Sunday 25 October 2009

OK today is another full day spent at the tables with both tournaments being at the ‘G’ Blackpool. The Sunday afternoon follows the same structure as the Saturday game, £15 buy in with one re-buy and one add on. I end up in the dealers chair until the break so this will test my powers of concentration fully. My game gets off to a slow start, which I don’t mind, as it allows me to focus and get my mental state right as I appreciate it may well be another long day. Half way through level 2 and still no playable cards when I pick up A, 7 suited diamonds on my BB. The table has no respect for pre fold raises so I just check my hand and see the flop. This comes Ah, Jd and 7h. I fire a bet having hit top and bottom pair due to the flush potential and UTG (seat 1) makes an immediate call. Two players to the turn, a none flushing card so I fire again, both these bets being good strong bets, player UTG immediately calls again. The river card once more is a none flushing one and I check. UTG check behind me and the card are on their backs with me loosing with top and bottom two pairs to his A, J. This hand has left me very short and a few hands later I push the rest of my first set of chips in with 8,8 in second position and loose to a call from two over cards. I reload (4,000) and slowly get eaten away with hands that are so ugly they carry an 18 certificate.

The break comes an goes, I take my add on of another 4000 but only have 6,700 chips in total and being card dead continues however I am determined to go as deep as I can and to ride out the spell of being card dead. The blinds increase to the 1200 / 600 level and I know I needs to find a hand to make a stand with. I am reasonably comfortable playing short stacked poker however it reaches the point on my BB when I only have 2100 left having posted the BB of 1200 (3300 chips in total), the chip average is now in excess of 13000. I look down and find 7,7. This is the hand to make my stand with, two limpers and then I push ‘All In’. One caller turns over two over cards so it’s a 50 50 race. First card out 7 and the hand ends with me hitting the house 7’s full of 5’s. Up to 9000 chips. Very next hand I push with 10,10 and again double through, I’m back in the game!

Players who are short stacked fall like flies and I reach the Final Table of 9 players with 45,000 chips from 288,000 chips in play. I am third in chips at this point and draw seat two, there are 3 short stacks on the table who quickly depart however my chips have dwindled away to 30,000. The bubble comes and goes, four players left and with the exception of the chip leader (95,000 approx) the other players are fairly evenly chipped up.


My BB and the blinds are 2000 / 4000, the chip leader raises my BB and the other players get out of the way, I look down and find Q,Q. I re-raise ‘All In’ and he calls. Cards on their backs and he shows A,K suited in diamonds. My Queens hold and I become the chip leader. A few hands later I take out a player who is short stacked when I find A Q suited in the BB and we are down to 3 players. My chip stack is now 175,000 and I have a healthy advantage but not sufficient to really bully the other players. Over the next 30 minutes I hit every flop hard and take pot after pot and build my chips to 230,000 as I take out the third placed player.

Heads Up. I have a commanding chip advantage and it last only about 15 minutes with all the chips going in with Bryan the other player pushing with K, 9 and me making a snap call with K, 10. The flop comes 10,9, rag, rag, rag and I take it down winning a healthy £510.

Sun, 25 Oct 2009

£15 No Limit Texas Holdem with 2 Rebuys
Entries: 32
Prize Pool: £1080

Position Name Prize
1 John Hare £510
2 Bryan Cook £300
3 Anon £160
4 Christine Laffin £110

Three final tables from three, happy days. Once more I have played good solid poker and made more good decisions than bad despite not really having hit big hands. Time for a quick 2 minutes and buy in for the evening £40 (4000 double chance) competition which is already underway.

Not a lot to report on the evening competition and I go out at 11.30pm having pushed with J,10 suited into an unopened pot from the button.

In summary I can say that the weekend was a great success and it has demonstrated that I can remain focused for the time I need for the long structure two day tournaments played on the GukPT. It has also enforced for me that my game is back where I need it to be to hopefully be able to compete. The bonus being the money I have won will allow me to free roll one of the bigger events in under three weeks time.