(12) MR TICKLE'S ARMS

I'm off to the Bahamas for nine days now (I know, I know!), so this was my last chance to squeeze in some vital hours of heads-up. I had to get up at the ungodly hour of 5am to catch my flight, so it was a 9am rise the day prior, and I was a little worried that I might be too tired to play poker. However, I was running well, in good spirits and swiflty approaching that alluring £4k milestone, so thought I'd give it a bash.

Turned out to be a cracking decision in the end because I finished the session with £4,205.83 in my account and a smile the length of Mr Tickle's arms. Incredibly, I only took on the one guy, and I played him for a good 90 minutes. This was mainly because he doubled up off me after just a few hands with Nines v A-K for an $838.20 pot. I've been winning more than my fair share of coinflips recently, so I was probably due a loss. When I made the final push after he'd re-raised my pre-flop raise, I think I knew he was going to call, it's just that I thought he could still call with A-Q and at worst I'd be 50-50. Thing is, if you can grind a player down, then you probably don't need to gamble on a coinflip to clean your man out.

I lost that hand when a Nine hit the Turn, but I kept plugging away and eventually felted him with a straight flush. It was a bizzare hand really. I had 6h-4s, he had Ks-3c and the board read 5s-3s-As-2s-6s. There was only $40 in the pot at the time, but I shipped him in for his last $300 or so on the River and he quickly called. I don't know why, but I just felt he had the King, even though he'd checked the Turn and River. Something in the hand just smelt fishy, so I thought a push would be the +ve move, and he was the type to call without the nuts. Still, bit of a cooler I guess, but it's always satisfying to finish your man off when he's doubled through early doors.

In answer to Mike Lott's query on my previous blog entry (great blog, by the way, check it out), I've certainly found my fortunes fair better at lunchtime, say around 2pm-5pm time. I was up at 9am the other day, but intentionally waited till 2pm before playing. I haven't experimented enough with evening hours to work out if there is any correlation or whether there are less fish around, but I just seem to find more action during daylight hours. It might just be because I'm fresher, more alert and playing better poker, I don't know.

Playing at those hours does make life difficult with the Mrs though, as I'd much prefer to be out and about making better use of my day rather than sitting in front of the lappie like a zombie. Places close at night, so that's the time to play, but if I'm making more money playing at lunch, then I guess I should stick to my guns.

As for Poker Tracker, I spend about 30 minutes going through it each day, if only to run through my bigger hands to ensure I played them correctly. Poker Tracker is a useful device if you have time, but it's not particulalry user friendly and has an ugly interface, so you have to really put in the hours to get the most out of it. Of course, that's time that could be better spent at the table, so I reckon it's about maintaining a good balance. Half an hour browsing around to see what I can unearth seems to do the trick for me.

Okay, just $794.17 to go, I get back on the 14th, so I probably have another 10 sessions in me. Surely I can nip this one in the bud before the 31st and stick it up the tax man's arse. I fucking hope so.

Watch this space for some Bahama updates!

biggest pot won: $642.50
biggest pot lost: $838.20
time at the table: 1hr 30min

profit = $528.95
blonde poker account = $4,205.83
$794.17 to go before the tax man goes away

Days played = 12
total time played = 38 hrs 03 mins
current $ per hour = $76.37
current $ per day = $242.15