Newcastle Weekend

Well, I packed my bags on Friday Morning and left for the airport at about 11.00 a.m. I'm thinking traffic is a bit heavy for this time of the morning, and then the reason becomes clear. The Garda are doing there beginning of the Month Tax/Insurance Check. I get past this, and arrive at the quickpark carpark, (which I've pre-reserved) and park my car. I grab the bag out of the back and head to the quickpark coach at the bus-shelter which then heads off. I use the check in machine and head off into the departure area. Going through security, they ask to take a look at my bag, and rob my deodarant. It's about 50ml too big. I had to go to area D (which is the new area that had been built). I'ts a long walk, but I get there eventually. The Flight is full, probably something to do with Newcastle playing at Home. The inflight service was disrupted as a gang of GAA footballers were going to the match, and several of them needed to use the toilet,a s obviously they had been drinking. There were at least 10 people queueing at one stage for the toilet at the front of the Plane. I did browse the menu, and looekd down to see a 500ml bottle of tipperary spring water for sale at €2.50. That €5.00 per litre. I then compared that to
the price of fuel. Fuel, has to be searched for, drilled, refined and transported. And yet it can be sold for as little as €1 per litre. Thank god, Planes don't run on water. Air Tickets would be unaffordable. I eventually aririved at my Hotel at around 4pm. I headed down to the Circus Casino at around 6.15 and had a nice dinner. I met Richard and Donna (Lucas and Teacup), and we had a nice chat. A few of the other ems'ers arrived and we went and played the friday night tournament. I knocked Richard out, when he made an unnecesary shove with complete crap and I called with AQ. I then proceeded to donk off my stack, but wasn't too bothered as it looked like the tournament was going to go into the early hours of the morning. I headed back to the hotel to get some sleep and refresh myslef for the long two days of poker playing that were too follow. On Saturday I headed down to aspers and met a few of the ems'ers who were gradually arriving. I had an interesting seat draw with addick, kara scott, dean and woody all at the table.
I tried to get involved in a couple of pots early on, and decided to raise with 98. I think I got two callers, and Dean was one of them. The flop comes down T98 giving me two pair. Dean bets and I call. Thinking about it, on that board, I should probably have reraised and given up to any action.
I call another bet from Dean on the turn, and with a 7 on the river, Dean shoves. I'm dead to any J or 6, and have got to fold. Dean shows JQ for the nut straight. I then raise in late position with QT and get two callers. The flop comes 999. I decide on a continuation bet and get called. The turn brings a T giving me a Full House. I'm still not quite sure where I am, I can't really shove on that board, so I reduce my raise sizes down and raise and get called on every street.
We go to showdown, and the caller shows JJ for 9's full of J's whereas I only have 9's full of Tens.

I've lost over 2/3 of my starting stack now and we are still only at level 1. Then woody raises to 150 in late position and I have AK. I 3 bet to 600 and he asks for a count of my remaining stack. Just over 2K. He reraises to 1800 and there's no point in calling leaving 400 chips behind, so its fold or shove and I shove knowing I'm getting called. Woody has JJ which holds up against AK and I am first out.

I then try my luck in the heads up challenge, and it's going well, until I lose a fairly big pot. Then I flop a straight, which I check raise and it gets called. Next thing all the money's in the middle and its my flopped straight which has been oudrawn by a turned bigger straight. Just not my Day. I did a bit of wandering around, and went and played one of the stt's. The structure was pretty bad and I was second out. I did end up playing a nearly all EMS sng and I played quite well, ending up heads up against JackMac. He had been ultra aggresive, so I called his shove with my AQ versus his 45s. He of course hits his 4. I then lose another big pot, when I am again ahead and he spikes his card. I don't have enough chips to recover, so he wins the stt and the seat in the virgin sng. I also played in teh forum challenge event, where at alst I had a decent result, managing to finish 3rd on my table. I was down to 600 chips at one stage and i shoved a suited KH and got two callers. I hit my flush and managed to treble up. That stood me in good stead until we got to 3 handed. I got outdrawn in a big pot which would have seen me heads up, but ended up on 3rd place, at least getting a small cash reward.

I did play a couple of casino games, and was lucky to win approx £200 in 3 card poker when I hit KKK. I promptly left the table, and that £200 meant no more visits to the cash machine. It paid for my Sunday Tourney and Dinner, plus the entry into the terminator event where again I didn't get going. I watched the FT for a while , and saw a couple of players getting knocked out, but headed off eary to go down to the circus, for Dinner and the Sunday Night Tourney. I made a bad call, which meant I needed to take the add-on, managed to double up by hitting a flush on the river after I moved from my original ultra aggressive table, but eventually got knocked out in a race (KJ vs 88) and 88 held. I then started playing Cash, and had a nice situation where my raise got two callers and I flopped a straight with2 hearts on board.
I checked, there was a raise behind and the guy last to act shoved all in. I called instantly and so did the player behind. There was probably close to £150 in the pot. The turn card was a spade and the river brought a dreaded heart. So I had to buy some more chips. I managed to make a small profit on the 2nd buy-in, with two notable hands. One where I had a J and the flop and one other street made me trips. I was trying to figure out how much to bet on the river, and trying to make my hand look like a bluff. I eventually shoved £15 into the pot, which got called. The other hand , I called two streets from a guy, and he checked on the River. I decided to try and bet him off the pot, and fired in £10. He had no more than £15 behind him, and he took a while but folded. I made some more money with KK but I raised a bit too big preflop and one of the very good players folded saying I think it could be a monster. I did get a call, and my continuation bet took it down. Back to the Hotel, for Breakfast in the Morning, and off to the Airport for the Flight Home. Of course I hit rush hour traffic, but made it back in about 2 hours.

So all in all an enjoyable weekend despite the lack of success in the tournaments.