I’ve played 2 tournaments since the last time of writing. I wish to god I had played three. I managed to turn a total freeroll into a 13k loss when I decided to skip the EPT 2k side event in favour of playing online for the day. I promptly lost 13k. I’d had a couple of small wins before that and I’ve been doing ok since, so I’m around level again for the last couple of weeks.

I didn’t have much success in the 2 tournaments that I did play either. In the Budapest EPT I busted out at around the 80 player mark with JJ v AK. There were 56 places paid. It’s always a bit annoying to bust close to the money like that, but I don’t think I could have done much about my exit hand. I didn’t have a lot of chips and couldn’t afford to shy away from a gamble if I wanted to have a realistic chance of winning the thing.

I wasn’t that mad about Budapest as a destination, although I didn’t really get to see that much of the city. I always expect to get a bit ripped off when I get a taxi abroad, but a few of the Budapest drivers were really taking the mick - a couple of times charging me the equivalent of €20 for journey less than 2 miles late at night when there was no traffic. Unfortunately some of these drivers looked pretty dangerous, so I thought it was best to swallow, rather than get into an argument at 2am in a city I didn’t know. In fairness, these were guys I flagged down on the street, and I later heard that if you stick to hotel taxis you won’t get overcharged. I have to say though, I would probably go back to the place just for the food alone. I ate in a few different restaurants over the week and the food was absolutely top-notch.

From Budapest I made my way to Maidstone for the 888 poker open. I had a good draw, with Andy Black being the only well known player in the heat, although we had a Dutch qualifier who Padraig told me was a good player. There were 2 other qualifiers who had both got in for $1 online, and completing the heat we had boxing legend Jeff Fenech. For those of you who don’t know, Jeff is probably the greatest Australian boxer ever unless you count Kostas Tszyu, but you can make a very good case for Tszyu being Russian. All-in-all I thought this was a reasonable line up and I thought I had a decent chance.

Unfortunately things didn’t really go according to plan. I slow-played a hand early on when I flopped an ace holding AT. At the time this seemed like a great idea - and in a way was as my opponent could only win with 2 running jacks, 2 running spades or a running Q and K. unfortunately a spade came on the turn giving him cause to call my bet and I ended up feeling a bit sick when the spade rivered. I wound up losing 15k in the pot when I could have bet the flop and picked up 10k. There was another hand that I could have played differently to save money, but on reflection I don’t think I really did that much wrong in either one, and I would probably play them the same way if the situation was to arise again. I really didn’t see any good starting hands at all and I went out pushing KT into TT when short-stacked.

I spent the next day seeing a bit of the English countryside as I made my way out to Sevenoaks (wherever that is) to retrieve my mobile phone which I’d left on the train the day before. The train stopped at 6 or 7 stations with very strange names on the way, with by far the funniest being Bat and Ball (I’m serious). I’m not sure whether this is the actual name of a village or just the name of a train station, or just some kids messing about and replacing the real signs with joke names of their own.

I hung around the next day to watch Padraig Parkinson’s heat. I thought his was one of the tougher heats and again, I don’t really think he saw his fair share of starting hands. Nevertheless, he was right in the mix-up with 3 players remaining. With the blinds having gone 15k-30k (with 200 average stacks), he was a bit unlucky to find an ace on his BB when Juha Helppi raised from the button with AK.

Anyway… I had a great few days in Maidstone and I’d a bit of success in the £20 sit-and-go’s that were operating round the clock. I also picked up a Shane Warne signed cricket bat and baseball cap, a set of pens, a Man Utd scarf and a cheap plastic watch - all of which were prizes on mad Marty’s nightly play your cards right game.

I also won a poker chip set but I swapped that for an Elvis money box as I didn’t have enough room in my suitcase… and if you think these prizes are a bit unusual, another guy won a box of screws and rawl plugs.

I’m off to Amsterdam tonight for the Masterclassics. Karen and a couple of friends are coming over as well as Paul Spillane and Padraig and Veronique, so I’m sure we’ll have a good time regardless of the poker. Having said that, it would probably be a lot better for my health and general well-being if I got a good run in the tournament, with all the distractions that the city has to offer after you bust.