Close again

So i just busted out the party 300k gtd in a rather annoying 13th place for a massive $2400. It's my best ever finish in one of the big sunday comps but this is little consolation and right now i feel pretty gutted. I had a really slow start to the comp but after a couple of hours i went on fire turning 7500 into 68,000 in about half an hour, the best hand was when some donk shoved on me blind on blind with 32 off for his/her whole 22K stack playing 400/800. I snap called with JJ and from that hand on i was in my element and able to build quite easily. I got up to 420K playing 4000/8000 but i lost two big pots with AK and 1010 that i might have misplayed but not to sure. Finally busted shoving 250K playing 15k/30k blinds with A9 v AK so no complaints on that hand but i was a little disappointed with the structure. From the 3rd hour on the average stack was always around 16-18 bb's and there was very little play post flop, i rate my pre-flop game very highly but the poor structure certainly wasn't allowing me to play many flops at all and 3-betting light pre was often difficult without committing my stack.
Anyway that's 5 top 100 finishes and my number 1 goal for the rest of 2008 is to make the final of a major sunday comp. When i do i'll probs bust first hand but i don't care i just need to make one cause it's starting to really fuck me off!!
In other news i can now confirm that July was my best ever poker month winning close to $30K. It's a strange thing to say but my main emotion would have to be that of relief, it's nice to feel i have some decent cash behind me and now a couple of bad months would still suck but it wouldn't be the end of the world and i certainly wouldn't have to face the horror of getting a real job. If i had busted the main event early i would have probably tilted the $3K i had left for the trip and had to come home facing a long grind on a $7K bankroll with not a whole lot in the bank. As it happens i have a roll now in excess of $20K and enough in the bank to allow me 6 months of rent/booze/chinese food so life is all good. For some reason i can't help but think my 86 sooooooooted holding up v AQ was a sign that when it really matters the luck will always be in my corner, bring on the WSOP 2009!!
As far as the live poker goes i'm glad to say that i've now played since Vegas when last night i hit the gutshot for the £300 monthly comp. It's a shame there was only 25 runners due to the festival at the empire (that i didn't know about), but the structure was all good and the £2400 for first would have been nice. I lost 2.5K early but doubled up in the following hand: Folded round to young aggressive guy on the CO who makes it 525 playing 100/200 button and sb fold but i call from the bb with 53 sooted. Flop 3 5 9 and as usual i've smashed and i know this guy is very lag so i figure my best option is to fire at it, 750 so he thinks for 10 secs then calls and i just know this kid is floating and he has no idea that i'm any good at this game so he'll try and take it on the turn which is a 6. I think for a while then check and obviously he bets 1500 leaving himself 4K back (i had around the same) so now the question in my head is do i stick it in or just call. I think his hand might include a 7 or an 8 so i think about shoving but at the same time i know he is mega weak and i want that 4K so i think for about 30 secs and call with the intention of snap calling any river and hoping its not a 7 or 8. The river is a king and i check fast he moves in and i snap call; his hand hits the muck very quick and ship the easy double up, pweennnnnnd! After this hand things were quite easy and the early introduction of antes meant i got up to 25K without to much work when this hand goes down: folded round to me on the Co playing 300/600/50 so i'm pretty much going to open with 60-65% of hands in this spot so to look down at JJ it was actually a pleasant surprise so anyhoo i make it 1600 and the button who has me covered and been calling light all day calls again, the blinds pass and we see a juicy J 8 5 flop with two spades. I check he bets 2K, i make it 5500 total and he raises 8000 more so i ship it in and he explains he is committed (which he is) and calls with the 65 of spades. So it's the biggest pot of the tourney and i'm a 5/2 favourite which was nice, instant service for him on the turn and the river brick meant i was officially busto. It was a shame cause i was playing my absolute best and this is not always the case with me in live tournaments. I've also played the £300 twice now and on both occasions busted with a set v a flush draw but i hate blaming luck and just have to hope i can win the next one and maintain a high level of play.
So into my schedule for August which i wouldn't describe as hectic with a lot of sleeping/wanking planned but does include a little bit of 'work' as well. The bad news is that i'm not going to be able to play the GUKPT Luton as i'm not allowed back into grosvenor casinos within 6 months of finishing work, boo! I'm not sure on the date i finished but i think i'll be ok for the GUKPT Thanet in October (will have to check that at some point). I am looking forward however to the fourth annual FTOPS on full tilt which starts in a couple of days. I'm looking to play around 4-5 of the tournaments and realistically i'm just going to hope for 1 decent run as i know with the amount of runners it's going to be a bit of a slog. The buy-ins aren't to excessive however so worst case scenario i'm going to drop $1K which isn't a nightmare, i'm also not going to play at all till event 1 so i wont be tilted at all and can bring my A game every night. After that i'm going to head back to the planet that is thanet for folk week which is always a good fun so as usual hope to spend it on the beach and then in the pubs with my friends having a good old folky time and playing 0 poker. After that i'm back in London for the gutshot series of poker (GSOP). Wednesday the 20th is event 1 but is also my birthday so i'm gonna take that off and go out for a few drinks with the lads instead but nothing to major planned. The day after is event 2 the £100 nh freeze which will be fun and then friday is the £150 PLO which i'm most looking forward to, finally the 3 day main event runs from the saturday until the bank holiday monday which is a £500 with a great structure. The only problem is that the size of gutshot will mean small fields so when i get back from thanet i'm going down to gutshot with £650 to buy in for all of the tournaments and then i can spend the next 3 days relaxing before it all starts.
Ok so as far as poker goes that pretty much is the lot for the past present and future, as usual writing this has taken me off tilt so life is good. On to the non poker shit:
I'm starting to lose back the weight that i stuck on on Vegas. Been swimming most days and also been in the gym a fair bit, still eating really badly but as long as i exercise to balance this out this seems ok.
I shot through 'beneath the shades' which is a book all about the legend that is Stu Ungar. It was a fantastic read and a real insight into the man that is talked about as the greatest poker player of them all. I would recommend it to anyone, not just poker players, and it certainly was fascinating reading about the extent of his gambling and drug addictions and the way they took over his life; a sad but great story. I'm also reading 'scar tissue' by Antony Kiedis which is also a very good read and in the same way as the Stu Ungar book talks in depth about the problems caused by drugs. I'm only halfway through the book but given RHCP's status as one of the biggest bands in the world, i'm sure it will have a better ending. Finally i'm just finishing off Friends like these by Danny Wallace. It's a lot more lighthearted than the other books but still quite good. I'm not enjoying it as much as 'Yes man' or 'are you dave gorman' but i really like the authors writing style and his decision not to take life to seriously, something i feel that i can certainly relate to.