A friend of mine, Ironside, over on the Blonde Forum has a thread going to see if he can get staked to play in the WSOPE PLO Event.  He is selling 60% of himself in the hope that he may be able to attend this unbelievably fantastic event.

Ironside is a very special gentleman, who is highly respected by all, and everyone on Blonde are his “family” who love and admire him so much.

At the moment he has reached, approximately, 56.8% out of 60% he is asking to be staked, 0.5% being from myself.

I think this is a wonderful opportunity for a wonderful man whom I think so highly of and was fortunate enough to meet in Dublin last year and I wish him the very very best in reaching 60% (which I doubt will be far off from completing) and all the very best of luck in the event itself, what a lifetime experience for you!

You can view the thread on this over on Blonde Poker HERE, I particularly like the post where someone suggests he challenges Doyle Brunson to a Wheelchair race hehe.  Ironside has also started a Blog about this venture HERE.

xx

Howdee dear readers.

Well things are going pretty good on the poker front.  Played in the APAT Swedish Open on Saturday night along with Biffa, Hammerheid and Ant.  Ant, Hammerheid and I made it to the final table, with Ant taking 3rd for Bronze and I took Silver and 2nd place,unfortuantely Hammerheid went out 7th.  Thats me now got 2 Silvers for online championships, a bronze for Regional and a Gold for a National, woot.

Was a great tournament, I was on form and very focused and when it got to 3 of us left, I was 2nd in chips and Ant was the bottom stack, he pushes with 55 and I have KK and oopsie took me pal out..gr8 result tho Ant vwp.  The guy who I was HU with had a huge chip lead over me and although I fought for a while, my middle pair, o/e str8 draw wasnt good enough and took 2nd place.  Enjoyed the tournament so much tho and look forward to the ones next week.

Havent played a lot of online poker, I have been so busy this week as my sister Marian is getting married on Friday.  She met her hubby to be, Andrew, on 8 August, 16 years ago, and it was her dream to get married on the 8th of the 8th of the 8th lol, so Friday it is, finally, after 16 years together.

I am really looking forward to it, its going to be a very emotional day for us all, moreso for Marian, as our mum passed away last year.  Kids are so excited, got David, my son who is 7, his full kilt outfit on Saturday, he looks soooo smart and mostly all my family are wearing kilts, its makes for beautiful pictures.  My daughter Holly, 9, is a bridesmaid, she is so nervous and excited at the same time to be part of the wedding party and my wee girl Ellie, 2, has the same dress and will look sooooo cute, she has never attended a wedding, and she is a wee chatterbox so hopefully she wont shout loud or chatter away at the top of her voice during ceremony lol.

I had some great news regarding my brother John who was diagnosed with Lung Cancer at the beginning the year.  His treatment finished about 6 weeks back and he had a preliminary CT scan and was informed that his tumour has shrunk by half and that his lymph nodes have decreased as well, which really is gr8 progress as the treatment is still working on his body, when he gets more scans in a couple of months, hopefully we will see even more progress.

His strength is increasing and I do see a vast improvement in his overall physical health, he is able to walk a wee bit further day by day and he is stronger and seems a lot cheerier when I have spoken to him the last few days.

Other than that, not much else to report.  As I said looking forward to the wedding and seeing family that I dont get to see very often, a good ole knees up and watch my gorgeous sister get married to the love of her life, what better way to spend the weekend.

GL at the tables all

xx

Well I seem to have come down a bit from Blackpool, still over the moon, but its all sunk in now and I am now getting over the overwhelmed stage.

I would just like to thank everyone for their support and their thank you messages on the forums, your blogs and on my last post.

I am going to London at the end of August to play at the Grosvenor Victoria for the APAT World Amateur Poker Championship.  I arrive on Thursday 28th August and will be playing the Razz event that day, Stud on the 29th and the two day Main Event on 30th and 31st.

My friends Lou and Mike Saban are going too for the Razz event, and my step-daughter has said she would like to go with me that weekend, she wants to go shopping and see a bit of the nightlife, so hopefully someone will offer to take her out to paint he town Red.

