One Friday evening, three poker venues.

This evening didn't quite go to plan. I played in the £20 f/o at the casino and things started well. I took the first pot down with AQ onKJx flop which checked around and produced an A on the turn. From then on I was above average. Then in the second level I was dealt QQ in early position. I raised 3.5xBB only for a TAG player to raise me substantially. I insta-all-ined knowing he had to call and he turned KK. I wish I'd taken more time on the hand cos I think I could have escaped it. I was playing a good game so far and so why risk everything in one go? Countering this though, the tournament is a bit of a crap shoot and so it is difficult to pass premium hands. Anyhow, for my £20 I learnt a lesson - take my time and don't necessarily get involved unless I'm sure I'm ahead when folding will barely dent my stack.

I headed to a regular cash game only to turn a £5 buy-in in to £3.60. Woohoo. Mind you, I nearly always cash out for a profit, so that loss isn't going to cause me uch harm. The game finished early and I headed home, only to get a call at midnight to say some games were going on in a nearby pub and was I interested? Oh yes baby.

I played four games. The first one was a £5 buy-in with the option of a rebuy in the first orbit for £10. Only 6 played but we ended up with £50 in the pot after a couple of buy-ins. I sat tight for the first orbit - rebuying was a stupid waste of money. I ended up heads-up and we chopped so we could start a new game. I'm sure I would have won, as although I only had a third of the chips, the other guy had only played once before and called everything. We then played three further games four-handed at £5 each and I won all three. One interesting hand was as follows: P is a solid player. Neither loose nor tight, he just reads the game well. It folded to him in SB and he min-raised. I held A8 and insta-called. We check-checked a KQ4 flop only for him to bet twice the pot when a K arrived on the turn. If he had a K, why over bet? If he had the J he must have thought he was good, and if he wasnt sure a feeler bet would do the job. He didn’t have the 4 cos of the pre-flop raise. I was a little worried about a pocket pair but I called with my Ace-high thinking that only one time in 3 he will have a pair rather than any type of KQ, KJ, J10 etc combination. he made the same bet on the river. This shows weakness to me, cos it is a much smaller percentage of the pot, so either he is value betting or he is weak - the only hand possible to value bet was AA and with one A in my hand I didn’t think he had it. I called the river bet and showed my ace high which was good and he was shocked I'd called him down, but it seemed like the sensible play once the hand had been thought through. It was fun having a burst - I just wish it had happened a little earlier when the prize money meant something.