Positivity

In order to inject some much-needed Christmas cheer to this diary, I must say that I played the £100 PL freeze-out in Luton last night and thoroughly enjoyed myself, despite the classic 12th place at 2am finish. The reason I enjoyed it so much is that I made a very conscious effort to play the players more than the cards, to manipulate and be aware of my table image, to try to read players, generally all the things I stopped (or never even started) doing out of laziness because I thought I could win without them. Of course not every move came off, but enough to be profitable, and more to the point I was able to use the ones I made a hash of for advertising. There was one I was very pleased with, there's a pair on board and I check-raise representing trips only to be found out and made to pass. 10 minutes later I limp on the button with QTs, flop comes TTx, and I play it exactly the same and double through some poor guy who makes a pair on the turn.

It's the same online, when you enjoy the game you're playing you generally play much better and even if you could make more turning the handle somewhere else, you're still much better off overall where you are.

If any of you are quite new to these tournaments, here's a bone for you - how much easier do you think it is for me to read you when you constantly tell me, and everyone else, how you play ? It must be torture in these beginner tournaments, every hand must be thoroughly analysed by the panel. Don't tell everyone how you play at the table (it's a lot different me doing it here). Force them to at least make an effort to find out.

Anyway these £100 tournaments are a godsend if you're trying to move to the next level, check them out. Luton are also promising a couple of shoot-outs on Monday 24th and 31st which I will try to make, it will be interesting to see if these take off - I hope so !