Some knock outs are hard to take. Tonight I entered 2 tournys.

The first a $55 buy in, $15,000 guaranteed. I played exactly 2 hands in 30 minutes.

Hand 1 - I pick up KK in the button. Blinds are 10/20. Seat 3 raises to 40. Folded to me. I re-raise to 100, SB, BB call, seat 3 raises to $420. I call as do SB and BB. Flop A Q 8. Checked to seat 3 who bets $420. I fold - I think he has trip aces or queens. I am squeezed anyway, so fold.

10 minutes later. Blinds 15/30. I get 10 10 in the button. 2 limpers. I raise to 180 - SB, BB and 2 limpers call. Flop J 10 8 all clubs. Checked to me, I bet the pot folds round to final limper who goes all in. I am probably beat but have about 400 left so call - he has Q9 clubs for the straight flush.

Tourny 2 $69 +6. 226 entries - so prize pool is $16,000.

Down to 35 (pays 27). Blinds 200/400/50 I get AsQs in the SB. Folded to me. I min raise to 800. BB goes all in for 8000 more - he has me covered by 200. I call. He has 44. Flop A Q 4 and I am out in 35th.

Unbelievable. I really had the final table feeling - top 5 paid $1000+.

Instead bank roll is crippled - tonight was a desperate shot at trying to resurrect the month. It failed.

Balance of $777.

And on another note: Mr Clarke of Waterlooville, Hampshire you are a pathetic little agoraphobic wanker.

Since my last post I have managed to lose about $80 on tournys and then another $200 playing 0.5/1 nl heads up - some tilting there.

I have, however, now (at last) discovered where the heads up sit and go's are on Full Tilt - I didn't think they spread any.

Tonight I lost a $22 HORSE HU S&G, I won a $33 pot limit omaha HU up S&G and a $55 pot limit omaha hi/low 8 or better HU S&G.

I've decided to give cash games a miss for a while and to play some S&G's and tournys. I just need to find a slab of spare time to play some tournys.

My 2 favourite games are definitely currently Omaha limit hi/low 8 or better and Razz.

So balance down to $924.

Today was a slightly better day.

I have transferred all my Paradise balance to Full Tilt. It was $910 in Dise, but only $880 by the time it reached FTP - I managed to balls up the neteller transaction to leave about $15 there.

Anyway managed to grind the $880 down to $830 yesterday.

Today I decided to enter a $22 Razz tournament. And believe it or not - I won.

I should, however, qualify that by saying there were only 29 players and the first prize was only $261. But never-the-less I won a Razz (!!) tourny.

It took about 3 hours. I entered the final table with about 13,000 in chips out of the 42,000 - got up to 18,000 before losing a couple of big pots and the chip lead.

We got down to four handed, by which time there were basically 3 short stacks around the 5k mark and another guy with 28,000. But I picked my spots, knocked out the other two short stacks and then took a big pot on the 1st heads up hand. It was then just a case of picking him off.

Very pleased about this - I have now won MTT's at stud (high), Razz and no limit. Although the Stud tourny was also small about 55 players. My best result at p/l omaha is a 3rd (out of about 63), so I need to win one of those. Still no seconds.

This makes up for the tourny misery I have suffered in June (but not the bank roll devastation).

Balance $1,072.48

The rakeback has come though but it didn't last long. I had about $3 left after yesterday, with the rakeback that makes $46.

I bought in for $20 on a 0.25/0.5nl table. Ground it up to $42 and came off. Bought into another table with $20. Lost that with 88 on a board of JJ8 - he had JJ.

I bought in for another $20 and lost with 77 to AQ on a 45Q6J board - the money went in on the turn. He had raised pre flop I called from the button. He made a 40% of pot bet on the flop, which I though was an AK continuation bet. He bet about 25% of the pot on the turn - I raised all in, he called.

So I had a crack at pot limit omaha. Ground the $20 buy in up to $38. Lost 2 pots with busted flush draws.

With $23 left I get Kd Kh 9d 10d in the big blind. Button and SB call. I raise to 2. SB calls. Flop 6d 10h 6c. He bets 6. I raise all in. He calls. Shows 10c Qc Qs Ah.

I am a 58.85% to 41.14% pre-flop. When the money goes in I am a 72.88% to 27.12% favourite. I reckon that's about as good as it gets with Omaha post flop.

Turn is a 10 and I lose with a worse kicker. I say unbelievable. He says what you getting upset about you can't get upset cos you lost with a pair of kings. I point out that I had a set too.

I then rebuy for my last 8.35 on a 0.1/0.25 omaha table. Grind it up to 14. I lose half with top two pair against trips - I have Ah K h 8d 8s - flop is Ac Kd 6h - so I have 6 outs for a full house, but don't get there. He thought he had quad 6's (but you can only use 2 from your hand donk - beaten by an idiot, grrreat).

