Canaryboy loses

I have it on the highest authority that this video was taken of our feathered friend from Norwich after his nut flush was beaten by a full house.

Run of bad luck

Well, my run of bad luck seems to be continuing. Nothing seems to be going right. I play for an hour in the 9.00. I play good solid poker and increase my stack to 3,000 chips. I've been looking for a decent chance to double up. Then it comes. I hold K9 clubs and 3 clubs come on the flop. All the chips go in on the turn. Unfortunately, I'm up against the nut flush. Unbelievable. That decimates my stack. I bide my time for 10 minutes or so with my 600 chips left. I go all-in with K9 and come up against AJ. A king comes on the flop. But, my chances are scuppered by the runner-runner straight. Just about indicative of my luck at the moment.

Flush draw frustration

I can never get over how people play the flush draw. It's second level of an MTT. The blinds are 15/30. Everyone has got just about their starting stack of 2,000 chips. I'm on the button with AQ. I raise up to 100 chips and get 2 callers. The flop comes AQT with 2 spades. It's checked to me and I bet 400 chips. BB goes all-in. I call. BB shows the flush draw and hits. I go out.

What is it about the flush draw that makes people put all their chips into the middle? I can understand it as a semi-bluff. To try and knock the other player off a marginal hand. But, I'd raised pre-flop, overbet the pot with an Ace on the board. That should be a sign of massive strength. If a player goes all-in against that then it's pretty certain he'd get a call.

Going well

I'm quite enjoying my poker at the moment. The MTT's on the new Betfair poker site are not bad. The buy-in is $5.50 and you normally get around 70 players. The blind structure is quite slow. This suits my game as I can just sit around and pick off the fish. I finished 6th last night and picked up a prize of $20.