Hello.

There isn't too much to report really. I have pretty much been playing MTT's and SNGs since we last spoke, so I kept true to my word.

I just purchased NLH by Sklansky and Vol 2 and 3 to go with Vol 1 of the Harrington series. I am yet to read 1 yet, so when I go back to London I plan to have all 3 read.

The NLH book is very good as well by the way. I am not too far in, but the start is giving you some really good advice. I already knew most of it, but it has taken me two years to figure it out. I am really looking forward to what it has in store for me in later chapters though!

It's not a typical Sklansky book either. I mean, don't get me wrong, there's still the mind boggling mathmatics in there, but he really does do well in explaining the different concepts and even during the chapters, he has grey blocks, summarising what he has said.

If you play NL Hold'em then it's a must buy if you are looking to improve.

So, I think I will tell you what I have been up to these last few days.

I am trying to milk as much as I can out of my confidence and morale at the moment. It's not cockyness or arrogance, but I know I am playing really well in my tournament game.

I played a few more of these crypto tournaments, usually the 10 and 15k ones and I have been doing ok. I have only once so far pushed when I was behind.

I made the money again last night in the 10k. I finished 17th I think it was for £100.

I ended up pushing my 88 into an OESD and he hit to bust me.

Tonight I was a bit annoyed. I had to buy in direct, because there were no qualifiers at all running. I have only played the qualifiers once, but they are really easy and a lot cheaper. I don't just want to keep throwing in $100 a pop, with the current crypto structure.

Anyway, I played them and they didn't go to well.

I have been so card dead today so SS, picked up AQ, raised it, flop comes rags, and he bets into me. I knew he had missed the flop, because he commited himself to the hand and had he hit, he would have just check raised me all in.

So I pushed and was correct, he had AJ. River was a J and I am out.

The 10k I was a bit distracted. I was receing phone calls, doubled up with AQ, then picked up AK, same guy raised and I made a bad push. I didn't realise how big my stack was. Anyway, he had AA and I was out.

I played two Omaha tournaments tonight. I will tell you why later in the post.

I played a funky one on stars, which was $11 buyin, 1 rebuy and 1 addon. That didn't go down too well and I ended up crashing out with a set v FD, he hits in the freezeout period.

Then I played an $11 Fixed Omaha H/L. That was strange. I had never played one of these before and wasn't too sure on strategy. I opted for super laggo, because I figured these guys were going to be bad, and they were.

I ended up finishing 17th, when my set again didn't hold up to a flush draw for a few dollars profit.

I did quite enjoy that though, I was pretty much running over the tables, with my laggy ways and getting super paid on my big hands.

Anyway, lets move on as to why I am playing lots of different tournaments. I am going to have 2 weeks of pure peace and quiet, when I go to London.

I had already decided I was going to set aside this time for WCOOP qualifiers, as I said in a previous entry. Well I am still going ahead with it, and narrowed it down pretty much to the following.

DAY DATE EVENT BUY-IN
Saturday September 23 HORSE $215
Monday September 25 Seven Card Stud $320
Tuesday September 26 Pot Limit Omaha8 $320
Thursday September 28 Seven Card Stud High/Low $530 $200,000
Friday September 29 Pot Limit Omaha $530 $300,000

They are the events I am going for and it's going to be pretty difficult to qualify for them all I feel, but I think I may just go down the root of playing stuff like Sunday Million qualifiers and then just unregging and keeping the W$.

There are no Hold'em events in there, and that's because I expect the fields to be absolutely huge for Hold'em, and I don't think it's going to justify me qualifying for them, however I may decide to add one in if I feel it's right to.

As of now I am going to just concentrate on getting qualified for the non Hold'em games. I am not brilliant at these other games, but I think my edge is better at these, than they are in Hold'em and I have always preffered these games in tournament structure to Hold'em, so we will see.

I am going to continue to play the GTD tournaments on crypto as well, so I think pretty much from now on till late september I will be exclusively playing tournaments.

The only way I can see me going back to cash games before October is if something drastic happens, like not qualifiyng for any of these tournaments or something.

I also plan to play live a lot while I am in London and really want to make the most of having decent Casinos and Cardrooms, which are non existent here.

Right, for someone with very little to say, I did do well I think.

Not sure when I will next update. It's a bastard not to be playing cash, because I am finding it difficult to get hands to analyse, what with PT for tournaments not getting all the hand histories in, it seems.

Anyway, let's see what tomorrow brings.

xx