Two in one night and Doke's theory of evolution

Almost.....almost.....I almost did the double of winning the two biggest nightly MTTs on Bruce last night. I was second in the $17500 guaranteed (K7 < T8) and then won the $20K gtd. $20K was one of the most fun tournaments ever for me: I hit the final table with nearly half the chips already which is always fun, and by the time I got headsup had almost 95% of them. I also cashed in the $10K so overall was a very good night, one of my best ever.

Recorded an Irish poker radio Irish Open preview show with Ian yesterday too, it's up already if you want to hear my top 10 tips for this year (and Ian's too of course).

On Tuesday, I played Sean from Ballyhack in Wexford on Bruce headsup. Sean tells me he's a novice but he played brilliantly, really really aggro, and gave me some pounding early doors. I don't know if he was angleshooting me with the talk of being a beginner: if he really is he clearly has huge potential. Remember, if you sign up for Bruce and use the code Doke10, you'll get a free ticket to play me headsup for a prize of $60 on a Tuesday evening.

Also played a few more games in the Boards HU league: unfortunately these didn't go to plan and I lost both 2-1. At least I can say I joined the club of people who have been one outered by Marty Smyth. Marty apologised profusely but pointed out it was kinda due as it was at least a couple of hours since he'd hit a one outer. Marty's bang back in form and was one of my tips for the IO. He's getting married to the lovely Karen next week: unfortunately I'll be in Coventry at the UKIPT so can't attend but wish them both the best.

Other than that, it's all hands to the Irish Open. I'm playing the supersat tonight, partly because I love supersats, partly as a social thing, but also I want to see the room. I've been thinking a lot this week about my evolution as a player. When I got my first big results I was still quite a limited player technically, but I think I compensated for this with good instincts and reads on people and situations. Then I played a gazillion hands online, got much better technically, and reached the stage where 99.99% of decisions are ones I can make instantly (if I'm playing online). This year I came to the realisation that while I gained a lot from the work I put in to get better technically, I also lost something: a kind of heightened observation and antenna that fed it into my instincts and helped me get the difficult decisions right. So this year I've been trying to slow my decisions down live, think the whole situation through, continually be on the look out for physical indicators, and going on instinct more. Rather than simply thinking "8 big blinds, ace on the button, standard shove" I'm now trying to think "Yes, this is a correct shove theoretically, but I shoved 2 hands ago and 6 times in the last two orbits, the big blind is loose and gunning for me and more likely to make a loose call, but in two hands that old guy who I have never seen defend his BB will be in the BB so it might be better to let this one go". Paul Coyle said to me once he hates hearing the phrase "standard", which Internet players routinely bandy about. Things are rarely as standard as they seem, and even if they are, it doesn't cost you anything to pause for thought and think the whole situation through.

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