A delayed entry...

Date: Tue, Aug 12, 2008 Professional Internet Live Tournament Women

Sitting here at the airport at home on my way to Ireland to play a little and do promotional stuff.

Know its been a while since I wrote so figured I'd do something productive while waiting for once.

I havent played much at all lately. Was in Vegas for a month and a half during WSOP, but obviously I couldnt play anything. Had tons of fun tho, met some great ppl, saw tons of shows, shopped, railed and everything else I wanted to do! After that I went back home for two weeks or so before heading off to London to play in the Ladbrokes Poker Million that I had been looking forward to for a loooong time. To my disapointment it only lasted 11 hands when Tony G two outted me with two cards to come and knocked me out of the tournament. Oh well.

I'm really feeling good about my game tho. Ive been playing in my head all the time even if I havent been at the tables, and Ive come up with some pretty cool new stuff that I'm gonna be experimenting with in the upcoming tourneys.

After I've been to Ireland I'm going to Portugal to play in the second leg of the BPPT... to be honest I'm not going for the tournament this time lol, I just know I'm gonna have a blast with everyone there and look forward to the social part more than playing.

No big tourneys for me untill EPT Barcelona now which is beginning of September. Weeeeeeeeeeeeee, bout time they started again. Watch out, I'll be making my mark again this year, u wait and see!

Annette

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Funnnnnnnnnnnnn times!

Date: Thu, Jun 12, 2008 Professional Internet Live Tournament Women

Man, I have so much to talk about this time so expect to keep reading for a while...

I'll start with WPT Barcelona. I got through day one of the main event with 50k or so in chips which was top 15 out of 120 left I think. Day 1 went pretty smooth from the start, I picked up some hands, got paid etc. Had 3 key hands that day which I think were all pretty interesting:

1. I have about 23k after chipping up from 15k startingstack. I had been pretty active at the tale but also showing down fairly strong hands and no big bluffs. Marc Goodwin, a good British player is to my immediate right. He's a typical live pro, has reasons for everything he does, but sometimes his logic can be very flawed even if it makes sense in his mind. He had been very active, accumulating well and sitting on around 25k. The blinds are 150-300/25. Our table had been playing very tight for the most part, with not many re-raises or flops.

Marc raises utg to 800. Ok, so ur prolly thinking I need a very good hand to continue, which I under normal circumstances would, but he had been opening utg the last 5 orbits, and sometimes showing one card like a random 7.. so I'm pretty sure his opening range is pretty wide still. I look down at 4d6d utg+1 and decide to re-raise to 2750. This is not something I do very often, but it was such a perfect spot for me to come over the top cuz he HAS to put me on a huge hand. I also think that he's gonna do the good ole live pro 'call hoping to set mine or hit a good flop against me to stack my 'overpair' without getting right odds to do so' move. So I will be able to take down the pot on the flop a ton of the time, and I can also hit a really disguised flop if I'm lucky. Comes back around to him and he calls relatively quickly... no surprise there.

Flop QdTd5x

He checks. (which im 99% sure he's gonna do no matter what he has so that doesn't tell me anything.) I obviously flop huge here and I'm trying to think what my best line is against him. I think he can easily have a hand like AQ that he's just not folding cuz he doesnt like to give me credit for a hand very often. I also think he can have KJ and might check raise me on the flop. TT is also a possibility, but for the most part I think he just has some random pocket pair or suited connecters that whiffed and will fold the flop. So I decide that I kinda wanna get some more chips outta my flushdraw (as weird as that sounds lol), so I decide to check behind planning to shove on any turn bet hoping he thinks I'm on AK and bets out with whatever he has and then realizes I was slowplaying the flop with an overpair or QQ. There's no way hes gonna call a turn shove even if he thinks I have AK.. hes just not that type. I also dont wanna get checkrasied on the flop and blown off my hand, because any checkraise on his part commits him, so I won't have fold equity anymore.

