In a typical week I play in three live poker tournaments and one online tournament. Last week was a typical week. Here's how it went...
Wednesday
   I took my regular trip to the Landmark Bar for their Turbo Rebuy Poker Tournament. There are usually 15 to 20 players in this $20 buy-in event, but this time there were only 10 of us. At first there were just 9 players and we all squeezed onto a single table, then a late-comer turned up and we made two 5-player tables. I was playing the odd drawing hand at first but hitting nothing. I finally started hitting the odd decent hand towards the end of the first period.
   My first decent hand was K J which I raised pre-flop and immediately got re-raised. I had to bite the bullet and fold and was happy to see the 3-bettor show his pocket Kings at the end of the hand.
   Next up came A K, and another pre-flop raise, which was called by 'D'. I completely missed the flop but bet at it anyway. D thought about it for a while, but eventually folded. But D was to get his chips back, and then some...
   I had A 8 in the blind and the flop came 7 8 T. I bet the flop with my middle pair and D called. We both checked the turn. Then a 6 came on the river and I bet at it, trying to represent the straight. But D was the one with the straight (T 9) and he called and pulled in a decent proportion of my chip stack.
   After the break I was getting short-stacked. By this stage one player had been knocked out and had declined to re-buy, so we were back to one full table. I had T 6 in the small blind and, as there were lots of callers, I decided to take a punt on it. There were 3 clubs on the flop and everyone checked. The turn was another club and I held the 6 of clubs. When 'E' bet at it I decided that my 6 high flush was probably no good and folded. 'W' called and at the end I saw that he had a 4 of clubs and E had a 9. Good fold.
   My last hand of the night came when I was down to 15 big blinds. I raised with my pocket tens and got called by D. The flop came A x x and, knowing that D was likely to have called with a wide range of hands, I pushed all-in. 'D' insta-called and slammed his pocket aces down on the table. Oh well, another early night. I never re-buy in this game so I wandered over to the bar and watched the Karaoke for a bit before heading home. I'd played for about one hour and fifteen minutes.
Friday
   My wife and I set off to the $25 Tournament at the Onehunga Workingmen's Club. There was a typical turnout of eighteen players sitting around three tables. My table ended up being short-handed with just five players because one of the players booked his name down but didn't turn up.
   My biggest chip loss in the early stages came when I had A K. I put in a decent-sized raise and got three callers. The flop was A 2 7. I bet the flop and was called by 'J'. The turn was a 5: I bet and was called by J. When another 2 came on the river I bet my top pair again and J 3-bet me. After I reluctantly folded he showed his 5 2. Nice call mate.
   J and I had another interesting hand a little later. I had 8 3 in the big blind and, as usual, there were a lot of limpers. The flop was 5 6 7. J bet at it and I called with my straight draw. The turn was a 4. I realised that the 3 gave me a 7 high straight but completely missed the fact that my straight was actually 8 high. J bet some more and I called. The river was a 9. J bet again and I reluctantly called with what I thought was the 'idiot end ' of the straight. J showed K 8 for the 9 high straight. It took a moment. but I finally realised I also had an 8, so the pot was split.
   A little later the rag hands came through again when I limped into a 'family pot' with 7 4 in the small blind and flopped two pair. That chipped me up a bit.
   I got a chance to split another pot with J when I picked up A Q with about 10 BBs left. J raised and I pushed all-in. He called with A Q. Three diamonds on the flop gave J a flush draw but he missed it and it was another split.
   After the break I was living on the edge of the red zone (my push-or-fold level) most of the time. By the time we made the final table (the last 10 players) I had about 8 BBs left.
   With T T I went all-in and was called by K J. There was a King on the flop and another on the turn. That left me with a pitiful stack as we went into the second break.
   When I returned to the table I had 6,000 in chips with the blinds at 2,000/4,000. I was getting a succession of rag hands with the big blind rapidly approaching. So I shoved my 8 7 and got called by J T. Guess what? A Jack on the flop, a Jack on the turn. At least I got three hours of game time, and a few more 'Ten Week Challenge' points.
   Meanwhile, my wife was still in the game. In the end she got down to the final three and they split the prize pool. Nice effort.
Saturday
   The next day we were back at the OWMC for the $50 Tournament. My wife had won enough on Friday to be able to afford to play on the Saturday. The turnout was the same as the last time we played this game; we had ten players so we used the big table.
   I guess it was the mix of players involved, but the play was ridiculously loose, with an incredible amount of calling. We were starting with 250 BBs, so I was playing my standard cash game strategy. This involved putting in a substantial raise when there were multiple limpers, but this seemed to make no difference. Obviously the others saw the deep stack as a licence to call any-sized bet.
   One of my first pre-flop raising hands was K J. My darling wife then 3-bet me. Knowing my wife's normally passive playing style I figured it must be K K or A A, so I folded. She obligingly showed her pocket Kings. Strangely familiar.
