5th November 2009 - Fireworks?

I played at the G Blackpool last night in the regular £40 triple chance freezeout event, this has become the ‘game of the week’ for many local players with a maximum of 10500 chips per player with 78 players buying in creating a prize pool of £3120.

From the moment I walked into the casino there was a real buzz about the place, the GukPT starts this weekend and the atmosphere had somehow changed, it was great! As usual I arrived early, this is part of my pre tournament routine, I hate being rushed. It allows me to get my mental state exactly where I want it and this is something that I do before every tournament I play in. Throughout my life I have always been competitive but in a controlled way and this preparation stems from a passage I read, as a teenager, from an interview with Jack Nicklaus. The interviewer commented on how calm Jack remained and asked how he did it, Jack’s reply was so simple but impactive. He said “I do everything slowly from the moment I wake up, I put my socks on slowly, I eat breakfast slowly, I walk slowly, most importantly I have plenty of time to do everything. This allows me to slow down my thought processes and make good decisions through the day”. It works for me too!

OK the game, I drew Table 3 and was joined there by players including Mick ‘schoolbully’ Tetlow, Liam Dennehy, Paul Lucas and Danny Hook, it was a table full of strong players most of whom I know. As with all my recent games I was prepared to grind all evening and focused of good hands played in position. The levels before the break passed without too much incident as far as I was concerned and my chip stack was 9,700, a little below average. I had not seen many good hands but had also not got myself in too much trouble either.

After the break, with the blinds going up, I found myself short stacked (7,600) but I remained focused and was rewarded when I picked up A,A in early position, I ‘min raised’ and to my delight a player in late position went over the top ‘All-In’. The chips went in and he showed Q,Q, my A,A held and I was back in the game. Three hands later I was on 31,000 chips having played the rush of successive big hands then in quick succession I ran into Paul Lucas twice, my 7,7 cracked by his A,K and then my A,K cracked by his middle pair. Back on life support!

Our tabled split and together with Paul Lucas I moved to table 1 where we were once more joined by Danny Hook (who had previously left table 3). On this table, amongst others, were John Garside, Paul ‘Rocky’ Chadwick and Brian ‘Weebrick’ Clarke. By now my chips were almost gone, I had less than 2 big blinds and there were 13 players left in. I knew I only had 3 hands to find a spot before the BB hit me, I looked down and saw K,3 hearts, not a monster but it was good enough so I shoved my pathetic stack over the line knowing that I was going to get called. Immediately Brian Clarke re raised and another player also called this raise. All the others got out of the way and it ended up with all three of us ‘All-In’. The cards on their backs with Brian and the other guy both showing A,K! I was a hugh dog however on the positive the other two hands totally clashed so at least I had the 3 remaining threes! Yup you guessed it, second card on the flop a little 3! For the second time in the evening this escape was followed by a rush of premium hands and I was back in the game at 45,000 chips. Between this and the final table I folded a succession of big Aces, due to being out of position or because an earlier strong player had raised, each time I was proved right, my discipline has really improved so much! 20 minutes later the bubble burst and it was final table time.
Not a lot to report on the final table, I was short stacked with the blinds coming round fast so I shipped it in with A,6 off and picked up a call from John Garside who turned over K,Q and hit his K on the flop so I was out in 9th.

In summary another cash, another strong game played against a good field. I have no complaints about how the evening went.


Thu, 05 Nov 2009
£40 No-Limit Texas Holdem Triple-Chance Freezeout
Entries: 78
Prize Pool: £3120
Position Name Prize
1 Gary Orchard £1070
2 Brian Kelly £620
3 Anon £440
4 kevin Rigby £280
5 Paul Lucas £200
6 Anon £160
7 Daniel Hook £140
8 John Garside £120
9 John Hare £90