Live poker.

No change.

Poker tracker is giving me some strange figures for the last six days. It says I'm $1 up but I had a terrible session on Pokerstars (bad play coupled with bad cards). I played ok on 888 afterwards so maybe it's true. I don't know, so I'll stick it as level to save an argument with myself - who reads this anyway!?

I've just got back from a live poker tournament and I'm wide awake so I thought I'd write about it.

It's not my first experience of live poker although it might as well of been considering the first time I played. I don't know how but I got persuaded to play in bankroll-busting £10 rebuy pot limit holdem tourney. It was a complete farce with the blinds starting at 100/200 with 1,000 starting stacks. I went bust on the first hand I played, rebought and then sat there for 2 hours folding just so I didn't have to rebuy - I didn't fancy 2 hours sitting in the car listening to the Archers while my friend played.

Today was different though. £7 no limit tourney with a £5 rebuy or add on at the first break. Starting stacks of 2,000 and blinds at 25/50 with 30 minute blind increases. You had to deal yourself and I was a bit slow doing it and made one or two mistake but the people there were actually understanding and patient.

The brief summary of the tourney is this. I finished 7th out of about 50 people with the money paying out for 5th. God Damn you Mr Poker God! *waves fist*

Not being used to multi-table tournaments and quickly realising that the play was fast, furious and rarely going beyond the turn without all-ins occurring, I felt a little bit out of my depth. Not in terms of poker skill or knowledge but gambling guts. Looking at the players I thought I could pretty much have them in Bodog's beginner sit and gos structure but here I was an ultra rock. I can even tell you all the hands I played from the flop and beyond.

1. 89 spades. Checked my option. Flop was X910 spades. One guy bet, I re-raised him 700 (he'd been bullying the table). He called. I failed to connect on the turn but was priced in when he went all in. I called. He showed 10x and I nailed my flush on the river to bust him. Slightly lucky but I realised I was going to be given little option in a tourney like this.

2. 1010. Raised 4x bb and everyone folded. I showed my 1010s just to show I was still playing good hands.

3. AA. Very next hand. I was tempted to go all in (like usual). Instead I put in a huge raise 1,500 to try and get someone to commit. They all folded and then started pondering my play. They all seem to think it was silly (I suspect) and they're probably right, but I didn't want 2+ callers seeing the flop and getting them cracked.

4. 43. Flopped 345. Shortish stack put in small bet so I re-raised to 700 to try and get him to commit to the rest of the hand. He agonised before folding, showing a six, exactly what I put him on. We rabbited 56 so I would have had my pair counterfeited.

For the next 90 minutes I went completely card dead or was unable to play any hands because people raised and I had all the limping style cards like suited connectors. A guy also came to the table who was flopping every single thing under the sun. Trips, full houses, you name it he had it. By the break he had 16,000 compared to my 4,300

5. 108 in the small blind. Raised 1200 (blinds 200/400) to get a rocky player's blind.

6. AQsuited. Very next hand. The monster guy who had taken control of the other table raised. I re-raised 2,500 (half my stack) hoping he would fold or, second option, he call and I shove regardless of the flop. Flop was AJ5 so I pushed and he called with A5. I dealt myself a second J on the turn to crush his lower two pair. Lucky. Also in the hand I might have screwed up by not burning a flop card. I can't remember if I did and the first card out was an Ace - which would have been burned. Whoops (but hehe).

Up to 9,700

7. Card dead again and moved to another table where there was an even bigger stack who was a cocky, chatty bugger. He bullied the table into submission before I pushed with A-10 in the big blind to steal. Then I pushed with 105 after the flop showed Q10x. I had just enough fold equity to get them off their hands.

8. After four hours I'd made to the final table with 7,000 chips. Blinds 1000/2000, average was about 25k so I was in desperate all in mode. The chatty bully from our previous disbanded table continued his aggressiveness but walked into people with chips and cards and he died just three hands into the final table. In the small blind I had 69 and had to call someone's raise simply because it was just him and me so I thought I would have two live cards. They were both live but up against KK. I rivered a straight. Very, very lucky but I had to play the hands as I wouldn't get another heads up all in contest. So back up to 12k

9. KQ. One caller, guy to my immediately right (who looked like Richard O'Brien) went all in with 77. I had roughly the same stack so I went all in. Unfortunately the limper had loads of chips and was priced in with his 109suited. Board came K102X9. Both O'Brien and me were sent to the rail. Annoyingly some woman had about 7,000 chips left and should count herself lucky getting into the money (£20 for 5th, £190 for first).

I'm very happy with my play to be honest. I played probably ten hands out of 100 or so but I won every single one of them expect the final KQ. I was lucky twice with the AQ and 96 so it evened itself out. Maybe I could have played the Aces to get some more money and I could have added 2000 to my stack after the break but I don't think it would have made any difference.

I don't think live poker is for me to be honest. There's too much gambling and not enough play. I didn't play a single hand beyond the flop except the flush draw which I went all in with on the turn. I was ultra-tight/ultra-mega-aggressive. I also pride myself on earning money too (no matter how small) so it's annoying to see myself miss out on the money by two places.

The other thing is it's boring. I folded loads of hands and when you're used to multi-tabling six-handed, one hand every three minutes is agonising. I was in the tournament for about 4 hours. That's too long.

In saying all that I enjoyed the experience and consider the £7 spent on an interesting experience and entertainment rather than a bankroll blow - which is why I'm not taking it out of the bankroll. Soft drinks were free in the tourney and I had about four cokes so maybe I came out even. It's a good confidence booster too because I felt as though I quickly adapted to the format and switched gears correctly - I just don't have that sort of gamble in me.

I really should play more sit and gos and MTTs online though. I used to be good at them and this proves that I still am.

There's a freeroll tomorrow at the same place (yeah, completely free) so I might play in that. I don't think this will be a regular thing though. A lot of sick gambling goes on in casinos and I'd hate to be tempted into the games where you don't have any edge.