El Busto.

A pretty normal day, a 4 hour dash at work then home in the horrid weather casing the north west at the mo with sprinkles of rain, hale and blasting winds with the bitter cold of a frosted lemon. This kind of maniac outdoors and no days off I think has effected my brain. Well, it's either that or I just cannot win.

Once at home I look at my PokerStars account. On Monday I made $25 before going to poker at the pub where I turned £10 into £75, Tuesday, that online number went from $42 down to $20 and Wednesday, even further down to a mere $10, tonight I kept going and eventually went to deposit $20 which then, overplayed down to $7. At this moment I then decided to play on my iPad to improve concentration, I entered a $1.50 Sit & Go. Whilst playing this SNG I wasn't failing, nor was I winning, however that stupid phone mass went down down my street AGAIN. This happens so often that of course I have a back up plan, my T-Mobile dongle so within 15mins at the price of £2 I was back online...but...what...what's happening??...why am I not being reunited with my game??? At some point during my internet failure I seem to have lost my place in my SNG, so short of bankroll and I have lost my SNG without even having a say!! Poker is supposed to be about decision making and this was not my decision. That was plain unlucky.

I decided that since I had spent £2 on the internet and even though by this point the last thing I wanted to do was play poker, I played poker. I thought it would be an awful idea. I kept to a 5c/10c cash game with the thought that the worst thing is I'll lose $4 but could get a milestone hand. Neither of those things happened, I made it up to $9 giving me my $10 bankroll back :) and Sexy Socialite by Chromeo is on the radio, so I can go to bed not ecstatic, but not losing the will to live! Which is good enough for me. I think that should be good enough for too.

@AntoniaChigurh

Sunday flipday

It doesn't matter what I do, Sundays are just bad news for me. I tried my first Sunday Storm today on PokerStars and I was up and down like a yoyo until I eventually hit the floor. Granted I did have a migraine and joined 40 minutes late and lasted quite some time, longer than Felix Schneiders, but still got caught out, in such a silly way too. I help AJ hearts and my opponent held Q7 hearts, I had a 6k stack which was well under average so decided all in was in order, only to find a bleeding 7 on the flop!! How many bad beat stories is that now?

Round 2, a $2.20 5k GTD, lasted a couple of hours, then again AK catching on the crown of QQ, bust!

Round 3, $1.10 2.5k GTD, notice how I get lower each time and didn't last as long in this one. Despite all of this, my play is actually getting much better, I'm noticing a lot more things, taking notes and vids and learning from my mistakes which is what I was meant to be doing this year. Like I said, I won't ever give up on poker ever again, sometimes breaks, this learning curve is great. It's just breaking the luck barrier that's a little harder. As I now like mentioning Isaac Haxton, he said he got lucky once and then everything seemed to set off.

So maybe I'll have to sit out for now (good idea since I have work in 7 hours and only 5 hours to sleep) but tomorrow I'll get up and try again...harder.

@AntoniaChigurh

Top to the bottom.

I get up this morning, get the blender out and mix some oats, soya and raspberries, a breakfast of some fit athlete or something. Or in my case just an avid poker player. I get all my things out: iPad, phone, note pad, poker for dummies book and get to I work on the 'the hot $3.30 (turbo) 6k guarantee' I went up managed to double my chips then having a player to my right with a wide calling and betting range, I decided to sit a lot of hands out and then an hour and 20minutes in we have 4 new players to our table, one with 38k in chips, by this point I have managed to make my way up just about average again to 9k. I didn't have much idea about this guy as he'd just sat down minutes before which makes me about as smart as a tea cup on this one. The stakes are 250/500 and I'm in the small blind with Q7spades, and he is just over half way round. The player bets 3BB, I had a good feeling so I called. The flop showed Q J Q, I bet 4BB, the player then raises to 6BB pushing me to make a fairly quick decision to put the other few hundred chips I had in too, so I'm all in, he shows T8c, there are no clubs just a straight draw. I thought he would have had at least a jack, but to my shock and horror he gets a 9 on the river, a flipping 9!! I couldn't help thinking I hadn't summoned this as I kept saying 'NO 9!!' repeatedly. A horrible moment, I had that awful awful stress feeling straight after, if you lose and it literally is 'I might get this' then it's kind of okay, but with a hand like that UUURRRGGHH!!

Well, I suppose the idea is, try again, but not straight after, the risk of tilting is far too great. However, after this terrible mishap, I then got the fantastic news that I have passed my dental nursing exam that I took yesterday woo! Almost qualified and all of a sudden, the balance is restored :).

