First Live Poker Tournament Success

I returned from the Tony G. Invitational last week, I've been so busy I haven't had time to update this blog. Now I've got 5 minutes after lunch I thought I'd do some wittering/gloating

The festival was pretty much a great success for me, I played in the €100 NLHE rebuy and the €500 PLO freezeout. Winning the first event and coming a very tired 14th in the Omaha.

The NLHE tournament was only my 2nd live event and I'm very pleased to come away with almost 6000 Euros, a trophy and a strange "pop-up" certificate! - I changed my Euros, or Litas as they were given to me in that currency, at the airport when I arrived home. It felt very nice to hold that much cash in Sterling

So with confidence at a high, I figure it's time to get right back into another live tournament as quickly as I can. Blackpool looks likely in May, I have my eye on the £300 shootout.

Online I've been in incredible form too. Cashing in 3 of my last 4 MTT's, biggest prize was £560, I felt with a little more focus I could of cashed much higher in one or two of those tournaments.

What a great month

March was probably my best month since late 2004. Almost everything I played in, I came away with a profit, especially towards the end of the month in two tournaments.

I played in the Pacific Poker $1,000,000 guaranteed tournament. This was tough, 1619 players started but 250 were paid. My aim was to get into the money and change gears. It took 4 hours to get down to 250 by that time I was in good shape in about 35th.

My plan to become more aggressive had to take a backseat as everybody went crazy, so many raises and all-ins! It seemed like everyone wanted to leave real quick! I never saw a decent hand for an hour, player numbers dropped and prize money increased. Eventually I was moved to a new table and was forced to go all-in with about 120 players left. I doubled up and then doubled up again in the next hand, things were looking good again. After 6 hours we were down to 61 players remaining and that's where I finished for $2100.

The whole event left me tired but unable to sleep as I went over key hands which cost me large amounts of chips, without two horrible calls by me I would of made the top 50 easily and from there... who knows. The winner took $210,000 - maybe next time? :-)

Following that I played in a $5k freeroll arranged by Poker News, only 52 players started, unlike other freerollers they were easy to knock off their hands. I took 3 beats in this one eventually going out in 3rd for $750 with AJ losing to A2 (he rivered a flush).

Cash wise was excellent also, I'm showing $800 profit from Party Poker and $650 from Poker Stars. Along with a few other minor results March was superb for me. Just what I needed after a horrible February.

I hope April will be equally as good. Have fun.