This looks to be a superb few days of poker, APAT, as usual, provide a top class tournament structure and their events are 2nd to none, they are fun, friendly and some great poker is played there.  I am fair looking forward to it.

I have also booked to play Leg 9 of the GUKPT.  This was part of my prize for 1st in the APAT UK Forum Championship.  I will be joining them on Day 1b on Friday 14th November at Blackpool.  There were others to choose from, but with my sister’s wedding next week I couldnt do Luton, dont fancy Kent and the WCOAP is August so too close to doing Bolton also, and where better to make my GUKPT debut but back at Blackpool, seems fitting really lol.

So on the Live poker front, plenty to look forward to over the coming months, I really need to get myself over to my local game at Office Poker, they play once a fortnight and Ive not been in a wee while.

I started playing those Super Turbo’s on Full Tilt last night, you get 300 chips and the blinds are 3 mins with no timebank.  The guys on the Raise the River forum had been talking about them a lot, and they seemed to think they were worth playing and a lot of them showing good stats.  So I thought okay I will give them a go.  Played 8 last night and cashed in 4.  They will take a bit of getting used to, but early dooors in these if you don’t have some decent hands its just as well hanging fire cause you should see them go out one by one when they hang themselve by going all in with nothing.  I have regularly not played a hand and been down to the last 4 and cashed with patience.  More need to be played tho to get a feel for them, and to come up with a good strategy for playing them, but overall I do enjoy them and intend to play more.

My friend Cell1919 gave me a mention in his blog to congratulate me the other day, and one of the things he said was “This is a woman who, not so long ago, was short on confidence and motivation and didn’t want to play. It just goes to show that with support and confidence things can turn around very quickly.”  He is so right in that comment, my confidence a few months back was at an all time low, but also it was not just about poker, my life too, things on the family front were not doing so good and it had a detrimental effect on my poker playing, as my mind was not fully concentrating, and although I was playing, to not give the game my full concentration, I got myself into all sorts of trouble.  I have been feeling much better on the life front, with things looking good from all angles, and it shows that important things like that can affect your playing and once resolved, the confidence increases again, mind you the support I have had during those times boosts ones confidence hugely anyways, especially from my friends Lou Saban and my dear american friend Jo, without them I don’t think I wouldve bounced back so quick.

Quite a bit to look forward to online, Raise the River have organised 2 new challenges and started a new League and the britbloggerment too, so plenty of poker to be had.

Best of luck at the tables all, oh and a mention too for Zagga (Acornman) who took approx. $4k prize in an online MTT and not only that, took down the Mods/Admin v Rest of the Forum tournament too, taking quite a few bounties on route.  Well done hun and vvwp.

xx

Blackpool - APAT UK Forum Championships

RTR Team: Mair38, Bullmeist, BurnleyMik, Ant, Biffa, Mike Sideburns Saban, Lou Saban, Scouse, Hammerheid & dD

What can I say, im speechless at the mo, quite overwhelmed tbh and after reading all the threads in RTR and APAT I am astounded at the superb support I have received.

When I arrived on Friday night I never expected to leave as the APAT Champ, my goal was to have a gr8 time, meet everyone, play some poker and have a nice relaxing weekend. Relax?? yer bloomin kiddin lol, it was the most stressful weekend o me life LOL, but in a good way, I mustve looked supercool most of the time, but tbh I was crappin meself.

First of, I would like to say how wonderful it was to meet up with the RTR Team, Lou, Mike, Mik, Bull, Biffa, Ant, Hammerheid, Scouse and dD. You are, without a shadow of a doubt, the most fantastic bunch of peeps I have ever met in the Poker circuit, and it truly was a pleasure to Captain the team and, not only meet you all, but to watch you all in action. I am so very proud of every one of you, and I couldnt say it enough during the interviews.

A huge congratulations to the team on taking 2nd place for £1500 quid wow, what a result! We were on countdown, made it to final 100, then we had 5 (yes 5) still in when the points came into play with 50 left, and we hung on there and got better and better points.