Turn: 9d

Beautiful card, completing my flush, and also making it much more possible for him to have hit some part of that board. He checks again.. I was pretty sure that he was giving on at this point, but I had to protect my hand. So I bet 4300 into 6k or so just hoping for him to do something stupid. To my surprise, he insta shoves!! Kinda scared me... but I obviously call and he shows 9s... awesome, ship 45k pot myyyy way please!

River: Blank

So after this hand, Marc is down to 4k or so and hes really pissed off at me for 'getting lucky and hitting the only card in the deck that he gives me action on... I just laugh cuz I win the pot on any card but the last 9 in the deck that doesn't complete my flush and that's all. I was betting turn and shoving river if he called regardless what came, and he can't call two more streets with 9s. So he's losing chips in that hand on 43 turn cards and 42 river cards which is pretty funny if u ask me.

He then goes on tilt a little bit but manages to get his stack back up to 25k or so by getting some ridiculous calls and getting some good cards.

Hand 2.

Last level of the day. 200-400/50

I look down at AK offsuit which is a big hand with my image lol.. So I raise it to 1050 utg+2. Guy two to my left... apparently a rich guy with tons of money and a friend of Marc re-raises to 4500 or so with 20k behind. I really had no idea what to do here... folding felt incredibly weak, and I think he was getting tired of me raising every single hand it was folded to me after Marc doubled me up earlier. So I just ship it in expecting to be racing a fair amount of the time, and getting folds the rest. He shrugs his shoulders and says 'ok, gamble' and calls. I'm like... ahhh dear, good game 25k of my stack. He turns over QJ offsuit! I can't help myself... I go 'WHAT????!?!?!?!' cuz I was so surprised... Obviously I'm delighted that he called until the Q rolled off on the flop and I bricked the turn and river. I got really mad... don't ask why, but I had been on a really bad run for a loooong time and I flipped out. I calmed down after 20 min or so stearing at the chips that shoulda been mine and given me the Chip Lead in the tournament... instead I was down to 25k again. Sigh.

3.

So last hand of the day.. I told marc when they stopped the clock to play the last 5 hands of the day that I'm probably gonna mess up cuz I like to spew the last hands lol

Still 200-400/50

I'm on the SB with AK... oh god, told ya eh... one guy limps for 400. Marc raises to 1600 on the button. I really really reeally dont wanna play this hand at this point, and I definitely dont wanna see a flop with it OOP against him, so I reraise to 6500 pretty much telling him I'm not going anywhere and that I just wanna get the hand over with... It's probably pretty exploitable against very strong players who will know I have AK here and fold anything but KK+, but marc isn't like that. Limper folds, comes back to Marc, he shoves....sighhhhhhhhhhh. I snapcall cuz I' never ever folding after putting in 25% of my stack preflop with AK on a reraise. I show my hand and he says 'I KNEW I ws ahead, and slams his 7s on the table.. wtffff, like, lol, is logic doesnt make any sensssssse. He told me he thought I had AT, AJ, AQ, AK and maybe small pairs. LOL again. First of all...I'm folding AT, AJ to his single raise preflop, all pairs im prolly set mining.. I'm never gonna turn AQ into a bluff by reraising cuz I wont be able to call a shove. And If I did reraise light I'm not gonna reraise that much of my stack and fold to a shove the last hand of the day to put me on tilt before the next day. So my real range there is QQ+ and AK... I wouldnt say ur 7s does very well against that range, Marc...I'm sorry.

He gets punished for his bad play when I hit a K on the flop to win the pot and then he starts going off on me again telling me how bad i am and that I'm the biggest lucksack in the world and that all I do is run good. Whatever... go beat ur mates in the GUPT instead or whatever that tourney series over there is called lol.

Good way to end the day.

Day two didnt go so well tho... I start out with Patrik Antonius to my right with a big stack. I try reraising him once about an hour after we start playing but he obviously 4bets me and I'm too much of a wuss to shove with my Q8o so I fold. After that I win a small pot and get moved to a new table

Still have 50k. Blinds 500-1000/100

I raise to 2600 with AdTd utg+1. Dont really have any reads on the table but figure it's good enough to raise with regardless. I get 4 callers... yay..not. I'm pretty much done with the hand unless I flop a monster.