I lose the rest to the same player three hands later when I make a straight against top two pair - all the money goes in on the turn and he hits his 4 outer for a boat.

The only good news is that my Dise withdrawal had made it to Neteller. I have now withdrawn the other £250 or so. I should have about $920 when its all there, which I will put in Full TILT poker.

I still have about $650 more than when I started this blog. [And I am $469 up for live play too].

I'm going to try a few free-rolls on Dise. The $2,500 ($1,000 for first) had about 260 runners last night and is still good value - particularly as they have reduced the buy in to 500 points from 1000.

I think the problem with all this is that its hard to keep grinding at the lower limits. My play has deteriorated massively over the last month. I have to get up to the next level, but that's now miles off - I need $2500 (or at least $2000 to try that).

Well things have just got a whole lot worse, I have just lost, tilted and been bad beaten out of my entire Full Tilt Stack.

Started off 4 tabling at 0.25/0.5. Playing $40 per table. I lost buy ins with each of these hands.

JJ v 99 - Board 2, 4, 9 10, 6.
44 v AA - Board J 10 4 7 River A
99 v JJ - Board 9 4 4 8 River J
AK v KK - Board A K 3 5 7
AA v 9s3s - Board 9 5 K Qs 8s

And then I start playing badly I run Ak into Kings.

At this point I should quit. Instead I move up to 1/2nl. But in with about $140.

First hand in the cut off (I have posted 2) There is a raise to 7 and a caller. I call with Q 10 -(I was going to fold). Flop Q 10 J. Checked to me. I bet 12. Original raiser calls. Turn 3. I bet 25 - original raiser goes all in. I call the extra 30. Her has A K. Should have got away from that.

I rebuy to $180.

About 20 minutes later I get JJ. I raise to 8. Big stack calls. Flop 2 7 Q. I bet 10. He calls. Turn 6. I bet 2o. He raises to 65. I go all in. He has 22. I should have got away from that but I didn't think he had a Q. He had been bullying everyone. He said - you should have got away from that. F*** off you righteous b"stard.

I rebuy for my last £110.

Get a series of AK AQ JJ type hands where I raise get called and miss the flop (or there are over cards on the flop).

Lose another $40 against a short stack with JJ v QQ.

And the final straw was this:

Down to my last $35. Limper in seat 2. I raise to 9 from seat 4 with JJ. Cut off and limper call. Flop 6s 10s Jh. Checked to me. Everyone thinks I am tilting, so I go all in for the last 26. Both cut off and limper call. Yes I'm going to treble up to $105. Turn 3h. River Qc. Cut off goes all in andI realise he has A K.

Balance $0

My rakeback hasn't shown up yet. And my Dise withdrawal is neither with Dise nor Neteller. So I'm currently stuffed.

I do still have about $900 (about $500 in Dise and about $400 in transit) and $42 rakeback due from last month. But this shouldn't have happened. I've just had that its all going wrong feeling since I got back from Vegas and the Tilt took over tonight. If say 4 of the bad beats hands had gone the other way, I could be sitting on about $700 in FTP now. But that's poker.

I lose more money playing with JJ and 100 then any other hands.

Disaster on every front tonight.

Down to $533 on Full Tilt (for no reason started playing 05/0.1 and blew $110 -also lost two tournys). Down to about $10 on P Stars (tilting played 1/2nl with 90% of the balance and got felted when my K 10 lost to K J on a board of K 10 7 3 J). Down to $900 on Dise (lost a $22 tourny when my Aces got cracked by trip 8's).

So about $600 down for the month. But I have that spiralling downwards feeling I had in January and March and April, which were all bad months (especially April).

Need some time off. Next time I play, I have to be fully focused.

In the process of removing my money from Dise (the new software is so bad its unbelievable). I'm going to put about half in FTP and $450 in Party Poker. And I'm going to grind back up. I'm going to keep all my money in 2 sites to avoid splitting the bank roll too much. I might even stick it all in FTP.

Trying to be positive. I'm probably still about $900 up from the start of the blog.

I have joined Stoxpoker's site. I'm going to pay the membership fee which lets you watch the videos. I think I need to retrain before playing again.

Played very badly tonight. Lost a lot of money. Down to $674 on Full Tilt - so about $320 down there for the month and $180 for the day. Miles away from the $2500 I want before I move up top 0.5/1nl

Missed in a $22 tourny on Paradise and $5.50 mini turbo on P-Stars as well to top it off.

Tired and not concentrating. Plus stressed.

I have a strange job. There aren't many people who do what I do. There are about 8 of me.

We currently have about 6,500 pieces of work for me (and the other 7 to do). Each thing takes about 4 hours. So about 2 a day per person.

