March madness and The Irish Open

Was a great month poker-wise, due to a pretty big heater in the middle of the month during which I (briefly) got out of makeup for the first time in aaaages, which felt awesome. Back in 5-figures of makeup now, but still, feeling good about poker and playing ok. Also broke into the top 100 on pocketfives, got to 77th (although dropped a little now), and am about to get my $1mil in cashes badge (sadly this is not profit for those of you who aren't pokerers...) - both of which are pretty arbitrary and don't mean much at all but are pleasing all the same! Played more in March than I have in any other month and haven't found it too hard or stressful, I've enjoyed it. Sounds stupid but I think I've FINALLY come to terms with the fact that, at least for now, I'm a full time poker player and should bloody well put in the hours.


Having said this I was happily anticipating the Irish Open as a bit of time off and a chance to get the 'zero cashes in a live major' monkey off my back. Started off well binking a seat in the satellite the night before. In the main I did my usual spew for the first hour then settled down, and made day two with a little less than average. Day two was short though, sadly running AK into AA and then getting the last in with AKdd vs AQhh, probably flop Qxhxh, why not... Also bricked the 560 6max, and dropped a chunk at cash, so a frustrating day!

Rallied for the 1k the next day, and really enjoyed it. Everyone was going ballistic! One in particular stood out; Albert who is apparently infamous in london for doing it in on a very regular basis. He also took part in my favourite 10 minutes of live poker ever. Albert opens to 5x blind utg (and why not), an old guy next to act makes a small 3bet and folds to me in the sb with ATs and I groan/fold. At this point me and Neil Channing are cracking up; 'so when you post this on 2+2 - pretty standard really, guy 5xes blind utg, 83yr old clicks it next to act...' UTG c/cs a 1/15th flop bet on KQT, and then jams for like 2x pot on the turn and gets snapped by TT. K5o no good... The two other hands that made up the 10 minutes were both a different guy, first he 3bet jams 40x over an open with A8o and loses to KK, then he gets another 40x in on 256 with A8o again vs a guy who you'd feel very uncomfortable getting 55 in against. Very entertaining day all round :) Sadly I got dealt bottom 20% for most of the day and just had to fold fold fold given the dynamics, and then bust 2nd hand of day 2 losing a flip.

Never mind, looking forward to a little more online grinding and then the huge £1mil gauranteed in Nottingham for the UKIPT, and then SCOOOOOOP.

Outside poker has been pretty gruesome still, with another death in the family and all that that involves. Been a tough start to the year but hoping the worst is behind for now and things will settle down. Here is a picture that I shamelessly stole; hopefully the spring, along with the sun, will bring cute animals and lying in the grass.