A huge congrats to Lou on a very fine result, Lou was down to 3k in chips when dinner break came on day 1, and she battled on to start Day 2 with $17.5k and wow, what a player! She really was a star, hanging in there and making her moves to eventually got out 10th, just short of the final table when her A10 was called with 89 and he hit trips! bah!

Great result Lou Im so proud of you hun, you are our Short Stack Ninja hehe.

Now, I have to comment on Railage, OMDG you would not believe what it was like, I already was impressed when online and being railed whilst doing well in a tournament, that is NOTHING compared to railage Live! They need a bloomin medal for their railage performance, every time, during the final table, I won a hand the whole place erupted, and where from the most, the RTR crew LOL it was amazing, they were jumping about and shouting and cheering it was unbelievable and what a buzz, it really helped me and kept me going, giving me so much more confidence than I thought possible. I bow to you all in sincere thanks.

When I got to final table, I knew that I would have to play real well and get the hands to have a chance of making the Medal positions.  I was very fortunate that I did have some really good hands as well as the way I played them, I felt I was able to get value in the pot when I had won a hand.  A crucial stage of the tournament is when I knocked Dale Leighton out in 5th place, he raised All In and I look down to JJ and instantly calls, at that point I needed to increase my chip stack, and my thoughts were well if you dont take some risks with the good hands, and go for the win, whats the point o just sitting there blinding down.  He turns over 88 and I hit a J too to make a set and we were down to 4.

My head is mush at the mo, it still has not sunk in, I played my bloomin heart out, I never changed my game the whole 2 days, and it did me well, when it got to 3 left, and I knew I had the medal, I was just blown away, but held it together and it was rocky with chips flying back n forth, until I just sat patiently and waited on my kinda hands that I had been playing the last 2 days and when Paul kept going All in, All in, and taking the blinds, I was getting dealt cack, and I just kept the heid and thought to myself you are gonna do that once too often mate and when I get a hand, watch out.

So once again, he pushed All In, I picked up me cards, looked and see AK sooted, and immediately called, finally I had a hand to go up against him with. He turned over pocket 8s and an Ace on the flop and, once again, the noise was deafening, every one of my supporters were going mental, no 8 came to save him and it was HU.

Andy, who was seriously short stacked, with about 200k had folded his SB to my BB, next hand I look down to KQ and I raise 200k which he promptly went AI and turned over Q9, no 9 came to save him.

It was surreal, I just stood there, my hands out to the sides looking down, not quite believing that I had done it, that I was the new APAT Champ, the place was going wild, Stan, Bull and Mik were jumping up and down screaming, Lou was making a mad dash for me, Mike was standing there, I swear I thought he was gonna burst into tears he looked so delighted LOL, dD came over n gave me a kiss, people were hugging me and shaking my hand and I just stood there like a dumbstruck idiot LMAO.

The first woman to win an APAT National event and Medal, thats just an amazing feeling.

Its been great tho, I think it will take quite a few days to sink in, not quite managing to get my head round the fact that Ive won, I am darn proud of myself tho, I played double my A game for sure, I was going for the win when I got to final table, and I DID IT!!!

I met so many wonderful people during the weekend, Christian and Harmony, the UKFF crowd, whom I play regularly online (Beau was wonderful to meet you, we play a lot together, and you too Jas), Ian and Caroline, and all those whom I havent mentioned here, your support was fantastic, all of you, and I can’t wait to catch up with you at the next event.

Thank you all once again, your support online and Live is the best I have ever experienced and you all should be darn proud of yourselves, as I am proud of you.

Take care.

xx

Havent played much poker, dabbled in a couple of $16 played 7, got a 1st and two 2nds, bubbled on one too was quite frustrating but ach well.  Not out to make mega bux or anything, im more a leisure player at the mo.

Played in the Euroblogger on Saturday night and got 1st place to make it a Hat Trick of bloggers, then on Sunday played the Britblog and was HU and my JJ AI was beaten by Wad’s ATos. Nice 1 taking it down Wad.