@AntoniaChigurh

Concentration counts! Tourney style.

I watched one of Felix Schneiders' grinding it up vids on YouTube with his oh so cute Christmas donkey. Oh course the man has Hold'em Manager, probably a good idea since I have my own Hold'em manager which consists of a thick hard back note pad and video recording on my phone. This kind of stone-age style date capture takes real concentration and yes makes me very dull, but we can't change that, I'm more fun than you think...I whittled down to very little and thought 'fine, I'll get my Hold'em manager material out!'. It works, trust me (and if you trust me remember to trust Isaac Haxton too ;)), all I do is as soon as anyone does anything remotely interesting, and I'm literally talking anything from raising 2BB, take no time over this jot down name- raise by "bb, name callers, flop, raises/checks, the whole deal and what is revealed if anything. On my hands where I do nanny thing like that I record it on my phone, no time for me to be writing whilst thinking!

The way this works for me is by writing everything down, it means I've taken it in and it's hard to get distracted. Obviously you can't do this if you're playing more than one table at a time. I found myself making some really good decision though like folding KAo preflop as it's all about what your fellow players have. Unfortunately I got lazy, got moved tables to have someone majorly bluff me big time, they then put a fish <'))X (something like that) in the chat box and there I sat, like some cross child when their parents take their favourite toy off then, no fair. Or another kid makes fun of them...that's a better example.

Officialpokerrankings.com says my last tourney win was $18 on 2nd December. This cash isn't up there yet so I can't say exactly how many runners there were this time but I think it was over 2k and I ended in 250th position for a tiny $5.88. Better than nothing. But I'll have to try harder at sucking the fun out of poker next time :) serious shit we got here!

Getting back on the text book too, this will do me no good as it's poker for dummies and published about 10 years ago :/ and we ALL know keeping current is key in poker. So it will be more of a reference. But I will be trying out new things.

@AntoniaChigurh

Haxton's the name, EPT's the game

After managing to rack up a small $120, I have been running bad, really bad. However thank you to the lovely PokerStars online pro Isaac Haxton, I don't feel like putting my head in my hands and selling off my computer to make way for a new hobby. No, in this months issue of PokerPlayer magazine, they have published a blog of his which should sends inspiration to us all! He reminds us that once he was in this pickle and everyone else who has made it to the top has also been in the same shoes. He says for us to keep the stakes low and keep it slow. It reads in PokerPlayer that 'he advices for new players' this, I've been playing for nearly 5 years, I haven't moved up many notches so, maybe this is it. Maybe I am not thinking about my actions as much as I should. I probably do before I think, that's generally what happens when life throws me things anyway so I can only imagine I apply this to my game as well.

The challenge is still on, I can't give you any figures as for my run bad.

My EPT blog will start tomorrow with Prague undergoing this second. So remember to check that too and keep up to date with all the action on PokerStars.tv it's really quite good even though you can't see the whole cards.

@AntoniaChigurh -twitter

Less than satisfactory some might say.

The challenge isn't quite out the window but I just love tournament playing so so much. I've been going with the super low stakes for over a week now in the cash games And it really has been one of those moment where you simply cannot win, I needed some fresh thinking so micro millions was of course the first thing that came to mind. So I entered a $4.40 rebuy tournament, fell just short of the maximum 4 rebuys and gave up. Then went for a $1 PCA satellite along with a $1.10 Courchevel tournament, just for a bit of fun. I am notoriously bad at courchevel so I promised myself I would just play for the smile it put on my face. Well frankly I lasted a lot longer than I intended to holding the top spot for a couple of hours. It really was by luck that I managed this, there was nothing about my play really keeping me there. It was only when I took my 4m+ chips to the final table that I met with my arch nemesis who swallowed me whole. I busted in 7th place for $54.49. I'm not massively happy as I could have lasted another couple of places, it was however a good few hours of fun :) and that was the idea. As for hold'em though, I really need to up my game.

@AntoniaChigurh

Here we go again!

I'm now taking a page from Chris Ferguson's book. A while back he raised $10,000 from nothing, he played freerolls to start his bankroll and kept going up and up and up.
My idea is a little different as I am starting with $10 and going to try and make a near $10k amount and better my playing. I have started right back down on the ground floor. I will be playing mainly cash games (and the odd PCA sat here and there since I really want to go!!) and have just made $1.10 in the last hour. I sat myself at two 1c/2c tables, one of them for only 20mins near the end. I have to make $10, raising my bankroll to $20 before I can move on to 2c/5c. Other rules; I cannot make any particularly risky moves and I am only allowed to play for an hour at a time with at least a 30min break in between. I will record all my wins and losses on here each time that I play and I will aim to play at least 7 hours each week. So for now:

Day 1: 1c/2c, 2 tables, +$1.10

One move moves everything.

