I played the $45k guaranteed $50 rebuy on ipoker last night which I never do because it starts too early for me but I was playing the WPT mag Irish open satellite freeroll so had a go whilst I was online.

After starting off really well in the freeroll and being chip leader with 200 left I busted out after losing a couple of big hands in quick succession which often seems to happen.

The first hand involved AK v 33 on a board showing K53 5 Q. I can't remember the betting but he did well representing a very fishy play when ha actually had the goods.

The second hand was K7 versus KT on a KT7 flop where I saw the flop for nothing in the big blind.

So on to the $45k:

I got to the end of the rebuys with not much more than I started with and purchased my add on.
Before long I had someone double me up when I held aces and then, when the blinds were something like 400/800/50 and there was a raise to 6000 all in UTG, I reraised all in to 12000 with JJ and was called by 99 as well giving me a treble up and a decent stack.

I had another couple of really big double ups including one player who open shoved for 25 big blinds holding 6c8c just in the money.

I eventually got to the final table and this was pretty tight with hardly any flops being seen with either the first raise getting through or every reraise shove not being called.

There was one player effectively putting pressure on the medium stacks but whenever I had a hand and tried to invoke the bully he never took the bait.

I had a similar issue with the player to my right who I had a note on saying limp into his big blind and he will raise.

Unfortunately I never had anything playable whenever he pushed and the one occasion he raised on the button and I had 33 I failed to pull the trigger when I should have… chicken!!!!

My last hand was one where I had a bad feeling but failed to listen to myself. The blinds were 5000/10000/1200 and there were 8 left. $12000 to the winner and $1200 for 8th.

The table was playing with a 14% VPIP with no-one very far away from this figure.

I had only recently said to myself that everyone was folding to the reraise shove and when I make one I'll probably get called.

A player who had shoved all in for 100,000 a couple of times raised to 22300 in early position and I had JJ in the small blind. When he raised less than all in warning bells went off in my head and if I had AK I would definitely have folded. As it was I tanked and nearly did fold but decided that since I only had 95000 JJ was too good to fold. I shoved and indeed he did have KK and no help on the board sent me out in 8th for $1200.

There was one other hand that I might have misplayed which was when I had AA and had raised to 15,000 and was called by the big blind – he had me covered with 120,000 effective stacks.

He then lead out for 22000, on a K high rainbow board and instead of calling I raised all in thinking that the 90,000 in the middle was enough to win without the chance of being out drawn but really I should have called and looked to get it all in on the turn.

I might have possibly been swayed by a hand from earlier in the tournament when there were about 50 left and I was chip leader. A player had raised in early position with JQ and called when I reraised. Then when he lead out on the KT4 flop and I put him all in he called and hit the 9.

Anyway, it was a shame to miss out on the bigger prize money but considering I do not normally play this tournament it was nice to get a good cash and I can play the Irish open super satellite on Sunday.

It was finally good to see Liverpool play a little better last night. I was relatively pleased with our performance in the second half last Monday when Aquilani came on and started to get us playing football again.

Last Thursday was not good to watch but at least we got a few goals last night that could get the confidence back. It is still ridiculously frustrating though, to see us taking a corner when we are 3-0 up against a relegation threatened team and only have 4 players in the box!!!!

Anyway, I said before last week that if we lose 1-0 in Lille then we will probably be out of the tournament but I am a bit more confident now, time will tell!