29 October 2009

Thursday evening and I’m playing at the G Blackpool. This game is now the game of the week as far as many, including myself are concerned, £40 No Limit Texas Holdem Triple Chance Freezeout(10,500 Chips). As with most weeks the game is well supported with 80+ players turning up, on looking round the room all the ‘usual suspects’ are in attendance, a real who’s who of local poker. There is a real buzz about the room tonight and everywhere people are discussing the GukPT which starts on 7 Nov.

I draw Table 5 Seat 3, I wander over to the table and sit down. The dealer’s seat is empty and the chip tray sat there denotes it’s a self deal table. The tournament starts, or should I say it starts on all the other tables, yup no offers to deal so as usual I end up in the dealer’s chair. The table contains many players I know and respect, Linton (Bean Flicker) Holling, Bill (you’ve got none of that) Eadie, Mick (Schoolbully) Tetlow, Enid Musson and after a few hands Nick Slade.

The first hand I win having flopped a set, taking it down on the turn, then the hands are uneventful apart from for Nick who looses a series of hands early on and takes both of his chances in quick succession. I manage to maintain my chips without really building on them, I do find it difficult to focus on playing when dealing however for other players I am putting real action boards out.

ACTION HAND

I’m not in this hand but three others are, Keith (seat 1), Bill (seat 5) and Nick (seat 8) – sorry I can’t remember where the button was however there has been pre-flop betting action with raise and call. The flop comes 9,9,10 and it ends up with Nick All in. Keith re-raises and Bill re-re-raises, Keith considers for a fair amount of time and eventually folds. Cards on their backs and Nick shows A,A and Bill shows quad 9’s, yup he’s flopped quads! Turn card no Ace – start the car, taxi for one front door! As a cautionary note to all that read this – I have dealt quads 3 times whilst in the chair, all of them on TABLE 5!

The break arrives and I have 9,600 chips, I’ve been fairly static to say the least but at least I’m still in and have enough chips to play. Following the break I deal for a short period of time and then thankfully as my chips dwindling (7,400) I am replaced by a house dealer. During the period after the break before being replaced as dealer I only pick up a couple of playable hands, one of which is 7,7, in early position. I raise it up and get re-raised by Linton, the rest of the table folds and after considering it I lay them down as I know Linton is unlikely to re-pop a pot I have raised without a monster hand.

The blinds are 400 / 800 and I’m now in seat 10, UTG I pick up A,A and raise it to 2000, hoping to get action from one player. The players fold to Enid who is in the BB, the chips all go in and cards on their backs, Enid shows 7,7, and my Aces hold. Shortly after I move to table 1 as our table is broken, my chip count is now 11,000 however the average is now in excess of 23,000 so I need a double up.

I pick up Q,Q in early position and put a strong raise in 1600 with 4800 (blinds 800/1600) and am immediately re-raised and re-re-raised by the next two players. I’ve committed more than 60% of my chips so make the call ‘All In’. Cards on their backs, with re-raiser showing A,Q and the re-re-raises showing 9,9. On seeing this I am happy, only 5 cards to dodge, the rest of the pack belongs to me! Out come the cards and out I go, for the second time tonight I see quad 9’s!

In summary a night where I did not do anything wrong but did not get many playable hands or got marginal hands in the wrong position, as I am trying to prepare for the GukPT I am not playing these marginal hands out of position as the type of player I am likely to face in the GukPT will make mincemeat of me, a sure way of donking off loads of chips!