the band were already huge in the states at the time, the audience was probably made up of service personnel from the nearby USAF bases at Mildenhall and Lakenheath. Enjoy.

[youtube=425,350]http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=hU9vToZ8ti4[/youtube]

Tonight"s session clocked-in at just over the three hour mark and for at least three quarters of that I sucked. I seemed to get back into the swing of things at the end and heaven knows how, I managed to scrape into profit.

Tonight"s results
--------------
Minutes played  - 181
Hands - 503
Profit - 2 x bb

[monkeyman]

[youtube=425,350]http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=9i6JZNI5GEk[/youtube]

At last I"ve managed to drag my "A" game kicking and screaming back into the daylight. Tonight"s results weren"t spectacular by any stretch of the imagination, but I felt as if I was on the best form I"ve been on for a while.

Tonight"s results
----------------

Minutes  - 120
Hands - 353
Profit - 68 x bb

[monkeyman]

[youtube=425,350][youtube=425,350]http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=dM6elRs7F5k[/youtube][/youtube]

Aaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaarrrrrrrggggggggghhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhh. I was ticking along quite nicely tonight and then came what I"d planned on being my penultimate hand. I had aces in the small blind, the villain raised from early position with queens and to cut a long story short, I flopped trip aces, he had a straight on the turn and I lost the hand. I can cope with bad beats, but I get bloody annoyed with myself when I lose chips by betting just in case my instincts are wrong. What a plonker. Never mind, I still made a profit but it should have been a lot better. Grrrrrrrrrrrr.

Tonight"s results
----------------

Minutes -   128
Hands - 344
Profit - 18 x bb

[monkeyman]

2 buy-ins up in flames, I can"t begin to describe how badly I played tonight. Instead of the usual stats, here"s a double dose of soothing music.

[youtube=425,350]http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=8-AcuIOFmIs[/youtube]

[youtube=425,350]http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Vyg1E2MaJfs[/youtube]