I have not blogged in a while as much as I love blogging something happened which changed everything. My work placed moved me from Crewe to stoking shifting my mornings completely, I started working a Monday and a Thursday, creating odd hours at my other work place and I started going to the gym then I met a boy then he met someone else and where does poker fit in all of this?

Somewhere in 'For Richer For Poorer, Confessions of a Player' by Victoria Coren she writes how poker will always be there for her. The only thing it can do is financially cripple you, otherwise it's a good time. It doesn't walk away from you, it doesn't change the way it feels about and when you change the way you feel about it, it sits there and waits patiently until you're happy to go back to it. It's like one of the best friends you ever had. The Monday rebuy game at the pub; brilliant. There is nothing better than that game to take my mind off anything and everything, just a groups of guys and a girl all there to have a laugh and play some cards.

Now that I have walked back onto my poker platform I have something much bigger to aim for. The PCA. That's right, you heard me, the PokerStars Caribbean Adventure gracing the sunny shores at the Atlantis Resort from 7th January 2014. Just one small problem; I don't have $10,000, however I do have a PokerStars account, I also have $100 and to go along with it,  I have a good enough knowledge of the game. So it's been satellite time for a week now and I have got no further than round 2 on the satellites. Round 1 is a breeze but then Round 2 comes a long with its sharp even teeth and huge over betters like the talons of an evil eagle waiting to strike down on me and tear me go pieces. Then I go away, sit and think about what I did wrong then go straight back in the next day.

Watch this space, I will move into that number 1 position naturally. It's going to take days, it's going to take hours, it may even take the next few months but I can be there just like everyone else.

@AntoniaChigurh

Get down on it.

On Sunday I had a load of work to do for my portfolio and kept trying to find excuses to start later and later and later. Poker seemed like a good and friendly idea since I haven't played in a few weeks from my losing streak. When I have taken a break I always come back fresher and stronger. I seem to know when a good time to bluff is even without looking twice. I went back in on the complete micro stakes and cashed in two 50¢ 360 player sit & go events. The first time I finished 30th and the second 16th. There was an element of good luck to the extent of me using good cards to knock others out and those cards actually hitting this time. I also saw other players in my previous position where they were short stacked, playing good cards but just weren't getting anywhere with them.

Last night I couldn't help myself, it was late but I just had to play something to settle me down ready for bed. Perfect, a 9 player turbo sit & go at $1.50, at this point I didn't care too much if I won, it was a nice idea but just wanted a little wind down fun before hitting the sheets. I managed it, that moment when I became heads-up, it all came back to all the practice I had done in heads-up play since I used to dread it, my huge weak point; passing chips from one person to another until you agree to see some cards. But this time I felt strong, from practicing heads-up and reading an article on it you can kind of see some logic to this madness and you can pick up the odd bluff. I won my $5.95 first prize and it has to be said, I did feel a little smug after.

@AntoniaChigurh

Back on the board

I have come to recognise that I have not blogged for almost a month and this can only be because of the lack of poker I have been playing and reading about. The WSOP to myself seems too much of a mess, too many events and too many players, they even scared me away for twitter with too many posts. It also didn't help that I have been on a constant losing streak over the past month which seems to have put me off all together. As Jake Cody tweeted very recently '@JakeCody: The guy at the cash desk didn't even say good luck he said 'enjoy' he's not wrong :-)' but you can't have fun if you don't win at all. If there isn't that reasonable divide somewhere what the hell am I to do? I loved poker with all my heart and this year I was really meant to work on it, but it's too difficult when there's no shiny sparkly light at the end of it. At least I know the answer to that PokerPlayer magazine question which is: Would you rather lose or never play?

@AntoniaChigurh
38

Near win but not quite

It seems that recently I am spending loads of money of poker and not getting anything back. I realise once again that cash games aren't my strong point and that tourneys are a hell of a lot more fun especially when you pop the money bubble. Of course, where would the fun be in poker if you never won anything? Truth be told, I would never play if I never won. And I think that goes for more than almost everyone.