Played in the Sunday 100G again, and cashed, although didnt cash for much, the bottom scale, but a cash nonetheless, I do enjoy that tourney.

It’s the APAT UK Forum Championships on 19/20 July and there is a team of us going along to represent Raise the River, dD, Hammerheid, BurnleyMik, Bullmeist, Ant, Biffa, Scouse, Lou and Mike Saban and myself.  I am quite excited about meeting up with everyone, and also the APAT event itself, looking to let me hair down and have a thoroughly enjoyable weekend.

Nought much else to report, so GL at the tables all.

Well I have been enjoying my break, hardly playing any poker, and this week the poker I have played has been quite exciting and eventful.

I played 3 Razz tournaments this week, $16 buy-in and I placed 3rd, 2nd and 9th:

PokerStars Tournament #92875918, Limit Razz
Buy-In: $15.00/$1.50
40 players
Total Prize Pool: $600.00
Tournament started - 2008/06/24 - 13:45:00 (ET)

Dear Mair38,

You finished the tournament in 3rd place.
A $96.00 award has been credited to your Real Money account.

********************************************************

PokerStars Tournament #92876090, Limit Razz
Buy-In: $15.00/$1.50
32 players
Total Prize Pool: $480.00
Tournament started - 2008/06/25 - 13:45:00 (ET)

Dear Mair38,

You finished the tournament in 2nd place.
A $115.20 award has been credited to your Real Money account.

For placing 9th I didnt cash.

Then I played the Euroblogger which is on a Saturday night, $10 buy-in and took 1st place for that.

I played the Britblog 2nite, $5.50 buy in and took 1st place for that also.

I was also playing the Pokerstars Sunday 100 Grand, was doing quite well after the Britblog finished, and just kept plugging away, had some really good hands, I had a tight, solid, aggressive image and it paid me well.  There was one hand which was a beauty, it has to be said it was the hand of the tourney for me, I did laugh at how it held well after the flop:

PokerStars Game #18472924039: Tournament #92877924, $10+$1 Hold’em No Limit - Level XXV (10000/20000) - 2008/06/29 - 20:06:13 (ET)
Table ‘92877924 1960′ 9-max Seat #7 is the button
Seat 1: MarMars13 (455212 in chips)
Seat 2: Sloth USA (310460 in chips)
Seat 3: Thrane (363423 in chips)
Seat 4: P@trickkk (720537 in chips)
Seat 5: framework (442804 in chips)
Seat 6: mkomer (312453 in chips)
Seat 7: trobling (286192 in chips)
Seat 8: gdomxdgse (378216 in chips)
Seat 9: Mair38 (149970 in chips)
MarMars13: posts the ante 2000
Sloth USA: posts the ante 2000
Thrane: posts the ante 2000
P@trickkk: posts the ante 2000
framework: posts the ante 2000
mkomer: posts the ante 2000
trobling: posts the ante 2000
gdomxdgse: posts the ante 2000
Mair38: posts the ante 2000
gdomxdgse: posts small blind 10000
Mair38: posts big blind 20000
*** HOLE CARDS ***
Dealt to Mair38 [5c 2h]
MarMars13: calls 20000
Sloth USA: folds
Thrane: calls 20000
P@trickkk: folds
framework: folds
mkomer: folds
trobling: calls 20000
gdomxdgse: calls 10000
Mair38: checks
*** FLOP *** [2c 5d 9c]
gdomxdgse: checks
Mair38: bets 127970 and is all-in
MarMars13: folds
Thrane: folds
trobling: calls 127970
gdomxdgse: folds
*** TURN *** [2c 5d 9c] [6h]
*** RIVER *** [2c 5d 9c 6h] [9h]
*** SHOW DOWN ***
Mair38: shows [5c 2h] (two pair, Nines and Fives)
trobling: shows [Kd Ah] (a pair of Nines)
Mair38 collected 373940 from pot
Mair38 said, “hehehe”
*** SUMMARY ***
Total pot 373940 | Rake 0
Board [2c 5d 9c 6h 9h]
Seat 1: MarMars13 folded on the Flop
Seat 2: Sloth USA folded before Flop (didn’t bet)
Seat 3: Thrane folded on the Flop
Seat 4: P@trickkk folded before Flop (didn’t bet)
Seat 5: framework folded before Flop (didn’t bet)
Seat 6: mkomer folded before Flop (didn’t bet)
Seat 7: trobling (button) showed [Kd Ah] and lost with a pair of Nines
Seat 8: gdomxdgse (small blind) folded on the Flop
Seat 9: Mair38 (big blind) showed [5c 2h] and won (373940) with two pair, Nines and Fives

