Won my seat for te main event in the Winter Festival

Played the £30+£30 satellite at the Circus last night, for the main event in next week's Winter Festival and won one of the 4 seats up for grabs; big bonus was the BF also won his seat so there will be no sulking or huffy door slamming :)

Nasty beat early on for my first set of chips, dunno whether it was my fault for raising with 46? Hadn't raised at all as was a very limp table, all of whom didn't fold to a raise and I hadn't seen any hands that were worth a Cbet on the flop with 5/6 limpers holding anything from a raggy ace to 22. Started with 4k and I i'd lost probably 1k of it through blinds and a couple of mediocre hands that did nothing. 2 limpers in front and I'm in late position with 46 hearts - it just looked at me and winked. Figured I could make a stand with it anyway so raised it up, called by the button and SB but the 2 limpers folded, then the flop came - 4.. K... 4...

It must have been a full premonition moment - raise with this shite and you will flop trips along with a big card that one of your callers will be holding. The flop was flushing so I bet straight out, giving it some shite line about " I'm making a really weak bet here guys cos I'm really very strong, but trying to disguise it" Cue all table laughing except Sal who knows I'm telling the truth and either have kk in the hole or a 4, played me too many times!

The button folds but the SB calls. Now I'm sure this fella doesnt have a 4, he isnt that kind of player. He's limped in with KK and JJ and he's not an aggressive player at all, and not a chaser - I can safely assume he has a King.

Turn comes, I sit for a minute then push my chips over the line saying "you didn't think I was gonna bet any less did you and let you catch your diamond? You can't call that mate, not with only one card left to come, it's not worth the chase" It pressed his buttons exactly like I intended, he assumed his K was good and called. He turned over Kojak, and I flicked over my 46. His face was a picture. ( A bit like a picture of a tomato and raisin pizza in all honesty, he had an acne issue going on) He hadn't for a second placed me as the kind of player who could raise with this shite, he said he thought I had a smaller pair (Than Kings) so when I guffed about the flush draw he figured he was good. Yep, that's exactly what I aimed for. I didn't aim for a King on the river however.

So he took my chips with his rivered bigger full house. I took a moment to reflect, which involved going outside for 42 cigarettes in 3 minutes plus a quick headbutt to the wall.

Threw probably half my next stack away on semi tilt after that, so went and smoked another year off my life, calmed down and came back and just sat. and sat, and sat , and sat until the blinds were a bit bigger and I had regained such a solid image that I could steal a few hands till I had more chips. Got moved table, mananged to double up twice with pictures and steal a few blinds with pretty poor rag aces, til I scaped up to 20k, we were hand for hand for a bit then bang, final table.

Think it was about 50 odd players, paying 4 seats worth £550 each, so final table was a bit horrible, knowing you all got there but 6 were gonna be close but no cigar. No way was that going to be. So I made few hero folds (!) invented a new phrase about limp equity (I'm saving it for my book...) and reraised all in every time the guy to my right raised. He was placed between the BF and me, so once he found we didnt get involved in any pots together, for obvious reasons, he figured he could raise every time I was in the SB or BB, but he had a massive tell I had noticed from playing him all night to let me know whether he had a hand he liked or if he was just at it. Anyway, I ended up as chip leader, took out a couple of guys, then eventually took out the bubble - the seat was mine!

Suppose the main point here about my game was once again I wasnt seeing cards, which 6 months ago would have prevented me from getting past level 5, but it's something I now have my head round, and it doesn't stop me trying to win. I'm really pleased with how my game is developing - I dont pretend to be any kind of pro, but I do know I can pick up a few tells that allow me to make the right play, I can play a short stack very well now whereas that previously was a massive stumbling block for me, and I have finally found patience. Just on the poker table that is, don't think I've morphed into Mother Teresa.