Tuesday 27 October 2009

Played at the ‘G’ Blackpool this evening in the £30 double chance freeze out. It started poorly when after 25 minutes of play I ‘donked off’ the last 2100 of my first 4000 chips with a poor call when holding the nut flush on a paired board with Danny, the other player, having hit the full house. This call annoyed me because I was aware that a house was possible on the paired board but still made the call.

I reloaded with the second 4000 chips and got my head down to go back to the poker that I had played during the weekend. By the break I had managed to get my stack back to 7,300, the average being 9,300, not a bad effort after such a poor start. The positive about the poor call being that it did not push me on tilt and that I managed to ‘get over it’ fairly quickly.

The field quickly thinned from the 42 that started and a table move found me on a table with a real mixture of different playing styles from loose to tight. I managed to increase my stack to 16,700 in part due to flopping trip Aces on my BB then checking it allowing a loose aggressive player fire into me and then he called my all in bet. Over the next 45 minutes I was disciplined and focused on playing hands in position, during this period of play I folded a series of small pairs pre flop and also numerous medium suited Aces as having to call a re-raise would have put me all in.

The blind increases dwindled my stake to slightly less than 10,000 (blinds 600 / 1200) when I found A,J diamonds in late position. I pushed with this ‘All In’ only to run into Q,Q. End of the night’s tournament when I failed to find the required Ace however I finished in 16th place.

The positive I took from tonight being my recovery from the early set back of a very poor call. It also allowed me to focus on good hands in position that will be required during the forthcoming GukPT. Hands I would normally limp with to see flops were mucked rather than called, as I am expecting limping to be punished during the GukPT so I am trying not to limp too much especially as the blinds increase.

Following my exit from the tournament I played a bit of cash poker and managed to ensure the evening was self financing finishing £50 up in cash.

Tomorrow evening I am involved in a 2 table £20 re-buy in an attempt to win a seat in a Super Satellite for the chance of a seat in the main event at the GukPT. Lets see what tomorrow brings!