I like to call that a Big Blind special, I mean if they wanna flat call round to me, especially holding AK then you have to face the consequences with a flop like that and me going for it.

Anyways had some serious railage from the Raise the River crew, chat was hilarious, really intimidated the other players, which was fun, Kenn’s Giglometer (thank you for that Kenn lol) and my poker buddy Lou, tyty for keeping me sane on MSN LOL.  I went out 26th out of 18,640 players for $372.80 when my 33 came up against AJ and he won the hand with 2 pair.  Not bad tho for a $2.20 satellite stake.

So although not playing much poker, the quality of poker I have been experiencing is good, I had such a drought for a long time before I took the break that it is nice to see some positive results.

Anyways, GL at the tables all, will post again next week.

xx

Hello Readers.

I am taking a break from Poker and Blogging for the next 8 - 10 weeks, my kids school Summer Holidays will be starting soon and I wanna go lots of places and planning lots of things we can do over that time.  I have quite a lot of things I would like to do in the house as well as other ideas n stuff I’ve been planning and want to get a head start on, so Poker is gonna take a back seat.

GL at the tables tho, will browse the forums every now n then and take part in a few tournaments, but not as much as I usually do.

xx

Well I have just been playing HORSE the past few days and accumulating Full Tilt Points for Iron Man.  I tried a few satellites for $26 tokens and only won 1 out of 3 x $8 and 1 x $6 ones “sigh”.

Anyways 2nite I am playing the $9.5k GTD KO $26 tournament on FT.  Doing not so bad so far, built my stack up nicely at the mo been running for about 54 minutes and ive got 4.1k average stack being 3.8k.

Hands havent been all that great, just slowly pulling some chips in, low profile and hopefully good table image then I can start to take the chippies.

Will report tomorrow how I got on, lately tho with NLHM I havent dont so well, past few days have been awful and I have been avoiding playing it.  So fingers crossed eh, could do with another FT to boost me up.

BurnleyMik is going away on holiday and he wanted to stake some peeps afore he went, so he advertised that he would stake a couple o peeps in the $11 KO on FTP, possibly 5 each.  So had a word wi my mate Lou Saban whom I chat n play poker with most evenings to see whether she fancied giving it a go and she was well up for it as was I, so posted on forum and Mik said gr8 lets do it.  So me n Lou are gonna start playing em tomorrow.  He has staked us for 5 of them, so looking forward to having a good go at em and making Mik a nice wee profit.

Nothing much else to report at the moment, Im just going along, doing my thing, playing poker when I feel like it, although now that I have a challenge to get my teeth into I am fair excited bout that, quite exciting really.

Anyways, GL at the tables all.

PS Hiiiiii Dad Love ya hehe (He reads me blog every now n then had to put that in hehehe)

Well I have just been HORSEing around lately, playing cash tables on Full Tilt.  Im determined to reach Iron Man status this month and so far defo gonna reach Silver and on track to reach Gold, so will see how the next few days go.  I am enjoying the change from playing NLHM and although I do miss playing in the large MTTs its good to take a break from them for a while, have played a couple but without cashing and decided to just continue to play cash tables at the moment.