Flop Tx9d4d

Hmm... not bad huh. I bet out 8500 definitely not planning to fold my top pair top kicker with the nut flushdraw. Guy to my left insta throws in all his 5k chips which totalled about 40k leaving himself with 10k or so. Comes back to me.. I cant fold so I ship, he calls and I lose to his 9s. a lot of ppl have been asking me why I didnt put him on a set when he bet like that.... and my thinking was that if I had a set in his spot I would at least give it some thought... Maybe hope the ppl behind came into the pot because they only had between 20-30k so there's no way they're ever just calling 8500 on the flop, which is a good argument for flat calling and slow playing the set knowing that the action is opened back up to him again if someone shoves and that I will most likely stick my chips in if I have an over pair either way. So I really thought his range would be more weighted towards the same kind of combo draw I had, with hands like Jd8d, QdJd. QdKd, 7d8d, 8d6d or maybe T9s. Which I have crushed. Even if his range is only one or two of those combinations and sets I'm still getting like 2,7:1 to call only needing a little over 3:1, so Its definitely the right call regardless, just unfortunate.

After that I went and signed up for the 300 euro rebuy plo tourney to tilt away some money, but I ended up taking third in it instead for 16,600 euros which felt really nice. I also got deep in the 1k and the 2k events, but no luck late.

After Spain I went straight to Portugal for the Betfair Portugese Poker Tour (BPPT). I thought it was gonna be a really boring event since the buy in was so low, and I didnt know anyone else going. I ended up meeting some really cool ppl there tho. One of them being a member of the portugese team, Roberto. We had lots of fun all week, and we got along really well. He was to my surprise also a very talented, good player. I railed him for a whole day in the side event after I busted out the first hand when I flopped an open ended straight flushdraw and got it in vs top pair..lol. But I do think he has potential and is definitely someone to look out for the next couple of years.... guess what.. he also ended up winning that tourney! Congrats on that... I know you'll be reading this. Wanna thank you for a nice time in portugal and for making my stay there much better than expected. Look forward to seeing u again soon! And that also goes for the rest of u that I met there. (Thanks for the earring Mafalda :) I will now be happpppy when Betfair sends me to Portugal next time!

Thats it for this time.. I could've written another 4 pages from that trip but I'm exhausted and have a flight in 7 hours to spain for the spanish open before going to Vegas for a month. WEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEE.

Annette

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More from Barcelona

Date: Tue, May 13, 2008 Professional Internet Live Tournament Women

I just got back couple of days ago.

My friend got 2nd in the tournament which was huge for him. Kinda sucks that he ddint win cuz he was way better than his opponent when he got HU, he just didnt have the chips to fight with. Hes happy tho, and I'm proud of him for doing so well at his first big FT! Good job Mike :).

I'm actually going back to Barcelona in just a week for the WPT there, so if anyones going, come say hi. I'll be there from the 20th-27th I think and then heading to Portugal for a portugese even sponsored by Betfair. Actually looking forward to it. Will be my first time in Portugal and I've heard its really nice there. Not sure what the tournament will be like but I know for sure I wont donk outta this one unless I get really unlucky. Cant be too many pros in it since its only a small buy in. Should be easy heh.

On a poker related note, I've been running really well on Betfair lately. Have played a lot of tourneys the last couple of days and I'm starting to really get a feel for the site. I was struggling in the beginning because the play here was just generally so different from other sites. You'd expect that because americans cant play there would be a lot of scandis, but maybe I'm generalizing too much when I say most scandinavian players are over aggro. The play here is really weak for the most part and the avg skill level of the players compared to the buy in of the tourney is a lot lower than any other place I've played. Looking forward to get into the head of the regulars here thats for sure.

