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The last few months

Its been a while since i updated my blog so here goes.....

I've played just two tournaments since my last entry, the Irish Open and EPT Monte Carlo. Both had massive fields and huge prize pools as well.

The Irish Open i pretty much went out to a cooler. I raised the button with AA and got reraised by an aggressive player in the small blind. I decided just to call, as i want to try and extract the maximum with my AA. If i three bet preflop he will probably lay down most hands.

Anyway the flop came down K94, after another 4 came on the turn we get all the money in and he shows KK. So i was destined to go out on that hand however i played it.

Monte Carlo was much more frustrating. Particularly as i liked my table so much. I walked top pair into a set a few times early and dropped from 15000 to around 12000.

The crucial hand for me was when some guy opened for 500 (blinds 50/100), i looked down at QQ in the SB and made it 2200 (22 big blinds). The flop came down 279 rainbow, and i led for about half the pot. He called. He didn't appear strong at all. Turn brought an 8. I checked with the plan of check raising all in. He checked behind!

River was an Ace. I checked again to him. He now bet 3000. I could rule out 22, 77, 88, 99 and AA pretty much. I couldn't really see how the Ace could have improved him. He can't have called the flop with AT, AJ, AQ or AK. So I called and he showed the good old A7 off for a rivered two pair. Its sick that someone can call 22 big blinds with A7 in such a big tournament.

I never recovered from that hand and busted out an hour or so later!

On a more positive note i've been doing really good in my regular cash games. I think i'm playing my best ever poker online at the moment in the $25/$50, $50/$100 and $100/$200 Pot Limit Omaha games. I am probably running above average luck wise, but long may that continue. I'll try and post some big pots in the next week or so.

Las Vegas isn't too far away now either. Its less than six weeks till it starts. I've booked myself into a decent suite at the Palms as a change to the Bellagio and the Wynn. Its quite expensive, but i figure its a good investment if it makes me play 10% better. Here is my provisional schedule:

May 30th - World Championship Pot-Limit Hold'em $10000
June 2nd - Pot-Limit Hold'em $1500
June 3rd - No-Limit Hold'em w/ReBuys $1500
June 4th - No-Limit Hold'em $2000
June 5th - No-Limit Hold'em / Six Handed $2500
June 7th - No-Limit Hold'em $2500
June 10th - Pot-Limit Omaha $1500
June 11th - No-Limit Hold'em $5000
June 12th - Pot-Limit Holdem/Omaha $2500
June 13th - World Championship Heads Up No-Limit Hold'em $10000
June 14th - Pot-Limit Omaha W/Rebuys $5000
June 16th - No-Limit Hold'em / Six Handed $2500
June 18th - Pot-Limit Omaha W/ReBuys $1500
June 29th - World Championship Pot Limit Omaha $10000
July 3rd - World Championship No-Limit Texas Hold'em $10000

I'm feeling positive about Vegas this year and have never played so many tournaments in a short period so it should be fun. I've only played 3/4 tournaments so far this year, so i plan on playing some NL Hold'em multis for practice before i go.

• Ben Grundy
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