At the current rate it will take 81.25 weeks to do everything we have now. But we get 100 new pieces of work every week. So the number of things waiting grows by 20 every week.

I have a new boss. She and the other 5 people who applied for the job had to have a plan. Her plan was the best, so she got the job. The plan was announced whilst I was away. The plan is....

everyone needs to work twice as hard.

Doh, why didn't I think of that? said my old boss.

Today is a big day at the WSOP with John Phan, Eric Lindgren, Daniel Negreanu, Humberto Brenes and Greg Raymer at various final tables.

The wife is also impressed because Devin "shortlegs" Porter has made it to a final table as well. He will most probably come 3rd (with Phan winning that one). Shortlegs is a good player though.

It would be nice to see Greg Raymer pick up a bracelet too. Incidentally, where's Joe Hachem this year?

My balance is going no where in particular at the moment.

I guess online poker is not such a rosey world these days. Danny boy's personal site Full Contact Poker (of which I am a charter member) has announced it will merge (meaning basically cease to exist) with Pokerstars.

Danny boy himself is now a member of Team Pokerstars, whilst FCP will be a "training site"ie Danny boy's blog.

The demise of FCP as a live poker site is a shame, but I can't imagine there have been many players there since the UIGEA.

I decided to put $100 (or £51) into my Pokerstars account because I have a $50 bonus pending which expires in about 2 weeks.

I think its the first deposit bonus, which you get 6 months to release - I had 461 points and needed 499 to release the balls. It is incredible how much money I have lost trying to get this money (and bonuses in general).

This time I was down about $25 by the time I hit 499 points. Pokerstars balance $124.77.

Paradise has confirmed that my account is now held (from its point of view) in pounds sterling (although I see the numbers in dollars) and this is why my balance is going down in dollar terms - its static in pounds but the exchange rate is fluctuating.

I expect to lose more poker dollars this way as the dollar improves against the pound over the coming months (perhaps as much as 10% of the roll).

I think this is very unfair. I signed up to a dollar account. I didn't get the benefit of exchange rate improvements on my deposits when the exchange rate went up from 1.6 to 2 and so I don't see why I should lose poker dollars as the pound falls back.

Today the Paradise balance has fallen again to $948. So I have now lost $7 without playing (and in fact about $8.5 from the high point after the £1 credit they added to my account when I moaned).

PARADISE POKER SUCKS>

Roller coaster ride today. Played two sessions on Full Tilt. One at my Dads and one at home. Was a bit tired and hungover when at Dads (I went to a stag do on Saturday). I got knocked out of a couple of tournys playing weakly and lost a buy-in as well.

Drove back to London and restarted as I left off. Reached a worrying balance low point of about $680 before winning some back in the cash games. Then messed up another $26 tourny before hitting a run on the cash games. Finished with $832. 31.

I am going to steer clear of $26 and $33 tournys for the rest of the month and concentrate on the cash games instead.

This is a good blog: www.doubleas.blogspot.com

Decided to play for another 2 minutes and hit quad 9s, so FTP balance is now slightly, but not much, better at $822.96.

Another losing day on the virtual felt.

I had the distinction of getting felted on three tables simultaneously when going all in with 99 v 88 (board of 6 7 8), QQ v 10 10 (board 10 6 4 rainbow) and A K v AA (board K 7 7). So about $95 gone in 3 seconds. Now down to $789.11 on Full Tilt.

I am having trouble getting back into playing small limits online after the excitement of Vegas and I have played very badly since arriving back.

To cheer me up, here is a recap of May:

• Started with $116.35 at Betfair and $246.76 at Full Tilt. Total $363.11 total.
• Finished with $983.61 in Full Tilt and about $955 in Paradise (I say about because my Balance has decreased by another $5 whilst I have been away - so a bit more than 11 cents this time!). Total $1,938.61.
• Overall profit for May $1,574.50.

A good month, but 80% of this came from the tourny wins (I was up about $1475 on tournys) - I probably won about $300 playing 0.25/0.5nl. I lost about 3 ($22) S&Gs' and a little bit playing razz and HORSE, plus a 1/2nl tilt night.

I also lost the entire Betfair account balance playing heads up cash games at slightly higher limits.

So:

• May +$1574.50. I will also pick up about $38 rakeback.
• June (-$194.51) so far.

Back to boring old on line poker last night. Lost about $30 playing 0.25/0.5nl. Then played $24 and $33 tournys without cashing.

Should have cashed in the $33 tourny but donked off my chips when in a good chip position with 39 left (18 paid). Sometimes I just get impatient and push to hard.

Also lost a few dollars playing stud. Balance is just under $900. Need to get back over a $1000.