Yesterday I decided since I was low on money that I would go for super micro stakes sit & gos. I found 10¢ 360 player sit & gos on Pokerstars; perfect. I must have played 3 or 4 of them in total, lasting at least an hour each time bit never cashed. Each time hitting a brilliant hand but not coming out with the goods on the other side. You had to finish in the top 36 to be payed and on the last go I hit 39 and realised I should probably pack it in for the day. I was however off work for having a migraine so I really shouldn't have been acing my computer monitor anyway.

Because I played poker and spent £170 on a leather jacket and now sit in Crewe train station again with a painful head feeling slightly guilty I took the day off yesterday. Oh well. Here's to concentration...I just wish the guy sitting next to me would stop tapping his foot on the ground whilst reading the paper. My head is banging.

@AntoniaChigurh

OMG

I was trying to see if I could make it, only watching the EPT and catching up with updates posted on the poker news website, unfortunately, this doesn't seem to cut it for me. I went to my poker game on Monday night last week, it felt like a lot more fun than usual, especially hitting that straight flush that I didn't even notice and only one person did notice that my 10 of diamonds beat Fraser's K of the same suit. Thank goodness that 8d was there as this had created an absolutely massive pot. I still finished quite early but got a couple of hours worth of game play, and, managed to only play my £5 and restrained myself at add on stage.

This huge urge inside of my could not carry on settling for just reading about poker, I had to play it. I thought $10 will not do too much harm, I also had an overwhelming need to get on zoom poker, which is odd, considering I have been trying to steer clear of it since losing a load of rush poker all those years ago. On this particular Thursday evening though, zoom went well I my favour and I needed up more than $10 up, but I couldn't stop there. Knowing I had work the next day and being 10pm I did something I told myself not to. I entered the big $4.40 tournament with a guaranteed prize pool of $15k, I had fun, I had a good run too. I then had to make the decision to bust out in 600 and something place for just over $8 as it was 2am and waking up 3 hours later didn't seem like so much fun.

On Sunday rush poker had mixed feelings for me, I was yo-yoing like crazy. I had to make the decision to fold all hands that didn't contain 2 picture cards along with KJo and an AA since have done nothing but lose a mother load of cash each time these hands have showed their faces this past week. Ultimate madness. So I went round to my dads and thought this wasn't good enough and that I had 'unfinished business' and lost it all. Just going to have to wait until pay day on Friday now. Maybe I'll get some sleep this week.

@AntoniaChigurh

Washed away

There comes a time in every poker players life where they just cannot win. It doesn't matter what you do, how good your bluff is or how good your hand is and what position you are in, you just cannot see the cash coming your way. This has happened to me on a number of occasions and I fear it is rearing it's ugly head again. I have won a few hands but then when I have had something really good that can be really profitable it has gone in the opposite direction. You get this massive smile on your face because you have the highest two pair, there are no possible straights or flushes, you move all your chips to the centre of the table and they end up on the other side because three of a kind is much better. In fear of losing anything else, I have decided to take drastic action and not play online for a week. Luckily it is EPT Berlin week so I will be filling in my EPT Blog. I didn't finish it for the London leg so hopefully I can try harder this time. Plus I still have my pub game tonight...if it's on.

@AntoniaChigurh

Heads-up!

I have never played heads-up games in my life. I avoid them like the plague as I am always second. Always the bridesmaid and never the bride I think the saying goes. Then...I log onto PKR and they have this heads-up challenge thingy on the go where you need to enter as many heads-up sit & gos and win as many of them in a row as humanly possible for big prizes! I'm not too fussed about this as I don't think I can win, that's not very good thinking I know. However what I did think was that I never do this and I have been looking for ways to both improve my game and start to really enjoy poker again, which is why I have been cheating on Hold'em with as many other poker games as I can find.

I set myself up with my own challenge, the challenge where if I completely fail and I hate everything in life because of it then I don't have to do it ever again. After all, you can't dislike something until you have tried it. My challenge was to complete 10 heads-up sit & gos with $1.50 and $3.50 buy-ins not being fussed as to whether they were speed or standard blind structures. I created a tally chart to show my results and the results aren't actually that bad. I won 6 and lost 4 meaning I made no loss at all. Plus I quite like heads-up, it's nice and short so I can complete a game in no time, I made $6 before 8am this morning on my way to work. Plus you only have to focus on one playing style. Plus I found out I really need to work on playing against tight players, they don't do anything!! Aggressive players seem quite easy to deal with, you just have to act back on them with some good cards, it's like having an argument with a lot of shouting. But like with any game in poker, you have to have the last word.