One specific thing that I've noticed is that ppl play really tight when they're shortstacked. They dont shove any two if they have 7bbs in the CO and its folded to them. I kept making the same mistake isolating medium strngth hands like KJ, A2, 33 vs them thinkign they're on any two cards but they dont seem to care if they get very short. So after seeing this and adjusting my ranges accordingly I've stayed out of situations that I used to get into too often. (This of course doesnt count for every player on the site cuz some of them knows what they're doing)

Enough about that... dont want them to know the mistakes they're making :), altho I'll prolly call someone out when I start making vids. I tried recording today for the first time. Had an hour of material untill I found out the audio wasnt working...lol. Oh well, just gonna have to do another one I guess. If anyone has any requests for what to record, please make a post in the betfair forum and I'll try to look through it from time to time!

Will write again soon (i promise).

Annette

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More from Barcelona

Date: Tue, May 13, 2008 Professional Internet Live Tournament Women

I just got back couple of days ago.

My friend got 2nd in the tournament which was huge for him. Kinda sucks that he ddint win cuz he was way better than his opponent when he got HU, he just didnt have the chips to fight with. Hes happy tho, and I'm proud of him for doing so well at his first big FT! Good job Mike :).

I'm actually going back to Barcelona in just a week for the WPT there, so if anyones going, come say hi. I'll be there from the 20th-27th I think and then heading to Portugal for a portugese even sponsored by Betfair. Actually looking forward to it. Will be my first time in Portugal and I've heard its really nice there. Not sure what the tournament will be like but I know for sure I wont donk outta this one unless I get really unlucky. Cant be too many pros in it since its only a small buy in. Should be easy heh.

On a poker related note, I've been running really well on Betfair lately. Have played a lot of tourneys the last couple of days and I'm starting to really get a feel for the site. I was struggling in the beginning because the play here was just generally so different from other sites. You'd expect that because americans cant play there would be a lot of scandis, but maybe I'm generalizing too much when I say most scandinavian players are over aggro. The play here is really weak for the most part and the avg skill level of the players compared to the buy in of the tourney is a lot lower than any other place I've played. Looking forward to get into the head of the regulars here thats for sure.

One specific thing that I've noticed is that ppl play really tight when they're shortstacked. They dont shove any two if they have 7bbs in the CO and its folded to them. I kept making the same mistake isolating medium strngth hands like KJ, A2, 33 vs them thinkign they're on any two cards but they dont seem to care if they get very short. So after seeing this and adjusting my ranges accordingly I've stayed out of situations that I used to get into too often. (This of course doesnt count for every player on the site cuz some of them knows what they're doing)

Enough about that... dont want them to know the mistakes they're making :), altho I'll prolly call someone out when I start making vids. I tried recording today for the first time. Had an hour of material untill I found out the audio wasnt working...lol. Oh well, just gonna have to do another one I guess. If anyone has any requests for what to record, please make a post in the betfair forum and I'll try to look through it from time to time!

Will write again soon (i promise).

Annette

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On the road as usual.

Date: Wed, May 7, 2008 Professional Internet Live Tournament Women

So, I'm sitting here in my hotel room in Barcelona

I just came here from London after playing in the European Ladies Open event. I wont even bother writing anything about it because I busted 45th outta 52 and it was just one of those days where nothing seemed to work. We all have those, and there's not much to do about it.

The reason I'm in Barcelona now is because a good friend of mine, Mike Lawson ('Meeelosh' online) managed to go through a field of 2250 players online in theWorld Poker Crown $3 million guaranteed tourney that was held online couple of weeks ago. The last ten players took their chips with them to Barcelona to finish the final here, and hes now here 2/10 in chips fighting for a $1mill first prize. I really hope he does well here cuz hes due to have a big score after grinding mid/high stakes tournaments for so long. Hes a very solid, good player with a lot of potential still, and if anyone deserves to win this its him!

Anyway, I dont wanna jynx him, just want to give a shout out and wish him GL at the final table that will be played may 8th.

