So much for starting to keep track of my poker in this blog from 1st December! I haven't had the chance to play a game yet as I've been plagued by nosebleeds since 29th November... I'm loathed to start a game in case the red stuff spouts forward for the umpteenth time! I've had so many needles stuck in me this year that any fear I had of them has totally gone. I hadn't had any blood samples taken in some 30 years and, within the last 2 months, I've now had 7 taken! Take into account the local anaesthetics (??) too I've had this year and I'm beginning to resemble a tea bag!

Hopefully, a trip to ENT tomorrow will get to the bottom of this problem and let me get back to normality. FFS, I even missed a Morton home league yesterday! :(

Poker has had to take a side-line for most of this year. It really did get in the way of my studying and it's more than apparent that a lot more people have taken the game up! The days of only 10 people in a final are long gone!

I've been trying to qualify for the Inside Edge Poker God final. The timing of the qualifying rounds suit me (Sunday nights) and I've made the final table twice. However, the best position I've had was 17th and I'm now lurking in the between 40th and 50th position with only the top 36 qualifying. The numbers taking part in the competition have increased dramatically since an e-mail with the passwords was made freely available. I'm not keen on sitting for 5 hours or more just trying to pick up points. The final qualifier is likely to be Xmas Eve too and, having 2 young kids, there's going to be a lot more to do that night!

I've turned my attention to cash tables. The idea is to get my entire bankroll into one place, namely Betfair, and see what I can do. At least I can come and go from these as I please without having to worry about time limitations too much. My only problem just now is a conflict between their software and my router... the latter doesn't seem too keen to play ball! If I can get the whole thing set-up the way I want then I'll publish my wins (!!) and losses (more likely!) here. I'll be around for occasional MTT, especially over the Xmas period, but until the studying is done then it's really going to have to take a back seat.

I'd been wanting to try on-line poker for a while and decided, almost exactly a year ago now, to download Betfair's program and try it out.

While playing the fun money tables let me get to grips with the software and hand rankings, it didn't take me long to realise that I wasn't going to learn all the in's and out's of what is a complex game. Step in a forum called Punters Lounge and the friendly folk there told me all about freerolls... games where you could play for real money without risking your own cash.

I downloaded Betfred and got stuck into the freerolls there. A month or so later I finally made the cash... a whopping $1.25 for about 3 hours work! Hardly a great reward for the time spent in front of my PC but a start nonetheless.

With taking an active part in Punters Lounge, I found myself downloading more and more poker programmes to keep up with all the competitions the forum was finding. I had been buying 'Inside Edge' magazine and discovered a freeroll competition they were running for a trip for 2 to Las Vegas. Naturally, I couldn't wait to get involved and signed up. The set-up was about 6 qualifying rounds with 10 people from each round qualifying for the final. Sounds difficult? Not if only 4 or 6 people show up for the games! I couldn't believe my luck and double checked with Pacific Poker who were hosting the tournament that I had qualified for the final. After a bit of confusion and an exchange of a e-mails they confirmed my place in the final. En route to the final I managed to take $22 from the qualifying rounds too

10 people showed up for the final stage. There was 5 left at the break and I thought I was dead and buried. However, cue an extraordinary run of hands and I found myself in the prizes. I got down to heads-up (a situation I'd only been in once before) and gave up the ghost because I felt my opponent had an insurmountable lead. If I'd known then what I know now he'd have got a far harder time of it. My prize was 2 tickets to an English Premiership game which I sold to a friend for £60. Not much difference between the value of that and a trip for 2 to Las Vegas!

In between times, I took part in a couple of league games at Punters Lounge. I managed 3rd place in the first making $18 from my $10(??) entry fee.

The Sun then organised a competition whereby players had to qualify for a weekly final via twice-daily satellites. Those who won the weekly final would qualify for a live final where they could win a Mini Cooper and trip to Las Vegas. Punters Lounge threw down a challenge saying that anyone who didn't make the top 27 and qualify for the weekly final would have their avatar changed to a fish. The theory was that Sun readers wouldn't provide much of a challenge! I qualified for the weekly final at the first time of asking whilst some fellow PL'ers suffered the embarrassment of being labelled fish... for a while anyway!

On the night of the first final I had semi-decided that I wasn't going to bother as there was another game on that I was more interested in. However, I got knocked out early on and thought I'd pop in to The Sun game just for the sake of playing some poker. I had convinced myself that I wasn't going to play the whole game but as it went on (and on!) I couldn't resist the temptation to see how far I could push it. The good lady came in and asked me what I thought my chances of winning it were and I said 'zero'... 'So why are you playing then?'... 'For fun dear!'...

Helped by a huge number of sit-outs and some decent hands, I found myself heads-up and chip leader after some 2 hours play. Not knowing what I should do in this position, and with some vociferous support from fellow Pl'ers in the chat box, I got aggressive and managed to win the tourney! I didn't realise I'd have to play in a live game at that point until Gotafancy? (PL poker forum mod) asked me if I had ever played live before... I didn't sleep a wink that night for wondering what this was going to be like!

I can't recall much of what I did before heading for London on December 3 2005 but can recall coming second in an MTT at Sporting Odds a couple of nights beforehand. The prize? $138.60! A far cry from that first win at Betfred!

The Sun live final was a cracking night out. The Palm Beach casino was the venue and all 9 finalists showed up. I got the opportunity to meet fellow PL'ers (fenner, danno375 and rippy) and experience my first ever live game. Needless to say inexperience got the better of me. The blind structure was totally different to what I was used to and the game was very defensive with most players wanting to avoid going out. This turned out to be my failing when Gattopardo pushed all-in post river and just me and him contesting the pot. With flush and straight possibilities on the table I was convinced my 2-pair was beat and folded. However, I showed my cards and drew gasps from the table. I realised then that I just folded the winning hand! I hit tilt and never really looked back. At one point I passed and, when returning the cards to the dealer, accidently turned them over revealing 93o. I had to get up and leave for a while but it wasn't long before I became the second player to exit empty-handed that night.

PL organised a freeroll in between Xmas and New Year. Playing tight (too tight perhaps!) I managed to finish 5th and take £160... my biggest win to date.

2006 has been a bit non-descript poker wise. I have been studying for a professional qualification and it did suffer when I qualified for The Sun game. I had an exam the week before and was lucky to scrape a pass mark. Something had to give...