Poker

The games at Ballys were incredibly loose and the players split between incompetent, weak and local (lots of off duty dealers). The standard raise is to $12 and you can expect 3 callers.

It took me a while to get used to the game and to realise that most of the players had weaker hands than I was giving them credit for.

In the first session I lost $65 and in the second I won $165. The third session was very interesting.

I was actually in trouble (I had lost $200 and rebought for $300) when an incredibly drunk plumber from Ohio, who had just moved to Vegas, sat down at the table and shook the whole thing up.

Seat 1 me
Seat 2 was a weak player (who claimed his regular game was the 5/10 game at the Bellagio - !)
Seat 3 was a french bloke who didn't speak English and didn't know how to play poker (he was calling everything and at that point was holding about $400 and had a big FISH sign on his forehead)
Seat 4 was the card room stalwart, Marty (old guy - fairly rockish with $300)
Seat 5 drunk plumber

Seat 6 off duty dealer (very tight has $100 is looking to double up)
Seat 7, 8, 9 (30 something solid players with about $300 a piece)
Seat 10 - reasonable player with about $800 in front of him

Plumber sits down. 1st hand folded to him, he raises to $75 (might have been more but for the string bet) everyone folds. 2nd hand, two limpers, plumber raises to $75 (everyone folds) plumber shows KK and claims first hand was AA.

Plumber then proceeds to raise every pot to about 25 or 30 and is re-raising all in at every opportunity before showing a bunch of 23 off suit type hands and complete bluffs - he's now getting serious action and telling seat 10 he is going to take all his money.

Meanwhile Marty is creaming himself "hey let me get you another drink", "that's unlucky you had to call there - you had a load of outs with that (gutshot) straight draw and ace"; but gets felted when the plumber cracks his aces with 9 4. Half the table is on semi tilt and frightened "hey fella this is a 1/2 game". Marty buys back in.

I get K 10 (in the cut off) plumber is BB (seat 3 was on a break). I raise to 10, plumber calls. Flop K 8 8. I bet 15. Plumber raises to 45. I sit and think, before going all in. Plumber says I think we have the same hand and then folds (he claims AK).

Plumber still running over the table. I have K 3 spades in the button. 3 limpers. Flop 2 7 K. Checked to me. I bet 10. Three callers. Turn 10. Plumber bets 70, 1 fold, plumber says to seat 9 you go all in and I will call, seat 9 folds.

Plumber looks at me and says now your different. I think he has a 2, but possibly a 10. I go all in. He thinks and calls. River 10. He says if you have a 10 you got me. He shows 7 2 off suit for a smaller two pair (phew) and I have doubled up to about $650. with the lucky river (I had 8 outs).

Plumber rebuys (trys to buy in for $500, but the maximum is $300). He doubles up against seat 10, loses 2/3 of that to Marty who has also just cleaned out the Frenchman and is literally wetting himself ("I'm dying for a piss, but I can't leave this table").

Then I get Kh 7h in the button. Plumber bets 10, seat 10 calls, I call. Flop A 3 9 all hearts (hello). Plumber bets 10. Seat 10 calls. I call. Turn is 6s. Checked to me I bet 20, both plumber and seat 10 call. (pot is 123). River 3c.

Plumber goes all in for 89. Seat 10 agonizes before reluctantly calling (I think he has forgotten I am in the hand) and has about 200 left. I'm sure he doesn't have a boat. Plumber is now standing (so probably no boat).

I say raise. Seat 10 mucks before I say how much, showing AK. Plumber shows 43, shakes my hand, says I knew you would bust me and is gone.

I finished up $369 , so $469 up for the trip.

Holiday

I am back.

Arrived back from Vegas this morning - we spent 5 days there, and two days in Chicago before that (plus one day at O'Hare waiting to get on a plane after ours was cancelled).

In Vegas we stayed at the Paris, which is a hotel I had previously had a pretty low opinion of, but it turns out that Paris is really quite nice. Its right bang in the middle of everything and is connected to Ballys (which has a very friendly poker room).

Non poker highlights included: playing a (not cheap) round of Golf at he Bally Hi course (just past the Mandalay Bay); getting drunk at the Crown and Anchor (the best place to watch football in Vegas) during the England v Brazil match); going to the Cirque de Soleil at the MGM (never thought I would say that); and dinner at the Country Club at the Wynn.

Poker

Poker wise - I decided against entering the $1500nl WSOP event 3, which started Saturday. I went over to the Rio after the England game on Friday to have a look - the registration queue was about 5 hours long (which was more time than I had) and that made up my mind for me.

I spent a couple of hours looking around - the whole thing is amazing - and whilst it is now my overriding aim to play at the WSOP, I think I made the right decision not to go in this year (I need to get some live experience first).

I only managed to play poker three times (at Ballys) for about 4 hours per session. I played 1/2nl.