@AntoniaChigurh

4x4=16 not 12

Last week I entered my usual nightly MTT; the mini 4x4 on PKR. But this didn't seem enough for me so I had to enter the 4x4 as well only starting 30 minutes later into registration time. This was, strangely enough, a good idea. I manage to bust out of the mini 4x4 in 58th position after countless attempts to nurse my chips back to health, but now, this could only mean my full attention was on the big one. I am usually terrified to spend just $6 on a tournament so you would think that I wouldn't even put my mind to a $12 tourney. Especially since the last time I entered this specific tournament I did it by accidently clicking on it instead of the mini 4x4 with the excuse that I was sat too far away. (I was sat on the other side of my room). Anyway, so I was having some fun, staying away from Omaha and I was doing so well that I managed to make it into the money. Only just though, I came 15th and the first cash was in 18th position. I got my $21 and went to bed a happy bunny. It's just unfortunate that I cannot say the same for the day after where I mirrored my mini 4x4 exit in 58th position.

Ahh well, it was fun while it lasted.

@AntoniaChigurh

Waste disposal

Sometimes I think I should just create a bin that I can throw money in because essentially, that is what I do sometimes. I wanted to play 10-game but realised I had to learn 3 other games before I started; 2-7 triple draw, 2-7 single draw and Badugi. I never got as far as Badugi. I went straight for 2-7 triple draw as it is also linked to single draw and not only did I read the rules but I decided to throw myself in at the deep end. I never throw myself in at he deep end. By this I mean I bypassed the play money and went straight in at 10¢/25¢...baaad idea when you have no idea about strategy of the game in the slightest. I lost all of my $7. However I did have a good run and lasted at least an hour. So then what did I do? Popped another £6.53 ($10) onto my account and sat down at the Courchevel table again, I felt so at home that I took a profit of $20 whilst someone else at the table took a hot $75. Happy endings :).
Got killed in the tweet roll by the way, plus, to be too honest, it was really boring. I hate free rolls because everyone goes all in for about the first hour constantly! It may as well be a lottery!

@AntoniaChigurh

To draw or...to triple draw?

I'm on the bus on my way to work and decide that this is the perfect time to read the rules of 2-7 triple draw. They say your mind is best in the morning right? I had to read over the fact that you are looking for less than a flush, straight or even a pair about 5 times until I thought I heard it right in my head. It then goes on to the fact that you get dealt 5 cards, that shouldn't be too hard since I keep banging on about Courchevel. My mind goes blank. I blog. I read on.

@AntoniaChigurh

100% Beef in Horse Meat?

I could tell people a hundred times, or maybe more that I love HORSE. But where are all the other HORSE lovers out there? They sure aren't on Full Tilt like they used to be. Liv Boeree has a horse, but it's a real on that makes sounds, is tall and furry and demands food so it may poop everywhere. I would like please: Hold'em, Omaha, Razz, Stud and Eight or better hi/lo Stud. Not only that but some players please!!

I remember that late night freeroll that I would always enter, even though it was far past my bed time in the dead of the night but still you'd catch a guy sitting there in a better time zone ready to steal your chips...and your thunder. Looks like the beef went along with the Black Friday evilness of stealing my US opponents away from me, okay financially I have been better off since. However my love for HORSE yearns some opposition and me sitting in a tournament that then gets cut to 'tournament void' due to lack of players is not a pretty sight. Remembering that it is the dead of night so no one would be able to see my face right now. You can only hear the clicking on an angry bird on a keyboard.

@AntoniaChigurh

Take a shot at almost

I have a cold, my face is on fire, but that's not keeping me from the tables. There's too much excitement to be missed out on.

I'm back on PKR, what was my favourite site, playing my favourite tournament; the mini 4x4 which is always on late so I have to catch a nap beforehand. I have cashed in it a few times previously and I do love a little bit of short hand action, though it's not preferable when you need to leave the room for a few moments. I must mention that this is a nightly short hand event and since I have been playing so much Omaha, my play seems a little off. Like if you we're to have a biscuit that has been left out of its packaging for a day or two. That's right. I've gone, soft. Last night I popped before the bubble in 46th place when prizes began at 42nd and tonight even worse in 70th when I'd need to get down to 30th and I'm telling you, it was a long way there.

Well: Ever tried, ever failed, no matter, try again, fail again, fail better.

But I did fail worse. God damn! ...Back to it right?