Annette

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On the road as usual.

Date: Wed, May 7, 2008 Professional Internet Live Tournament Women

So, I'm sitting here in my hotel room in Barcelona

I just came here from London after playing in the European Ladies Open event. I wont even bother writing anything about it because I busted 45th outta 52 and it was just one of those days where nothing seemed to work. We all have those, and there's not much to do about it.

The reason I'm in Barcelona now is because a good friend of mine, Mike Lawson ('Meeelosh' online) managed to go through a field of 2250 players online in theWorld Poker Crown $3 million guaranteed tourney that was held online couple of weeks ago. The last ten players took their chips with them to Barcelona to finish the final here, and hes now here 2/10 in chips fighting for a $1mill first prize. I really hope he does well here cuz hes due to have a big score after grinding mid/high stakes tournaments for so long. Hes a very solid, good player with a lot of potential still, and if anyone deserves to win this its him!

Anyway, I dont wanna jynx him, just want to give a shout out and wish him GL at the final table that will be played may 8th.

Annette

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The beginning of something new

Date: Thu, May 1, 2008 Professional Internet Live Tournament Women

I have something really exciting to talk about this time....

I've been talking to Daniel Negreanu and his crew a lot the last months about joining his new training site called PokerVT. It is very uniqe and different from all the other sites out with tons of new ways to teach poker and how to improve ur game. I wont go into details, but I can see this becoming huge in the feature and I decided to come along for the ride by signing a contract with them. I'll now be making instructional videos for the site after the launch which will be in a couple of weeks from now. I'll be making all my vids on Betfair, so if u want some lessons, sign up and come play with me and I'll berate u and let u know how bad u are muahahah!! Nah, just kidding, :), I'll try to be nice for the most part, but no promises!

Anyways, other than that, Monte Carlo went to hell, and I didnt do well in anything other than a 1k side event that I cashed in. Ran bad in the main event and got sucked out on to bust. Then played some smaller tourneys but didnt do too good. Bubbled one and busted early in the other one. Oh well, there's always another tourney.

Speaking of, I'm going to London tomorrow to play in the European Ladies Open. It'll will be my first ladies event. Not really sure what to expect, but i think the play will be pretty weak for the most part, so I like my chances. Hopefully I'll get in some interesting spots that I can blog about afterwards, but I have a feeling it will become more or less a crapshoot some hours in, like most televised tourneys. Should still suit me well as I'm used to fast structures online, but it definately increasess the variance heavily, so I dont expect too much going into it.

Will update more when I have something to write about :)

Take care,
Annette

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The beginning of something new

Date: Thu, May 1, 2008 Professional Internet Live Tournament Women

I have something really exciting to talk about this time....

I've been talking to Daniel Negreanu and his crew a lot the last months about joining his new training site called PokerVT. It is very uniqe and different from all the other sites out with tons of new ways to teach poker and how to improve ur game. I wont go into details, but I can see this becoming huge in the feature and I decided to come along for the ride by signing a contract with them. I'll now be making instructional videos for the site after the launch which will be in a couple of weeks from now. I'll be making all my vids on Betfair, so if u want some lessons, sign up and come play with me and I'll berate u and let u know how bad u are muahahah!! Nah, just kidding, :), I'll try to be nice for the most part, but no promises!

Anyways, other than that, Monte Carlo went to hell, and I didnt do well in anything other than a 1k side event that I cashed in. Ran bad in the main event and got sucked out on to bust. Then played some smaller tourneys but didnt do too good. Bubbled one and busted early in the other one. Oh well, there's always another tourney.

Speaking of, I'm going to London tomorrow to play in the European Ladies Open. It'll will be my first ladies event. Not really sure what to expect, but i think the play will be pretty weak for the most part, so I like my chances. Hopefully I'll get in some interesting spots that I can blog about afterwards, but I have a feeling it will become more or less a crapshoot some hours in, like most televised tourneys. Should still suit me well as I'm used to fast structures online, but it definately increasess the variance heavily, so I dont expect too much going into it.

