Secrets of the Amateurs

I'll keep it brief, you can find hand details and so on in the Matchroom Forum if you're interested, and I don't want to spoil the eventual broadcast for anyone else. Binked the semi to go through with 290K (average 230). At one point in the final I had a great position, 40% of the chips in play 5-handed. But then it all went spectacularly tits up and I ended up 3rd for $50K.

Which is nice but anyone who plays the tournament circuit will know it's frustrating to be that close and then fall short. Still, when I say "at one point I had a great position", at one point 72 players all started off even, including a lot of better players than me. I thought I played OK, nothing inspired but no serious mistakes over the whole tournament.

I can't think of anything much I learned at the table, but the apartment was a massive succeed [1], it probably paid for itself 10 times over in terms of EV. I could sweat the morning semi online and be at the studio in half an hour when it looked like it was winding up. Whereas this morning it took me 90 minutes to get home from Liverpool Street alone. Nice apartment too, it's basically like a good hotel room with your own kitchen to boot. Worth thinking about if you're planning to play a festival in London.

Finally I went out with Neil and Karl for a curry afterwards, the food was great and while Neil was a bit down over his 5th place finish, he told us all about http://www.blackbeltpoker.com/ which sounds very exciting and one to keep an eye on, you can sign up for Email updates via that address.

[1] massive pass ? what's the opposite of a massive fail ?

Update : You may notice that I have tidied up the links on this blog. Please don't send me a request to swap links unless I know you because unfortunately 99% of poker blogs really suck, so the odds are against you ...