Late night poker.

I have not been playing much online poker of late, the trouble l find is l really need to concentrate and its pretty hard to do that with kids wanting things and running around playing, but last night when all was quite l found myself logging on to betfair poker.

I find poker is alot about confidence, you need to be in the right frame of mind to play, no good playing if you have had a bad day or not feeling well l think it can cloud your judgement. That's why when l play l tend to play on betfair, nothing to do with software but l have had a good run on there lately. Ladbrokes is my favourite site but my results on the cash tables have been poor.

After finding a couple of games 50-1 l started playing two tables, I sat down with $50 on each one, playing a tight game, some people look at the tables and see the what the players play like, for my sins l just sit down and play and see how it goes. All was going well i was winning on each table nothing much but up about $30 not a lot but a profit.

Sometimes it never takes long to find the donk at the table and soon l found him but the main trouble was he was hitting everything he played with. I knew l would have to hit an hand and play it strong as he was going to call if had connected with any part of a flop. I was up $36 on the other table and decided to close that down, l really wanted to focus on this table as l felt it could prove more profitable.

I was now up to $96 on the one table l was playing but the donk had had a healthy $246, built up by all-ins and chasing flushes, it was then that l was dealt queens on the BB and was immediately raised by him up to $3.50, l thought lets push a bit so i re-raised to $9 he called flop came 6 9 Q all rainbow l immediately bet the pot it was there he decided to put me all-in, l called and he showed 7s 8s, the rest as they say is history.

I thought about pressing the add chips button, but l just had that feeling l it was not going to be, some would say stay in the game, he is bound to give them back but l just felt that on that table it was not going to be my night. I would maybe play against him just to try to win my money back and lose focus of the overall bigger picture. L felt without being big headed l was the better player, but l never felt l would get the luck needed to go with it.

The thing is with poker you can leave one table and find another within seconds. My favourite game is playing pot limit holdem the only trouble is its very rare you can get a game.

To my amazement I found one at $1-$2 on a six seater table, one guy just sitting there, I my heads up game needs a lot of work sometimes l play too passive but l still so l joined as usual with my $50 buy-in he was sitting with over $200. Usually players wait till more arrive but he was happy to play. One of the reasons l like pot limit is you can control the size of the pots more and it generally suits my style of play.

The first four hands all he done was raise, l found myself playing too passive again, not sure if it was down to the donk on my last table taking my money or not but l knew l had get that out of my mind. So a change of tactics were in order now l found myself calling and hitting cards, the raises l made were being called and l was control the pots. My big hands were getting paid. I was in control of the table and in the space of 10 minutes he was cleaned out. I was up over $200, he brought another $100 to the table, now l did think about leaving but l felt he was tilting, so l should stay and ride the wave.

Two hands after he had brought the $100 to the table he raised, l had 2 9 diamonds, l would just fold without thinking but l was now playing with his money and felt lets just see a flop and go from there, so l called, flop comes down 2 6 9. I bet the pot and was immediately raised l knew he had a big hand and even before the turn he was all-in. Now l was the donk as my two pair had just busted his aces and wiped out another $100.

Another player joined but he only played a couple of hands, while my new found best mate had brought another $200 to the table, l was now sitting with over $350 and only been at the table 15 minutes. I felt l could hear him screaming at his pc, his play had detorated over the course of the game, he was probaly playing hands he would not normally do but that was not my concern. We sparred for another 10 minutes and one point l got it up to $453, its funny when you are winning the amount of times you keep looking at your $$$. He won a small pots and l was down to $428.

When out of the blue he just left the table.

It's amazing how fortunes can change on cash tables in the space of minutes, if you don't feel lucky at a table, just get up and leave. Don't let your emotions take over and remember tomorrow is just another day.