Grinding it out

Couple of amazing hands in The Open tonight. The first one I won: I had AQ against KQ and QJ when the flop came queen high! I'd been surprised to get two callers to my all-in, but happy when I saw what they had. I tripled up and hit the top 20.

The second one left me back in the doldrums. I had 10-10 and the flop came QJ9. One guy was all-in and the other two of us just kept checking till the river came K. I bet, I was raised, I thought "No", I called, and, yes, he really did have A-10. :-(

One of my good grinding nights tonight. I was down to 8000 chips not long before the bubble so I slowed up, waited for a couple of good hands that held up, and somehow I got up to 75,000 chips and safety. Can't expect all your hands to hold up though, and I went out eventually in 20th.

By the way, the bubble is an amazing phenomenon. Players were dropping like flies; as each hand ended the number of players left in was 98, then 92, then 85, then 77, then 74, then 71, then 71, then 71, then 71... (70 places were paid.) I can't believe that everyone's paying so much attention that they all know when the bubble has arrived, but it's true.

The A Team of Tikay and Orford on the show tonight. I was surprised today to receive notification that Tikay has accepted my Facebook friend request. I made the request so long ago I'd forgotten about it!

Yoyo'd out

Tonight it was this month's big Bounty Hunter tournament and after a stressful roller-coaster ride I went out in 83rd (out of 500). Near the money but not near enough. :-)

Early on I played too many hands and was down to a third of my starting stack, but my game and my cards improved, and I was pleased with my judgment until...

Lowish-stacked in the big blind, I went all-in post-flop with 97 on a 9-high board. Bad luck to find the under-the-gun limper had A9...

Hellmuth and I

Phil Hellmuth has had so many bad results on TV, sometimes it's hard to understand how he could've won so many WSOP bracelets. His poker image is whining, not winning. So it was nice to see him playing really well for a change: it was last week's installment of Channel 4's Premier League. Phil played great, especially heads-up against JC Tran, and he really was unlucky not to win the round.

Meanwhile, I went deep in a Sky tournament for the first time for a while, coming about 15th out of a few hundred in one of the Bounty Hunters. £50 wasn't much of a return for a couple of hours' work, but I was happy to play so well.

Poker tubes

There's some great poker on YouTube. Here's some of my favourites:

Mike pwns Mike

Phil Ivey is gobsmacked

9-7 all-in and call

Cold deck

Tony G at the WPT

Yet more Tony G - I love this guy

And a sweet moment of revenge for all the Tony G haters

The latest series of Poker Den and a classic moment.

A new series of High Stakes Poker is starting soon and series 1-4 are all available.

And a bonus for darts fans...

£30K Bounty Hunter Live Blog

Not blogged on here for a while so I thought I'd get back into it with a live blog of tonight's big Sky event.

2000 starting chips, 6-handed. 610 starters. I'm on Table 16.

First hand raised in second position, BB called (seat 2). I bet the flop, he called, I bet the turn, he called, I bet the river, he folded. 7th for a few seconds!

Just got lucky. K2 suited. Flop the flush draw, turn a king, river another king. Nice pot. Up to 3200 chips. 20th.

Won another pot against the same guy (seat 1): I guess he raised preflop with an ace. No ace on flop or turn so eventually he folded.

Lost a few chips to the seat-2 guy. I raised with A9 in early position. He called. By the river the board was 56789 with three spades. he went all-in, I folded.

25 mins. Bit card-dead at the mo. Just slipped out of the top 100.

Another lucky break. I raise in SB with AJ, BB calls. Nice flop 9 10 Q. bet, call. Less-nice turn 9. Bet, call. River is a 10, which I realise could be good news. Check, check, 1200 chips for me. :-) 40th.

Still no bounties taken at our table. #2 guy (not a bad player, imo) had a bit of a car crash but he's hanging on. He's just gone all-in twice and both times some kind person (not me) has doubled him up...

35 minutes. Been moved to table 18, seat 1. Looks like there's been more action here - one guy's up to 7000 chips. First hand I limp and the flop is 777. I'm in position and take the small pot.

The chipped-up guy in seat 4 took a nice pot with a pair of twos against me and a short-stacked all-in guy. I showed weakness on the flop. Another hand soon after I showed strength and he folded. Easy game, this poker, eh.

21:45 hrs. 74th 5000 chips.

A quiet passage of play. Just min-raised UTG, called by seat 4. Flop is 2 3 4. I check, he bets 2500! A good play. Coming up to the break, I'm doing okay, 120th with 4500 chips Though that's a below average stack). No bounties though!

The break hasn't done me any good - I had to log out and had trouble logging back on! - I've slipped under 4000 chips and under 150th place. So now I need to grind a bit...

Or not... Out in 184th. Pushed from the button with a king, BB had an ace...

Good luck to the rest of you in the tourney!

Bounty Hunted

Got my chance to go on the Bounty Hunter tonight and blew it! Maybe it's my fault - I suggested they come to me first, but what that meant was they (Michelle Orpe and Tom Sambrook) were interviewing me while I played my first few hands. Turns out that the hand they showed, I played pretty well, but within a couple of minutes I'd lost 80% of my chips. I tightened right up, hoping to survive, but finally went all-in in the small blind against my nemesis, AnneJo, in the big blind and I was gone.

Went out even quicker in Velocity - reraised all-in post-flop with three tens - the other guy had a straight...

My plan now is to take a short break (my play's been too inconsistent lately) and read a couple of books, including Super System.

Primo luck

I've been playing a lot more Scrabble than poker lately, but I've only ever won £20 playing Scrabble so I've been trying to keep my hand in on the Sky Poker tables. I've made a few quid on the cash tables lately, so I had enough to have a punt on tonight's £50-buyin Primo tourney. And, thanks to a couple of enormous slices of luck (and some reasonable play most of the time), I survived into the money, coming 42nd.

Luck #1... After half-an-hour all in for 1900 with AQs, discover I'm up against AA and KK. Flop KJ3, turn 8, river T. Crazy.
Luck #2... Just before the break I'm all in for 3000 with A8, called by A9. Hit an 8 on the river...

The only hand of mine that got shown on the live TV show was the one that virtually sent me out of the tourney... Cameroony min-raised and then: