As usual with Thomas Kremser tournament director the structure was excellent , 10,000 chips , starting at 25 50 and 90 minute levels.

In these events i tend to sit back for the first two levels waiting for blinds to increase and picking my targets for later , however it soon became clear the two players either side of me were capable of losing all their chips and i made the mistake of getting involved as you will read.

On the first hand player to my right limps , player to left also limps , flop is K Q 6 , right bets 150 , left throws in 500 then after it has hit the table says raise but it is correctly ruled a call only , so we have established he intended to raise , assuming he would have raised preflop with AK but didnt i now put him on a minimum of two pair , by the way this is something you should do as routine when not in a hand to improve your reads , on the turn right checks and left bets 500 and is called , river is a T for a possible straight , left now throws in a 5000 chip and left quickly calls with KQ for top two !

The right hand player mucked his hand unseen and left the table , i reasoned he had made a mistake and meant to bet 500 which he confirmed when he sat back down , as you can imagine he was now " on tilt ".

I now had two targets so when i picked up QQ i limped and let the guy on my left raise as he tended to do every other hand , i flat called , flop was 2 4 2 , i check called 500 , turn was a 9 i check raised to 2000 he called , river a 7 and i put in a 1000 value bet which he called , easy money thought i and having now built up to 13,000 i made my first mistake.

On my SB the button overraised , i called with 24o intending to outplay him , first i should have passed as the BB is likely to call for value as he did , flop was 4 6 T , both blinds checked and the button bet a weak 200 , now i should have raised as his bet showed weakness but i called intending to bet the turn , BB passed , turn was another 4 ! I now bet 1000 and he flat called , i assumed he must have a T as with an overpair he would move in , river was a harmless looking J and seeing he had only 2700 left i bet 2000 , he raised all in and obviously i had to call , he had J4 for a full bouse .

I sat there looking calm but inside i was totally pissed at myself for playing so bad , the way these guys were playing there was no need to do any fancy play , just wait for good hands and blind opportunities.

The next round i was on the button with QQ again , there was a raise to 100 and i made it 275 , the SB called as did the original raiser , flop was A T 7 all spades , i had the Q of spades but checked , turn was J spades , both checked to me and now i thought a check may induce a bluff from my friend on the left on the river so checked again , river was another J , again it was checked to me , i value bet 300 into the pot of 875 and the SB moved all in for 14,000 ! I passed . I ended the level with 7825 and still believed i could do well today.

Early in level 2 i called a bet from my left hand player with 77 , flop was 4 7 7 , i check called 550 , turn was a Q making a flush , praying he had hit i checked but so did he , river was a 3 and i overbet and he passed , i showed my quads to get him to show what he had and he did , he had A8s , valuable information.

Every play i made seemed to be wrong so i tightened right up and when blinded down to 5700 picked up KK , after one limper i also flat called as on my left the player was already counting out a raise , he made it 600 , first limper flat called and i reraised to 2600 , called on my left , pass on my right , flop was Q J 8 , i moved in for my last 3000 and was called , i turned over my KK he showed A6 , now you can understand why i wanted to take this guy on , i got back up to over 11,000.

Now up to 75 150 and my hands dried up , i won one nice pot with 89s when i turned a straight and milked a player for 2700 , with my confidence high i made a bad bluff in one pot costing me 2300 and finished the level with 5300 , the variation in my chip count confirmed i was off my A game and lacking patience , it is no good for me to say i haven't played 90 minute levels for a while , although true , i have played several events with this structure and should adapt accordingly.

It could only get better , well no actually it can get a lot worse !

The short stack limped for 200 in FP , seats 2 3 & 4 called , knowing at least two more would call i joined in with 85o , all 9 of us saw the flop which came 8 6 2 , FP moved in for 2300 , passed to me i made a terrible call , i knew he didnt have an 8 so convinced myself it could be 77 , of course it was 99 and i was left with 1425 feeling very dejected.

In FP i moved in and the button called with AQ , i had KJ and rivered a J to survive , a few hands later the same player i doubled up limped in FP , the second called and i thought here we go again , but seats 3 & 4 passed , my Q2 didnt look as powerful as the 85o so i mucked , the button and blinds played , i was writing notes and glanced up to see the flop of 2 2 2 , FP bet , next player called as did the button ! Turn was a 7 , FP all in , next player called , button passed , their hands , FP AA , next player KK , my timing was out by one round lol.

I ended the level with 2500 , of 234 starters there were 150 left and i needed help , i now got moved to another table where i was shortest stack by about 10,000 , lovely .

On my first SB the cut off raised , button called , finding 86o i thought not this time and passed , BB gave me the implied odds by calling and flop was 8 6 3 , i felt that was my chance missed.

I blinded down to 1600 then went all in with AT on the button , the BB picked a couple of chips of his wall and tossed them in calling with 9T , no upsets and i doubled up . Round to the SB again and this time i had 33 and played like a wimp , i flat called for 150 and the BB threw in 3000 to put me all in , for some reason even though my gut said he had no better than Ax for an even money shot i passed deciding to make the same play as the last round on the button , he showed me ATs.

Of course the poker gods decide to teach me a lesson , all passed to me on the button , i found K9o , seeing the BB was already acting to pass , instead of moving in , i raised a 1000 more , the SB raised me all in and of course i was pot committed and called hoping to have two live cards , in fact it was the reverse of the last hand , i had the two overs , he had 33 , so now to see if they would stand up as i had chosen to throw them away , flop was ........ i can't even remember , but needless to say his pair won and i was out.

I would rate my play today at 6/10 , i made the classic error of disregarding the slow structure and being prepared to gamble early on with loose players , in my defence i was worried of getting moved and missing the opportunity to take their chips but that's a weak defence , having twice regained my chips i made an untimely bluff and an awful call for sizeable bets , at my level these basic mistakes should not occur but of course we are not robots and occasionally they will , the secret is to analyse what happened and have the strength of character to be brutally honest with yourself and next time remember what happened and be resolved not to allow it to reoccur , my next event is the £1000 Pot Limit Omaha at the Vic in London , i guarantee i will do a lot better than i did in Paris in January and i will not have to be so critical of my play.

As you can see i am back to my normal self and enjoying writing again , hope you enjoy reading them.

All the best