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Well so much for the instant updates! It should however be fairly obvious that I'd didn't qualify for the Party Poker Million IV, since I would have got my arse in gear much sooner to post had I suceeded!

I busted out of Friday night's qualifyer after only 90 minutes, which at least meant I got some sleep before loosing 7-0 in the following morning's football match! It was, however, a pretty disgusting beat that sent me to bed:

[I'll try and post this in a nicer format eventually, but the hand converter I use is down at the moment]

The blidns were 50-100 and I had an average stack of about 3,500. I was on the big blind with T2 off. One mid-position player limped in, the small blind completed and I checked. The flop came TT5 with two hearts. I bet out 100 into the 300 pot, the limper riased the minimum to 200 the small blind folded; I just called. At this point it looked as though he either had the case ten (obviously with a better kicker) or he might possibly have been on a flush draw. The turn was another 5, so I no longer had to worry about my kicker being no good or about the flush draw (and 55 was so unlikely it could essentially be discounted). I was either going to win or - at worst - split the pot if he had the last ten. So I checked the turn he bet 100 into a pot of 700 (hmm looks like a ten to me) I then raised to 700 and he called (definately a ten - split pot for sure). The river was a queen and with about 2,500 chips left I bet out 1000, he rasied all-in and I called.

He flips over... QT.............AAAAAAARRRRRRRRRRRRRRGGGGGGGGGGGGGGG. The queen on the river now means that he's beating my tens over fives (which we both had on the turn) with his tens over queens. There's absolutely no way my chips weren't going in the middle on that hand. Even if I'd checked the river he would have gone all-in knowing that I had a ten and that I was always going to call with it.

That beat hurt, but nothing like as badly as the beat I took in the other qualifyer I played on Sunday night.

Thankfully that qualifier was earlier and kicked off at 9pm GMT. Things were going well and there were several of us from ITH playing and chatting in the mIRC room we use - I should point out here that there is absolutely no colusion going on. We use it as a place to discuss hands immediately after they've happened while the action is still fresh as well as to encourage and give banter, naturally.

Things were going well. I was playing really tight and patient and when the hands came up I was geting paid off nicely. I had KK three times in the space of about 90 mins and I doubled up on each occasion, keeping myself nicely above the average chip count. At the 6 hour mark we were down to about 200 players from the 2000 that started and 33 got a place on the cruise. The average stack was about 20K an I was sitting pretty with about 30K. Ammbo, an excellent NL ring and tournament player, who won a place on the crusie the previous year had been really grinding it out and a couple of recent double ups had put him to about 40K. Things were looking very possible at this stage.

Over the following hour the blinds began to get significant at 750-1,500. There was a lot of stealing and re-stealing going on. One significant hand that cost me a few chips was when I caught QQ in early position. I guy in late position came over the top all-in and he had me slightly covered. He'd hardly been playing at all - I had to lay them down. Shortly after that our table was broken and I got moved to Table 1, which meant that I'd be at this table till the bitter end since they break the higher numbered tables first. Unforuantely I got placed immediately to the right of a huge stack with about 120K and he wasn't sitting back and relaxing with them either! The hand that hurt me the most was when I picked up AJ and riased the 2,000 blind to 6,000 (taking me down to about 20,000) the bigstack flat called and everyone else folded. I can't remember the flop exactly but it was something like A96 (possibly with two suits). This is when the poker god conspired against me. The post was about 14K and I meant to bet 10K , but I must have misclicked because it only stuck 2K of my chips in the middle, which must have looked like a really weak bet. The big stack pounced on this and riased to 10K. Now the poker Gods struck again: In big tournaments like this there is a button that appears when you are running out of your allotted 20 seconds which you can click on to get an extra minute to think. I missed the button and my hand got folded. I think I would probably have had to fold anyway, thanks to my mediocre bet on the flop and not being able to risk my tournament on it. Had I bet 10K and he had then raised, it would have been an easier fold (although who knows if I could have made it with that many chips committed).

That hand took me down to about 15K and with the ever escalating blinds it was always going to be a struggle. My exit came when I got KK in late position (for the fifth time of the tournament - it was bound to get cracked eventually!). The guy immediately before me raised to 5,000 and I went all-in for about 12K more and he called with AdTh (aweful call, but I'm not going to winge - you should want people to call with the worst of it - so long as it doesn't end you tournament!!). I would have coped better if he had hit his Ace to beat me but it was prety gauling when the turn brought the fourth diamond giving him and ace high flush, especially when I had the King of diamonds just to rub it in!

So I went out 120th after 8 hours of intense poker. Another couple of hours of surviving and I would have made the cruise, but hey shit happens - there'll be more opportunities.

Ammbo went out an hour later in 60th. He'd definately had a tougher time that I had - getting KK fives times in a single tournament is gonna make life a litle easier for you!

A brief run down of everything else:

On the saturday in between the two qualifiers I wne tdown to London to play some live poker at the Gutshot and ended up £300 worse off - oops. My biggest problems was my bankroll disiplin I played in a £1/2 Pot limit game. Although my bankroll on the internet is bigenough to cope with these stakes, my student loan isn't and now I'm gonna have to take a chunk from my online roll to pay off my credit card - lesson learnt!

My research project is going very slowly. I'm suffering from a serous lack of motivation (for a change). I really just wish I could have graduated after three years and now be down in London actually doing something, although I dont really know what. I've been looking into the police force over the last couple of days although there aren't any vacancies in London for the next year or so.

Online poker is continuing to be quite slow. I seem to be treading water at the moment. I'm pretty much at the same stage I was at two weeks ago. I've been playing a fair bit of NL ring games on Party and William Hill. By playing on the latter I'm trying to build up a bit of a bankrol in easily accesible pounds becuase living is a bit tight at the moment and I may need to free up some cash.

As far as limit poker goes I'm managing to stick to $5/10. I did open a table of $15/30 yesterday, but despite its looking very juicy I manged to restrain myself! I'm having a little forray into the world of short handed play (6 person tables rather than 10). My strategy is taking a little while to adjust - it seems to be all about controlled aggression - but I think I may be getting there. After about 1,000 hands I'm on an earn rate of 1.8 big bets per 100 hands and it would be great if I could sustain that.

I'm also in the process of booking The Oxford Gargoyles (jazz a capella) Spring tour to the East Caost of The States, which should be cool. I'm working out the logisitics of a possible trip to Atlantic City, but not sure if I can afford to stay on at the moment.

Right must go, really need to pee!