Got back to uni on monday and missed 2 exams due to doing no revision then staying up all night watching films so i wouldnt have to worry bout not revising. Basically done with that degree, its not going anywhere even if i completed the next 2 and a half years... so i decided to play poker for the mean time and see how far i get with it. Tried continuing on crypto where i left off but kept disconnecting, university halls network is just shit. Then i remembered from last term the only site that had never disconnectted on me - full tilt.. So i depostied $2000 in there to play NL 200 and have a swing at some mtts too.

Bought in for $200 on two tables and was on the phone to a mate at the same time... big mistake, everybody knows that online poker and phonecall is a recipe for disaster, sure enough i check raised all in for about $180 with an open ended for a pot of like $15... he caled with KK and stacked me. Dumb move really but i know these things tend to happen when i am on the phone and try to play. I rebought and after about an hour i was even with about $100 profit.

Played the $150 $20k gtd double stack mtt about 2 hours later.. Managed to come 3rd for $3.7k which is a nice amount but i am a little dissapointed at not winning. I feel I played my absoulte best that mtt, i seriosly didnt make 1 wrong move and i picked up most of the pots that no1 seemed that intrested in. I even got short stacked right near the end from a bad beat and brought it back up.
Here are some hands;

http://www.pokerhand.org/?767512 nothing that special here, i raised it up from the cut off with a nice starting hand and flopped a monster. I played it as best i could to get value, on the turn i dwelled a while before i bet the 150 hoping he would see it as weakness and re raise or bet the river... which he did, perhaps he had a busted spade draw, dunno.

http://www.pokerhand.org/?767606
Now this hand is the most important of the whole mtt for me, ive built up to 6k from playing fairly creatively raising and continuating in position and a few bluffs on the river... In this hand there is a few limpers preflop, i decide to lead out with my paired 3 and see where every1 was at, i also had an inside straight draw to back me up. I get two callers here and they can have a range of hands, people call these bets on the flop with Just an Ace, two overs with one spade, a flush draw, even some people have misplayd a hand like A5,66 or 77 in this spot....when the 3s comes off on the turn it is a funny card for me, i now know im defo beating any1 calling with a pair but the flush draw is out there... i decided to bet fairly large to make anybody with only a single spade pay, perhaps the A of spades... When the chap re raises all in I know he has the flush, or as much as u can "know" in poker... Of course he could have the straigt or an allready made full house.. but everybit of instinct inside me (derived from playing thoussands of hands in hundreds of mtts) and his betting told me he had the flush....so i fold right? well i sized up the pot and if i called and won i would be on 10k or more, a stack like that and i should be able to final... Tehn i calculated my outs, any 5 = 3 outs.... any 2 = 3 outs... any A = 3 outs.. and of course the fourth 3 made 10 outs... so im roughly 5/1 to win the pot if he does indeed have a flush. The pot is laying me about 2.6/1 .. if i fold i am left with around 4k... if i call and lose i am left with about 2k in my mind there is not much difference in play between these two pretty short stacks. With the 4k u can play a little more but if they dont work out then u are short stakced anyway, and with the 2k u are simply ss. But should i manage to boat it up the change would be substantial - it would set me up for a mtt win. I decided to Gamble, the disadvantageous odds made up for by the potential cash earnings should i win the pot. Situations like these dont come along that often in mtts so if it appears a good gamble and u can play a good short stack game (should u lose the pot) i think its a +EV mtt move.. I won the pot and went on to make the top 3...

http://www.pokerhand.org/?767676
Now heres an example of simply calling when u are given the correct odds, i raised preflop and followd it up with a continuation bet.. he min reraised me so i assume he has hit the ace... but i can draw to my 6 so i call... he bets tiny again so i now can draw to 6 or diamond... i call again and i have flushed. pretty simple hand really he shud have re raised more on teh flop and turn bet more.

http://www.pokerhand.org/?767705
I chip leader on teh table and i have been largely in control... nothing to annoy anybody on the table but i was clearly dominating. WHen this player raised fairly small i smelt weakness... i min re raise here to keep others out of the pot - and if sum1 behind me does happen to wake up with a monster i have lost the least possible when i have to fold... when the initial raiser calls (as he prolly should with most hands) he is out of position against the preflop aggresor, so unless he hits sumthign nice i will win this most of the time... he checks and i put him all in - any bet i made would commit me to call his all in so i decided to put him all in myself.

http://www.pokerhand.org/?767752
this was a nice one, i called a small bet hoping to hit a set and i did, pretty astonished how much value i got from this guys weak weak hand .

http://www.pokerhand.org/?767907
Heres a bad beat i recieved near the eend of the mtt, about 15 people left and it was the 3rd and strongest hand id raised on the bounce, running quads lol pretty impressive way to lose.

http://www.pokerhand.org/?767965
another case where i bet my hand well and the opponent bet his poorly, if he made a proper bet at any point i would probably have to lay this hand down,... but i dont make the mistake of folding to tiny bets - because instances like this crop up more than u would think.

http://www.pokerhand.org/?768060 Ok heres how i busted, down to final 3 after the chip leader had KK AA QQ and KK within the last 10 hands or so, bit of a pisstake really. in fact u can even read at the top of the history i was allready calling him names about his card rackiness.
I trapped him pretty good dont u think? lol

Doing well at the moment thats about $10k this last week just from mtts, and over the last 2 months about $20k. Will continue to play at the local card room and NL200 on full tilt along with some online mtts.