Another exhausting weekend spent building up the bank roll in my pokerstars account; when I first started out on this challenge I was initially worried about starting out with only $25 USD as a bank roll. Many times I have re-bought into the account built it up with cash games or by entering touneys only to ask for a cheque to be sent out to me and struggling with another short bank roll, then busting out and having to pull out the credit card again to top up the account.

After reading a number of books about becoming a successful poker player whether it be online or playing live, they have all said that the secret is to manage your bank roll.

During the World Series of Poker 2007 Main Event one of the most interesting characters at the final table was Hevad"Rain"Kahn, known simply as RainKahn on pokerstars.com. Hevad was once accused of using a robot whilst playing multiple Sit n Go tourneys as pokerstars could not believe that he could play so many and cash in the majority of them, so Hevad video taped himself playing up to 26 tables at a time to show that it really was him.

Heres a quick update on what I have been doing so far with my pokerstars.com Online Challenge.  I have still been sticking to mainly playing the 1 table Sit N Go Tourneys using my frequent player points (FPPs) and actually won 6 of them to earn $66 in tournament dollars. After winning those I have been entering larger tourneys only buying in at the most of 5% of my bank roll.  I also entered a 0.10c tourney with about 1658 entries and finished 16th for a wopping $1.52 prize money...Yippee!

If you haven't heard already, the new World Series of Poker Champion in Europe is an 18 year old FEMALE poker player by the name of Annette Obrestad. Apart from the amazing facts of being female and only 18 years old, Annette has played 1000's of tourneys online where she got her experience and aggressive play from; rumour has it that she even played a 200 people online tournament and covered her cards so she could not see them and managed to win it just by reading her opponents play...Thats amazing!  Well more 18 year old women playing at final tables can only be good for the sport.

I just had another round of beer, a hamburger and bad bluffing. I went and played at my local tavern with the NPPL (National Pub Poker League), I thought it might be fun again even though I tried to pull some moves last week running into bigger hands... At least I confirmed that Ace Jack is still not a very good all in hand.

I attempted another bluff...well a semi bluff actually when I pushed all in on the flop with an up and down straight draw and flush draw as well. I had J-5 Diamonds and limped in late position. The board came down 6D - 4D - 3C. I was thinking good time to take down the pot, no one showed any strength, I didn't read anyone for slowplaying so I decied to push. Well with all the outs in the world I didn't hit and worst of all good old 8 -3 off called me down for my 2,500 bet (blinds were still only 100-200)

Have you noticed how Poker is the new cool; I mean you may be surprised to find how many closet poker players there are at your work place, it's no longer a game thats played in the back of a smoky pool bar with a bunch of card sharks chomping on cigars giving you the stare down...well maybe not.

Poker has become the new sheek, it's almost cool to be a poker player with the shades, jewellery, wearing your Ipod etc.  Hah if only people could see me at home playing online, unshaven, in my pyjamas, bleary eyed living off chips and coke and multi tabling.

Another update of how I am going at my online challenge.  I have mainly been playing at the 10 player Sit n Go tourneys with my frequent player points (FFP) after building the points up from playing the cash games. I would previously buy books, T shirts, caps etc but now it seems best to keep entering the 70 FPP tourneys because I seem to have cracked the game with these as a lot of people are just pushing with nothing- overplaying their hands and trying to win the touney with 2-3 all ins.

I played pub poker for the first time last night at my local tavern the QBH (Queensbridge Hotel) and it was definitely an interesting experience. QBH have a regular weekly event on Tuesday Nights starting at 7pm.

The game is Texas Holdem No Limit, and you get 4000 in starting chips with 25/50 blinds at 20 minute levels, it makes for good playing at the start and a chance for the chasers to look for those flush or straight cards.