The soup kitchen

The Circus casino on a Friday night is poker's answer to the soup kitchen. The buy-in is free (okay, there is a £1 registration fee), there's a guaranteed prize pool of £1500, and everyone gets free chips (the edible kind), sandwiches and soft drinks. Can't be bad. Last time I went I was 13th, tonight I was 20th. I should go more often: I might win something!

Best hand tonight: I had 44 and the flop was A23. When one guy went all-in for 700 chips I "dwelled up" as they say, and called. A guy with AQ folded (!) and another guy called. Turn 3, river 5. Nice pot, and special prize for the guy who folded AQ for having some kind of poker sixth sense.

Lucks out

Two Primos, two suckouts. I played a couple of weeks ago, when Sky launched the new 8pm start time, and I lasted about 12 minutes. I was in the pot with 34 and the flop came 25Q. The turn is an ace. I bet, a guy goes allin, I call. He has a set of 2's and the river is (oh joy) a 5. Then, tonight, I call a preflop raise with 78 of hearts. The flop is 389, two hearts. Guy 1 bets, I go allin, guy 2 calls. He has 69, and the river is (guess what) the ten of clubs...

In between, I had a couple of fun nights at the Circus casino at Star City. The first night I made it past the first break, only for my 77 to be busted by 66 (on the river, natch). The second night I played in their "free" Friday night tournament and finished on the bubble, giving away the last of my chips to a drunk newbie. A couple of hands earlier she'd called a raise with QT so when this time she limped and I went all in with A4 I was surprised when she called to find she had AJ.

13th out of 137 and no payout. :(

GUKPT in town

Today is the first day of the Walsall leg of the Grosvenor Poker Tour, and I went over this afternoon for a £50 (with rebuys) satellite into the main event. I played siht, but I was happy with my last hand. I was shortstacked in the SB with 6-8 clubs and there was lots of limping so I went all-in. One guy called with K-9 spades and I overtook him on the flop only to lose to a flush on the river.

I'm going to try and get over there again for a £100 freezeout tourney later in the week.