Will update more when I have something to write about :)

Take care,
Annette

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EPT Grand Final - €1,000 NL Hold 'Em

Date: Tue, Apr 15, 2008 Professional Internet Live Tournament Women

34th

€1,520

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Vacation and other non important stuff

Date: Thu, Apr 10, 2008 Professional Internet Live Tournament Women

Ive been very busy since my last entry... well, maybe not busy, but just occupied for the most part. I bought a house for my mom and I about a month ago, and we moved in right after. Its amazing.

I never wanted a huge house with 498537943759 bedrooms and more place than I could use. This is just perfect tho. It has two bedrooms and a guestroom, as well as two living rooms so I can get some time by myself if I need to. Its very central in the down town area where I live and the price was extremely good I thought. Would probably sound expensive to Americans but the market in Norway is very high nowadays, so this was a bargin. Its very exciting to own a house. Not many 19 year olds can say they do, so I consider myself really lucky.

I also had some time to play online the last weeks which was nice for a change. I miss the grinding as weird as it may sound. I remember "back in the day" when I used to play 12-14 hours a day for almost a year straight and I never got tired of playing. Now I'm lucky if I can play every day for a week. Ive also been catching up on the training vids across the sites that I haven't had time to watch until now. Its weird how watching other ppl play can really make u think about ur own game. Even if the instructors are making mistakes, u react to it and u know how to make changes. It also helps u understand how ur opponents think about the game and what level their on. All those small things adds up and its how u get an advantage over skilled players. I absolutely recommend all of u to join a trainingsite if u haven't already. I'm not gonna suggest which sites here because im good friends with all the instructors and don't wanna advertise for just some of em and not others. U can find more info on google or pm'ing me on different forums if u wish to know more.

I'm actually sitting in the Betfair office in London now after doing some media training yesterday. Was pretty interesting. They had hired some guys from BBC to come over and show us what to say and what to do in interviews when on tv, or talking to newspaper journalists etc. They also showed us examples of what not to do. Definately a good learning experience that I can take with me.

Monte Carlo is coming up. I'll be heading over there tomorrow. Very excited cuz I haven't played a big event in ages... Been over a month now since the EPT in Denmark where I totally screwed up, so I've had a lot of time to rethink stuff. The structure in Monte Carlo is gonna be really slow. 1h30min levels and 15k starting chips I think. I also do better when they give us more chips in the beginning so I expect to make it deep in this event unless I get coolered or sucked out on real bad.

Also, I'm sorry if I haven't played in my tournament every week. I've always had a reason not to and its not just me being lazy. I do try my best to show up every week, but sometimes I just have other plans and cant play. So please don't take it out on me too hard .

Will be updating a lot the next weeks so keep vsiting my blog. I wont disappoint!

Annette

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Vacation and other non important stuff

Date: Thu, Apr 10, 2008 Professional Internet Live Tournament Women

Ive been very busy since my last entry... well, maybe not busy, but just occupied for the most part. I bought a house for my mom and I about a month ago, and we moved in right after. Its amazing.

I never wanted a huge house with 498537943759 bedrooms and more place than I could use. This is just perfect tho. It has two bedrooms and a guestroom, as well as two living rooms so I can get some time by myself if I need to. Its very central in the down town area where I live and the price was extremely good I thought. Would probably sound expensive to Americans but the market in Norway is very high nowadays, so this was a bargin. Its very exciting to own a house. Not many 19 year olds can say they do, so I consider myself really lucky.