@AntoniaChigurh

Greed

We all get it, everyone at some point in there life whether it be who gets the last Yorkshire pudding, or winning that large sum of money in a poker tournament. But what do we do when we have it all? I saw Angelina Jolie of the news two days ago in the Congo or somewhere. She was helping women who were victims of rape with the children who were the result of that doing. Then we have others who throw their money around like there's no tomorrow. This all came to mind when I was getting my fix of my newest poker craze, no not open face Chinese, Courchevel! Did I really need to say it again?...yes.

I cannot imagine what I would be like if I had all the money in the world but poker has taught me that if I'm not having fun, I just get greedy and lose. Yesterday was the fine example of how I went up to $85 then dropped down to $20. So today I had to put some rules in place before I started. I was terrified of clicking the 'seat me' button again with it's forced higher level stakes. Knowing that a real good time would be on the cards I had to say if I lose my $10, go to bed, if I make it to more than $20, dropping down to $20 makes it bed time. If I manage over $30, leave, and the maximum stay was 35mins to finish at 11pm. I broke the rules slightly when I got to $37 and stayed until 11pm dropping to $32. So, no one was hurt, myself I mean, and I made a cool $22, bringing my bankroll to a swift $40, yay for low stakes eh?

What I learnt is I am extremely greedy, Where do I stop? I want more action and more money all the time through the happy medium of playing poker. I now know why everyone loves PokerStars, I love it because it brings me all the games I want and games = action = money.

@AntoniaChigurh

Omaha, but in Courchevel

There's a place in France that I looked up called Courchevel, it seems to be well known as a fun place to go skiing as it lies knee deep in snowy white mountains. Beautiful to look at, however cold to the touch. The hotels on the other hand promise a walm and cosy place for your stay. It is then that I realise; I am a poker player, what does Courchevel have to do with poker and myself?

PokerStars have this incredible week called 'Omaha week'. I'm not one to be an expert at Omaha, and the idea of strategy? Haven't a clue. I usually turn to the game when times get hard at the old Hold'em side of things. Now you are thinking 'just get to the point!'.

I joined twitter to follow the EPT and other tournaments and PokerStars mention 5-Card Omaha and I'm mesmerised by the fact that I can start playing a different type of poker online. I ask for more information and said subject and I get a response in the shape of an easy to understand tutorial video. Now, this video not only explains 5-card Omaha, which turns out to be the same as normal Omaha but you get an extra card in the mix, it also gives you a taste of this other game called Courchevel. I can't believe my eyes. 5 cards are dealt to each player, blinds are in, hold up! What the holy mother of ice cream is this?! The first card from the flop is shown and then the first betting round takes place. All of a sudden getting to my computer and playing this game is the only thing that matters in life. 2 hours and $85 later, I am well out of my comfort zone. Courchevel is my favourite. So much so that 1 hour later I am $60 down from that. What I really do not understand is this first and second turn and river card sets that seem to occur when that special 'all in' moment occurs. I can never say that I made a loss, I won a love for a beautiful place called Courchevel.

@AntoniaChigurh

Courchevel

I begin my day abnormally as I get up on time at 6am, unlike my usual snooze for 10-15mins. I am later bombarded with bin bags that are needing to be taken outside as we have a flat inspection at 4pm. I will not be present for this though it has effected the idea of me playing any sort of poker game for the past couple of days, oh no! Oh yes. I go to work as usual, working with the dental therapist was only fantastic because we share such good conversation...but all I want to do is go home and find out what the hell Courchevel is....this beautiful word describing a variation of Omaha.

Finally I am leaving the dental practice at 5:30pm after many exciting patients, bringing with them a range of mouths. I'm tired when I get home so I snooze and finally shake myself up and onto my computer by 8:30 with a glass of water to quench the thirst of the mind. Cour-chev-el...I deposit $10 to my PokerStars account, hoping I will find a 5c/10c cash game. I am shocked, there is none, I don't know what to do, my mind goes into overdrive thinking of how much of an amateur I am, I can't possibly play 10c/25c...or can I? I then discussed it over with myself that £6.60 is not a lot to lose, this is a brand spanking new shiney golden thing that sits in front of me with a fancy name, and girls like shiney golden fancy things. So I give it a whirl, it's so much fun, I had a really good run, made $67 then $86, so I think, I'll get it to $100 then give it a rest. Did I get that far? Hell, you'd have a better chance of a fish surviving a shark attack (keeping in with poker of course). I whittled down to the tiny $10 I started with. It was fun and I do want to try it again but my luck seemed to be the only thing keeping it going. After a while I would get, what I thought was, the nuts, then get kicked down by a better card.

However I did try Full Tilt again, thinking I may have been on it, it was so cool!

@AntoniaChigurh