TV Superstar (of sorts)

Big ol' poker day yesterday. Spent most of the afternoon at the Pokerzone studios taking part in a televised tournament. Six of us sat down - five of the top guys from the Gutshot and me. I took part because the poker room I work for was sponsoring it, and they needed to fill a seat (originally the idea was we'd send the top players from our site, but we only got told about it on Thursday (that's a whole different story that I can't go into here) and so couldn't get anyone at short notice).

The guys from the Gutshot were a great bunch, but I did detect that they thought of me as just some internet mug they were going to rob of his chips. Once we got down to business, I managed to win a nice pot early and stay out of trouble. First hand of note was when I won a big pot after calling a bet on the river with just top pair when the other guy bet with a busted straight draw. I then made my one big mistake when I called a pre-flop raise in the BB from a guy called Granite John with A something (maybe an 8). An Ace comes on the flop and I bet out. He re-raises me and I have a long ponder about the situation. I think I have kicker trouble so I fold, only for John to show 52 - absolute nothing. Apparantly this hand has a reputation at the Gutshot for being a show hand (it's called the Powerhouse) - and so it proved.

The next big hand was when I knocked a guy called Hugh out. I limped in from the SB with 55. Flop was 842 and I threw a bet out, which Hugh called from the big blind. I made my set on the turn. Can't remember if I bet the hand and he called, or whether I check-called, but we saw the river, which was a 7, putting four to a straight on the board. I bet and Hugh reraised me all-in. I had a think but I didn't believe he had a 6. Because he'd seen me be intimidated by a reraise before, I believed he was representing a straight to push me off the hand, so I called. He only had a pair of sevens and I was about chip leader with 4 left.

Myself and Granite John had about 24,000 chips each, with the other two guys only having 12,000 between them. After a few hands where not much happened, one of the short stacks went out and we were down to three. The new shortstack, Amir, then got a great run of cards. A7, A8, two AQ and an AK in the space of about 6 hands won him a few blinds, which were worth having at this stage. Before long though, John got Amir's chips and we were heads-up.

Things then went very cagey. I did get cold cards, but I think I failed to be aggressive enough when I got a sniff of anything decent, like a K or a Q. John picked away at my stack, until we reached a stage where his chip lead was about 3/1. I had A7, and the flop was Q75 (all spades). I think I checked, John bet, I reraised all-in (trying to push him off) and he called with QJ. My Ace was red, so I needed another Ace or 7 to fall. A spade on the turn gave me a chance at a split pot if the river put a flush on the board, but I got no help and that was the end. 2nd prize was £300, but sadly that couldn't go in my back pocket (work had already given me the afternoon off to play poker, and so said I had to give any winnings to charity). Twas a fun day though, and I didn't disgrace myself, even though I know I could have played better.

In the evening, I went to 4th Street Poker for a game and ran into a big slice of bad luck. After losing my first buy-in to an idiotic play (reraising all-in with 99 on a Q-high board) I gained a nice stack. At 100/200, it's folded round to me on the SB with AQ. I raise to 300 and the BB immediately goes all-in. He has about 2700 chips and I have a think. I didn't rate him as much of a player, and the speed of his all-in meant it was clearly pre-meditated. It also looked like he didn't want a call, so maybe he had a small pair. It looked more like a bluff though, so I called, and he showed T8. Flop was blank, blank, 8 and the players at the table went 'Oooh'. Turn was an Ace, and there was a bigger 'Ooooh'. River was another 8 and there was an almighty 'Ooooooooh'.

This hand crippled me to 400 chips and I was out soon after. First time I've not made the final table for a while (went out on the bubble in 5th last Friday). Actually, thinking about it now, that's not true, the Tuesday before I was knocked out before the final table when I had KK against AK and he spiked an Ace on the river.

Not as much internet poker recently, though last Monday I won £800 in Betfair's Anniversary tournament to celebrate the fact they'd been online for a year. The slow play was a major pain, though. The event cost £10 to enter, but any winnings would be multiplied by the number of months you'd been a member of Betfair Poker. This meant a lot of the players had a shot at really big sums for only a tenner (for a 12-monther, the first prize would have been about £14,000). Each jump up the prize ladder was quite substantial for a £10 tourney. On my table this resulted in just about every other player taking the maximum amount of time to fold their cards, and we only got through about three hands per level. By the time I got to the final table, the other players had big stacks compared to mine. It also meant the blinds were ridiculous - even the 2nd chip leader had under 3 BB in their stack. I went out in tenth (which still isn't bad considering there were nearly 500 entrants) but the tourney had very little skill at the end. Cryptologic really need to introduce hand-for-hand play in their tournaments to eliminate this problem.