I also had some time to play online the last weeks which was nice for a change. I miss the grinding as weird as it may sound. I remember "back in the day" when I used to play 12-14 hours a day for almost a year straight and I never got tired of playing. Now I'm lucky if I can play every day for a week. Ive also been catching up on the training vids across the sites that I haven't had time to watch until now. Its weird how watching other ppl play can really make u think about ur own game. Even if the instructors are making mistakes, u react to it and u know how to make changes. It also helps u understand how ur opponents think about the game and what level their on. All those small things adds up and its how u get an advantage over skilled players. I absolutely recommend all of u to join a trainingsite if u haven't already. I'm not gonna suggest which sites here because im good friends with all the instructors and don't wanna advertise for just some of em and not others. U can find more info on google or pm'ing me on different forums if u wish to know more.

I'm actually sitting in the Betfair office in London now after doing some media training yesterday. Was pretty interesting. They had hired some guys from BBC to come over and show us what to say and what to do in interviews when on tv, or talking to newspaper journalists etc. They also showed us examples of what not to do. Definately a good learning experience that I can take with me.

Monte Carlo is coming up. I'll be heading over there tomorrow. Very excited cuz I haven't played a big event in ages... Been over a month now since the EPT in Denmark where I totally screwed up, so I've had a lot of time to rethink stuff. The structure in Monte Carlo is gonna be really slow. 1h30min levels and 15k starting chips I think. I also do better when they give us more chips in the beginning so I expect to make it deep in this event unless I get coolered or sucked out on real bad.

Also, I'm sorry if I haven't played in my tournament every week. I've always had a reason not to and its not just me being lazy. I do try my best to show up every week, but sometimes I just have other plans and cant play. So please don't take it out on me too hard .

Will be updating a lot the next weeks so keep vsiting my blog. I wont disappoint!

Annette

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From Dortmund to Denmark + a few nice awards

Date: Wed, Feb 20, 2008 Professional Internet Live Tournament Women

A quick recap of the last few weeks...I played EPT Dortmund not long ago... didn't go as I hoped.

I made day two with a top 20 stack, but I had an extremely tough table on day two and just couldn't get anything going, so I went out 30 from the money or so. Did good in the 2k side event where I got 8th, but still not good enough for my liking cuz I have extremely high expectations, and I'm never happy unless I win. Won couple of sng's there so I got a nice profit on the trip overall. Germany was kinda boring.

I said last time that I was gonna work on not bluffing my way out of tournaments, and I have definitely gotten better at it lately. I've been laying down more hands and not being so stubborn... but I hate going against my gut, and I feel like I have couple of times just because I've been thinking too much about not making the same mistake everything. Oh well.. I'm definitely not afraid to pull the trigger, I just need to think things through better before I do.

I also played in the PartyPoker Millions. I don't wanna spoil anything cuz I went very deep in it, and it's televised. I'll let u guys watch it first before I make any comments about how I played, but I'm very proud of that tourney, and I def played my A-game even tho i got lucky couple of times. Please leave a comment or something here when it airs, because i wont know, and I'd love to see it :).

I'm just done playing EPT Copenhagen. I made a really big mistake on my bustout hand. Some background. I have a really tough table.. three strong Norwegians at my table. And most of the other players are solid TAG players for the most part. I had made a lot of big laydowns and even showed them a couple of times making them think they can run over me. I had also been keeping pots very small, checking behind tons of flops after raising pre-flop, and just check calling with top pair on scary boards, folding As post-flop, got away cheap with Js vs Qs on low board the third hand of the tournament etc. So I'm thinking my image is very solid at this point because I've only showed down good hands, but I also have a reputation of being crazy, so ppl know I'm capable of running bluffs.