   Next up I raised with A 9 and got several callers. The flop was T 2 x. I checked and 'R' put in a huge bet. Everyone folded, as did I. R then showed T 2. Nice call buddy. At least my table mates were saving me chips by telegraphing their big hands.
   My best pre-flop hand up to this point was A Q. I put in a decent raise and got five callers (that's right; five). The flop was all low cards, so I put in a continuation bet. 'K' called and everyone else folded. The turn was also a low card; I double-barrelled it with a decent-sized bet and K called again. On the river I checked and so did K. She turned over 5 2 for a rivered straight (kind of strange that she didn't bet it). Nice call sister. This hand made a big dent in my chip stack.
   The timing of this game was unfortunate, as it was played on the same evening as the Super rugby final between The Hurricanes and The Lions. This game got under way as we were playing and the organiser set up the TV screen to show the rugby, leaving the tournament clock on the small computer screen. As it happens, I'd drawn a seat that was facing away from the TV, so I couldn't see it, but I could hear what was going on. In any case, I was more interested in concentrating on the poker and winning some money.
   By the mid stages I was getting short stacked and getting very few playable hands. Much to my surprise, when I raised with K K and then saw a pretty safe-looking flop, I actually managed to win a few chips to keep me going.
   I was now in the push-or-fold stage of the tournament and was managing to survive with the occasional all-in bet. I was hovering at around 10 BBs but actually managed to knock out a couple of players with my all-ins.
   K had been running good with her rag hand calls but she was finally undone when she called my   A 8 push with 7 5.  She hit a 5 on the flop; I missed the turn but it gave me a flush draw; the third heart on the river gave me an Ace high flush.
   My wife had already been eliminated by this stage and we were down to four players, and in the money. Although my stack wasn't that big, it was big enough to allow me to play a little more freely. The two smaller stacks didn't last long and in the end it was just 'Z' and me. I'm pretty comfortable with heads-up play and we both had reasonable-sized stacks, so I was settling in for the long haul. Z and I discussed a deal, but we figured we'd keep playing at least to the end of the rugby match, and then reconsider.
   But then, a few hands later, Z decided that she wanted to watch the game, so I said 'What the hell' and we split the prizepool, getting $185 each. A good enough result. Not only that, but the Hurricanes won, the last of the five New Zealand franchises to win the Super Rugby title. Nice one.
Sunday
   My current favourite online tournament is the 888 poker $1200 Guaranteed Tournament that runs at 10.30 am each day. This costs $US8.00 to play and I logged in on Sunday to give it another shot. This tournament has a starting stack and blinds at 3,000/20, so there's no need to hurry early on.
   With Q J in middle position I put in a raise pre-flop and got called by the player on the button. I missed the flop but hit a Queen on the turn. My opposition called my bets all the way to the river and then showed K 8, having hit his King on the river. I lost about 500 chips on this one.
   But pocket Aces came to my rescue. Two players called my pre-flop raise and they both called my bets to the river before finally giving up, leaving me with 3,700 (90 BBs)
   With A 6 on the button I called a min-raise. The flop was K K 5. The opposition checked and I bet my A high, as is my habit these days; they called. A Queen on the turn and they checked, I bet and then they re-raised. Uh oh! Time to fold. Back down to 2,200 (22 BBs).
   Not long after this I crossed into the push-or-fold zone, but then 3 good hands in a row (K Q, A T, K Js)  got me back into the game. Then someone called my A A all-in push, and I was up to 7,300.
   Some time later, with a couple more all-ins I was up around 11,000 chips, which sounds good, but with the blinds up around 700, it's only about 15 BBs. It was around this point, after a couple of hours' play that I crossed the money bubble (27 players paid).
   When I pushed again with A 9s it looked like my tournament was over when I got called by A K. I needed a 9 or a diamond to fall on the river to stay alive. It was the 9 of diamonds. Sometimes you've just got to get lucky.
   With 18 BBs left I got to see a flop with J 5 in the big blind. I hit bottom pair on the flop, two pair on the turn and a flush on the river. My opponent had top pair on the flop, but hadn't bet enough to push me out, and I was up to 26,000 (26 BBs).
   Nearly three hours in, with two tables left, and I shot myself in the foot. In the big blind with T 6s, I got to see a flop with two others. The flop gave me a straight draw and I called a small bet. I hit my straight on the turn and put in a min-raise, which both players called. With a third diamond on the river, I checked and one player put in a pot-sized bet. Even though this bet was just screaming 'flush!', I called and they showed the Ace high flush. 7,400 chips left with the blinds at 600/1200.
   With about 6-8 BBs left, I managed to stay afloat with a couple of all-in bets. My last hand came when I shoved again with A 6 and got called by A 9. There was a 6 on the flop, but a 9 came on the river, and that was it. 12th out of 163 players. $US13.00 profit. Not bad.

So that was my week. Another seven days, another four poker tournaments. A few more dollars in the bank and, hopefully, a few more lessons learned. My plans for next week? I think I'll play some more poker.