Mike Swick joined my table last night also, quiet guy didnt say a word, and i beat him with this lovely hand hehe:

Full Tilt Poker Game #6787812608: Table Allante_93 - $2/$4 Ante $0.40 - Limit Stud H/L - 19:45:29 ET - 2008/06/11
Seat 1: Eboractos ($101.90)
Seat 2: TABASCO KAT ($12.75)
Seat 3: Mike Swick ($198.70)
Seat 4: Allante_93 ($122.80), is sitting out
Seat 5: pez gordo ($56.15)
Seat 6: Banka ($92.90)
Seat 7: xxMAIRxx ($91)
Seat 8: potoddsman ($67)
xxMAIRxx antes $0.40
potoddsman antes $0.40
Eboractos antes $0.40
pez gordo antes $0.40
Mike Swick antes $0.40
Banka antes $0.40
TABASCO KAT antes $0.40
*** 3RD STREET ***
Dealt to TABASCO KAT [8c]
Dealt to Mike Swick [Th]
Dealt to pez gordo [7d]
Dealt to Banka [3s]
Dealt to xxMAIRxx [Qs Qh] [5d]
Dealt to potoddsman [3c]
Dealt to Eboractos [4d]
potoddsman is low with [3c]
potoddsman brings in for $0.50
Eboractos folds
TABASCO KAT folds
Mike Swick calls $0.50
pez gordo has 15 seconds left to act
pez gordo folds
Banka completes it to $2
xxMAIRxx calls $2
potoddsman has 15 seconds left to act
potoddsman folds
Mike Swick calls $1.50
*** 4TH STREET ***
Dealt to Mike Swick [Th] [Ac]
Dealt to Banka [3s] [5s]
Dealt to xxMAIRxx [Qs Qh 5d] [8h]
Mike Swick checks
Banka bets $2
xxMAIRxx calls $2
Mike Swick calls $2
*** 5TH STREET ***
Dealt to Mike Swick [Th Ac] [9h]
Dealt to Banka [3s 5s] [Tc]
Dealt to xxMAIRxx [Qs Qh 5d 8h] [Qd]
Mike Swick checks
Banka bets $4
xxMAIRxx raises to $8
Mike Swick calls $8
Banka calls $4
*** 6TH STREET ***
Dealt to Mike Swick [Th Ac 9h] [9s]
Dealt to Banka [3s 5s Tc] [Qc]
Dealt to xxMAIRxx [Qs Qh 5d 8h Qd] [2d]
Mike Swick checks
Banka checks
xxMAIRxx bets $4
Mike Swick calls $4
Banka folds
*** 7TH STREET ***
Dealt to xxMAIRxx [Qs Qh 5d 8h Qd 2d] [5c]
Mike Swick bets $4
xxMAIRxx raises to $8
Mike Swick raises to $12
xxMAIRxx calls $4
*** SHOW DOWN ***
Mike Swick shows [Kh Jh Th Ac 9h 9s 2h] a flush, King high, for high
xxMAIRxx shows [Qs Qh 5d 8h Qd 2d 5c] a full house, Queens full of Fives, for high
xxMAIRxx wins the pot ($68.30) with a full house, Queens full of Fives
No low hand qualified

I contacted Full Tilt with regard to rakeback, as I dont have rakeback with them.  They gave me the standard auto reply, but when I replied to say if they didnt consider me for rakeback I was moving my roll elsewhere, I quickly received a reply to say that they would put me forward for their new Rakeback Scheme, so I am awaiting news on that.

Its so difficult to find a decent site that has HORSE who do rakeback, there are some but none that I have any details on or reviews about or that I dont already have a poker account with.  Ive always loved playing the variety of poker games and I have to admit, HORSE is my favourite game to play and I could sit and play it for hours and be relaxed.

Other than that, nothing more on the poker front to update.  On the personal front, I received 2 dozen pink roses from my brother John and his wife Leanne to thank me for the love and support recently through his treatment.  Was a lovely surprise when the girl brought them to my door.  He has his last chemo today and then its a 3 month wait for scans to see how things are doing after the treatment.  Initial results show that the tumour in his lung has reduced by 2/3rds so fingers crossed eh.

Anyways nothing much else to talk about, GL at the tables all.

xx