I pick up KdQd in the CO at 100-200 with 15k stack. I make a standard raise to 525. Folds around to the BB who I had been raising every time its been folded to me or so. I can tell hes getting a little pissed off. Hes been defending a lot vs me, trying to outplay me post-flop i think and seeing lotta flops in his BB and just being very stubborn. But he was also pretty tight and didn't play big pots without a good hand except for a bluff he showed down where fired two barrels with a draw and got called down by top pair. He rather quickly re-raises to 1500. It was such a small re-raise, and would only be 10% of my stack to see a flop in position thinking his rr raise here would be like 88+AT+. Maybe even a little tighter, but I thought I would get a good feel for where I was at in the hand against him, so I decide to call and see a flop. The flop is Kx2s4s. He bets 1750 which is a really small bet compared to the size of the pot and I flop top pair so I cant really fold yet. I think hes betting his entire range here except for Ks, but I'm not sure about the bet sizes he would make with the different hands he has. I call. Turn comes a 4. Which seems to be a really good card for my hand, but in reality it kills three of my two pair outs in case hes got As, but I'm really not too worried about that. He bets 2750. Again, a very small bet. It kinda seems to me like he doesn't wanna build the pot too big so that I wont be committed to calling a shove on the river if I call again here, or that hes milking me with As or AK. But if he really has a good hand, wouldn't he want me to be committed to calling on the river and hence bet bigger? I call again hoping that he would give away something on the river. A meaningless 6 rolls off the deck and I now have a realllllly tough decision to make if he shoves. Lets think about it from his point of view. I called the re-raise pre-flop, so I must have some kind of hand. I called the flop and the turn, so Its very possible I have a K, but hes seen me make huge laydowns earlier so I think he would think I'm folding weaker kings than KQ by now. I'm pretty sure he doesn't think I have a boat at this point because hes representing a strong hand, so I would probably not have to trap and would raise him at some point. The fact that my hand looks so weak to him, really makes me think that theres a bigger chance that hes bluffing if he shoves the river because theres in reality no hands that I'm calling with the third time with the line that I've taken. I woulda never called the turn bet if i was drawing, but he doesn't know that, so I'm assuming he thinks flush draws are in my range as well as maybe 4s.

He does end up shoving, and I just sit there and stare at him for 5 minutes. I was so confused. He even tanked for 3 minutes before shoving and seemed sincerely insecure about what to do. He was also breathing extremely fast all the time, moving a lot in his seat and just didn't seem comfortable at all. Usually when ppl have a good hand they get excited and their pulse raises, btu then it quickly slows down again because they realize what they're doing and they try to hide it, btu he just kept going. Its always harder to control when ur bluffing because u cant control the adrenaline rush as fast as u can control the excitement of having a good hand, So I end up calling his bet for the last 10k i had or so. Ppl at my table starts saying 'nice call' even before the player flips his hand, so I'm feeling confident, and he hesitates and rolls over AK like he thinks hes beat after I tank for 5 minutes before calling WTF.

If he doesn't think AK is good if he gets called, then what is he doing shoving the river??? I really don't get it. Does he think hes bluffing? Why doesn't he check call if he doesn't think I have a good hand and at least let me bluff if i did missed what he thought coulda been a flush draw? Am I really just over-thinking this and assuming hes thinking on a higher level than he really is? Was he just value betting his AK the entire way without thinking about what I could have and what range of hands I'm calling/folding on each street with? Has he paid attention to any of the table dynamics so far? I dunno. All I know is that I got completely leveled, outplayed and owned that hand, and I'm not proud of it lol.

I'm really working on improving my live reads, and I cant be afraid to pull the trigger if I think I'm right. I'm one step closer to getting into their minds by making that call I think, and I'm definitely not afraid to be wrong as long as I trust my gut. It might look stupid, but there's always a reason to the madness and u have to be wrong at first to eventually be able to turn things around and get it right. I'm still a live n00b, but I'm getting better every day :).

I also would like to mention that I won two awards at the Scandinavian Poker Player Awards here in Denmark before the EPT started, I won for 'Best Female', and 'Best Performance of the Year'. I'm extremely happy to get those prizes, and I've never really had a chance to thank anyone. I really wanna say that I love all my fans to death... seriously. I would never have gotten to the level I'm at today without all the ppl supporting me through good and bad times, and always saying positive things to me on the rail or where ever it may be. The same goes for all my friends (u know who u are). Also big TY to Betfair for giving me this opportunity to show what I'm good for, and making life a lot easier for me :D.

I hope u all have a great week, and we'll write/read again soon. Take care everyone!