July - finally the end of a terrible month. And yes, I still hate live poker!

July is finally over! What a sh*t of a month!

I started the month playing 400NL on ipoker with my worst session ever (-3k $) in one day! Got 3rd on a tourney that night a broke even for the day. Then I decided to try out the Rush Poker on Full Tilt and ran 2k $ below EV in 5 days, until I decided that I had enough and went back to ipoker to win back the money previously lost.
Tourneys didn't go well either, I made countless final tables but I only managed to win 1 tourney this month.
The funny thing is that after all the mess (poker-wise) and the sick beats that I got this month, I still managed to have +2k € profit....wtf! I have no idea how, but certainly this gives me good hopes for the future when I start running well again! Or probably my opponents are just so bad, that make me win even when I am suppose to lose!

The highlight of this month is certainly the freeroll (lol) for the VIP Level "Principi" on GDPoker. We were 51 playing, and the first two would get a package to play a 1,650€ tournament in Saint Vincent, in the north-west side of Italy...and guess what? I shipped the package ....first time I qualify for a live event via an online satelite, and it is pretty funny that it happened in a freeroll.

The weekend in Italy was great, I also took my lady with me, so while I was grinding the poker tables she could grind the swimming pool. It was great to meet all the players I play with on a daily basis on GDPoker, I really got to know a lot of nice people. There were about 160 starters in the tournament, and the field was one of the toughest I have ever played in. I would have expected a bit more donks (given the general standard of play in Italy), but instead it looked like all the elite' of Italian Poker (ie. Minieri, Pescatori, etc, etc) was there. I played very well though, I busted out after 10 hours of play with about 70 players left...the hand was simply one of the sickest ever, and of course rather than be outclassed by a top pro, or losing a coin flip, I get a supersick beat against the donk of the table. The hand went like this.

Blinds 400/800, average stack 35k, I have around 17k....utg limps, I make it 2.6k to go with KK, retard on the button flats and limper calls.
Flop comes 885 rainbow (perfect flop for my hand!!!), limper check, I check with the intention of check/raise the button (who I knew he was always going to bet), he bets, limpers fold, I shove my remaining chips in the middle....he snaps call and turned over AQs ..WTF????????? I hadn't played a hand for 2 hours, so my table image was supertight and this idiot calls me with A high!!! Obviously he hits runner runner for a flush and I bust out!!!

"I was commited" he said. Stupid retard, having 2-1 odds on a call were you have at best a 15% equity DOES NOT commit you to call. Donk! But I guess some players just look for a reason to call, whatever the dynamic is.

I didn't play any of the small(ish) side events there though as I preferred to spend time at the swimming pool

Then last night I played a live tournament in Dublin. I don't play much live as the buy ins are too low to justify playing live rather than multi table MTT online, but I just wanted to get out of the house, so I went to play the 270€ end of the month tournament at the Fitz Casino. We were 131 players and I busted out in 12th position...average stack was 80k, when I got it in preflop with KK against AQ for a 230k pot that would have given me the chip lead. Flop T52 Turn 3 River 4....and Villain makes a straight sending me home!!! So sick again!
I think I actually played very well and enjoyed myself for the 8 hours I played, I just didn't like the end obviously

The thing that annoyed me the most though is the pressure from some of the older players around the bubble. The top 14 were finishing in the money and they start asking to pay the bubble when we were 18 left (to pay all 18). I politely declined (I was average stack but couldn't care less about busting out on the bubble). Then again with 15 left right on the bubble.I politely declined again. Obviously this didn't help my popularity there, but who cares...for them is "bad etiquette" not paying the bubble, for me is "simply ridiculous" to play a tournament and be happy about getting your money back! Plus, and more importantly, bubble play is a critical part of every MTT in order to accumulate chips, and certainly I didn't want to miss this opportunity against a few money-scared players. If bubble money means a lot to you, then you should play smaller tournaments! Obviously a few were delighted to see me out a bit later when KK